Episode 217 Snippets: Perry Mattern of the New York Jets

On episode 217 of the Digital and Social Media
Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Perry Mattern,
Social Media Manager for the New York Jets.
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
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 217: Perry Mattern

Perry’s Career Path
“I went to a relatively small school in Pennsylvania called
Shippensburg University…I went to school wanting to be a
sportswriter. I wrote for the university newspaper [and] I wrote
for a local newspaper that covered high school sports, [I would]
go out on Friday nights and cover high school football games,
high school basketball games, things of that nature. And then
my dad was actually a play-by-play broadcaster for the
[Washington] Nationals AA affiliate in Harrisburg. So I always
had broadcasting in me…but I kind of did the writing thing first.

“And then I got really into broadcasting when I was later in my time at
Shippensburg. Then, with the connection [with my dad] — my dad wasn't there
anymore in Harrisburg — but I went back and had connections there to do an
internship, and I ended up being the number two on the radio for the Senators for
three seasons. And I loved it. It's still — you kind of have those dreams you keep in
the back of your mind, like I would like love to be a Major League Baseball, play-by-
play guy. That’s truly the ‘dream’ dream…
“I loved it. And my third season — one thing people probably know about baseball
broadcasters or broadcasters in general is it's pretty tough. That's a pretty tough
fraternity to crack, it is a grind. Getting to the big leagues is not easy because people
get those jobs and they pretty much are going to hold that seat until they retire. So I
said I want to work at the highest level, I don't really care if it's football, baseball,
basketball, hockey, whatever — I want to work at the highest level, so I got to find a
way to get there.

“So I ended up leaning back on my writing experience and got an
internship at the Washington Football Team, the Washington
Commanders now. I was there for a semester and then was offered a
full-time job after that. I got there and tried to fill as many hats as I
could. I was writing, but I was [also] interviewing guys, doing some
on-camera stuff. And, you know, there's been a lot that has been made
of that place and a lot of that is pretty true. So it was not the greatest,
work environment, but I loved the people that I worked with. Maybe
not the people that I've worked for, but the people I worked with, and
it was cool because I was able to get my hands on so many different
things because we were so collaborative because we were understaffed
and under-resourced and all those kinds of things.

“So when our social manager left in 2018, we needed someone to just do it
until we hired somebody else and I said ‘I'll do it.’ I worked really closely
with [the previous social media manager] and [felt] like I had a good idea
of what to do. I held it down across training camp, and then we hired
someone, but I ended up working hand-in-hand with that person. At the
end of the 2018 season, I said, you know, this is — outside of the work
itself — this is not a very good work environment, this is not a very good
place to be.
“So I said let's pick this up and go and go somewhere else. I think I really
like this social thing. I've always had a passion for it, but maybe never
dove into it headfirst. So I saw the New York Jets had something available
kind of at my level and I went and got it.

“Then I did my first two seasons there as a coordinator, and then my boss left
ironically to go back to Washington where things, I think, have improved a lot
culturally there. It was cool to kind of get my first year running the show and
hired a couple of people on my team. It was a lot of fun and we've made a lot of
great strides and I'm really proud of what we've done.
“But I'd say with my story, I'm not really sure there's a bunch of tips out there
from it. It's funny because, to me, social is still so new in a way, right? This is all
something that's like 12, 15 years old, right? And, as a job, maybe 12 years max.
So there are still a lot of ways to find your way into it, whether that is through
my path, which is much more of a media-trained path or a writing path. And I
know there's a lot of ways into it from a marketing path. I didn't take any
marketing classes in college, but I can tell now that it would have been really
helpful to have something like that in my back pocket when I was coming up.

“So there are a lot of ways to get there, but I think that the writing definitely has helped
me a lot. That's kind of my calling card is copywriting and being able to see what is
good stuff and not copy it, but maybe just put it into your toolbox and make that
toolbox bigger and bigger.”
…The writing styles are so different at the same time, too. I kind of find myself now
[having to] actually write something that's extensive - like a hundred word email - I
find myself struggling to put actual sentences together because now that the social
brain has been trained so much to speak in a relaxed or relatable [way] for social. Like,
you can't write your emails like you write your tweets. But I find myself doing that all
the time, and then also I find myself reading books or reading articles — reading for a
minute or two, and then being, like, wow, I really have already lost focus here. It’s
something I’m working on because I'd like to get back to reading more. Now I find
myself instead just consuming content in different ways, whether that's TikTok or
Instagram and things of that nature…No day is ever the same for sure, no year [is ever
the same]...”

