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.
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.