Inside the Kansas City Chiefs’ Social Media Playbook

From underdog to #1 in Facebook engagement of all NFL teams, how do the Chiefs constantly win on social media? Chiefs Director of Digital Media James Royer and Social Media Coordinator Mark Misiewicz opened up their social media playbook at last week’s SMCKC breakfast. Here are a few successful social media plays that translate from football to other industries.

Kickoff

One theme that continued throughout the presentation was a focus on values. Royer noted that staying true to core values, regardless of what others are doing is essential. This translates to social media and everything they do. For the Chiefs their core values include:

Win With Character
Unite Our Community
Inspire Our Fans
Honor Tradition

What are your core values? These are necessary to establish before posting on social media.

Game Plan

Speaking of posting, Royer uses the “POST” method when developing content and a direction on social media. As you can see in the photo above, POST stands for People, Objectives, Strategy and Technology. It’s important to define who you are talking to and why before focusing on the technology to do so. Always think of these four points when you’re posting on social media and deciding which channels to use. Just because a new technology is gaining popularity, doesn’t mean it’s right for your audience.

“People are three times more likely to use Facebook than other social networks at Arrowhead on game day,” said Royer.

In fact around 40 percent of Arrowhead’s wifi traffic is from Facebook. What does this mean? Besides the fact that Facebook is not dead (like many insist), it proves that the Chiefs recognize and utilize the channels where they can find their fans. The Chiefs also use Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

“For Twitter, video has changed the game. Get to using it,” added Royer.

Although the Chiefs do plan content, Royer revealed one surprising play, “Be audible for your audience.” This means paying attention to what your audience is reacting to, then react. Part of the fun and usefulness of social media is the engagement aspect. Communication should be a two-way street and sometimes that means letting your fans and followers start the conversation.

Which brings us to our next relevant aspect of the social media game: your fans.

“I’m only going to post on social media if it benefits our fans,” noted Royer.

You’ve most likely heard before that you shouldn’t just, “sell, sell, sell” on social media. Before posting anything, always think about how the content helps out your fans and followers. If it doesn’t, reconsider posting it.

This Play Decides It All

“Marry science and art in social media. They must meet in the middle.” – James Royer

Sometimes, we get caught up in the numbers game. How many ‘likes,’ ‘favorites’ or ‘views’ our content receives. They are important metrics to pay attention to, but Royer notes that at the end of the game, it all comes down to storytelling.

“How do we tell a story on social media? It’s all about storytelling. Speak to your brand values.”

And we’ve come full circle. Make sure your content reflects your values that you established at kickoff. Simple posts can still make a big impact and visuals help. Social media users have short attention spans and quickly scroll through Twitter and newsfeeds; therefore, users want content that they can easily digest.