This story is the sixth in a series about how marketers for sports teams and leagues around the world approach social media strategy.
“Help I need some hobbies.”
“On island time.”
“Don’t look at the caption look at the praying mantis.”
No, those aren’t posts from your Gen Z cousin. They’re a few recent Instagram captions from the Hartford Yard Goats, a minor-league baseball team based out of Hartford, Connecticut.
Izzy Meckfessel, who was the Yard Goats’ client services, social media, and promotions manager from 2021 until recently, told us she is often “pushing the envelope a little bit” on social in an effort to get a laugh while also keeping fans in the loop on and off the field. (Marketing Brew spoke to Meckfessel while she was still working for the team.)
“Our voice is definitely very casual, friendly, occasionally sassy, a little bit raunchy at times, but within reason,” Meckfessel said. “I’ve sort of taken the voice and the identity that [General Manager Mike Abramson] built early on and continued it, to the best of my ability, to create these posts that people get to look at and laugh.”
Major laughs: Abramson, who’s been with the Yard Goats for more than 12 years, helped originate the team’s lighthearted persona on social a few years back, according to Meckfessel. The Yard Goats were “one of the first minor-league teams to sort of have this witty, snarky, [and] a little bit sassy” tone while still being considered appropriate, she said.
Meckfessel said fans might occasionally find a more heartfelt or serious post in the Yard Goats’ feed, but largely, she maintained a light and funny tone, with everything from memes and Margaritaville to mantises. Something the Yard Goats do have in common with some other teams: They love to show off their mascots—in the Yard Goats’ case, Chew Chew and Chompers—online. (Chew Chew is a female goat, and Chompers is a male. Their relationship is unknown, Abramson said, so there’s no double date with Mr. and Mrs. Met in the near future.)
Clock’s ticking: The Yard Goats predominantly post on Instagram, Facebook, and X, and they use LinkedIn for business updates and team news, Meckfessel said. Each platform serves a different purpose for the team, she added:
- Instagram is primarily for visuals, and posts there often include a direct call to action.
- Facebook is used to promote community events and target parents.
- The team’s content on X tends to be more “cheeky” and “pop-culture centered” given the ephemeral nature of posts on the platform.
The Yard Goats have a TikTok account with 50,000 followers, but Meckfessel said the team is not as active on the platform as she would like. It comes down to “resources versus time,” she said, and the fact that managing socials wasn’t her only job, so she prioritized other channels.
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“There’s a lot of room for growth there,” Abramson said. With the typical TikTok user skewing younger than the team’s average demo, though, TikTok is “a nice-to-have, but not a need-to- have.”
Park culture: When the Yard Goats are in season, the team usually posts at least twice daily to every platform, Meckfessel said. The content ranges from player highlights to live updates from the games, including real-time posts of the mascots, fans, and game play during home games, and promos for the next home game when the team is away, she said. The team’s social accounts also highlight the fan experience at the team’s home field, Dunkin’ Donuts Park, like this month’s “YG Brew Fest” event and a post-game concert from Treach of Naughty by Nature in August.
“In season, the entire point of social, and really with our marketing in general, is to reinforce the brand and the brand voice,” Abramson said. “We’re trying to make people feel something, feel happy, feel amused.”
In the offseason, when teams’ engagement rates tend to dip, the Yard Goats’ most-successful content plays on pop culture and engages with other sports, Meckfessel said. One of the most viral Yard Goats posts was of another GOAT: Tom Brady photoshopped into a Yard Goats jersey when he announced he was retiring. That offseason content is also a way to reinforce the brand, Abramson said.
“The offseason [goal] is just to keep people engaged…so when the time comes around that they have to make entertainment decisions, we’re the thing that they still consider to be interesting and edgy,” he said.