Phillies Social Media Making Major Strides in 2017
By John Town
The Phillies have made significant improvements with their social media this year and it is paying off for them as they move into the digital age.
For several years the Phillies struggled with their social media, making rather bland posts and failing to cultivate fan excitement.
Liz Roscher of The Good Phight wrote back in 2014, “if you keep looking at their account, all you see are bland, vanilla tweets with zero personality or creativity. It’s such a waste of a good resource, and it really bothers me.” She also wrote last offseason, “their PR office has zero clue about the digital world or the realities of the internet.”
While those criticisms may have been exacerbated by a sour relationship with the team’s PR department, Roscher did have a point. The team’s Twitter was largely inactive and they did little to interact with the growing social media presence surrounding the team.
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That’s all changed in recent years. The team hired Tim Stoeckle as their “In-Game Social Media Coordinator” to run their Twitter account during games from the press box. Stoeckle as well as several others has helped the team really step up their game on social media.
The team’s offcial account defended the Phanatic in grand fashion when a local radio station asked if fans were “sick” of the mascot.
It also went on the defensive when New Jersey governor Chris Christie expressed his distaste for the Phils and their fans.
The Phils also interact with other Philadelphia sports teams, like the Sixers, when the opportunity arises.
.@Sixers more like a Jahbblehead, right?
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) January 25, 2016
We’ll show ourselves out.
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Spring training has been an especially strong time for the team’s social media as they look to garner excitement for the upcoming season. Ever since camp started last week they’ve been uploading plenty of pictures and videos for fans to check in on whats going on. Hell I made a whole post about the first day of camp just from the stuff the team uploaded.
I have been especially impressed with the team’s presence on Snapchat. Every day they’ve had videos from spring training on their story showcasing the team’s young dynamic players. I got the tip for Andrew Knapp taking reps at first base off the team’s Snapchat story.
Snapchat is easily one of the fastest-growing cell phone apps and is quickly becoming one of the big players in the social media world, and the Phils are smart enough to take advantage of it.
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With the rapid growth and development of social media in the digital world, it’s good to see the Phils take advantage of it to better promote the team.