Social media in sports marketing: Takeaways from the Chicago White Sox’s game-changing strategy

The role of social media in sports is quite literally game-changing. Local franchises now have global fanbases, and those fans expect real-time updates on and off season. When official team accounts fall short, fans are quick to fill the gap with their own content. This dynamic presents a unique challenge for sports marketers—but like all challenges, it also offers great opportunity.

Just ask Tim Brogdon, Director of Digital Content for the Chicago White Sox. He and his team modernized the franchise’s approach to social media management, creating space for fans to celebrate—and commiserate.

We sat down with Brogdon to learn more about the team’s strategy, and to get his perspective on the ups, downs and best practices of social media in sports marketing.

Social media’s impact on sports marketing

Social media has reshaped the way teams, athletes and brands engage with fans. What used to be a one-way broadcast is now a conversation with the masses. To succeed, teams first need to keep up—which is easier said than done.

“While there is fan focus on the games themselves, sports marketing is so much more than those individual events.” says Brogdon. “We strive to authentically grab attention and engage with our audience year-round.”

In the past, sports fans only saw game-day footage captured by professional broadcast crews using high-tech cameras and audio equipment. Today, meeting fans’ growing demand for content requires a small army of contributors. Everyone plays a role—from digital content teams and fan services to the athletes themselves—ensuring a steady stream of engaging content.

All those efforts reap big wins in terms of fan engagement. According to the 2024 Content Benchmarks Report, organizations in the leisure, sports ‌ and recreation sectors typically receive eight times the average number of inbound engagements on their content each day compared to other industries.

The benefits of social media in sports marketing

Sports marketers who step up to the social media plate can score major rewards for their franchises. Here are three ways social media strategies can benefit the teams they support.

It promotes fan engagement—even during tough seasons

A social-first media strategy allows teams to connect with fans in a less corporate, more relatable way, making teams less reliant on wins for positive engagement. The White Sox aren’t the first to pioneer this strategy. Brogdon was inspired by another big name in the sports marketing world: The Cleveland Browns.

“One example I’d always bring up internally while trying to get buy-in is the Cleveland Browns,” shared Brogdon. “Allie Raymond—who’s now with the Los Angeles Chargers—led their social media strategy during the team’s 19-game winless streak. Even during a winless season, they were widely regarded as the best NFL team on social.”

The White Sox social media team captured similar success after setting the record for most losses in a single season. “In September, the White Sox were the third highest ranking team in terms of engagement on X, and number one in engagement per follower. That’s during the time Shohei Ohtani made history with his 50/50 season and other teams were vying for playoff spots. We took difficulties on the field and made them wins off the field.”

It expands reach into new audiences

Thanks to the rise of the algorithmic feed, a stranger is just a fan who hasn’t come across your content yet.

“Our strategy doesn’t hinge on follower growth,” explains Brogdon. “The algorithms are feeding people content whether they’re following the Chicago White Sox accounts or not. Instead, we want to create content that encourages people to pause, view, like and comment. Shares and sends (DMs) are also important, because that impacts virality.”

This impact of social media on sports marketing goes far beyond baseball. A record-setting 5 billion people engaged with the 2022 World Cup on social, and the 2024 Summer Games saw 12 billion engagements. The channel turns die-hard fans into armchair sports analysts while introducing the game day experience to new audiences, ready to be captivated.

It creates new revenue opportunities

Corporate sponsorships have long been a key revenue stream for professional sports teams, but in the past, opportunities for promotion were mostly limited to stadium signage and jerseys. With social media, however, the potential for lucrative partnerships has expanded dramatically.

“Our reassessed strategy at the end of the season caught a lot of attention on social and earned media, which led to a partnership with Dude Wipes,” says Brogdon. “So, in addition to boosting engagement, impressions and growth on our social profiles, we were able to generate revenue for the organization even as the season was winding down.”

The story behind the Chicago White Sox’s new social media approach

Every social media manager knows that behind every brand meme are multiple strategy discussions and layers of internal approvals—and sports is no exception. So how did the White Sox get buy-in for a relatable and self-aware social media strategy that navigated on-field challenges? To put it simply, they worked as a team.

“Our team did a lot of internal advocacy to showcase the potential benefits of talking about losses in a relatable way while taking eyeballs off of players and the front office,” says Brogdon “Our roster saw a lot of new faces added before 2024 season, so early on our strategy was dedicated to getting to know them. We want to humanize them so fans look at them with a sense of empathy and respect.”

