This story is the seventh in a series about how marketers for sports teams and leagues around the world approach social media strategy.
For some people, cheering on their favorite sports teams is one of their earliest memories—even if it was while wearing noise-canceling headphones.
Major League Soccer fandom tends to lock in place around the age of 13, according to Zach Riggar, the league’s VP of digital marketing and paid media. In an effort to connect with that group and other new potential fans of US soccer, MLS has recently increased its focus on social platforms including YouTube and TikTok, as well as off-pitch content, Riggar said.
“We’re always trying to find ways to be innovative and fresh and connect with fans in new and interesting ways,” Riggar told Marketing Brew. “If we’re going to be relevant in this challenger space of the global soccer landscape, we really have to convert fans…younger.”
Full field
MLS has a presence across all the social media platforms that are “relevant to our fans,” Riggar said, from LinkedIn to Instagram to Twitch. TikTok, though, is one of the league’s priorities at the moment, he said.
MLS struck up a partnership with the platform last year that includes the Club Creator Network, which pairs teams with creators to collaborate on content. The league has seen “explosive growth” on TikTok as a result, Riggar said, with the MLS account now counting more than 4 million followers on the platform. MLS also increased its focus on YouTube this year, since that’s a popular platform among young sports fans, he said.
Across platforms, MLS takes a unified approach to content creation, a change from a few years back when the league tended to have different strategies for different platforms, Riggar said.
“We’re converging more now than we ever have, which is great, but it’s also pretty scary, because your content really has to hit,” he said. “It has to be world-class.”
Out of this world
Like many sports accounts, MLS’s “bread and butter” is match highlights, Riggar said. Not only does the league own that IP, but it’s also particularly well-produced thanks to the league’s studio, which handles MLS Season Pass content for Apple TV, he said.
While highlights “will always be our baseline,” Riggar said off-field, player-oriented content is really popping among fans these days, something several individual teams across leagues have also found. In addition to serving the interests of followers, that kind of content can help MLS tap into a global soccer audience beyond the US, especially as more international players join the league, he said. Leo Messi is a prime example: His presence on Inter Miami has helped boost interest and even revenue, and he also plays well on social.
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“He’s like an alien all to himself,” Riggar said. “Really anything that we put forth with him, in English and in Spanish, it works. He is the algorithm hack for all things, and it’s a blessing to have that, but we also have to figure out how we’re balancing that and thinking about the rest of our ecosystem and providing other opportunities,” he said. “It’d be very easy for us to just go down the Messi path, and I don’t know if that’s the best long-term solution.”
MLS has been embracing other global stars, too, like LA Galaxy’s Marco Reus and Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, who’s set to join San Diego FC for the club’s inaugural season next year. One recent well-performing MLS post featured illustrations of Reus and St. Louis City SC goalie Roman Bürki, who used to play together in Germany, Riggar said.
Goaltending
As soccer continues to grow in popularity in North America heading into the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico, one of MLS’s primary KPIs is to grow the scale of its audience, Riggar said.
“We’re going to invest in putting our brand in front of as many people as we possibly can, because we’re really experiencing this tailwind of soccer right now,” he said.
Social media is a key component of MLS’s audience growth strategy, Riggar added, ultimately helping the league to attract, engage, and retain fans.
“It allows for us to introduce ourselves and to be relevant in the path of new fans and potential fans we wouldn’t typically have access to,” he said. “It is the first interaction a lot of people have with MLS, and so the goal is to figure out: How do we get you excited about our product, about our brand, and then continue to service you with opportunities to move deeper into our world?”