Episode 190 Snippets: Eric SanInocencio of the ACC

BEST OF THE DIGITAL AND
SOCIAL MEDIA SPORTS PODCAST
EPISODE 190: ERIC SANINOCENCIO
On episode 190 of the Digital and Social Media Sports
Podcast, Neil chatted with Eric SanInocencio, Associate
Commissioner, Strategic Digital Media for the ACC (Atlantic
Coast Conference).
What follows is a collection of snippets from the podcast. To
hear the full interview and more, check out the podcast on all
podcast platforms and at www.dsmsports.net
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net

Eric’s Career Path
Eric attended and played baseball at the division 2 level University of Montevallo
“When I graduated in 2003 there was no iPhone. YouTube hadn't been invented yet. So I came
out with your traditional communications background. I wanted to be a sports journalist…
“As I started in sports info, social media started to really come to the fruition. I've always had a
really simple goal in life — it's to find something I enjoy and then find a way for people to pay
me to do it and that's really the path I took.
“I was afraid when I was at the Gulf South Conference, which is the division two conference that
I played in, I was working there and I was afraid that my bosses would come in and see that I
was on Twitter and Facebook during the day and I get the trouble was like ‘Man I got to find a
way to make this a part of my job.’

“So I started dabbling around with creating an account for the league
and creating pages back then for Facebook and creating Pages for
the schools and working with the schools cuz when you're at the
division two level you know there's wonderful stories out there, but
you don't have this big bull horn of people that are immediately
connected to your University.
“So for example Malcolm Butler, who made probably one of the
greatest interceptions in Super Bowl history went to West
Alabama...Same with Tyreek Hill...also West Alabama former player.
Great stories out there but you've got to do a little bit more legwork on
connecting people with it.

“So what we found was using social media as a way to get people involved with their alma
maters was a really fun way to tell stories about student-athletes.
After a year, Eric was brought in by the SEC to do what he did for the GSC for the SEC
“They saw I was doing this and they asked me, ‘Hey Eric can you do this for us?’ And so
at that point my title changed from Assistant Sports information Director to SEC Digital
Media Manager and my career completely changed along with it.
“(I) spent four years wonderful years of the SEC creating a lot of the platforms that I
compete with today ironically now that I’m at the ACC. But it was a wonderful opportunity
to just learn because at that point there was no real infrastructure for social or digital — it
was just me updating the website, writing content, doing what today would be considered
a podcast but was really a live radio show then.

“And just figuring out how all these different platforms connect with our student-
athletes and fans, and celebrate those wonderful moments. Because sports is so
unique. It's one of the few disciplines where we can all connect together usually
across multiple spectrums — it doesn't matter whether you're a Democrat or
Republican you can all root for the same teams and we're experiencing it in the same
moment. Which I think is what makes it special. Live sports particularly is just a great
way for all of us to share these moments with the people we care about.
Eric went from the SEC for four years to a six-year tenure with the Houston Texans:
“I spent six years with the Texan...really understanding a different perspective of what
social and digital could be at the professional level as revenue started to get involved
and building out departments. It was a wonderful experience for me just to get a
completely different perspective of how digital could be viewed within an organization.

“(I) spent six years there and the college bug was calling me back and there's a
special position that the ACC was creating; it's really one of its kind in the college
space. They asked me to start something from scratch here at the league. And it was
just such a fun chance to do this — usually don't get to have a clean slate at the
places you go. You’re usually replacing somebody or trying to make changes to an
existing structure, but here we really had a blank opportunity.
“So I took the job with the ACC and it’s almost been two years now... If you look at all
the different stops along the way it just goes to show you: that you never know when
doors are going to open and you can't be afraid to try new things. That's really how
my complete career has been; just going like I said from a division 2 athlete at a
university that most people that are listening to this podcast have never heard, to go
on to work with some of the biggest brands in sports... So I’ve been very fortunate.”

The objectives for his role at the GSC and how it evolved when he moved to the
SEC
“At the Gulf South the goal was really simple, it was really just visibility. We
wanted additional visibility for our product, for our league, and for what our
schools were doing. So with that tact in mind, it was a simple volume play. How
can we get more eyeballs to understand what our conference represents and the
wonderful stories that our student athletes have…
“(At the SEC, Commissioner Mike Slive) knew that this was an interesting
opportunity, but he really had no desire to be a part of it. So I think that was
unique for me, too, in that he just handed me the keys and said ’Create what you
think makes sense here.’ And that doesn't happen often; usually there's more
structure in place and it's not a detriment to him, it was just so new.

