SOCIAL MEDIA

By Robert Kravitz

It ’ s getting noisy out there when it comes to social media , specifically social media marketing . There are a lot of people and organizations all competing for the same eyes and ears . Making matters even more difficult , our friends at Google , Facebook , YouTube , Twitter , and LinkedIn are constantly tinkering with their algorithms . When this happens , the search engine optimization ( SEO ) techniques and strategies we used at one time may not work any longer .

However , there are some basics to SEO and posting on social media that have proven themselves over the years . If you stick to these basics — and post frequently — your voice will be heard , and your venue and its activities become better known to more people .

But before we go into that , let ’ s look at what we are dealing with when it comes to all that “ noise ” mentioned earlier . Myspace , a site we don ’ t even hear much about anymore , was the first biggie in social media .* They reached a milestone of one million active users back in 2004 . No other site , at that time , had ever reached that plateau .

Now a social media site with just one million users would be considered very “ small potatoes .” For example , as of 2018 , here are the estimated number of monthly loggedin users of the following social media platforms **: Facebook : More than 2.5 billion . YouTube : 2 billion . WhatsApp : Approaching 1.5 billion . WeChat / Instagram : Approximately

1 billion .

Twitter , Tumbler , Reddit , and Pinterest : In the 300- to 500-million range .

This tells us we have our work cut out for us to make social media marketing effective . So , what can we do to get heard above the crowd ?

Let ’ s assume we are writing blogs on our website and then using links to those blogs on social media . Here are some basics in blog writing that should help on both types of platforms :

Select a keyword first Yes , it ’ s true that what you have to say — the content — is the most important thing . But how is anyone going to find that content ? They will find it if you know what your keywords or phrases will be before you even start writing .

Select a keyword tracking program Usually , people suggest using Google AdWords for this . I find that platform difficult to use unless you are a social media “ techie .” Other platforms are available — some free , some at moderate cost — that base their results on Google AdWords , but are far easier to use .

How to use a keyword tracking program Let ’ s say we are trying to promote a baseball game at our venue . Utilizing a keyword tracking program , we type in “ baseball event ” and find some of the keywords used on search engines at that time are the following : Baseball tournaments Spring training baseball Baseball live stream Baseball game day Baseball tickets

Try to work one or more of these keyword phrases into your blog if they are relevant .

Use engaging titles Engaging titles typically highlight the value of the post to the reader . “ Five Ways to Do This ” or “ Ten Things You Should Know About That ” are engaging . Another strategy , ask questions . “ Do You Know the Super Fastest Way to Get to Our Stadium ?” That title is engaging in two ways : first , it asks a question . Second , it uses the term

28 SportsField Management | December 2021 sportsfieldmanagementonline . com