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Score Big with Social Media: 5 Winning Plays for Youth Sports Orgs

In today’s digital age, leveraging social media to your organization’s benefit should be of prime importance. You can use it to increase memberships, communicate with parents, and build your brand, among other things. But with trends changing quickly, how do you succeed?

These five  best practices will have your organization dominating the digital field:

1. Provide Value (Without Asking for Anything in Return)

One of the key principles of social media marketing is to give before you ask. This means that you should offer valuable information, tips, insights, or entertainment to your audience without expecting them to do anything in return (such as subscribe to a newsletter, click a link, or sign up).

Plus, with the rise of zero-click content, it’s unlikely this trend will go away anytime soon. You need to make sure that your content is direct, to the point, and valuable for your audience.

2. Make It Shareable

There’s magic in shareable content. Create posts that ignite emotions, spark conversation, and inspire members to share your content on their own profiles and stories. Your organization will gain more attention this way and your current members will be won over as well; every parent loves seeing their youngster shine on and off the field.

Sharable content can include:

  • Funny/informative behind-the-scenes training session bloopers/content
  • Heartwarming player interviews
  • Epic game-winning moments
  • Testimonials from parents

3. Boost Your Visibility With Strategic Ads

There is a decline in organic reach on social media, and many groups are turning to advertising to compensate. A well-planned ad campaign can help you gain more followers and increase engagement on your social media posts.

Ideally, you should budget at least $500 a month on ads to get a decent return on investment. But it’s important to test your creatives and measure your results so you can see what’s working. Don’t just “set it and forget it”, monitor your campaigns and test them against one another so you can make the most of this investment.

4. Monitor and Respond to Comments and Reviews

One of the benefits of social media is that it allows you to interact with parents, players, and fans and build relationships with them. However, this also means that you need to monitor and respond to the comments that you receive on your posts, especially the negative ones.

Negative comments or reviews can damage your reputation and turn away potential new players. Address them promptly and professionally but never engage in online arguments. Remember, transparency and grace are your best defenders.

5. Build a Sustainable Strategy

Don’t sprint into social media only to get sidelined with burnout. A few ways you can do this include:

  1. Pacing yourself – Aim for 1-2 posts a week in the beginning. The idea here is to consistently post something. No one will follow a page that only posts once every other month.
  2. Delegating tasks – Identify who will be responsible for taking pictures, staging videos, writing captions, and managing comments. If you’re confused about whose job it is to do this, members of your organization are likely confused too. Take time to assign roles so everyone is on the same page.
  3. Scheduling posts in advance to stay on track – It’s easy to build a schedule with social media automation platforms. Plus you can also schedule content depending on your page type.

Also remember: you don’t need to be on every social media platform to be successful.

Instead of spreading yourself thin and posting sporadically on multiple platforms, focus on one or two platforms that suit your organization and post there consistently. Facebook and Instagram can be a good place to start. Once you get into the routine of posting there routinely, then you can re-evaluate and see if it makes sense to expand onto another platform.

The 2024 Social Media Playbook For Youth Sports

You can’t win every game, but by implementing these best practices, you’ll have your team well on its way to social media victory.

Key Takeaways:

  • Provide value first
  • Create shareable content
  • Run strategic advertisements
  • Monitor comments and reviews
  • Build a sustainable social media strategy

Now that you’re on the right track with your social media strategy, you can focus on optimizing your registration process and managing your memberships. Need help with this? Contact Demosphere today to learn more.


Kris Baker

Kris Baker is the President of Demosphere and has been serving the Youth Sports Community since 2006.