“So...when I got to the SEC I had this immense canvas to play with and really no
defined goals so I got to do that myself. And I look back to what I did then — to me it
was learning how to understand brand identity and then also connections with the
schools. Because when you’re at a league it’s different. We can be front-runners.
When you're at the SEC in the fall you can root for Alabama if they're doing well in
football, but then you also have men's basketball going on, gymnastics going on...So
it’s how do you keep the connectivity throughout the entire league?
“And at the SEC when I was there, brand identity was important because it allowed
the fans to feel that these channels were supportive of what they're doing. And what I
mean by that is that (in) the SEC their footprint is very proud and it's proud of not only
the teams within the league, it’s proud of the league itself. You think back you know
when they have these big Championship moments the crowd doesn't normally chant
‘Alabama’ or ‘Mississippi State’, they chant ‘SEC.’ It’s a pride in affiliation.

“So I tried to tap into that from a social perspective. I never forget one of the
proudest moments — I'll take credit for this even though I'm not a hundred
percent sure I’m a reason happened but I still feel like we pushed the
envelope — when Missouri and Texas A&M were joining the league Missouri
that year made it to the championship of the Big 12 men's basketball
tournament. So they're playing in that game and...they got up 10 or 15 points
so it was pretty obvious in the second half that they were going to win that
game. So I remember tweeting out from the SEC account and my
account…’Hey Missouri fans this is when you would start the SEC chant.’
And sure enough like 3 or 4 minutes later an ‘SEC’ chant started at that
arena during the game. And it was funny because they were in the league
yet but it was a moment for them to kind of flex their chest and celebrate
because they were proud that they were joining the conference...

“That's a great example of the brand identity of the league and that
passionate connection to the whole that we wanted to tap into from a
social media perspective. So I spent a lot of time thinking about that and
how do we amplify that across sports.
“Another great example is when Alabama won the National
Championship in softball they beat Oklahoma. There was a rainstorm
and the game went on until deep into the night. It was midnight or one (in
the morning) and we started doing that chant online and where people
were watching the game. It became this fun moment where everybody
from the league was cheering on Alabama against Oklahoma; even if you
are an LSU fan, even if you were a Florida fan ,maybe not an Auburn fan,
but Georgia, Ole Miss, — they all came together.

“I think I spent a lot of time getting a good feel for what brand Identity
meant and it was helpful for me when I went to the Texans and the ACC
because each brand is different. Each tone of voice that you're going to
use from a social perspective is different. But knowing why that's
important and because I had that blank slate at the ace at the SEC, I
think it was hugely instrumental in me from my growth to then be able to
take that to other organizations and be able to put a plan together to
articulate to your senior staff as it became more organized — what are
we trying to do here and why is that important? So I think those four
years at the SEC really laid a foundation for me to have a better
understanding of what social could mean not just to channels and
platforms, but to the larger organization and the goals within.”

On taking on the responsibility of building a brand via social media
“So I think we’ve got to remember as social media people that it's okay to be
fans. “I think that's what we all started as, right? We love sports, I played
sports. If I wasn't working in social media, I would still watch SportsCenter at
the end of the night because I care about sports and they are important to me
and I love the feelings that they make me have. So I've always tried to keep
that in the back of my mind.
“And I think it was helpful being a Division II player because in baseball if I
had a four home run weekend it wasn't being covered on SportsCenter. In the
back of my mind I was like ‘Man I wish I got this coverage.’ So that kind of
perspective I've brought with me to the jobs that I have. It’s infectious, you can
tell when people like it.

“Like before we started this podcast, me and you were having a discussion and you
were saying ‘you’re going to see how excited I am about this because we care’ and I
said ‘me too.’ So it's easy to see when people have excitement and that becomes
something that's easy to latch onto. Sp as I was working with the folks at the SEC in
the Sports Information Department...they could see that my ideas, even though they
might not have always agreed with them and often didn’t, came from a good place.
“I'll give you another example — Greg Sankey at that time was the Head of
Compliance; he’s obviously now the commissioner — I would have to go to him with
ideas to make sure that they were compliant for what we wanted to do. And I used to
always joke I had to go up there to get a machine gun for my ideas because he would
shoot them all down. But he knew. He wouldn't say ‘this is a bad idea,’ he was like
‘hey Eric is a great idea but it can't work within our current structure.’

