Volume 02 // Issue 02
The Public Relations Issue 1
FIELD NOTES Last year, and continuing now into 2021, we learned the value of stretching our budgets to accomplish more with less. During this time, we have aggressively been using public relations tactics whether we realized it or not. The average person has an attention span of eight seconds. This average is a 33% decline since 2010. Therefore, making it more critical than ever to be a genius of first impressions. While developing an organization’s brand, it is equally essential to utilize key staff members as brand assets. An effort in personal branding is now mandatory and should be a career-long quest. Think of our colleagues that have been furloughed or laid off and how their personal brand can help them come back into the industry. Assisting people to communicate the best versions of themselves online and offline must be part of the public relations framework. Every one of us has a personal brand that defines who we are. It can sometimes seem like a brand happens, but leaders who keenly craft their brand result in championing an increase in mind and market share. Cultivating a personal brand is deliberate and requires effort.The digital mark we portray creates our brand. Considering our digital world, where images, social media profiles, and news stories are eternal and searchable, managing your reputations is not optional. One mistake can plague a career. Public relations and the sports tourism industry are all about relationships. So too is branding. Building relationships is a must. I passionately believe that one’s network is one’s net worth. We hope you enjoy our issue on public relations.
- Matt Dunn 3
Table of Contents 6
Technology Profile Playeasy
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Conference Review
16
5 Public Relations Tactics for Active Sports Tourism Professionals
Sunshine Sports Council’s Innovation Think Tank
18 22 26
Recognizing the Magnitude of PR
30 34
Social Media Cues in 2021
Social App Profile Clubhouse
5 Techniques to Enrich your Public Relations Outreach to the Media
Industry Confidential
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Technology Profile Playeasy helps event organizers, sports venues & destinations connect through one seamless digital platform. In what City are you based and how did you come up with the idea? We’re based in Boston, and are founded by three former Boston College Athletes, Sean Flaherty (Football – Long Snapper), Ryan Quigley (Football – Punter), Kerri Shields (Basketball – Guard). We all ran camps and clinics after college and really struggled finding venues and thought there needed to be a more efficient search and communication platform for sporting events. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when Sean and Ryan were running a kicking, punting, and snapping camp that got double booked at a venue and they had to move forward with the camp in a parking lot.
In a short period of time, Playeasy’s exposure has skyrocketed. What activities, outreach, and business development efforts led to this? While it might seem like we’ve had success overnight, it’s been three solid years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears.We have not focused on making aggressive marketing or sales campaigns, but instead the biggest thing we have focused on, and continue to focus on, is making a great product that people want to tell their friends about. There is no better marketing then word-of-mouth from people excited about your product and company. This word-of-mouth method has led to many of our first users, as well as helped secure our partnership with Sports ETA, which has helped immensely with gaining exposure in the marketplace. 7
PUSH Magazine launched two months prior to the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Playeasy has a similar story to tell. How have you been able to manage the company’s growth through this challenging pandemic? Pre COVID, we were focusing on facility rentals and management, and our business model was solely based around transaction fees from facility rentals. We put a lot of investment into building the product, and we launched our new payment model the week that COVID hit, and it looked like a certain death sentence for our business. We had to become extremely lean and unfortunately let go of some good people, but the light at the end of the tunnel for us was that we could use this opportunity to reshape our product and pivot to sports tourism, which was an industry that the Indiana Sports Corporation taught us about that previous summer. During the pandemic, we solely focused on rebuilding our product for sports tourism and worked with TEAM Indiana, as well as some of our early partners, such as TEAM Maryland and Play Treasure Coast, to help create a solution that would provide value for the industry. Some early traction gave our investors the confidence to stick with us, as well as some PPP funding that kept us going. You have recently created a strategic partnership with Sports ETA. Provide us some insights as to how that partnership will better serve the sports event and tourism industry. This was a major milestone for us and something that we honestly believe will be a great thing for the sports tourism industry. We first met in 2019 when we were focused only on facility rentals, and as we made our pivot and started working with destinations in 2020, our conversations started picking up around how we could work together. The essence of our partnership is we are a software company, and Sports ETA are the industry experts. We are working together with them to make sure what we are building is a good fit, as well