On the diverse skillset needed for social media managers and how Perry picked up more
of it
“It's almost like what you don't know you don't know. So it was a mix…because once I
learned what I did need to know, then yes, I attacked learning how to learn those things.
Like, I had no analytical background; I kind of was an analytical person because I really
liked baseball stats growing up, but at the same time actually learning social statistics
and then learning what are the KPIs or [which metrics] are indicative of success, and
what we should actually be looking at. And that just comes from learning and reading
and listening to people that are smarter than me.
“I think that’s the best way to go about a lot of this is just being incredibly curious and
there are a lot of people along the way that were really helpful with that too. I mentioned
the social manager in Washington, his name was Brian — Brian moved on to Nestle and
does great things there, but there's so much that you just kind of learned about the
management side of things, and some of those things were in a crash course in two weeks
when he was leaving. Just learning the back end of things, and managing, seeing how he
managed things.

“And then [I moved] on to the Jets and I worked with
Kevin Kline, who's now back in Washington, and he
taught me so much; a little bit more of the management
skills, but then also the managing those relationships
throughout the organization as being the social contact,
right? Like working with the sponsorship department
on our partner content, and working with our creative
team on what we need to have on a daily basis and a
weekly basis and planning for all of those tentpole
events that come through the NFL calendar.

“And then reading and listening and following people that are
smarter than me, that do this really well, and just constantly being
open to learning more about what can make you better as an
individual and then how you can help your team. I think I'm a very
collaborative person in nature and it's just always trying to find a way
to make our stuff as good as it possibly can be, and then just building
on top of that each year after each year.
“But yeah, somewhat back to your original question, I think it's just a
matter of figuring out what you actually need to learn about and then
going and attacking it. I had the storytelling side of things already
kind of ingrained in my brain and then I had to go find out the rest.”

On going from a coordinator role to a social media manager role
“In an ideal world, yeah, your hands aren't going to be as dirty and
you're going to spend a lot of time strategizing and planning to
make the best content possible. And certainly that exists, but there
are a lot of things that you're doing on a daily basis. You find
yourself looking at the clock and it's 3:30 and it's like, I didn't really
actually think about what we can do from a specific post-by-post
perspective. And the two women on my team have done a great job
and they've grown so much — they're really young, only about a year
into this. So, it kind of depends on what your team is too, right?

“So a lot of the first year as a manager has been helping them develop to the best that
they can be, too, because I think you're really nothing without your help. And if I don't
spend time making them the best that they can be, it's a disservice to not just myself,
but to them…Now we are at a point where they are fully acclimated to what we're doing;
they’re able to handle all of their tasks themselves. And this offseason has been really
kind of a joy for me because this is the first offseason where we're not hiring somebody
to the team, where everyone's kind of in their spots and they know what they're doing.
“It has given me more time to do a lot of that strategy and planning. We do a lot of
[that] based around the tentpole kinds of things like, okay, what are we going to do for
the combine?...Not just from a social perspective. What we are going to do from a social
perspective and what we can do from just our three-person social team, but then let's
go talk to the other members of the content department that goes 15 deep. How can
they help? What are their goals they're trying to achieve?

“Then it's the combine, then it's free agency, then it's the Draft; I think everyone knows
that calendar…But there is still — when it comes to the data reporting and working with
our business analytics team; and then the sponsorship aspect, they're doing recaps and
they're going out to market now to try to sell for the 2022 year. We have to be sharp; if
we're not sharp with making sure that we're holding our end of the bargain, they're not
going to be very happy with us. And there's little things that come up each day… where
you're going to have to drop everything you're doing to go try to prepare for this instead.
“But it's amazing. I never considered myself a very organized person…I'm 29 now and I
feel like I'm finally actually getting to a place where I'm semi-organized and to have at
least one or two organized people on your social team is so important because preparing
for the unprepared is what it's all about, especially when it comes to social and sports.
What I have tasked myself with is preparing us three for is preparing for the unprepared
and the more that we can have in the can already idealized execution-wise, it just makes
us even more nimble when things come out of nowhere.”