“So as long as it comes from a good place it’s important because then
you get the leeway to push in certain ways that may not be the
traditional form of communication. So again, defining what is
important to you, defining what your goals are as a department first,
and then how that relates to the larger organization is extremely
valuable because then when you do want to push or add more like
you said tone of voice or change your philosophy on the fly you can at
least have something there — a document that your bosses can refer
to that if they have a question: ‘Hey we talked about this before. This
is how we feel makes the most sense, so this fits within the guidelines
because…’ But they're already familiar with it; it's not something
they're hearing for the first time.

“I think when I was at the SEC it wasn't as documented, but it was
documented within our conversations. But then as I learned I was like man as I
started dealing with more people with there's a President or you know a Chief
Revenue Officer, I was like ‘I need to not only vocalize this cuz that's
important, but I need to have this down in a format where they can refer to and
also talk about that before we ever start so that we can have an understanding
of this is what we're going to try to approach.’ It doesn’t mean your plans are
always perfect and you can't deviate, but at least you've had the discussion
before that there is some kind of strategy to what we're doing here. So I think
the transition for me from the SEC to the Texans was taking that from a
conversation that we have amongst colleagues to a formalized document that I
can present to the large organization, so that they knew at any point what we
were trying to achieve on each platform that we were engaging with.”

On what it was like building a strategy with the Texans
“I remember my first couple weeks there it was almost daunting and overwhelming in a
way because you think that since you're only dealing with one team the workflow might
be less but the NFL has done a fantastic job of making itself a year-long event,
whether it's combine, whether it’s the draft, whether it’s OTAs and just learning this
different language that I never really heard before. I'd watched the combine, obviously,
but I didn't know what OTAs were, I didn't know that there was a rookie minicamp. And
the cadence of the schedule was just so much different. For me, I essentially went
from being a one-man (show)... to being part of a larger department where now I have
a Vice President of Broadcasting that's my boss, and we’ve got three other content
creators, we’ve got writers, we've got on-air — were doing radio in-house there at the
Texans — and we're doing television shows each week that were airing on our linear
programs on the local ABC in Houston.

“So you just had to go from like ‘I'm in the weeds with social everyday’ to taking a step
back and looking at how does this content all fit within a 30,000-foot view? Then on top
of that you start to learn what the priorities are in professional sports and number one is
driving revenue, right? So I go from a mindset now where I'm just trying to create cool
content because I think it resonates with fans to figuring out how can that cool content
also drive revenue and work with our partners to build out what this department needs to
be and get more resources.
“So if you think about it it's a complete mindset change and I think it was one of the best
things I ever went through. It was really hard and it challenged me for that first-year…like
I never put together a presentation deck for a sponsor before. Usually sponsors were
add-ons at the SEC level or they were the official partner this Championship so we gave
them coverage it was tied in. But now I was tasked with creating either things from
scratch or taking existing content series that we have and building them out specifically
for partner integration. I had never done that.

“I remember the first first presentation I did, I did on Microsoft Word. Like I didn't even
know that you needed to put it together an entire deck in PowerPoint and how it could fit
and how you're having these discussions. So I can only imagine what they thought of me
that first year — like ‘Ah this kid is maybe a little bit behind the eight-ball’ but again it’s
2018, it wasn't exactly a time period where there were a lot of folks that were taken that
way. I was just forced to transition faster, so I think it was helpful.
“Then as I got my feet wet and started to figure out that there's a larger picture here it
was great because it allowed me to better understand: how do I communicate the value
of what we're doing on social to different stakeholders within the organization? This is
something we really struggle with even today as social media professionals that we talk
in a lot of jargon that we all understand, whether it's engagements, engagement rate,
ROI. We talk about it; it's specific to our platforms, but your Chief Revenue officer may
not know what any of those metrics mean.

“So what I was forced to do at the Texans or say okay listen — the President back then
was Jamey Rootes; he just stepped down last week among the changes that are
happening there with the Texans. But I would go to Jamie and understand that his
background was sales and being able to generate revenue. So instead of me saying ‘hey
we were number one in the NFL in engagement across platforms,’ I would say ‘listen you
set a goal of us creating 3 million dollars worth of revenue; we did 3.2.’ That sticks with
him because he looks at it from a dollar and cents perspective.
“Same thing when I was talking to Greg Grissom who is now the interim President of the
Texans. He was the head of the partnerships team and the sales department and it got
to the point where we had a good cadence of being able to say ‘this is a potential
partner; what can we do for them in the digital space?’ Because what used to happen
when I first got there is that whatever we did from a digital campaign perspective was just
built into the contract and then handed to us to execute. There was no communication
back and forth.