as all of the additional features and functionality that we can build to help provide more efficiencies and involve more industry stakeholders to take part in the platform. If you know Al Kidd, you know he has a lot of ideas, so over the next few months and years you will be seeing many new features, functionality, and integrations with software providers in the industry being announced and rolled out. How does the platform benefit each of your current clientele (event organizers, facilities, and destinations)? Basically, what we’re building is a members only social network for the Sporting Event & Tourism industry that lets: Event Organizers search, find, communicate, and post Requests for Proposals to the network of destinations and facilities to streamline their ability to schedule their events. Instead of having to put your headphones in and cold call for hours a day to find venues for your events, you can find a destination or venue on Playeasy, send a message, or post an RFP that match makes you with the right venues in seconds. Destinations market their venues and find event organizers and RFP’s that are a good fit for them, as well as communicate through the platform either by sending a direct message, or posting an announcement to the entire network of event organizers. Another great benefit is that website development is long and expensive, and every destination wants the ability to have a great looking venue marketplace on their site. You can create a Playeasy profile with your venue marketplace in minutes with no coding, and you can embed that into your website saving a ton of time and money. So basically, Playeasy is a website developer, advertising platform and a 24/7/365 tradeshow that’s on one platform for a small fraction of the cost. Facilities can market their spaces and venue, find event organizers and Requests for Proposals that are a good fit for them, as well as communicate directly through the platform. We
will also be adding the ability for them to advertise their availability to event organizers to help them fill their open space and win more business for their venue and destination. With the power of the platform, the future is clear in that Playeasy can serve as the clearinghouse for all event bid opportunities within our industry. Is this where you see your company going and do you have a timeline for accomplishing such a feat? Being the clearinghouse for sporting event bid opportunities is definitely part of where we see the platform going. To say all events is probably bold, as there are always cases in any industry that cannot be accomplished through technology, but we certainly would like to have most events for bid on our platform towards the end of this year to early next year. We also see the platform extending to allow destinations to be the ones that can go on offense, and not only rely on receiving RFP’s, but allow them to be
the ones that can post availability and announcements to the community of event organizers on our system. We also plan on allowing vendors and industry providers to be able to connect with events that need their services, as well as allow destinations to bring in their partners, sponsors, and local business communities onto the platform to help increase their exposure and engagement around sporting events coming to their area. Not only have you collaborated with Sports ETA, but you have been working on several other synergies. Can you tell us about them? We have another partnership that is in the process of being announced with Threshold 360 to help provide 360-degree video tours of venues directly on the Playeasy profiles, as well as have been in conversations with several hotel service providers like Site Search, EventConnect and Hotel Planners, as well as facility management software companies, participant registration 9
companies, CRM companies, media companies, and others. One thing we’ve learned quickly is that there’s a lot of companies and services that we can partner and integrate with, but we have to first focus on being great at what we do, and the rest will naturally take care of itself. The Playeasy Founders have had close ties for years. How do your strengths and weaknesses play off one another for success? We are close friends, and we are all former athletes who hate to lose – there is no doubt that our competitive spirit and time playing team sports is why we have been able to get through the hard times together without giving up. Sean, our CEO, loves strategy and coming up with ideas for our product and sales, but he can be a lot to handle sometimes – he is intense and has a lot of ideas and thinks all of them are great. Kerri, our President and Chief Product Officer, is phenomenal with design and brings our ideas to life, but she is a realist and has gotten good at shutting down Sean’s bad ideas. Ha! Ryan, our Chief Customer Officer, is an amazing people person, maybe the nicest guy you have ever met. He is great with presenting our product to customers and bringing customer feedback to the team, but more importantly at keeping our culture light and fun and dissolving any sticky situations that might occur when Kerri does not like Sean’s latest epiphany. We are a family – and no matter what happens, we know we have each other’s backs, and that trust we have in each other is what is most important. Where do you see Playeasy in five years as a company? 5 years from now we see ourselves as a hub that helps connect the entire sporting event ecosystem
- event organizers, destinations, facilities, industry partners, participants, and local communities with seamless integrations with other software providers to help streamline workflow and reporting. It sounds incredible, but right now we need to focus on providing the best product and customer service we possibly can this year in order for something like this to happen.