On preparing for the unexpected
“It's one of my favorite parts of the job because if something exciting is happening, it's,
you know, naturally exciting. But you kind of have preparation for things that you know
are going to happen and that I think allows you to— this goes back to my plan and being
organized — I think people just think better when they aren't scrambled. I know that's a
pretty obvious statement, but when a Sunday starts or night one of the Draft starts,
things are going to come, things are going to fly. If you're not ready, then it's going to be
really tough.
“I know all 31 of my counterparts, social teams in the NFL, are ready for every night.
Now, what I want to do is be ready on top of that for what happens if we trade up [in the
draft], what happens if we trade back, what happens if we trade for a player…all 32 teams
are going to have their graphics ready…When you are truly comfortable and confident in
your plan, I feel like your brain is much more open to things that can happen.

“I'll give actually a good example [with] the Draft for us last year. We were
really prepared for the Draft and we picked [second] and part of the
reason that we were probably really prepared for it was because we picked
number two and we knew it was Zach [Wilson], so we didn't have to worry
about creating 16 graphics for 16 different possibilities.
“We knew the Jaguars were going to pick Trevor [Lawrence] and we were
going to pick Zach. So five minutes before the Draft opened, we were just
kind of actually relaxing. And I said ‘What if as soon as the Draft opened,
we just tweeted ‘Alright’ at Jaguars, ‘Hurry up.’ I ran it by my boss and he
was like ‘Yeah, I don't have a problem with that.’...As soon as the Draft
opens and the Jags are on the clock, tweeted it, and it was our third most-
liked tweet last year — it had 22,000 likes or something like that.

“And then another one would be a little bit later in the Draft. We had actually already
had a meme prepped and it was [Stringer from The Wire]...he has a meme that says ‘I
want you to put word out there that we're back up’ because we had a second first round
pick, so I was like, yeah, we'll tweet that when we're back up because literally we are back
up. Our pick was 23, but instead we ended up trading up to 14. I was like ‘Oh my gosh,
The Wire meme! The Wire meme!’ We gotta tweet it! We gotta tweet it! We got the tweet
out and it was great. People went nuts for it…
“We had that ready and it worked out super well. It was funny because the timing was
actually pretty amazing because around that time we had finally finished all of the Zach
stuff from picking him number two, and everyone had just taken their first breath and
then we looked up at the TV and we're like, ‘We’re on the clock right now? What is going
on?!’ And then it was a mad rush again. So that's a matter of being prepared…we knew
we were going to have a second first round pick, but we didn't know we were going to
trade up. So that stuff materializes really quickly and you just kind of have to be ready.”

On the objectives and defining success with content during tentpole events
“I think first things first, we're thinking about that engagement pretty much at all times
because engagement is going to solve so many other issues…if engagement's high, then
that most likely is going to lead to the other things kind of taking care of themselves. I'm
a little bit of a believer now and certainly there's a lot of evidence to back it up when we
talk about follower growth…
“I think Tik Tok perhaps is off to the side. It's been proven that winning isn't going to
necessarily correlate with you on TikTok. Like, we've seen, like, the Detroit Lions for
example, are one of the most followed teams [on TikTok] in the league, and they have the
number two overall pick this year, so that team's done an incredible job on TikTok. But
then you see what the Bengals have done — they've done a great job, given certainly a lot
to work with — but they were ready to [capitalize], and, you know, there's a lot of
correlation with winning and stuff, but you gotta be ready.

“We talk about it all the time — we're ready to win here. We know
our content team is ready to win, there's no doubt about it. So I
think when we prepare for all these tentpole events, we look back
and see — when we get ready for the Draft this year, and we've
already started doing this — is look at what worked last year?
What worked in 2020? What worked in 2019? Those are the three
years that I've been here. And also the analytics providers have
gotten better and better over that time. So it's easier to go back;
I’m a big fan of CrowdTangle’s interface when it comes to that
kind of thing. You can look at what the overperforming posts
were in that time, not just for yourself, but around the league and
stuff.

“So using that stuff and saying, okay, here's the stuff that we know works,
what we already have in place that is going to work, this is our bread and
butter, you know, and obviously you're going to have to post a graphic for
whoever we draft. But what are the other things that would work for all of
these different situations? And this year we've actually been talking about
it. You know, we pick four and 10, and like last year we knew we were
picking Zach and the year before we knew we were probably taking an
offensive lineman and the year before that it felt like it was going to be
Quinten (Williams) almost no matter what, so this is the first year where
we really have no clue who we're going to pick. So we're going to have to
talk about a lot of different people at four and say, alright, if this guy is the
pick, what will we do with him? If this guy is the pick is there something
fun, internet culture-wise we can do with him?