“But we learned what I communicated to him: ‘Listen. In order for these
to be good executions you got to let us be in the room so we can help
shape the idea.’ Because if it doesn't go well for the partner us it's not
good for either, right? so it got to the point towards the second or third
year there with the Texans where I would accompany our sales team on
pitches…
“I’ll never forget we went to H-E-B and they were at the time they were
the sponsors of the tailgating zones so the actual physical tailgating lots
within the stadium that we had their gameday activation. But they
wanted to be in the digital space...so I went there with (Greg Grissom),
with a few others from the sales team and meeting with H-E-B's
leadership [and] pitched the idea.

“Back then they were these Tasty videos you may remember that were like 30 seconds
you would throw all these ingredients in and it would turn into some kind of meal. We
remixed that with H-E-B products tied into things that they were in. So we called it the
Tailgating Recipes. So we’d do a tailgating recipe every week and tie it into the team that
we were playing. If we were playing the Packers we might do something that’s cheese-
related...I got to present the whole thing and lay it all out. H-E-B signs the deal and now
we have a digital activation that I was able to present and I think would work well for us.
“So that was kind of the elevation of how we work together back then. We started just
‘we need to create digital revenue let's just throw digital into everything else to creating
these customized experiences and packages for our partners and sponsors and then
communicating with them throughout the duration of the partnership to let them know
how it was was doing. Analytical reporting...how is this working? Paid social to boost
things to certain markets that they wanted.

“So then I had like a bachelor's degree when I left the SEC. By the time I was
two or three years in with the Texan I felt like I had a master's degree and
even an MBA in some ways because I was so business-focused...You’re
building on these foundations — it starts with the content strategy. Now how
does it transition to driving revenue? So by the time I left the Texans in 2019 I
felt like I had this foundation of understanding because me being a fan hasn't
gone away... some of the best moments I've had as a fan watching JJ Watt
pick sixes or the night that we drafted DeShaun. Those are moments or
Jadeveon Clowney you know the first time he made some big plays I was
always a huge fan of his. So Those moments were the same; I was still a fan,
(but) now it’s just understanding where does this fit within the larger
organization? And my dream no longer was to run the Twitter handle for the
Texans, it was to run the department. It was to run the organization and see
how this all fits in.

“So by time I left the Texans like I said I felt like I had grown so much and that never
would have happened had I not stepped out of my comfort zone and really dove in.
Again, I had zero understanding of what's CPMs, of how to sell digital, of
understanding how these packages fit in within a larger sponsorship. By the time I left
the Texans I felt like I had a really good grasp on it because I just dove in.
“That's one thing I would encourage everybody here — social can be really
overwhelming — the amount of platforms that we have, the things we have to
program for. But a lot of times it's not even needing to have a deep understanding of
everything that you're doing, but just being aware that it exists and then diving in to
figure out how it works. And I think it was really helpful for me and my career because
by the time I got to the ACC I had all of these different parts of me that were formed
and now I feel like I'm much more of a leader in this face as opposed to trying to figure
out where my footing is.”

“Digital is one of the few departments that will interact with every
other department in the organization because they're going to need
digital for something. Whether it's ticketing, experiential, resources,
even HR now the way that they use LinkedIn to recruit. All of these
are digital experiences. So you're going to have the benefit of getting
to know all the different people within the organization. So how do
you communicate that value so that you can know that marketing's
biggest goal is to get more sign-ups for a fan club, for example.
Whereas the sales department is trying to sell a sponsorship. Well,
can you sell a sponsorship that has to do with the fan club so that you
could tie them both together. You're going to be a thread here.

“So it's almost in some ways what do you retain and how do you piece
this puzzle together? And you're one of the few people in the organization
like I said that will get that kind of entire 360 scope. Most marketing
people won't have an idea what the ticket office needs or most sales folks
won't have any idea of what HR is doing and how that could impact the
organization. You are going to have the ability to have those discussions
either — you or somebody from your team.
“So how do you think about this wider and connect those pieces because
there may be a goal that marketing has, a goal that ticketing has, a goal
that has that you can combine together through some kind of digital
experience or multi-tier digital experience that can serve the needs for
everybody.”

Leading social media strategy and understanding the space and the opportunity
particularly at the Texans
“I think what I tried to do was continue to communicate that social is not its own
island and it connects to everything else we're doing in the content space. So when
Snapchat comes out you may look at that simply if you don't understand social as a
way that's just a communication tool between younger people to engage, But what I
would tell you if that's a way for us to provide additional branding at our games
because we can create Snapchat filters that our geo-targeted to our stadium so fans
can use it. Because they're going to want to take pictures of themselves and they’re
using Snapchat. Well, let’s make sure that we have a filter that’s ‘Home of the
Houston Texans’ or ‘We Are Texans’ or something like that. That serves a marketing
need, that serves a content need, and it serves a brand awareness need.