Fun personal questions: Besides your hobbies, what do you enjoy doing when you are not working? Sean: Playing any game - Xbox, golf, bowling, board games Kerri: Beating Sean in HORSE Ryan: Golfing in Bare Feet What is the most prized possession you have in your office? Sean: BC Football Scholarship Kerri: My ESPN Magazine Cover Ryan: My Foam Roller What is your favorite sporting event annually? Sean: College Football Playoffs Kerri: March Madness Ryan: The Masters
ELEVATE.
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Conference review
The Sunshine Sports Council was formed in response to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, as Florida’s sports tourism network needed a forum for communication, sharing, and outreach. “A week into the pandemic I was sitting on the couch one night thinking about that fact that no one was talking to one another. Events were cancelling, people were pulling their hair out. I jumped off the couch and created a Facebook page to serve as a national
forum of cooperation (US Sports Tourism Experts). From there I worked to build a group in Florida to provide the same,” said Matt Dunn, President/CEO of Raconteurs. Raconteurs offers the Sunshine Sports Council association services and solutions for the Council’s input and consideration. This often includes customer service, administrative assistance, management solutions, and strategic guidance. The Advisory Council and its various Committees guide the Council’s activities. “I engaged Kevin Smith and Ravi Rajcoomar, longtime industry titans, to help build the Council and our membership grew from there,” Dunn stated. In 2020, the Council met each week for thirty-four weeks straight. Now with over forty paid member organizations, the group meets every first and third Tuesday of the month. Thus far in 2021, the Council’s main initiatives revolve around advocacy on the Florida Legislative Session.
As the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention.” The creation of an advocacy toolkit, member receptions, a game changing partnership with Destination Florida, providing testimony during sub-committee hearing on related bills, quality guest speakers during the bimonthly meetings, a private Facebook group page for idea exchange in-between Council meetings, and the creation of the Innovation Think Tank annual meeting are all on-going projects of the Council. Open to Sunshine Sports Council members, the Innovation Think Tank provided a forum to drive innovation and discover solutions to sports tourism industry challenges. Topics included: Optimization + Orientation; Diversity + Inclusion; Industry System Reboot; Florida United; Bright Ideas; Council Committee meetings; and more. Hosted by the Gainesville Sports Commission and the Hotel Indigo at Celebration Pointe, sponsors included: EventConnect, Playeasy, PUSH Maga-
zine, Visit Gainesville, Celebration Pointe, Miller’s Ale House Gainesville, Dave and Busters, the Keys Grill and Piano Bar, Mix Ride,The Moonshot Collective, and Red Bull. When asked about the coronavirus’s effect on the conference planning effort, Dunn stated, “We never thought we would be first out of the gate to host a conference in 2021, but we made it happen. We dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s to ensure a safe environment.” The Innovation Think Tank took place May 23-25, 2021. It will be held again in the Fall of 2021.
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5 Public Relations Tactics for Active Sports TourISm Professionals In today’s marketplace, there is intense competition to stay out front in the industry.We all see advertising in several ways, in many places, and on numerous platforms. Maintaining your brand’s visibility can become a frustrating on-going task. Many are quick to think that adding a line item within your budget and hiring a firm will correct this problem. It absolutely will not. A welcome result of public relations, or more specifically, earned media, is that you do not need to spend a ton of money to reach thousands. Every one of us can see complementary results if we are diligent in spending some time focusing on strategic planning and implementing five public relations tools and tactics.
1. Set a Realistic Goal to Start Everyone wants to have their organization front and center everywhere possible.Though doing so sounds fantastic, it is not reality. Establish specific goals by narrowing in on where your ultimate clients are. What are they watching, where are they reading, and how are they listening? The answers to these questions are where you should concentrate your effort on securing additional exposure. Pitching members of the media can become a time-consuming chore, so it is imperative to dial down precisely where you wish to exist. This focus will streamline your time management and build a more strategic outreach.
