Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys 1 Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys Chris DeVries COMM 204- Public Relations Tactics II Dr. Sangha Parks 11/28/2017
Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys 2 Table of Content I. Introduction II. III. IV. Analyze Keywords Suggest Keywords Social network analyzes V. Suggestions for other social networks VI. VII. VIII. IX. Indications of Social media sties Analysis of social media sites Critique of social media sites Conclusion
Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys 3 Introduction The Dallas Cowboys have been one of the original organizations along with the Green Bay Packers, New York Giants and the Pittsburgh Steelers that were around once the NFL began in 1940s. The Dallas Cowboys organization has been a staple of excellence for a while now. They are a recognizable team ranging from their logo, their stadium, the players and their owner, Jerry Jones. I want to explore what social media campaigns they are running with their social media sites. Analyze Keywords Using my key words when searching the Dallas Cowboys organization. I used Community Outreach, Ring of Honor, Season high expectations and Championship organization to help search for my results. I went to the Dallas Cowboys website and used the search engine on their website to find my results using my keywords. Season high expectations was the most the number key word that had the most articles and pages with 2094 articles and over 400 pages. The second was Ring of Honor had about 244 articles on forty-four pages with seventy-seven videos. Community outreach was ranked third in my search. Community outreach had about twenty-eight pages containing over 100 articles. And the last keyword in my search of the Dallas Cowboys website was Championship organization, to my surprise had the lowest results in any of my key words. My search came up with seventy-seven articles with twenty pages containing my word of choice. These key words reflect everything that describes the Dallas Cowboys organization and the team as a whole. An organization that helps the community, wins championships, and have their own hall of fame. There are more words that can be useful to the Dallas Cowboys organization.
Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys 4 Suggest Keywords Other than the word I choose above, there had to be another set of words that can be used for the Dallas Cowboys organization. Three words that come to mind America s team, sellout crowds, and profitable organization. The Cowboys have been labeled America s team since the late 1970s when Tom Landry was there coach and they were winning game left and right. They also have had the most sellout crowds in the NFL for the last several years. The Dallas Cowboys have also been named in the top five most profitable and richest sports organizations in the world for the last few years. Analyze your client social networks There are four quadrants to Public Relations, those are government, business, community and media. My client, the Dallas Cowboys, cover three of the four quadrants of public relations. The government is the only quadrant that is not be considered. The only reason I can give why there should not be any government quadrant is that the NFL is a private sector. So the government cannot intervene with any that the NFL does within their organization. Such as the NFL lockout bac in 2011, the government did not step in and intervene. When it comes to business, they are a multibillion dollar franchise and paying their staff and players fairly. They have a great media presence with Fox sports, ESPN, and CBS sports. The Dallas Cowboys have a Facebook, Twitter, and an Instagram page. So, they have the social media quadrant. They also have done work with the Dallas-For Wroth area. Especially after Hurricane Harvey. They held a telethon and rising money for the city of Houston, TX. The Dallas Cowboys organization is the richest sports organization in the world. They also have a great community surrounding them, the Dallas metropolitan area is filled with people of different ethnic backgrounds and economic
Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys 5 backgrounds but they all come together eight Sunday and every thanksgiving and cheer on the team in the city in which they live in. There are other media outlets for the Dallas Cowboys. Suggested social networks Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are the three big social media users of the Dallas Cowboys organization. They do have snapchat and a YouTube channel but those are hardly used. With the way social media is evolving these days, they are to connect with their fans and hold contests so that fans have a chance to win tickets for a game in the near future or meet their favorite player or the team as a whole. They also have all the newspapers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area so that can put a spin on a story that may or may not be good for them. Upon looking at the SEO graph they have a lot of connections, not only social media connections but with other teams in the NFL and other news outlets in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area.
Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys 6 (Pictured above SEO graph)
Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys 7 Indication of social media sites The Dallas Cowboys organization has many social media outlets, they have a Twitter page and Instagram page. They both have the same username, @DallasCowboys. They have a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. To my surprise they also have a Pinterest page too. There username is just simply titles Dallas Cowboys. They have a Google+ and LinkedIn accounts as well. Analysis of social media sites Upon looking at their social media pages, they primarily use their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. They use these sites to post pictures of the players before the game, during the game and after the game. It is just a recap of what happened before, during and after the game. Showing the public, in case the missed the game or just want to know what happened and why it happened. Their Facebook and Twitter pages they contain links to a podcast that is affiliated with the Dallas Cowboys organization, which is usually posted the day after the Dallas Cowboys played. Breaking down the game that was previously played, also looking forward to the week ahead and potential draft picks for the upcoming NFL draft being held in April of 2018. The upcoming draft is being held at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Arlington, TX. Arlington is a suburb of Dallas, TX. I looked through all their posts starting from October 1 st to October 31 st. There Instagram page has 2.4 million followers, Twitter has 3.49 million followers, Facebook has 8.7 million likes. There You tube channel has 18,927 subscribers and there Pinterest has 27,001 followers. This is all up to date as of Tuesday October, 31. They post 2-4 times an hour every day of the week. But they post more content on Sunday or Monday. When you look at other social media sites such as Google+ and LinkedIn they have no content posted lately.
Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys 8 Throughout my search of the Dallas Cowboys many social media outlets, the audience that they identify with or at least try to connect with are there fan base. Primarily in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area. They also know that they have fans in other parts of the country and in some parts of the world. In their Twitter page, they retweet anything news articles or any information that pertain to any member associated with the Dallas Cowboys organization. As mentioned before the Dallas Cowboys update their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages every day. On their Facebook and Twitter pages, they update them round the clock, 24/7, 365 days a year. The reason why they update those profiles every hour on the hour is to keep the fans and sports world as a whole informed. For example, with the news of star running back Ezekiel Elliott being suspended and then being given administrative stay, the cowboys kept the reports informed of the ongoing legal proceedings with posts on their Facebook and Twitter pages. They also do a lot of pregame and postgame analysis before and after every game. They will do a breakdown of the game at least twenty-four hours after the game. They will also do an analysis breakdown of who they play next so that their audience has an idea or a conception of an idea of what to expect for the next game. There Instagram page is a place where they can post pictures of the teams and pictures from the game they played or throughout the game. Posting pictures that capture the mentality of the team or anything that would generate more likes. They just released a video of highlights honoring their former quarterback Tony Romo on November 17, 2017. This was also Romo s first appearance at AT&T Stadium since he retired last season. Showing the honor for Tony and put the video on their Facebook and twitter page. When analyzing all of the content of their social media pages, the type of content and the content being shared is varied from source to source. As in if the Cowboys have information on a
Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys 9 player s injury or if they have been released for legal reasons. They will tell the media in the Dallas area thus spreading to the likes of ESPN. Sometimes it is the same story going through the news cycles. Sometimes stories will take about an hour for reporters to generate a report for their readers to read. Sometimes reporters will sit on the story for a day or two and then write their editorial piece for their readers. The content posted will revolve around prea dn post game coverage. Along with talking about who the Cowboys should take in the upcoming NFL draft in April. The tone of the content and the tone of content being shared as mentioned before varied from source to source. The Dallas Cowboys post stories and put a positive tone. They use that tone not only because they work for the organization but also to put a positive tone in their story. So that the reader will not be turned off by what they are reading. There are also people who do not like the organization and when they receive information about the organization or one of the players. From their perspective, they will try to put a negative spin on the story and have the reader see this from a certain point of view. The reaction from all the posts either on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is split down the middle. Now it really depends of the message of the press release or a letter they release to the media. Because people react to the news differently, it could be taken in a positive note or a negative note. You have to think if what we done as an organization will benefit us or will it hurt as. But most importantly how are our fans going to react to this news. One last thing I would like to point out is that for the articles that they post, they have different writers, usually writers that are from or have ties to the Dallas-Fort Worth Area, because there is so much content that they have to do the research and to post the article to their social media outlets. There are some positive and negative to Public Relation campaigns with social media sites. With the Cowboys Instagram account, they really do not use it to release breaking news
Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys 10 and they only use it to post pictures from the game. That is why their fan base and big named sports writers will lean more towards their Twitter and Facebook accounts. For the fact is that as a society we use the internet more than printed news. It is more convenient for us to hoop on our phones and discovering the news. Facebook and Twitter accounts for the Dallas Cowboys has been away for them communicate with their fan base, managing crisis that go on within the organization. With all the legal proceedings going on with their young running back Ezekiel Elliott, they have been doing the best they can. By using social media sites, they have been giving updates about Elliott through their Social media accounts updating their fan base with the legal proceedings. After analyzing the content on all the social media accounts affiliated the Dallas Cowboys organization, the tone from all three of their big social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) is mainly in a positive tone. There were a few posts that were a big harsh but they were talking about the kneeling for the national anthem and owner Jerry Jones comments on the issue. Critique of social media sites When they post on their twitter and Facebook accounts, they post the big headliners that they know will generate more likes and more viewers and then they will post stories that seem like nonstories that should not be posted. When it comes to engaging with their fan base, they really do not interact with them. If they do join in a conversation with their fans, it will be through a like or retweet, from what I saw in their twitter fee, they do not get into a conversation with fans. If they do, it will more likely be a thank you or some good sign of gesture. After further analyze of all the social media accounts that are affiliated with the Dallas Cowboys organization, the manage and use all their social media platforms as any multi-billion-
Social Media Campaign of the Dallas Cowboys 11 dollar organization would, run it to the best and manage it well with the best people at your disposal. Their Facebook and Twitter accounts are being used correctly and efficiently since they both have over a million followers for both accounts. I would say that could put more time and effort into their Instagram account. I would have pictures from before, during and after their games. But if we had a story we could run with, there should be a link with picture so that the reader can view the story and re posting for other people to read. Their Pinterest accounts seems to not get enough attention from the public. I would use the same idea that I mentioned above for the Instagram account. For the Cowboys, if they were to change something with their social media campaigns would be making the content more accessible to the public and providing more information on the team if something were to happen them, as in injuries, trades or legal troubles. There twitter account needs to interact more with the people, have a contest to someone with the best tweet of the game. Something along those lines. Conclusion No matter how bad and no matter how good the Dallas Cowboys record may be year in and year out. The community will show up and show out. Upon further review, the Dallas Cowboys have run their social media sites to a full extent of their man power. They utilize, the big three social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram very effectively. Running the same campaign on all their sites due to the fact that many people do not have all the same social media sites. The Dallas Cowboys may have the most profitable sport franchise in the world but they also run some great social media campaigns in the past month.
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