“When these platforms come out, I think the natural inclination is for us to think about
how it affects our workflow and what we're doing...It's not always perfect and I'm at
the guilty of being kind of like tunnel vision sometimes, too, is when is when Tik Tok
(emerges) — ‘Okay it's a wonderful video platform where you can create fun videos
and interact, but what more capabilities are there that tie into those larger goals I
mentioned?’ Because it'll be easier for you to get resources if you show that you're
providing value outside of what your day to day is.
“So when Snapchat popped up like I said I worked hard with the marketing teams and
the graphic teams, that don't report to digital, to create filters. And now everything
that we did from a community perspective, whether it was our Texans Care Volunteer
Day — each place where you could volunteer had their own Snapchat filter so that
people could share that they were volunteering at the Houston Texans Food Bank or
at the Texans Care Initiative.

“That serves a marketing purpose, that serves a community purpose.
And it serves a social (media) purpose. But it allows us to get more
staff in there so that we can work these events because now it just it's
not social and digital creating content on their own, it's part of the
larger picture…
“[The Texans] podcast is another example. I know people don't think
of that as a digital social medium. I was on a recent podcast a couple
of weeks ago and he asked me what's your favorite social platform
and I said ‘podcasts.’ He was kind of mind-blown. But when you think
about it, it’s a digital experience. It happens on your phone.

“But when podcasts launched I explained to our boss and it was easier for him
because he was a radio guy and he was the lead broadcaster. I said ‘podcasts are an
addition to what we're doing on the radio, they're not in replacement of it. But we can
also tell deeper stories without breaks that you can't tell on the radio. So how do we
tell the story of your when we just drafted DeShaun Watson and what that was like
from different perspectives? Not just as you see on TV but what was it like for me
downstairs missing that moment because I was trying to plug in cables for a Spanish-
language broadcast we were doing? It's a different medium. He understood it because
it built into — this could be a sponsorable asset that tells different stories that we can't
tell on these other platforms. So it allowed us to maybe build up some funding to go
get equipment, go get additional people to help us. When we did some influencer
marketing with King Keraun who is now the (EA Sports) Madden spokesperson...He
was a huge fan. He loved the players and he had a huge following that wasn't
necessarily Texans fans because he was in LA, he was a comedian.

“So again that serves a marketing purpose, a branding purpose, it gets us in with
the players because they want to do that kind of content. DeAndre Hopkins when
we did the Coach Around segments — he gave us two hours of his time to shoot
these kind of skits and he loved it because he thought Keraun was funny and he
thought it was a good opportunity for him. And you know it's not your traditional
‘Hey, DeAndre we need to do this press conference or we need you to do this
video.’ It was fun and interactive so the players love it. PR loves it. It's good
branding, it's good marketing and it's great content for us and we introduced
ourselves to a whole new segment of fans…
As you think about what resources you want for your teams in your departments,
the way that you can tie that in to other departments will make it easier for you to
justify what the expenditures could be.”

On allocating resources to manage the creative workload while staying true to
greater goals
“The NFL is a little bit easier because the calendar is built out for you. You got
these 16 games and every game is a lead-up event. You know on Monday
you’re going to recap the Sunday before, Tuesday in the NFL is always
community day...so you know your content will transition to community
coverage that day.
“Wednesday is really the kickoff of the week because you’ve got the press
conference with the coach, press conference with certain players...building up
all the way to Sunday when you have this huge massive content plan about
how you’re going to cover the game. So the NFL is so much of that — Fall is
already outlined for you.

“The challenge that I face here at the ACC is: because we have 27 sports and 15
different schools...we’ve got to figure out the best ways to spend our time because we
don't have enough [resources] — I only have two people, myself and another...who work
every day on ACC digital. So it’s not going to be possible for us to cover every single
event. So how do we justify and what the biggest moments are...we build out an Asana
calendar ahead of time that your graphics team is involved in…We’ve got a video team
that we work in conjunction with under the same umbrella that we know there are certain
tentpole events.
“So the difference between the NFL and college (sports) is the NFL — especially when
you’re working for a team — you have your own events every single week. When you
work for a league — when Duke and North Carolina play basketball, that’s an ACC-
sanctioned game but that’s Duke’s and North Carolina’s game, that’s not ours. So we
have to build up to these events — we call them tent poles — that we are in control of
and focus our coverage on.