2. Planning and Timelines You have now established a goal and a specific audience. Gaining traction with media takes patience and time, be sure to block off an hour or two each week to present your efforts and organization. Remember to allow time to follow up as well. We are all bouncing from task to task and planning event to event; we all play various roles. Be diligent and lock up space on your weekly calendar to stay on your mission. Lifehack, do this for everything, not just work-related tasks! Block time to exercise, pay bills, grocery shop, call friends and family on birthdays, and more. Doing so will provide you the necessary push because it’s on your calendar and schedule.
3. Assist Media Members To garner more media exposure, you cannot just present yourself and your organization and pray that your media promotion will follow. You will often find more success when assisting a journalist in performing his or her job responsibilities. When you set your end goal, you established your target media outlets, support those media members in crafting their profile pieces. Building story ideas, providing insight into an on-going project, or delivering knowledgeable quotes when requested and needed will aid in your effort. Now more than ever, media outlets are looking for content. Your quality content should see a welcomed reaction as you will make life easier for a journalist looking for story ideas.
4. Tell Story Lines We all can get caught up trying to break into a new market segment. Maybe you excel in hosting lacrosse tournaments, but you have been pursuing the soccer space for some time. Instead, share the stories your lacrosse clients are telling about your brand. Included in most of the advertising we see today, you will likely notice the use of social me-
dia icons and a specific call to action. In some cases, checking in at a particular location or posting images and tagging an area or business could be the particular call to action. When clients, or even coaches and athletes, post on your behalf, it reaches their audience and includes more clout because it appears as a recommendation.
5. Seek Testimonials Excellent customer service will always lead to referrals. It can be the perfect type of public relations. When people have a great experience, they will talk about it, and specifically, your organization. Try motivating clients, coaches, athletes, or vendors to provide a video testimonial and use it to your benefit. Video content is and has been King for some time. Most of us prefer to watch a short video instead of reading a page or two. When you receive complimentary remarks, share them across the board on your organization’s social media accounts, within your marketing materials, on your website, etc. Chose a day of the week to post testimonials filled with information for clientele to read, review, and share themselves. This activity will create a rumor mill and result in new clients. Having the resources, especially during these trying times, to hire a public relations agency can be challenging. These five tools and tactics will set you on the right path to earning additional visibility within the sports tourism industry. 17
Recognizing the Magnitude of
PR
Developing good quality publicity rests on valuable public relations. It is not simply making your organization known to the market it serves through familiar avenues such as print advertising, radio and television broadcasts, and other opportunities by spending a large portion of your budget to garner attention. Securing the correct exposure and earning your clientele’s trust is attainable; however, it can require a considerable amount of planning. Here is a comprehensive view on the value of public relations for organizations in sports tourism and a few helpful suggestions on getting started. Why Public Relations? The aim of public relations by an organization often is to persuade the public, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders to maintain a particular point of view about its leadership, products, or decisions. Public relations describe the actions that an organization makes to build its image and cultivate relationships with customers, clients, etc. Specific approaches speak with consumers in a meaningful manner. The desired outcome is to build and earn trust, which promotes your organization’s reputation. Public relations can be a vital component in reacting to a crisis. When an unfortunate event occurs, a solid public relations foundation can help ease the damage by crafting the proper response. While in conversation with colleagues and clients about public relations philosophies, we explain that it mimics storytelling. Folks always enjoy listening to stories. Word of mouth when a 19
family member or friend tells you about a service or product stimulates interest and grabs their attention. If they ask questions, then you know you have motivated action. Referrals can be a form of earned advertising, the most reliable form of advertising. We all trust the judgment of our valued friends and family and follow their suggestions. From recommendations, an organization can productively sell itself naturally. Always take advantage of positive reviews from trustworthy third parties and testimonials from dependable individuals to boost your organization’s public image.
sure. While the coronavirus developments created challenges, it did not stop public relations experts from generating new ideas to keep publicity moving forward.
A public relations effort is not free, though it is often much less expensive and presents a more significant chance of generating positive results than just advertising. We all usually pay more for advertising, and they can have variable effects. Costs can rise as you must create repetition with several ads many times until reaching the desired target.
Reach out to media members and provide them with stories. Good journalists are looking to highlight wholesome entertainment from this gloomy situation; they are searching for exciting, attractive, and eccentric stories to brighten their readership’s minds. Establish a good rapport with your local media members because they can be the best source to show how your activities have acclimated to our new normal and tell the community of its positive impact.