As September arrived and the possibility of making history became real, Brogdon and his team took some time to get everyone on the same page. These efforts called for a bit of managing up, along with a solid proof of concept.

At one point, the social team even created memes on the spot during a meeting with the front office’s senior vice president of communications to show what the strategy could look like in real time.

“We would literally go into meetings with printed out memes to share as examples during presentations,” shares Brogdon. “We had to prove that our ideas were grounded in best practices while breaking our normal cadence. We wanted to move forward with a more relatable version of our existing brand voice, but wrapping that up in a presentation that appeals to executive staff takes some time, effort and energy.”

All the internal advocacy, meetings‌ and effort behind their strategic vision ultimately led to a 5% increase in social media sentiment during the month of September. Plus, it gave fans another team to root for: the social team.

4 social media best practices sports marketers need to know

When it comes to professional sports, a great strategy can’t be built in a silo. There are countless other teams and individuals that’ll impact and be impacted by your efforts. To create more seamless social-first experiences, you need to work with all of them. Here are four best practices for getting it done.

1. Take the time to secure internal buy-in

In a perfect world, all of your colleagues would be on board with your strategy after a single presentation. In reality, it’s never that easy, but don’t let the work scare you. The time you take to secure internal buy-in plays a critical role in the success of your strategy.

“Communicating and building relationships with other people who have the ability to enhance your strategy can’t happen overnight,” says Brogdon. “It takes time and effort to sell your strategy internally. There are so many stakeholders that need to buy in, including the social and video teams, marketing, sponsorship and supervisors, etc.”

If you want to give your organization’s social presence a creative overhaul, you have to slow down to speed up. Talk with individuals across your organization, share the rationale behind your ideas and listen to their critiques. This will help you create a stronger business case once the opportunity knocks.

2. Lean on your network

The role of social media in sports marketing is major, but teams are still smaller than you might expect. If you’re a sports marketer in need of some creative inspiration, try looking beyond your organization for help.

“One of my favorite things about sports marketing is the community,” says Brogdon. “It’s much smaller than people realize. You’re able to see a lot of cool success stories from people you’ve worked with or run into over your career.”

Sharing victories and losses with other social media professionals working in the sports industry can spark big ideas. “Everyone creates content around their core and secondary audiences, all while taking their brand identity and account demographics into consideration. It’s interesting because we all get access to the same data, but everyone does something different with it.”

3. Make the most out of time with players

Players are your greatest content creators, but their main focus is on performing on the field. So how can you prep them to capture social content without disrupting their game?

The Chicago White Sox social team maximizes their limited time with players by integrating content strategy into existing touchpoints. “We have two major opportunities to educate our players on social media,” explains Brogdon. “We connect with newly acquired players at a social media session in the fall in Glendale and hold a full team session during Spring Training”

These sessions not only allow the social team to introduce the White Sox digital brand but also give players a glimpse of how the social and video teams will work with them throughout the season. It’s a relationship Brogdon describes as ‘symbiotic’—players learn how to support the social team’s efforts, while the social team helps players amplify their personal brands.

4.  Develop a reporting infrastructure to support corporate partnerships

When the Chicago White Sox sought a new social media management solution, Sprout Social’s Tagging feature stood out as a game changer.

“The ease and convenience of reporting through custom Tags stood out to us immediately” says Brogdon. “Being able to provide marketing, PR, corporate partners and senior leadership with precise, channel-level data is huge for us.”

MLB isn’t alone in recognizing the benefits of this feature. The Atlanta Hawks social media team also uses Sprout to implement their sophisticated Tagging strategy.

“Everything we post gets a content pillar tag and a content medium tag, at minimum,” shared Katie DuPre’, Atlanta Hawks’ Social Strategy Manager, in a previous interview. “We also create campaign ID tags for any larger marketing campaigns. For example, when we were at All-Star Weekend, all live content coverage got a specific tag. After the event concluded, we were able to go back and recap the success of our event coverage.”

When it comes to social media in sports, you have to bring your A-game

Sports marketers across countries, teams and leagues are doing some big things on social. These efforts don’t just impact marketing KPIs—they introduce franchises to the next era of fans.

If you want to get into the game, you need a social media management and analytics platform that can provide you with real-time insights and engagement opportunities. Download our social media management buyer’s guide and learn how to make the most informed choice today.