“A good example of that would be the ACC men’s and women’s basketball
tournaments...We know those are coming so that’s what we’ll build up to. We’ll probably
use the schools more one day-to-day basis to help amplify their content...but where we
really try to shine is these events that we know we own, that we’re throwing, that we have
access to and that we want to tell a specific story.
“So again we build up to that. And then when those moments happen we take it over and
provide our spin and we build out the content plans...With the NFL it’s more day-to-day
and the event on Tuesday maybe isn’t as big as the game on Sunday, (whereas) here the
events that we focus on are all big for us because they’re our championships…
“We’re always looking at the league collective instead of the singular team...for us it’s
more about the league story told through a certain time period as opposed to the day-to-
day making sure we hit every single thing.”

On balancing coverage of sports and schools
“I think we’re extremely cognizant of it. Especially the sports themselves. I wish that we
had 27 people so that we could commit one person to each sport. Because I do think
(each sport) presents tremendous value and it’s great for the student athletes and their
fans and their families. So what we try to do is we know we can’t cover, say, swimming
and diving as much as we’d like to during the season, but this week — during our
tournament — they’re going to take center stage on the channels that we have…
“So that’s kind of how we think about it in those terms. But what you try to do is work in
conjunction with the schools so you know what’s going on on their campuses...We meet
every two weeks as a group — so the digital directors (from each school)...you bring
this group together and you talk about these league-wide strategies and then also get a
better understanding of what’s happening on their campus and build those
communication lines…

“So there may be a tremendous longform video piece Notre Dame is doing for
their track and field athletes. Well that’s something we need to know about so
we can amplify that from our track and field handles. But also how does that fit
into the larger strategy of when indoor track and field takes place next week
and what we need to be aware (of) as a league…
“I think the NFL does it a bit differently in that the shield stands primary and
the teams work secondary (in) their markets; the NFL is the big thing first.
Where here the schools take more the primary and we take a step back except
for when it’s our events and then we come forward. It’s a little bit of a different
approach...what I found here it’s just been easier to execute the second
(approach) because we’ve never really had the infrastructure to make the
league the center point…”

Balancing which fan audiences they’re serving across demographics especially with
colleges reliant on older fans for spending and donations
“What I focus and what I think will be the challenge for us as a digital group moving
forward is how do we make this interaction with whatever fan the same throughout the
entire experience? So you hear the word omni-channel a lot in marketing and I'm a
really big fan of it because I think it's important. Because we need to start to be able to
customize and drill down what type of content we deliver to each fan that we have but
it needs to be in a place where it's an owned platform that we know we can do that.
“So you got to marry the data and you got to marry the content and you got to marry
the strategy together to make that happen. So let me give you an example. Moving
forward we know that in the sports world digital ticketing is going to become primary,
just with everything that's happened with COVID-19...So if we know that a fan is more
than likely going to have a digital ticket with us, what does that experience look like?

“That’s one piece. The second is: how do they interact with us when they’re not
coming to the game? What do we know about them?...We start to piece every part of
these interactions, whether it’s on social, marketing, sales — all these different
funnels. Can we bring them together so we have one omni-channel experience for
(every fan) every time….
“Why is this important? Because our fans are going to start demanding it more as we
continue. If you think about it's already in place. My Netflix feed is different from yours.
Why? We watch different things, we have different interests. Why do sports treat
every fan the same? I think that’s the challenge we face going forward. So as you look
at it, to answer your question, not only do we need to program for all those different
individual groups but we need to know what their preferences are because we can
assume all 16 year-olds are the same, we can’t assume all 55 year-olds are the
same.

“So what can we build out from a data and digital infrastructure capability space to
make sure that we know from the moment a person logs on to interact with us
through the end of that journey we can pinpoint and send them the information that
matters to them when they want it. Again, really really hard. And it's going to take a
lot of time for us to marry those different departments as I mentioned. But that's
the way I'm thinking because if you look at everything around us, the
personalization — people always ask me ‘Hey Eric, what's the next big thing in
digital? What's the next big thing in social?’ My answer is always the same — it's
whatever makes us lazier. Because the convenience of what digital provides us
has now shifted from just the action itself to the actions specific to you. My wife
can order groceries online, drive to Walmart or H-E-B or Food Lion or any of these
places and they'll come immediately to her car and drop the groceries in the bag
and she never has to go in the store. That's a normalized action now. These things
are not going away.