Public relations may come in the form of a quote in a respected publication or by going viral on social media, thus receiving hundreds or thousands of likes and shares that enhance your identity. Through public relations, prominent magazines, trustworthy journalists, and other media forms can earn you credibility and validation. Advertising creates exposure while you develop confidence and affinity with your audience through public relations. Some would say public relations have a more considerable impact on garnering traction within the sports tourism industry. Using methods such as providing insight to journalists to create positive feature stories on your organization, press releases, advertorials, creating promotional events, and strategic partnerships with like-minded companies are among beneficial public relations tools and tactics. Other approaches include hosting press conferences and fundraisers, publishing whitepapers, and creating original research to earn priceless media coverage. Every entity requires a unique approach, and there is no “one size fits all” strategy. Every organization can apply numerous public relations tools and tactics that increase market expo-
Here are several strategies that can execute during the pandemic: Share pertinent information. Most folks are forced to work from home and be diligent when performing tasks. Be innovative and create straightforward suggestions to convey to your specific audience.
Decide to accept the challenge or to hire a public relations expert. It takes time, energy, a lot of thought, and grit to develop a productive public relations campaign. Choosing to own it or hire an agency is up to you. Ask yourself how comprehensive you want your coverage to be, how much additional time you have, and whether you have space in your annual budget to bring on a public relations agency. The answers to these questions are vital when determining the best decision for your organization. The public relations effort has evolved at a rapid pace. Indeed, social media’s arrival has questionably formed more of a challenge for us all working to build our organizational reputations and keep them secure during a crisis.Through the benefits of public relations, you can enhance the profile and reputation of your brand. Remember, advertising informs consumers how good your business is, but with public relations, others state your effort’s benefits. When looking at it that way, public relations can be a worthy venture.
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Social App Profile
A Brief Guide to Clubhouse Clubhouse is absolutely where creators go to talk. Within Clubhouse you will find an impressively substantial set of groups and events for professionals provided by the chat app. Here are a few suggestions to navigate quickly. After launching last March, Clubhouse instantly became the go to social app for business professionals, who host audio-only, frequent, live conversations, referred to as “rooms.” Several discuss a variety of topics of interest to groups of subscribers called “clubs.” Company founders and leaders quickly supported the app, thus creating a list of practical informative events and locations to enhance storytelling skills, empathize about business life, and trade best practices. It is recommended to begin by asking close friends, followed by making requests on social media. Below are three types of clubs and rooms worth your time. To locate events within the app, search for an applicable speaker or by a club’s name. The famous, or notorious Access to well-known business leaders is “genuinely surprising,” says Ravi Rajcoomar, Vice President of the Business Network at PeopleForBikes. “It can be like siting on stage while an episode of Shark Tank is being filmed.” If you are a regular on the Clubhouse app, inevitably you have witnessed a celebrity entrepreneur connect with and interact directly with other users. One of the best pieces of advice we have heard from one of these celebrity entrepreneur sessions, given to company founders, when they recognize burn out within them-
selves: Jot down the tasks you love and hate about managing your operation, and delegate the latter. Suggested clubs There are virtually too many rooms and clubs to count, but here are a few to consider: Sports Biz Professionals – A club for those working in the front office across the global sports and entertainment industry. Welcoming conversations, experiences, feedback, perspectives, and overall growth and learning opportunities. Sports Biz – Global hub for the #sportsbiz ecosystem. Destination to connect and collaborate across sports, business, tech, and entertainment. Top 5 largest sports communities on Clubhouse; 22,000+ members; followers on every continent. National Sports Forum – The National Sports Forum has been bringing the sports industry together for over 25 years. Pushing the industry forward by highlighting new trends and innovations across 5 pillars: Sponsorship,Ticketing, Marketing, Business Development, and Diversity and Inclusion. Running a weekly show every Thursday at 7:00 pm EST on various topics. Women in Sports – Network with other women who work in the sports and live events industry. Suggested networking and affinity groups Katie Foglia - @ktfogs; Director of Innovation at 4FRONT (sports + entertainment agency) Ron Seaver - @ronseaver; Founder & President at National Sports Forum Perry Gladstone - @perrygladstone; Co-Founder at The Moonshot Collective