“We need to know about their history and things of that nature.
That's what's really cool about it, and I've thought about this a lot
now where — it's funny — this is really the first [normal] offseason,
and this is my fifth season in the league…that I feel actually
comfortable, because now you’ve actually been through it three
different times, one of those times being completely virtual and you
feel like you really are comfortable with kind of knowing what the
bread and butter is innately, and then you get all that stuff out of
the way, and then you just start working on, okay, what's the stuff
that takes us to another level? What's the stuff that sets us apart?
When we have eyes on ourselves on these big nights, how do we set
ourselves apart in those spaces without abandoning who we are?

“I feel pretty blessed here to have a pretty willing
staff that is on my team, but then also the people
that I report up to as well are pretty open to us
having fun and really developing a voice that is both
relatable, and I feel weird saying on-trend, but on-
trend, and we'll cut through the noise a little bit and
cut through what the normal things you would see
from these teams at these tentpole events.”

“I think the one thing that we have continually come back to, and more recently I've
talked about this more, is the idea of entertaining instead of informing. And I think
there are some times that we are going to inform just naturally, like, we're going to tell
you who we picked in the Draft. But when we talk about what does this mean for our
team? Like, if it's an edge rusher or we're going to talk about this [is the] guy we're
going to get, we're going to get excited about it, but we're also not going to sit here and
tweet that he won on 43% of his pass rushes a year ago. I think the one thing that I've
come to come to know a little bit is especially in the New York market,...it's a little
more prevalent here than maybe smaller markets in that we have a large press
contingent, right? You can go get your information about the team at a lot of different
places, The Athletic, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, the NJ media — if
you want information like breakdowns and legit opinions about the team that you
know is not one-sided— obviously we're going to be a little bit biased — they're going
to go get their information out there. If [fans] want their information, they can go over
there. If you want to be entertained and see the Draft call and see the guy visiting the
facility for the first time and meeting our coach and [GM] Joe Douglas, you're going to
come to us and we're going to entertain you with this cool stuff of, you know, this guy
being mic’d up for his first time being in the building and things of that nature.

“With Zach last year — when Zach got picked, we found a video that we
wanted to stitch [on TikTok]. We actually put a call out to people on TikTok
and said ‘Stitch this with a welcome to our first round pick and he’d stitch
you back.’...We did that with Zach and he did a little stitch with this kid who
was so hyped that we had picked him. So that's entertaining and connecting
with the fan base. And I feel like being a part of the fan base is really
important to us. We're never going to be a hundred percent the fan just like
we're never going to be 100% the Jets and this organization that maybe just
posts and then walks away, right? We want to be a part of this fan base that
is dying of thirst for us to be successful. You know, it's hard for us to be self-
aware at all times. We can't always be that [fan] — especially when things
get really tough, but we want everyone that is a Jets fan that we care about
them and we hear them. That we're just like you. We want this thing to turn
around, too, right? We're really excited about these guys, where this thing's
headed and what Joe Douglas is doing as the GM and what Robert Saleh is
doing as head coach.

“So making them feel like we're part of that while
also entertaining them is so important to us because
I really feel like doing informative things is by the
wayside for what social is…People are on social for
information, but they're going to go get it from
people that are meant to inform, and I don't
necessarily think that teams are meant to do that
anymore, I think we're meant to entertain.”

About TikTok for the Jets and in general sports teams
“It's hard. It's been the most challenging platform I've ever dealt with, and certainly the
first one that's ever truly made me feel old…It's kind of unpredictable at times; I think
we've seen a lot of mic’d up stuff has worked really well there and those are kind of easy
wins. Being on trend, I think, is important, but if you can't be on-trend organically, and
if you feel like you're forcing stuff, that audience is going to sniff that out from a mile
away, that you're forcing something and that you don't actually get what's going on…
“So it can be tough at times to find your voice. There are some other teams in our
league — I mentioned the Lions already — that do such a great job, and the Bills do an
incredible job on there as well. [For us], I'm not gonna sit here and say we've got
everything figured out on there because we don't. It’s continually trying to — you feel
like you're still playing a game of throwing stuff at a wall a little bit.

“And it's crazy that [Tik Tok] has been around for almost three years
now, and you're still throwing stuff at a wall. Because there were things
that worked in 2019 that don't work now. I remember we had 4 million
views on a video of Le'Veon Bell at his press conference with his little
girl. I'm not saying that wouldn't work now, but maybe it wouldn't...It's
so funny because every time you think you know, you probably don't;
like you published something and you're like, yeah, that one's probably
going to go pretty good and then it's like, dang, it didn't; it didn't do
anything on there. And then next thing you know you're putting up one
that you're like, oh, I like this; it might not go viral or anything like that
[and] next thing you know it has hundreds of thousands of views and
you're like, man, I don't really don't know how that happened.

