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Category: Sports

On-Field Success Reflected In Ravens’ Social Media Presence

By Ed Moran, Front Office Sports 

With an NFL-best 14-2 record during the 2019 season, the Ravens have seen the team’s on-field success translate to its social media platforms.

“We tried to establish a look that fits and sets up our team brand, which is tough and gritty and hardworking,” said Ravens Director of Social Media Garrett Downing. “A blue-collar town, the underdog role – and so we try to have that come out in our content.”

While YouTube is the Ravens’ oldest social media page, dating back to January 2011, its growth in 2019 surpassed all of the team’s other platforms.

With YouTube placing more weight in subscriber numbers than follower counts, Baltimore has now more than 115,000 subscribers, increasing that number by 230% year-over-year. It has also seen over 20.5 million video views this season alone.

The wide variety of content that finds success on YouTube has helped the team on the platform, which the Ravens have leaned into.

While some people tune in to see press conferences featuring Jackson and Head Coach John Harbaugh, others want to relive the glory days and binge-watch videos starring Ravens legends like Ed Reed and Ray Lewis.

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January 9, 2020 | NFL, Social Media, Sports, Sports Marketing

Being The “Voice Of The Fans” Helps Ravens Reach One Million Instagram Followers

By: Ed Moran, Front Office Sports 

Baltimore Ravens Director of Social Media Garrett Downing remembers 2011 as a turning point for his department.

At the time, the Ravens’ social media accounts comprised of only Facebook and Twitter. Instagram was still relatively unknown to the masses – as was Snapchat.

Now with the conclusion of the last decade rapidly nearing, Baltimore has shown how its social media strategy has evolved. On October 24, it reached one million Instagram followers – a jump from roughly 734,000 in July 2017. Doing so makes the Ravens one of 18 NFL teams that have hit that mark on the Facebook-owned platform.

“One thing that we’re seeing is that [social media] is in many ways the biggest window of opportunity that we have to connect with our fans at a vast level,” Downing said. “Certainly there are games and there’s nothing that replaces the game atmosphere and being there on a Sunday and seeing and feeling a Lamar Jackson touchdown run.”

“But at the same time for people that aren’t able to be at the games – what they can do is they can follow us on social media,” Downing added. “They can stay connected with the team and we take seriously the importance of reaching, cultivating, and growing our fans on a day-to-day basis.”

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November 10, 2019 | Branding, Social Media, Sports, Sports Marketing

NFL Is King, Dominates TV Ratings

It’s a good time to be an NFL broadcast partner. Business is good.

Really good.

The NFL has been the kingpin of professional American sports viewership, and television ratings recently released by the league drive home that point. The NFL dominated the fall television calendar – and not just in comparison to sports.

January 14, 2014 | Football, New Media Thoughts, NFL, Sports, Sports Marketing, Television

Reflections From Super Bowl XLVII

The last six weeks have been a bit of a blur.

I’ve had plenty of late nights and early mornings, working at an exhausting pace to cover the Baltimore Ravens run to Super Bowl XLVII. It’s been the most exciting and rewarding time of my professional career, and the experience was something that I hope to never forget.

I’ve now had a little time to decompress – to wean my system off of a constant stream of caffeine and drain all the New Orleans fried food out of my veins – and to appreciate the unique perspective I had throughout the ride to the most watched Super Bowl ever.

I truly had a front row seat for sports history.

February 18, 2013 | Baltimore Ravens, Football, Game coverage, NFL, Sports

Analysis: Browns, Colt McCoy show toughness in victory

This was an article that I wrote on newsnet5.com following the Browns 17-16 victory over Miami.

Cleveland Browns fans had seen the story before: missed opportunities followed by a late score and crushing defeat.

The difference, however, was that the Browns flipped the script this time around and found a way to win. The Browns came from behind with a late fourth quarter drive to beat the Dolphins 17-16, improving to 2-1 for the first time since 2002.

“Those are the types of games we need to start winning,” wide receiver Josh Cribbs said. “And we finally went out there and got it done today.”

September 26, 2011 | Game coverage, NFL, Sports, WEWS

Entourage cameos: Sports stars

One of the most popular television shows of the last eight years has been HBO’s Entourage, becoming a fixture in pop culture by blending together the public’s interest in movies, television, music, sports and stars.

One of the trademark aspects of the show, especially in recent years, has been the prevalence of the cameo. Everyone from Matt Damon to LeBron James to Kanye West have appeared on the show, making Entourage as somewhat of a right of passage in popular culture.

In honor of the series’ final episode on Sunday, I’ve decided to put together a list of all the sports cameos from the last eight seasons.

September 7, 2011 | Sports, Television

Banning Twitter is the easy way out for college coaches

Social media is part of college. The most prominent social media platform was invented at a college. By a college student. For college students.
It’s engrained in the college culture, and is a central means of communication for people in their late teens and early 20s.

The problem, however, is when those college kids using social media are high profile athletes who generate millions of dollars for their college institutions. Then things get a little more complicated.

To deal with the challenges of (student) athletes using social media–specifically Twitter–an increasingly popular strategy for college coaches has been to simply ban athletes from tweeting. It’s the easiest and most painless approach to control what information players put out there for public eyes to see.

August 24, 2011 | Commentary, NCAA, New Media Thoughts, Social Media, Sports, Sports Marketing

NFL’s slippery slope: Pryor decision protects league’s free farm system

One of the longstanding–but mostly unspoken–relationships in professional sports is between the NFL and NCAA. They’re separate entities, but the NFL reaps the benefits of college football providing a free farm system capped off with made-for-TV draft.

The NFL knows its has a cozy deal–one that the other professional leagues wish they could match–and the league showed on Thursday that it will do everything possible to protect that partnership.

August 19, 2011 | Commentary, Football, NCAA, Sports

Social media’s ‘most influential’ sports journalists

On Twitter, we use each person’s number followers as a way to keep score.

It seems simple: More followers = larger audience = better reputation = more influence.

But it doesn’t necessarily work that way. What does a follower count really reveal? It’s good for stroking a Twitter user’s ego, but beyond that, the translation of followers to social influence is difficult to quantify.

August 11, 2011 | Branding, New Media Thoughts, Social Media, Sports, twitter