Authors Note

I have been passionate about sports ever since I was little. One of my favorite memories is when my dad would take me out of school early to go to opening day for the New York Mets. Moments like this, followed by my involvement in playing sports competitively, contributed to my passion for working in the sports industry.

Throughout my college career, I have gained experience working in the sports industry. I started with an internship in public relations for Miranda and Company Communications with big clients like Athletes Unlimited and the USTA. From there, I worked at another sports company, WWE, where I served as a communications intern. These two internships gave me experience in working in live events, public relations, and social media marketing. One of my favorite memories at WWE was spending a day in New York City attending and managing live press tours with WWE talent and then ending the day watching Monday Night Raw at Madison Square Garden - backstage. 

My passion for sports is what motivated me to complete my senior thesis on fan engagement tactics. Especially from my most recent internship with Sports Innovation Lab doing content marketing, I have really gotten to take a closer look at how social media can have a large impact on fan engagement. It is a constant battle to find ways to engage your audience the best, and I think by looking at call-to-action content at the NFL, I will be able to make explicit connections between what fans respond to, and what they don’t. This will be a great piece of work to show when looking for jobs in the sports industry, and it will provide me with more experience sorting through social media data. 

After completing my last internship as a content marketing intern with Sports Innovation Lab, I became very interested in how social media content can impact engagement metrics. It’s hard to clearly define an audience on social media because there is so much reach. With my research, I was able to make connections between what social media content and copywriting techniques work well together to increase fan engagement and what does not work. The NFL was a great organization to use because of its reach and popularity. I am excited to share my research and grateful for the opportunity to improve my skills in sorting through and analyzing social media engagement data.