“But I do think that the teams that have really found their voice on there
and — the point you made was a really good one where you almost forget
that it's an NFL team — is really important. And I'm really excited to see
what we can do on there because the one part of it that I really like and I
think works well is just highlighting the personalities that we have here.
And, man, we have brought in some awesome personalities, especially in
our Draft last year and I'm sure we'll do the same this year. So it’s just
showing these guys in situations that isn't really football I think is really
good. I think people want to see what these people are like and what
they're interested in that isn't football and things that maybe you couldn't
find elsewhere on regular TV or even other social for that matter…There
are so many ways to engage the fan base and the future fan base there.”

On taking the content and/or wins and lessons from TikTok to other
social platforms and fan touchpoints
“That's a really good question because I do think that there is a certain
level of self-containment to TikTok. I do think there are certainly
things there that are successful that I don't think would be successful
elsewhere. But at the same time, it's one of those things where
sometimes less is more and it can be like that on the other social
platforms, too. I mean…a mic’d up moment is that right? It's pretty
easy to see if that mic’d up moment is going to be something that
people are going to want to see because if it's a cool conversation on
the field it's going to do really well no matter where that’s [posted].

”But I think that's a great question and I don't think I really
have a great answer for you either...It is something we've started
discussing here where it's like, okay, what are we seeing that
works on TikTok and how does that relate to us building a
younger fan base that is offline and in person, right? How do we
connect the experiential aspect of a football game, or maybe the
other way around, like connecting a TikTok or showing what is
happening here with us as a team and what is happening at
MetLife stadium and then connecting that person that takes
that in there and then bringing them to the stadium? How could
we help to be part of the bottom line as part of the social team?

“I'm not sure if others do, but TikTok is — you know, we really would like to
touch so many different kinds of fans too, of the ages and races and cultures,
especially being in the market that we're in. So that's why I think for us, it's
even more important than ever to have content that is developed differently
for each platform, whether that means it’s maybe more traditional on
platforms that have been around longer versus the TikToks and the
Snapchats of the world, but something that is interesting to a 16-year-old
from Long Island will be so different than something that a 55-year-old from
North Jersey would be interested in.
“It's kinda crazy. Being able to cover all those bases is really tough. We
definitely think about it on a daily basis while [also] thinking about how do
we bring this back to being excited about the New York Jets and wanting to
see the New York Jets.”

On the brand and distinctiveness of the Jets especially with the
Giants in the same market
“I think the challenger brand thing is really interesting and I think
there's maybe a little bit of it in that, but I think also we have to
work with the hand that we're dealt a little bit, which is right now in
March of 2022 we are a team that we're preaching [is] on the rise.
And that's not a lie, I actually believe in what we have here and in a
third-year general manager, a second-year coach — there's really a
really cool culture being built here and we have a lot of young
players that are really exciting. We have a future here that is being
carved out.

“So I think that that falls into it. Look, there's no
way around it, we have the longest playoff drought
in the league and it’s pretty substantial; we're at 11
or 12 years now that we have not been in the playoffs
and I don't think anyone else's is longer than like
four or five. So it's one thing that I didn't really
realize maybe till about halfway in my time
here…where you realize we haven't been in the
playoffs for most of the ‘social era.

“We haven't been there. We were in the AFC championship in
2010 and I know Twitter existed at that point, but people weren't
using it like they were five years later and now 12 years later. And
Instagram was barely born, and Facebook certainly was the
behemoth at that point. But I wouldn't say we’re going uphill here
either because we do have a pretty incredible fan base. It's really
cool to see considering what they have been through with us, with
our struggles on the field, they really have never left our side and
they're back every year. Obviously, they get frustrated and
disappointed and all those kinds of things, but we know that
they're there because if we started to win there's no doubt that
MetLife [Stadium] would be full and be rocking.

“I think for us right now, we're thinking about what are the best
ways that we can make you a) excited about this team, about
where we're going on the field and then b) how can we make you
excited about the personalities around this team? The people that
are being brought in here are also really good people, too, and
that is an important part, I think, of what we do as an
organization. And then social is there to kind of be the
megaphone to that, [so] we can show that, you know, Zach
Wilson, Elijah Moore, Alijah Vera-Tucker, Michael Carter — these
guys are really exciting on the field, but they're also really cool
people, too. And I think that's all been brought under what we
had been doing as a team.