“So as we think of sports and digital, especially as it pertains to fans
in our stadium and what engagement looks like for people that can’t
make it to the stadium. These are the ways that we have to tie in all
these capabilities...This is where I think the next step for us goes —
how do we personalize every single experience by understanding
the data that we have to make fans feel like we are engaged one-
on-one with them even though we’re speaking to millions of
people…”

“The idea when we first started was to spray and pray. We’re trying to reach as
many new people as possible. And that still has value — we do it at the ACC
because our channels don’t have as many followers as some of the other
accounts do. So we still play in that space. But as we really start to drill down
on what fans are starting to expect from us — to me, that’s where the
paradigm really shifts. It goes from being this unknown connection to a very
specific connection. And that creates value for your organization...If you’re a
Deshaun Watson and I know you like him, he’s your favorite Texans
player...and you open emails or interact with your app at 10am, if I have a sale
for Deshaun Watson jerseys, what time should I send you that message? It
should be at 10am...not just send it to 100,000 people at 5pm and hope that
you get a 10% click-through rate. I’m more likely to understand and connect
with you if I listen to you and listen to the data that you’re sharing.

“That’s hard. And there’s going to be some automation that comes
off the back of that, there’s going to be AI involved so that we can
specify when these messages go out. To me if you’re Neil the fan, I
appreciate that you’ve taken the extra steps to know exactly when
you feel like I can engage with you. But then also there’s the benefit
from the business side of being able to probably drive better
conversions because you’ve listened to the data that’s there and
provided action off the back of that.”

“We’ve got to think bigger than (running the social handles for brands
that we love). Your digital strategy from this point forward will never
be smaller...it will only grow. So with the knowledge that we have,
how can we start to transition into leaders that help shape
organizations and their strategies? Because we know eventually
they’re going to come to us for solutions. So again we get so bogged
down in the day-to-day — and I know it’s hard...— but I would
encourage all of you when you have the time to start to take a step
back and realize that all this knowledge you’re accumulating is going
to be of extreme value in the next 2-3 years. And are you ready as a
professional to transition to the ability to build this out as a strategy for
the entire organization?

“Because I do think they’re going to come to us at some point.
Digital people are not in senior staff positions a lot. There are
some...I do think in a couple of years, that transition, they’re going to
look to people to help lead that journey and I want that to be us
because we’ve been in this experience for the past 5-10 years. But
you can’t get there until you start to think about what that could
mean.
“There’s always the big phrase where ‘if you can’t see it, you can’t
be it.’ Well if you want to be the President of the Houston Texans
one day...you’ve got to start to think in those terms and how the
pieces fit together…”

The scouting report of Eric SanInocencio the baseball player (Eric
played D2 baseball in college)
“He had some pull power. Maybe thought more highly of himself
than was deserved. I was a utility player, so I would either play third
base, shortstop, centerfield, first base. I was a utility three-hole
hitter. I had a pretty good run at Monetvallo, pretty good fastball
hitter, struggled with the offspeed like most people, and was a little
pull-happy.”

“Don’t mistake movement for progress. And what I mean by that is
when you come to these social media platforms, they can explode
really quickly and all of a sudden we think that this is something
we’ve gotta do right now. What I would focus people on is (that) it’s
okay to be good at two or three things than be mediocre at ten. I
think we get so caught up sometimes in what these movements
could be, but really the progress of social media is understanding
the whole picture.”

The most popular/memorable piece of content from Eric’s time with the
Texans
“This is an easy one. So in the NFL it’s a really big deal when the
schedules get released. So in April, you’ll have all the teams unveil these
special, longform videos — we did a Backyard Football version, I believe
in 2017. We got our kids involved, they were the background voices for a
lot of the players and we had these great moments...It was really fun and it
got some great reviews. I know Bleacher Report shared it, ESPN shared
it. So that’s probably my favorite piece of content because it took three
months to do. And so many people, great people, whether it was our
graphics team...the video team...the social side — we all came together to
produce this two-minute video…”

What do ACC fans say about the SEC and vice-versa?
“I think the biggest difference between the two is that the SEC fans,
with some caveats, do root for the league as a whole. Where I think
the ACC there’s much more rivalry-based fandom. I don’t know if
Carolina fans will ever root for Duke to win the national championship
no matter who they’re playing. I think the rivalries are way more deep-
seated. That’s the way I would categorize it. The ACC was built more
on the rivalries that they have with each other, whereas the SEC has
those rivalries, don’t get me wrong...but I think for the most part fans
will still cheer for the league, where that’s not always the case in the
ACC.”

