#FlyEaglesFly on the Road to Victory!
The Philadelphia Eagles are an organization in the National Football League. The team was formed in 1933, and has a rich history of winning on the field with NFL championships in 1948, 1949, 1960, a Super Bowl Championship in 2017, and being a pillar of the community. The Eagle’s focus extends beyond football as they demonstrate the importance of taking care of the environment with renewable energy initiatives, and also help many with their Eagles Autism Foundation. The Philadelphia Eagles joined Twitter in August of 2010. It is a great way to connect with fans, share announcements, and enhance the reach and reputation of their brand. This is a Twitter guide for the Philadelphia Eagles organization to follow as they use the social media platform. Eagle fans are blue-collar, tough, intelligent, and passionate. This is the voice that needs to be used while tweeting. While the tone may change depending on the post (posts after a win vs. after a loss), the voice needs to be the same throughout all social media platforms. Everything starts with the Twitter profile. The profile must be optimized by completing the name, bio, location, and link to the Philadelphiaeagles.com website. The birth date can include the year that the team was created. The Twitter header photo size should be at least 1500 x 500 pixels with the profile picture size being at least 400 x 400 pixels (Photofeeler, 2021). Because the Eagles are an entity or brand that represents many, the team logo will be used for the profile picture.
Tweets from the Philadelphia Eagles are primarily geared towards their fans. Fans will reply back to tweets and great effort should be made from the social media department to reply to fans each day. It is okay to banter in a playful manner with fans, but important not to be offended. As mentioned before, Eagle fans are passionate. There will be times they post in anger or frustration with the performance of the team, players, coaches, front office, etc. Don’t get into an argument or take it personally. This is the only way a normal fan can communicate in any way with the team. Sometimes heated comments can be used as great content later after cooler heads prevail. Other teams in Philadelphia have used this strategy. Phillies baseball stated in their bio they are the team that #SignedJT, after fans had called for it all season. Flyers hockey tweets to their fans about their tendency of reminding players to “shoot the puck.” This creativity should be used more with the Eagles Twitter page. If a fan has a bad experience at an Eagles shop, in the stadium, or an Eagles sponsored activity, reply back with a DM to let them know that their input was forwarded to the correct department, and be sure to do that. Social media monitoring and listening is a way for Eagles Twitter to get the pulse of the fans and let them know their loyalty and passion is appreciated. The tweets may also be informational for fans of the National Football League, opposing teams, or others interested in the organization. It can be fun for fans if Eagles Twitter taunts other team mascots or accounts in a playful manner, but do so respectfully. The Eagles have a variety of business and community partnerships to interact with or mention. These patrons would also be interested in stories about the Philadelphia Eagles. Eagles can help promote other Twitter accounts from within the organization. Like, retweet, comment, and mention the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader accounts if they are performing or doing acts of community service. Give mentions to other Eagle accounts when possible to reach their audiences. Mentions can include the Eagle Pro Shop, Swoop the Eagle, Lincoln Financial Field, etc.
Although @Eagles is a professional football team Twitter account, a variety of topics can be discussed. The primary posts are related to information surrounding the team. Success of the team, injury reports, statistics, acquired players, and highlights will be used frequently during the football season. All posts should include featured photographs of players, gifs, animations, kinetic typography, videos of the mascot Swoop interacting with fans, player highlights, infographics, or other forms of digital media. Eagle fans are not shy about tweeting their reactions to games and team news. When appropriate, feature this fan-created content with quotes and retweets.
The character amount included in a tweet should be between 71 and 100 characters (Blitch, 2021). Digital media sizes should be 1200 x 675 pixels or an aspect ratio of 16:9 (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2021). Summary, app, and player cards can be used to include extra information without losing the interest of the audience before they finish reading. The cards can also be useful when posting video interviews, podcast episodes, and other media. Use of images with app cards should be at least 800 x 320 pixels (Blitch, 2021). Player card videos use H.264 formatting, 30 fps, and can be up to 640 x 480 pixels (Blitch, 2021). Audio is AAC with a low complexity profile. Polls are a great way to include fans and interact. Have fans vote if their cheesesteak has provolone or whiz. If Eagles are playing Chicago, ask if a hotdog is a sandwich. What is the favorite historical bad-weather game? Fans comment below the polls, and you can reply to keep them interested. After the results of the poll, a graphic showing the final results is good to revisit and bring the audience back. Hashtags will also help increase exposure and reach of tweets. During the year, Eagles incorporate a Twitter Emoji campaign. When fans use #FlyEaglesFly, it is accompanied with an Eagles emoji. Other hashtags include #Eagles or #GoBirds. Each tweet should include one or two hashtags. Both hashtags can be used related to the Eagles, or one can be related to Eagles with the other related to a special event. During the holiday season an example could be #FlyEaglesFly and #HappyHolidays. Eagles tweets during the NFL Draft might include #Eagles and #NFLDraft.