“With being in a market with another team — you're
always going to be compared to them. But I think for us
to stick out beyond the Giants too, and all of the New
York area teams — there's a lot to compete with here
and beyond sports, too — we have to be a team that is
relatable and sticks out and feels like they are New
York. And, you know, it's a lot to learn and a lot to
encompass, but I think the best way to do it is to feel
like you're part of the fan base. And then on top of that,
just amplifying the pieces that you have here.”

On the increasing challenge to stand out on social and how the Jets think about it
“There's no doubt that it's becoming harder. I mean, it's certainly a diluted place and
there's just so much happening on these apps and their algorithms are changing on a
daily basis too, so you're kind of always kind of fighting against that as well. But I do
think that, when you don't have the cheat code of going to the playoffs year after year
or having superstars that are in the Pro Bowl or All-Pros or are going to the Super
Bowl, you gotta find ways to ways to stand out.
‘But the thing about that is that I don't ever want to — and my bosses would feel the
same way about this — is that this organization [is] not going to go out and just try to
seek attention for attention's sake, right? I'm not a very big believer in all engagement
is good engagement. I don't subscribe to that…We like our voice and we want to kind
of extend that voice and we want to feel like we're part of the internet culture.

“One of the things that I think about, too is there's probably a
large part of our fan base that is not really that online and it's not
our job to necessarily connect to those people that aren't that
online. We want to connect with the people that are online. So we
need to speak to that community and we need to speak to that
Twitter community like how they are online, but then you also
need to speak to how people are online on TikTok and how people
are online on Snapchat and Instagram. So there are different
ways that you're interacting with those communities that I think
is really important. We're not talking to the whole fan base. I
know that. We have 1.2 million Twitter followers; there are more
Jets fans than that.

“Then to answer your last question, if someone was in the UK or in Alabama
that is interested in becoming a Jets fan — I want them to come here and feel
like, wait, actually that account is a Jets fan account almost, right? Like they
really love the team, they're not just passing along information. They're fun,
they're exciting, and they're relatable. Those are kind of the big things we've
been working on here since early last year.
“There's no doubt, we hit a little bit of rock bottom. We fired our head coach,
we traded our quarterback and we were coming off of a two-win season, and
we kind of looked at each other in the eye and we said ‘Hey, we can't hide from
our own shadow. Yeah, this is tough, but we have a chance to really push this
thing in the right direction.’ We're hiring a new coach and certainly we were
blessed to have Coach Saleh be the guy because he's about as exciting as it
gets. And then you draft Zach and you draft all of these young players.

“It's like let's ride, we're not stopping the horse no matter what happens,
we're going to keep pushing through and we're going to be big fans of this
team. That doesn't mean we're going to — if we’re down 35 [to] nothing and
score a touchdown that we're gonna go nuts on Twitter, but at the same time
I want it to feel like we really care about this team just as much as you do. If
you are going to be a fan, I want to care about it as much as you care about it
and we care about this team as much as the 50-year season ticket holder
does, just as much as the first the first-year person does, too.
So I think it's kind of a passion thing. I do think about that thing a lot that I
mentioned earlier, where we've got to balance between being the Jets, and
then also being part of the Jets fan base, and the more that we straddle that
line and kind of be in those areas, I think the better we'll be.”

Tell us a fun fact about [Perry’s alma mater] Shippenburg University
“I will keep it to a football-related thing. So we actually have two Pro
Bowlers [that played at Shippensburg] and they actually played at the same
time. That was fullback John Kuhn, who played for the Packers quite a bit
and then cornerback Brent Grimes who played in Miami, Atlanta, and
maybe one other stop in his career. But there was a time there in like the
mid, maybe early 2010s that we had more Pro Bowlers than a lot of D-I
programs.
“We haven't had a guy get back to the NFL since, but we did have those two
guys in the NFL at the same time, which I don't think any other D-II school
could have said that at the time.”

About the Sam Darnold ‘Out Indefinitely’ meme that took off
“It's funny because when you're at the game — and, like, we cut
clips from the broadcast — but sometimes maybe you don't
notice things from the broadcast as they happen. So I didn't see
it on the broadcast. And then you just kind of started to see it
more and more. And that was not a good night for us — we lost
to Cleveland, I think we got beat pretty badly by Cleveland
because our backup was Trevor Siemian and he broke his leg in
the first quarter, so then we had our third stringer out there
and it was just bad.