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5 Techniques to enrich your public relations outreach to the media A successful public relations effort is challenging, judging from poorly prepared pitches we see in our space. More specifically, many pitches do not focus specifically on sports tourism in a way that speaks to one’s clientele. Whether written by a destination marketing organization’s ad agency, cliched language, essentials that are missing, or other common missteps, the rate of those that miss the boat is high. However, there are many steps you can make to ensure your efforts are more effective. Here are some techniques to increase your chances. It is not all about you. A lot of folks in our industry have a hard time grasping this one. It is understandable. You are specifically working on this outreach to promote what you are accomplishing, so of course, you should be a focal point. Well, guess what? (This is going to sound mean) Your audience does not care... until the moment it relates directly to them. Your communications turn out to be key only if what you have is something that informs the audience and fulfills their interest and expectations. Otherwise,they consider reading it a waste of time. Publications and journalists are not all the same. Publications and journalists have numerous interests and focus on different assignments. They focus on a range of subjects and compose them differently. The notion of sending one pitch out to the masses and expecting a good response is ineffective. Work to understand better the type of pieces that will attract your target audience based on their style and focus.
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Do some research. Kind of obvious this was coming, huh? Have an understanding of which publications may cover your organization’s effort and offerings, who the writers are for each publication that may respond with interest, and what viewpoint could intrigue them. Find the appropriate publications and writers, read their pieces, and begin to appreciate them. Research can be time-consuming, but it is necessary. If you do not want to do it, your public relations effort will fail, or at least be poor. Likewise, if you contract a public relations agency that does not make this effort, your objectives will go nowhere. And you will be wasting money within your budget. Think bigger than yourself. We have already mentioned it is not all about you, so plan your pitch thoroughly. A new facility announcement or executive personnel changes may matter to some publications and writers. They will not matter to others. Make sure to express whatever you are pitching and how it fits into a bigger context and what connects the topic to the audience, whether it be a game-changing feature to the sports tourism industry, new market segment, a geographic issue, economic or virus-related conditions, and so on. If you can reveal the more profound importance of what you are saying, you will become closer to garnering attention. KISS - Keep it simple stupid. No one has the time or wants to read through a long setup to get to the soul of a pitch.You have five or six seconds to begin demonstrating that there is something of interest. Seriously, that short. If you cannot dial it down enough in that amount of time, you will not achieve your public relations goals. Though there is no guarantee that you will succeed even after all that effort, you will place yourself in a better position to gain coverage. The strategy in being simple is to avoid being clever. Just say things clearly. Do not use emojis or exclamation points or any other attempt to gather attention. It will come across as distasteful. If you do see interest, be sure to respond quickly. There is a never-ending surge of communications filling the inboxes of reporters. Wait too long, and you may be swiftly forgotten. Pay special attention to requests a writer makes, specifically how to contact them, the format of files they request, and so on. These requests center on the publication’s real needs; ignoring them could instantly eliminate your chances for coverage.
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Social Media Cues in 2021 After the nutty 2020 we all faced, countless brands immediately realized that social media could be a link between your organization and your current and potential clients. Throughout the pandemic, we saw a 10% surge in social media activity. Thus, providing your organization with an increase in opportunities to link up with your audience. Whether through Instagram, Facebook, or the app gaining popularity, Clubhouse, your organization’s brand can shine on all social media platforms in 2021. With so many options and platforms to choose
from, we foresee these four cues will play a significant role in 2021. Sharper, useful content. We have known this for some time: Followers favor snappier, consumable content. Sounds complicated, right? How do we create top-quality content and keep it short? First, do not focus on only trimming word count. Do not do so at all. Instead, focus on simplifying the message of your posts. Include quick tips that people can put into action. Plugging into this cue will develop shareable con-
In public relations, social media is not a new strategy, but it is continually shifting. tent and increase engagement levels. So, maybe think about breaking a large post into several posts or switching text posts into videos. Put your values on display. In 2020, we certainly learned that moving forward, brands must consistently and clearly communicate their values. Our universal turmoil certainly did not stop at the end of 2020. From here on out, users believe brands must show their identity, stand up for injustices, and act. For example, many hotel chains made themselves appealing by uploading cleaning measures and standards videos during the pandemic. Conveying your ideas is good, but acting is much better. Indeed, you can post your action plans on social media to spread the word., just as the hotel chains did. Create interactive content. Instagram Live and Facebook Live are excellent opportunities to share your brand with a live audience. Though, how are the uses of Live features different in 2021? Online events have taken over social media as in-person events are arguably unsafe in many countries. Therefore, brands had to host their conferences, events, or webinars online instead. During a time when we are concentrating our efforts on cutting expenses, purchasing expensive event software is out of the question. A cost-effective, alternative move proven to be successful has been moving events to social media Live platforms.
