Team Canada: A Nation of Success

Over the past several decades, Canadians have been able to come behind individual athletes to watch them achieve greatness. Though unable to compete themselves, the loyalty and devotion shown to them as fans has been a driving force in the success known as “Team Canada”. Team Canada’s social media is an avid portrayal of their willingness to make sport accessible and to demonstrate that anyone is capable of achieving greatness if they only believe. From inspiring graphics that feature athletes young and old alike, to articles that showcase Canada’s triumphs on the playing field, Team Canada is able to perfectly capture what it means to be Canadian. 

Due to the fact that Team Canada is nearly a cult phenomenon, they have a fairly large social media presence and therefore are able to gain a lot of traction with their posts and content sharing. The Team Canada Facebook page has 756,992 page likes, with post likes ranging from 24 to 50,000 depending on the content relevance. Twitter comes in with a close second at having 561 thousand followers, and Instagram with 84.5 thousand followers. Though not reaching over a million likes/followers on either page, Team Canada  also maintains several other forums, such as the Paralympic pages, the Canadian Olympic Team Foundation, and individual sport pages (Cycling or Hockey to name a few). Surprisingly however, they are able to interact with their followers on nearly every platform; whether it’s by adding to the conversation, addressing concerns or simply stating another point. They seem to keep their commentary relatable and often times add inspiring messages to satisfy their fans. By using the “Join the Olympic Club” slogan, they are able to make the Olympic team exclusive yet also widely attainable for anyone who wishes to participate. By highlighting the word ‘Club’, Team Canada has ensured that their fan base will feel included and apart of the selection process for every Olympic Games. In some ways, they encourage you to pretend to be an Olympian without actually having to be one.

Though the message that they are sharing online is relevant to their content, the one noticeable issue with their three social media platforms is that the same content is shared across the board. Their Instagram and Twitter are fairly similar with an image and a link being shown for both; the same image and link is later shared in full on the Facebook page. By having the same content across three platforms poses the risk of losing a follower base for each one. If viewers see that the same content is being shared on all three platforms and they follow all three, they will most likely unfollow one or the other due to repetitive content – no one wants to see the same thing twice (or three times in this case). The upside to this however is that the content itself will get more views and more traction because it is being shared on multiple platforms; everyone has their chosen media source and therefore will prefer one over another. Instagram leverages graphics and images, such as one of their most recent campaigns, the 100 day countdown to Rio 2016. Everyday Team Canada showcases a moment in Olympic history achieved by a Canadian Athlete; they highlight up and coming Olympic athletes and give them an opportunity to say hello!

The use of these images on Instagram are clean and easy to understand, and basically begging to be shared and screenshotted for use on followers accounts. By having athletes as the mainstage of nearly all their posts, fans and young athletes alike can print out the images of their favourite athletes for inspiration. In some ways, this brings back a devoted follower base who rely on real time images of their favourite athletes to watch; the Team Canada page gets more hits and interaction if you have people returning for content based images and ideas. Take the #iceinourveins campaign for example; the use of new and veteran athletes has people returning to the site time after time to re-watch the magic of what enfolded in the Arctic. In fact, this video now has over 75,000 views on YouTube and thousands more across the platforms on which it has been shared. 

 The #iceinourveins campaign was an idea to demonstrate that Canadians no matter where we go, will take a piece of our northern pride with us. Even though we are travelling to Brazil, we will take the snow and ice with us to win Gold this summer. The video is a great portrayal of who we are as Canadians; individuals who can brave the cold to achieve their dreams however, it would have been interesting to see this version of what they did, shot down in Brazil. It could have been foreshadowing showing Team Canada arriving in a gust of cold air and swirling snow (embracing the stereotype) and emerging as victors in the hot summer sun. Instead of using the #iceinourveins by itself, you could introduce a second hashtag, #heatinourhearts – Team Canada is fired up for Gold!

Overall, Team Canada’s social media can be considered to be greatly successful. They help athletes find sponsors, motivation and help them realize their fan base. They do an excellent job of reaching out to their fan base and encouraging them to donate, connect and envision themselves as a part of the team; after all, the slogan “Join the Club” is used throughout every platform. Though the content that they share could be divided more equally between platforms, the message itself is for the fans and those fans seem to enjoy exactly what Team Canada is serving up.

  

 

 

How a Hashtag Can Help: The #AskHerMore Campaign

#askhermore. A hashtag that engaged the public in a conversation that was long overdue. It was simple, it was honest, and it was powerful. Some of you may be familiar with its social media success, and others may simply recognize it without understanding its origin. Whatever the case, it goes without question that these three words exemplify how powerful social media can be when used correctly; especially when coupled with engagement from powerful Hollywood figures.

Nearly two months ago now, award season was monopolizing social media. Everyone is familiar with these spectacular productions and most can agree that they dominate the public’s attention, especially through social media networks. Although the purpose of these shows are to commemorate individuals for outstanding performances and work, a large portion of the audience tunes in for the pre-show; the red carpet. Those who tune in will admit to adoring the beautiful celebrities and their exquisitely expensive garments and accessories, as they wait to see who will be chosen for the “pressing” interview questions, the most famous being “Who are you wearing?”. Why has the public turned the focus of their admiration towards the segment on appearances rather than accomplishments? Even better, why are male celebrities the only ones questioned about their career aspirations, while women are asked to share diet secrets and nail colour choices? Gender stereotyping is the key culprit in this scenario, a problem that should be one of the past. And the creators of the Representation Project, and the #askhermore campaign, agree.