“But it's funny because longer conversation earlier, we talked
about the evolution of our voice and leaning it ourselves and
things of that nature, and at that time we weren't there yet. We
were a little shell-shocked; It's freaking week two and our
quarterback just got mono and there's not a whole lot you can do
with it at that point…When [Darnold] came back and beat Dallas
we ended up using [the meme]. I don't remember what we put on
the graphic, we changed the words on it about him being a baller
or something because he threw for 330 (yards) in his first game
back, so we ended up getting back into it. But at the moment,
honestly, it's a lot of just sit there and just take it on the chin.”

…”I was like, look, we're just going to put it over there. We're going to use it
later. I don't know when we're going to use it, but we're going to use it. And
then you end up saying that and then bunch of that stuff dies in the social
media graveyard, right?. But I was like, there's going to be a time. We're
going to be able to use that. But as it was happening — it was crazy that he
had to have those moments that year because that was one.
“The ghosts game was honestly even crazier because that was just totally nuts
from the perspective of I can't believe ESPN aired that,...it was so nuts, but
that one was even crazier and that game was even worse for us. I think we
lost that game 33 to nothing, and that's truly a position where you can do
absolutely nothing. Like you just lost 33-nothing, what can you do with that
stuff? So yeah, sometimes you just sit back and laugh at how ridiculous a
season can get, and the 2019 year was definitely one of those years.”

The most important social media and sports sort of lesson or
guiding principle Perry has picked up so far in his career
“I think the prepare for the unprepared thing was really important.
You know, I've never really worked in social outside of sports and I
find it so fascinating for people that work on brands that post
maybe five to 10 times a week. I find that fascinating because I'm
just like what must that be like? Because in sports, I don't really
necessarily know how it happened, but I guess we all just decided
when this started that we were all just going to post dozens of times
a week and it was just going to be material that we did that…

“That's why we talk about ‘prepare for the unprepared’ by making sure you
have everything ready that you can be prepared for and then just start
thinking about things that could happen. And that's what's awesome about
sports — when the game starts, you have no clue what's going to happen. So
what can we be ready for? If we score on the first possession, what can we be
ready for? If we're up 35 - nothing in the third quarter, what can we be ready
for? If we win at the buzzer?
“All those kinds of things are lot of fun, and I think that's also the best way
that you can get engagement while also making sure that you have everything
done that you need to have done, right? Like, all the sponsored things that
you need to make sure that you're delivering on [with] the best possible
quality; by having all that prepared, then you're now going to more likely be
prepared for the unprepared.

“And then the other thing, and this is also kind of a social
and sports thing, is always be ready to win…You can't think,
if we're double-digit underdogs in a game, that we can't be
ready for what's going to happen if we win that game. We
had two of those games this year. Qe went into week four
against Tennessee, and I don't think many people gave us a
chance. We were 0-3 and lo and behold, we win in overtime
and we had stuff ready. Then the same thing with Cincinnati
when Zach went out with the injury and Mike White started
his first career game and the guy threw for 400 yards.

“That's prepared for the unprepared because then when you do get
the accolades for it because that's another one I'll never forget. I
won't even say we were prepared for it, but one of our team
photographers — shoutout Sarah Snyder — was editing photos in
the press box that day and she said, in the middle of the fourth
quarter, ’Oh my gosh, we might actually do this.’
“And she says we have that photo of Mike White pointing to ice in
his veins from [training] camp. One random day, he just walked out
and did the ice in his veins, it was kind of goofy. And we're like,
yeah, we're going to tweet that if we win and we did. We posted it
everywhere and it was awesome.”

The Jets player who’s the best when it comes to
content for social
“It hasn't been very close, [it’s] running back
Michael Carter. We drafted him last year. He's been
somewhat of a godsend for all we've been doing.
He's been awesome. He hams it up. He just has a
legitimately good personality and is a legitimately
good person too, which is kind of the trifecta.”

The pro sports team[s] whose social media Perry admires and why
“I think if I had to pick one, I probably would pick the Carolina
Hurricanes. I'm sure that's a popular answer on this pod, they just do an
incredible job. They hit every beat just right. They have such a good feel
for what they're doing and they connect with their fan base so well, and,
you know, you just look from a statistical angle of them compared to other
NHL teams; they just kill it. But on top of that, it just feels right. I think
one of the hardest things for us to do is when we take advantage of those
times — they've taken their shots at other teams, but it's never felt
ridiculous. It's never felt out of place. But then also when you talk about
what they've done with pride and things of that nature; they just nail it
every time.

