Posting great content is only half the battle against the frenetic pace of change in sports social media. To succeed and sustain that success, you must build real connections with your audience.
Engagement — whether through comments, likes, shares, or direct messages — is critical in growing your online presence and building a loyal community of sports fans.
Why does engagement matter? Because every social media algorithm uses engagement metrics as a primary signal to determine whether to extend your reach to new audiences. It couldn’t be more important.
Here are 10 ways you can increase engagement on social media right now:
Understand Each Platform You’re Using
Each social media platform has its own algorithm, key metrics, and trends. Learn the nuances of each channel.’
- Facebook: Favors comments and interactions
- Instagram: Shares and saves boost your content
- X: Conversation wins. Replies are the most powerful form of engagement.
- Threads: Similar to X, comments are currency.
- TikTok: Leveraging user-generated content and viral trends
- YouTube: Views-based metrics and subscribers
Learn More About Your Audience
You can’t engage your followers if you don’t know what they want. Talk to them, see what content resonates with them the most, and then create more of it. This will help you better tailor your content and show your audience that you care.
Examples:
- Bleacher Report: Audiences are looking to B/R for entertainment and proximity to athletes
- The Athletic: Their audiences are looking for beat reporting about their favorite teams and leagues
- NFL Next Gen Stats: The NFL’s Next Gen Stats audience is looking for advanced analytics to better understand their team.
Post Consistently
Creating a content calendar is crucial to your social media success. Determine how often you should post on each platform and stick with it.
Setting realistic expectations and creating “appointment viewing” is key. Algorithms favor active accounts. Posting regularly keeps your account top-of-mind for your audience, creating better opportunities for engagement.
Quality Over Quantity
Don’t confuse posting consistently with over-posting. Posting content just to hit a number is a surefire way to stall engagement and hurt your overall brand sentiment — how your audiences think of your work.
It’s important to maintain a good cadence without sacrificing quality. Sports fans are opinionated and will quickly call you out on it.
Advanced playbook: ‘Quality’ doesn’t mean a post that took 2 hours to brainstorm and build – it means you focus on bringing your A game to every post rather than spamming your followers without a strategy.
Create Value-Driven Content
Your audience doesn’t want fluff — random commentary made in the moment with little context. Focus on creating content that educates, entertains, or solves a problem for them.
Do they want to know why a player is performing poorly? Are they looking to win another sports debate against their friends? Value-driven content will keep users engaged longer, thus rewarding your content within the algorithm.
Ramp Up Your Reply Game
This is a two-fold approach. Engage with your audience by replying to comments and direct messages. This helps build community and encourages others to engage with your content.
You also want to interact with other accounts within your niche, giving you more exposure to users who don’t follow you. If you catch a Woj (Shams) bomb at the right time and can reply with something witty, you could bring more eyes to your profile.
Read this next: [5 Audience Interaction Insights Every Sports Media Pro Should Know]
Create Shareable Content
This kind of content can multiply your reach and increase your engagement rate at the same time. Typically, these posts entertain, add value, or evoke emotion.
A graphic comparing the highest-paid players and the most productive players could spark debate among fans. Reels and carousel posts are highly shareable formats on Instagram – where shares are critical to success.
Create Interactive Content
Ask your audience questions — polls and quizzes are great for engagement. Capitalize on trending sports topics your followers will most likely have an opinion about (Davante Adams to the Jets, anyone?). Take advantage of the tools in Instagram Stories. Add an interactive sticker to every Story to encourage your followers to engage.
Post at Optimal Times
The internet never sleeps, just like the sports world, but that doesn’t mean you should post whenever you feel like it. Your audiences likely work a 9-5 and check their phone periodically throughout the day.
Optimal times aren’t cookie-cutter — utilize analytics tools to gauge which days and times your audience is most active on each platform to maximize engagement and reach.
Advanced playbook: Understand that social media algorithms no longer favor chronological, real-time feeds – but posting at optimal times will still increase your chances of engagement.
Collaborate With Other Creators/Brands
This is a no-brainer strategy to reach more people on social media. Partnering with influencers in your space introduces your content to new sports audiences and can ultimately lead to more engagement.
Stay Hot’s Theo Ash creates content for Pro Football Network’s TikTok account, and PFN successfully reached a new audience – multiplying engagement and reach.
Increasing engagement is a grind – one that takes time and effort in hopes of building a genuine connection with your followers. Don’t be afraid to experiment. You’ll fail along the way, but there is undoubtedly a lesson in each one of those failures.
Focus on being consistent, creating valuable content, and encouraging interaction, and you’ll be well on your way to boosting your social media engagement.
