Last week we looked at the social imprint March Madness coaches had, and were surprised to see the lack of engagement. So we turned our attention to baseball as Opening Weekend is upon is to see if the social space was more vibrant amongst skippers and even GM’s. Well, not exactly.
While baseball realizes the importance of social engagement, and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the MLBPA have aggressively created new partnerships to help expand the ability for social engagement and sharing amongst players and coaches and staff, the ship is still very slow and steady. For baseball it still appears to be more generational, as time moves along and players who are socially savvy and accustomed to engagement move into the Majors, the numbers will keep rising.
While it is no secret that the folks at MLB Advanced Media continue to use the digital space to enhance the experience of all, there is still a gap in keeping young people interested in a game that can be long, sometimes not that action packed and for the new immigrant (especially the young one in an inner-city) hard to understand at times.
With the transient nature of players in sport, managers, and GM’s for that matter, are becoming more and more of a constant for clubs, as baseball gets started we looked worked with the folks at the Complete SET Agency to see what teams are doing the social work in the dugout and the Front Office.
First and foremost, the Astros trio of AJ Hinch in the dugout, Jeff Luhnow as GM and as one of the new emerging and proactive faces Alex Bregman, on the field makes for a very unique and engaged group. They are the only team in MLB to have all three spots very active on social. On the GM side there is Luhnow and the Mets Brodie Van Wagenen, and that’s it. No other GM’s have any visible face on social. By the way to get an even better feel of Van Wagenen’s proactive communications strategy, read this piece in the New York Times. Great example of positive communication and inclusivity.
Back to the guys on the field. The 2018 season started with five MLB Managers working the social side, and the new season dawns with that number up to seven. One of the active on social team from last year, the Tigers Brad Ausmus, moved on to the Angels and removed all his social activity. There are no less than 27 fake or burner accounts around the LA skipper, but he is not part of any. Cmon back Brad, you were doing a good job with the conversation in Detroit!
The seven MLB Managers who are now engaged; Hinch (Hou) , Joe Maddon (Cubs), the Red Sox Alex Cora, Rocco Baldelli (Minn), the Yankees Aaron Boone, the Phillies Gabe Kapler and the Giants Bruce Bochy are all much more engaged than many of the managers past. The measuring stick for engagement on the Manager level has been and continues to be Cubs skipper Maddon, whose 400,000 plus followers and quips about things other than baseball have made him a must follow for those around the game. While not John Calipari-like, Maddon is there and gets the space, and it certainly hasn’t affected his performance on the field. Boone at 166 k is second, with Hinch, who as slowed engagement since the start of spring training, third at 71 k.
Now as with any form of engagement in the social space, Twitter is not for everyone. The information has to be authentic and consistent and fun, and it certainly isn’t easy to always navigate the trolls out there looking to stir up trouble behind a wall of secrecy. However as a simple and engaging content platform, Twitter for Managers and GM’s can be very, very effective, and can give fans, especially those more used to social engagement, a very fun look into the inner workings of a baseball club, or any sports club for that matter. It does not have to be demanding, it can be a casual and very effective voice without being a shill for the organization as just a promotional tool. While baseball is very much about tradition, and sometimes the powers that be raise some eyebrows with the thought of bucking such traditions, the use of twitter by a larger group of managers can help engage and grow Manfred’s plan, while not encumbering the user in any way. There is no need to give away state secrets, but a tweet or two of a picture from the clubhouse, an insight
on the goings on, positive ones, around the team, a shout out here and there to alma mater, would be a welcome addition to the long season ahead in the social space.
Are managers under a good amount of pressure already without having to be forced into engaging in the social space? Maybe. However for those who have an interest, and have looked at the way managers like Maddon and a GM like Van Wagenen have handled the space, turning more than a minority loose on Twitter could be a fun and engaging project as the season comes up.
Tweet away front office folks, we would love to learn and see more from your perspective.