A lot of us have been forced to advertise our operations on a limited budget. Using Live social media’s real-time elements can one hundred percent enable you to reach your audience. Given that social media platforms are not restricted to one geographic location, you can reach your entire audience, especially those most willing to engage with your content. Quality over quantity. In most cases, we all schedule posts several times per week as not to inundate our followers. In 2021, platforms and followers do not care as much about how often you post. The focus instead is on quality. Instead of creating vague, simplified content to post in-between more relevant topics, dedicate your momentum to comprehensive posts. This practice may mean sharing behind-the-scenes content, filming videos or even podcasts rather than text posts, or sharing videos or images from customer reviews. These examples may sound time-consuming, but you are decreasing to a smaller number of good-quality posts. Doing so will increase the possibility of going viral and follower engagement. It is not easy to navigate through a social media scene that feels like it changes weekly. One victory we can take from 2020 is the public relations innovation we were all forced to adapt. We all used social media in 2020 to feel a sense of connection. Doing so emphasized the need for your organization to appear in the feeds of your followers. Implement these four cues to garner exposure during this surge of social media attention to keep growing beyond 2021. 31
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industry confidential Check in every issue for the unfiltered thoughts of our guests writers and contributors as they discuss the hottest topics in sports tourism. Join the conversation by tweeting us @pushsports. In this issue our guest writer discusses the subject of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The subject of diversity, equity, and inclusion is more significant than procedures, percentages, or programs. Fair employers outperform their competitors by recognizing the wishes, perceptions, and abilities of their team. The outcome results in diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces with trust and commitment from their employees.
It can be confusing to separate diversity and inclusion. Diversity and inclusion are two unified conceptions; however, they are far from identical. Diversity represents the composition of an entity. Inclusion speaks to the impact, existence, and viewpoints of various groups and whether they are valued and incorporated into a professional environment. An environment where many different perspectives and identities exist but only the views of certain groups are valued or possess influence may be diverse but not inclusive. A workplace focused on diversity and inclusion makes all, regardless of organizational hierarchy, feel engaged and supported in all workplace environments. When recruiting talent, reviewing your departments, and leadership, are you considering diversity when planning and making decisions? When reviewing gender, race, and leadership, you can begin revealing the true acknowledgment of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Research has shown benefits from creating a diverse and inclusive workplace include increased revenue growth, a willingness to innovate, more success in recruiting a diverse talent pool, and impressive employee retention rates. Inclusion is arguably one of the most important secrets of retention. Employees will leave an organization should they feel that their business ideas, dignity, or contributions are not valued or considered by their organization. Research on company culture shows that when employees wholeheartedly feel that their and their co-workers will be respected and treated fairly, they are more likely to look forward to working each day, have pride in their work, and have loyalty to an organization. An inclusive workplace does not only have diverse people represented, but it also has a diversity of people empowered, trusted, and involved within and by the organization. Organizations must provide day-to-day experiences that help employees feel a sense of belonging, their talents mean something, and that their unique needs are cared for by their co-workers and leaders. Technology and social injustices continue to change the environment in every industry. Organizations will need creative, passionate, and empathetic people to recognize the potential new technologies and ingenuity bring to an increasingly demanding, vocal arena. Without this focus, organizations will be in danger of declining revenue and losing ground to their competitors in these unsettling times. However, the companies that succeed in diversity and inclusion endeavors will cultivate a tremendous following and thrive.
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