There is no off-season for Philadelphia Eagle fans. After the Super Bowl is played, teams are getting ready for the NFL Combine, signing free-agents, and participating in the NFL Draft. The team moves on to Organized Training Activities, training camp, then are back to the pre-season schedule. There are plenty of opportunities to inform and engage Twitter followers all year. The best times to tweet are from 6–9:00 am and from 8–10:00 pm (Blitch, 2021). Philadelphia is located in the Eastern time zone, but has a fan base that extends across the country. It is important to be cognizant of the content being posted along with the time. If posts pertain to local promotions, @Eagles can post earlier in the time slots. If posted content is for general awareness, it can be posted in the middle or later during time slots. Ideally, @Eagles should post three to six times a day. One to two posts could be done in the popular morning and evening times, then one post spaced-out at mid-day or more used as needed for breaking news.
Twitter can post from anywhere, but posts should include news and highlights wherever the Eagles are. Tweet updates from away games, and sponsored events around the city. Posting promotions for giveaways, and using Tweet-ups to get fans in the community surrounding fun events are ways to bring Twitter interactions to life. During the pandemic, when people were locked down at home, the Eagles incorporated a “virtual” Tweet-up promotion. Famous Eagles radio announcer Merrill Reese had fans reply to a tweet with videos of them doing things around the house. Merrill then chose some of the videos and gave play-by-play of the activities and reposted the video with play-call audio. He also used that time to tell Eagle fans to stay safe and to let them know he was thinking about them and missed them. This was a great way to incorporate Eagle social media, user-created content from fans, and build community and unity with a welcome distraction during tough times.
Philadelphia Eagles have tweeted 55,636 tweets. During the last six months, even with the team not playing well, Eagles Twitter followers have steadily increased from 3,473,243 to 3,496,377 followers (Socialbakers, 2021). In addition to posting, it is essential to check out the competition. Other NFL team Twitter accounts can be useful to compare @Eagles content too. Are other teams doing more innovation and creativity with their content? Outside of the NFL, it is important to see what other teams in Philadelphia are doing. While it’s true that all teams in Philadelphia support each other, they are all still competing for fan’s eyes and ears regarding attention to their brands. It is important to stand out above the rest and set the Eagles as the elite franchise in the city. Using these tools and guidelines helps Eagles Twitter to be the premiere interactive experience that the passionate and loyal fan base deserves.
References
Blitch, K. (2021). Social Media Best Practices [Lecture presentation].
Ertz, Z. [@ZERTZ_86]. Twitter. Retrieved February 18, 2021 from http://www.twitter.com/zertz_86
Influencer Marketing Hub. (February 5, 2021). The Ultimate Twitter Image Size Guide for 2021 (Updated). Retrieved February 17, 2021, from https://influencermarketinghub.com/twitter-image-size/
Philadelphia Eagles [@Eagles]. Twitter. Retrieved February 18, 2021 from http://www.twitter.com/eagles
Philadelphia Flyers [@NHLFlyers]. Twitter. Retrieved February 18, 2021 from http://www.twitter.com/nhlflyers
Philadelphia Phillies [@Phillies]. Twitter. Retrieved February 18, 2021 from http://www.twitter.com/phillies
Photofeeler. (2021). 2021 Complete Guide: Twitter Photo Sizes (Profile, Header, Etc.) Retrieved February 17, 2021 from https://blog.photofeeler.com/twitter-profile-picture-size/
Socialbakers. (2021). Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) Twitter Statistics. Retrieved February 17, 2021 from socialbakers.com: https://www.socialbakers.com/statistics/twitter/profiles/detail/180503626-eagles