The non-ACC school with the best social media and why
“I’m going to go non-sports. I really enjoy Ellen (The Ellen
Show)...I’ve never watched The Ellen Show, but I follow her on
social media and the games that she plays, we’ve copied them.
Whether it’s ‘What’s in the Box?’ or different games like that...I think
from an entire social media perspective, what she does and her
brand strategy around who she is — it’s really done well on social
media…”

Where does Eric see collegiate esports in the near-term
“I think it’s a big tool. I don't know whether it’s going to lie in
athletics, I think it could be a school-based thing. But I do think as
people become more accustomed to this as a way that people can
make a living — that it’s going to filter down. I’ll be curious to see
where within the university it makes the most sense, I know some
have done it at the sports level, some have done it on the university
side. But once that’s fleshed out I do think there’s going to be an
opportunity to compete at that level…”

Eric’s favorite Texans player[s] to work with during his time there
Eric says his favorite player personally was Jadeveon Clowney because of the SEC roots and being the
#1 overall pick
Most fun to work with, Eric names a few:
Deshaun Watson → “Fantastic in terms of how gracious he was. His first game check ever he donated (to)
two cafeteria workers because they had lost a lot of their belongings in (Hurricane) Harvey.”
DeAndre Hopkins → “A lot of fun because he always was willing to try different things…”
JJ Watt → “What he meant to the city. People (would always ask me) ‘What he says in the media or how
he presents himself in the media, is that how he really is every day?’ And he really was. For all the things
that you know about that he did in the community, I can tell you 10 or 15 others in dealing with him
personally or reaching out through PR to work with him, that he did without anybody knowing...I've never
seen somebody in my personal career that took so much pride in what he meant to other people...I can’t
emphasize enough what he meant to the city of Houston and how much he took pride in that…”

The best BBQ in the south
In Texas → Killen’s BBQ in
Pearland and Eric recommends
the brisket
In North Carolina → Country
BBQ or Stamey’s BBQ in
Greensboro, and get some pulled
pork

Talk about the importance of educating the next generation of social
pros and what Eric is doing in the space
“It’s hugely vital. And I think for me, just my story and being a person
of color and not always seeing that same representation — social is
one of the few disciplines right now where you can compete for jobs
and your age can’t be used against you. So I always use banking as
an example. If you have five years of experience and somebody else
has 25 years and you go up for the same job, nine times out of ten
the person with 25 years of experience is going to get the job. But
that’s just a function of their age, it doesn’t mean they’re better than
you, in a lot of ways…

“(But) when it comes to social, it’s one of the few disciplines where you’ll likely
go into your job day one with a better understanding of the platforms than your
boss. So what I try to teach kids and the people in my classes and the people
that I try to reach with my newsletter...is that all this time that you’re spending
with your friends on these platforms is valuable experience and you need to
understand it that way. But what the next step for you is taking all that
experience in knowing how the platforms work and putting it to use at an
organization, whether it’s a nonprofit, whether it’s a campaign...Because that’s
what really separates you. Anyone can come in and say they know social
media and they have ideas. But do you have a resume that shows experience
and campaigns and analytics and dashboards that you can show me that not
only gives me an understanding of what you have, but also presents it in a way
that I know I can cut this person loose and they understand how (social) fits as
a larger strategy.”

“So as you’re looking at social media as a potential career, know
it’s really hard. Know it may take more steps than you want to get to
the place you want to be...But if you have the patience and you can
communicate that plan and keep working on it, eventually you will
get a shot and then, once the doors open, you can kick it down and
do whatever you want. But be patient, learn, but also understand
that what you’re doing right now is valuable and is experience, you
just gotta transition it to how it works for business.”

Eric’s Social Media All-Star to Follow
Eric shouts out Nick Birdsong (@birds_word) → “He just took a job
with the Jaguars, he had been working with the Nuggets doing
fantastic work with them. I connected with Nick a long time ago in a
press box at a SEC baseball tournament...and it’s been fun to see
his journey and I think he does a fantastic job. Not only telling
stories but having an understanding of how the player fits into it…”

Where to find Eric and the ACC on digital/social media
Find Eric on Twitter @EricSan and Eric SanInocencio on LinkedIn
and check out his newsletter, recently launched in 2021 around
sports and social media.

Thanks again to Eric for being so generous with his time to share
his knowledge, experience, and expertise with me!
For more content and episodes, subscribe to the podcast, follow
me on LinkedIn and on Twitter @njh287, and visit
www.dsmsports.net
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net

Episode 190 Snippets: Eric SanInocencio of the ACC

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