BaseNorth Marketing Goes to Ewood Park and how to make the most of your CSR opportunities using social media!
In September, I blogged about becoming the official away kit sponsor for Wilpshire Wanderers Girls' U9s. Since then the team have been going from strength to strength and it’s been brilliant to get some good exposure for BaseNorth Marketing from the sponsorship.
A big highlight for the business recently was seeing the girls in their sponsored shirts at Ewood Park, when they were given the opportunity to be mascots for local Championship side Blackburn Rovers. The game against Derby on Saturday 7 December, watched by a crowd of 12,000, offered brilliant exposure for my company brand but for me what stood out was the opportunity to showcase BaseNorth Marketing on the social platforms we are on.
I’m often advising a lot of my clients on how best to utilise and promote the work they do with their local community, and how they can leverage the impact of their involvement using social media, so it’s nice to be able to action some of the strategies myself and actually take my own advice!
I thought this topic would make a great blog to share a bit of marketing best practice so have come up with the following 5 tips.
1. Plan out your posts and write them in advance, so all you need to do is upload the photo and post. If you’re posting to multiple platforms don’t forget to tweak the messages so they suit your audience e.g. a Facebook post should be different to what you’re sharing on LinkedIn. It might also be worth doing some build up posts if appropriate.
2. Get some good quality photos, and before any specific event think about the types of images you want and who’s going to take them. If a professional photographer is being used how quickly will you get access to them?
3. Make sure you tag in any contributors e.g. those who are running the event and encourage them to share your posts too e.g. I've tagged Blackburn Rovers Community Trust, Wilpshire Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers.
4. Don’t forget any relevant #’s that can help to enhance your posts! These should be specific to your target market and those who support the team, charity or cause you're sponsoring e.g. #thesegirlscan is a popular # used by those who want to promote and encourage females to take part in sports and physical activities.
5. Re-purpose the photos at a later date to get maximum use out of them e.g. celebrate anniversary dates marking the start of the sponsorship or use the #ThrowBackThursday along with a photo or post, and post on a Thursday!
I took a great photo of some of the girls watching the match from the pitch-side, you can the logo of a fellow Blackburn-based business, Prestige Beds, on their jackets, the sponsorship has, and is, providing fantastic publicity for them too!
I've talked at length about the benefits to businesses, which are huge, but we need to remember the main people to benefit from a sponsorship is the charity, team or cause you're supporting. Being able to give something back, gives me personally, a huge sense of pride!
If you have any questions or want to know more about how Base North Marketing can help your organisation with your marketing needs your please get in touch.