The #askhermore campaign commenced over a year ago, but seemed to only make waves this past February.  Without much explanation or introduction, the Representation Project – an organization working towards ending all forms of stereotyping, including gender – created this simple hashtag, allowing the public to create a conversation. The freedom to channel the conversation in any direction, paired with an important, relevant topic that a large percentage of the population was already passionate about, equalled an inevitable success.  It encouraged reporters to “snap out of it” and recognize the strength, power, and intelligence wearing these gowns, rather than solely the makers of them. It was an inclusive campaign with unlimited boundaries, making it all the more successful.  

It is beyond difficult to change a conversation that has been present for so many decades, but #askhermore seemed to do just that.  This campaign was active before, during and after the award show, and totalled over 27,000 tweets. During the award show, members of the Representation Project were responsible for Live Tweeting their followers, and making their mission abundantly clear.  This remarkable campaign was planned and perfectly executed and demonstrates a wonderful example of social media being used to spread a positive, future-changing message. The #askhermore campaign also taught users of social media engaging your audience, and using the variety of perspectives and locations to your advantage.

How does a hashtag possess so much power? The secret to its success lies in the minimal effort required to participate. The number of participants is limitless, with no one there to filter which comments will be shared. Social media has created an environment where all its participants are equal; the boundaries normally placed between celebrities and fans temporarily disappear. #askhermore encouraged participation from everyone, especially the celebrities being asked the mind-numbingly pointless questions. Engagement from Hollywood is huge, especially during an occasion with such high profile attendees. With the undeniable success of this simple yet powerful hashtag, it appears that reporters will have to go back to square one and brainstorm more thought provoking questions than just“Who are you wearing?”

Have you seen or participated in the #askhermore campaign? Do you think it can change the face of awards shows?

6 Social Media Lessons We Learned From Suits

If you are anything like us, then your man crush Mondays constantly consists of one Harvey Specter. As the new season of Suits is about to air, we thought we’d share with you some tips and tricks that we learned from the show on how to be successful on social media. 

So, what exactly is it that they do that make them rockstars at social media? 

Live Tweet As Much As You Can

This practice is not only valuable for TV shows like Suits or news, but for all businesses; from your local farmers’ market to government officials. But, why is it so important to live tweet? Before going into a complex explanation, let’s start from the beginning: what is live tweeting? Essentially, live-tweeting can be summarized as “the action to engage on Twitter for a continuous period of time with a relevant string of tweets (often times using a specific hashtag)”. Live-tweeting is an excellent way to engage with your audience. Suits does a fantastic job of not only live tweeting, but replying and engaging with their followers. They will tweet members of their audience asking their opinions on specific situations, and continue to keep the conversation going, not only on the same day; but also connecting with the same person days or even weeks later. Also keep in mind that statistics prove that visuals receive much higher levels of engagement.

Create Your Own Hashtag

Creating your own hashtag has many valuable advantages; it sets you apart and allows you to easily monitor the conversation. Of course, you will need to wisely ‘advertise’ your hashtag and get it trending if possible, otherwise nobody will ever know about it. Associate your hashtag with an existing twitter handle so people can find your content more easily. Suits did an amazing job at coming up with #suitors and did an even better job at gaining traction for it. Thousands of followers now identify with this #hashtag. If you wish to learn more about creating hashtags, Social Media Today has a great 7 step tutorial. Never forget to use your #hashtag often, and use it wisely.

Get Your Audience Involved

This may sound like a broken record, but as social media experts we will never stop saying: engaging with your audience and involving your audience is an essential tactic to succeeding on social media. Suits does an amazing job at involving their audiences. In fact, their audience is an integrated part of how the show evolves. They do an excellent job of not only hearing their audience out, but also initiating conversation with them and acknowledging how valuable their opinions are. People love to feel like their voice is being heard and that they are contributing to something they trust is valuable; so make it happen.  They also rock at successful campaigns. They consistently hold special viewing events for fans to re-watch episodes, such as "Suits After Hours"where they ingeniously invited you to "suit up and stay up". They also acknowledge who and where their largest audiences are, and just recently completed an extremely popular college tour where students could meet cast members throughout the USA. 

Listen To What Your Followers Have To Say

Your biggest fans are your dedicated audience and they will most likely deliver a positive message about your brand or service. So listening to what they want is fundamental on social media. Monitoring what is being said about your brand is one of the most important aspects of social media interaction, so make should you listen and act accordingly. Suits always listens to their audience and they always try to take their suggestions into consideration.

Always Be Alert

 Always, always, always (can we make this any more clear?) be alert on social media; you may be in for a positive surprise. The USA Suits social media team was alert when they noticed an enthusiastic tweet by Michael Phelps (only the biggest Olympian of all time) about the show. In a jiffy, they responded and next thing you know Phelps was appearing in a episode. Be alert and react quickly to these opportunities. Being alert will also allow you to accurately monitor crises when they happen.

Create a Culture 

After they've done all of the above, Suits really does excel at creating their very own community. They share tons of behind the scenes photos and experiences, and they are awesome at creating shareable content.  They make their own GIFs, memes  and clever quotes from notable characters that boast well over tens of thousands of shares.  

Suits came out of nowhere and exploded on the TV drama scene, particularly with post secondary students and young professionals. Filmed in Toronto, Suits came from modest beginnings. The success and attention it has garnered could be seen as a surprise to some, but if you look at their quirky characters, intriguing story line and savvy social media efforts, their recipe for success is more than apparent.

For all these reasons, and many more, we are head over heels for Suits. Suits is clearly the little show that could, and did, and still is. 

Are you ready to get Litt up on June 25^th?