“I gotta shout out the Chargers, [too]. I know everyone's big
fans of the Chargers, but they deserve it. They stick to the
brand, their copy is outstanding, and [their] creativity's
outstanding.
“And then one that I've actually really liked, and this is a team I
liked looking at because looking at a team that maybe hasn't
had much success on the field is the Detroit Tigers. I thought
they've done a really nice job, especially a team that has not
had a lot of success on the field the last few years, they've been
really good [on social].”

The Harrisburg Senators
promotion that Perry remembers
the most
“Easily the cowboy monkey rodeo.
That is little monkeys in cowboy
hats riding dogs in the outfield
between innings. It truly is a sight
to behold. I mean, oh my gosh,
the amount of tickets we would
sell on those nights, it was just
crazy. It's as good as advertised.”

Perry’s perspective on NFTs and the Jets/NFL
“I don't want to give too much away. I was actually thinking about — I don't
know how much of this is confidential and is not. It's obvious that things are
coming for every team. We did dabble in it a little bit late in the season;
everyone that purchased the ticket and then actually had their tickets
scanned and came into the game against Tampa Bay in our week,17 game,
that ticket became an NFT. And then we also gave one away on social earlier
that week, too. That was more of just a random giveaway one…
“That’s been a large part of our marketing department’s [charge] here…I
think it's coming where every team is probably going to be in there pretty
soon is what I would say without giving too much away.”

The best meal to get in New York and where to get it
and also the best meal in Philadelphia
“In New York, there are still so many places on the
list that I want to hit, but I would say to keep it
simple, and also we're not going to spend too much
money we're going to Los Tacos, number one. That is
the best taco I've ever had. There's one near Times
Square, and then there's one down in the Chelsea
Market…can not beat the tacos, the best that I've had
in New York.
“And then in Philly, I'm not actually as good on
Philly as you would think I am considering I didn't
grow up too far away from there. But a couple of
summers ago I was there with some friends and we
hit up a BYOB Italian place called Giorgio's that I
thought was really good. So those are my two spots.”

About the Jets being among the few NFL teams awarded
marketing rights to the UK
“It gives us the ability to activate with those fans, both virtually
and in-person, in ways that we weren’t able to prior, or that the
other 26 teams cannot do. A lot of that has to do with
sponsorship and marketing and things of that nature. We didn't
have the [international rights] when we launched our UK Twitter
account last October, but we kind of knew that we were headed
in that direction. So we launched the UK Twitter and started
trying to build up a fan base ahead of getting those rights.

“So it doesn't really mean much from a football perspective. I think a lot of people
saw — and that was a really tough social strategy that we had to develop...we just
really wanted people to know that it wasn't affecting the football itself and that we
weren’t [leaving]. We aren't selling the team. We're not playing there every year. I
mean, I guess it's possible that we would play there again this year, but that was the
biggest thing — just making our fans here know that this is just about expanding our
fan base over there, not about us taking the team there.
“It's probably not as big of a deal as it sounds, but it's really cool and exciting. And I
was lucky enough to be on the London trip last year when we played Atlanta at
Tottenham. And it's really cool that we have a legitimate fan base there, too. And
being sister cities with London, I think there's a really cool opportunity for us to
expand our fan base, and hopefully this team itself starts to gear up and starts to win
more, [so] that we're going to be able to engage that fan base and make them part of
our own, even if they're across the pond.”

The breakout player for the Jets next season we should all be
looking out for
“I feel like this is probably pretty obvious for people that actually
follow football, but I'm going to go with Elijah Moore. There are not
too many guys that, when you walk on the field for the first day of
training camp, you're like, ‘Oh, okay, I see it already.’ He had some
struggles with injuries, missing like six games this year [and] would
have [had] over a thousand yards if he’d played all 17 games and he's
a dude and a good kid. He has a really good head on his shoulders.
Turns 22 actually this Sunday and he's going to be really good and
I'm excited to watch him play.”

Perry’s Social Media All-Star to Follow
“Dave Jorgensen (@davejorgenson), who runs TikTok for the Washington Post;
he's awesome. I know he has a book out now; I haven't had a chance to read it
yet. But I've just never been so impressed with someone's creativity…The
creativity that he has on a daily basis is just incredible. And he's a really good
Twitter follower to begin with, but then obviously go follow the Washington
Post TikTok — I don't think I've seen a better TikTok account, especially a
high-level brand that has to…you can't be posting things that are like out of
pocket, right? You have to still fall under something.
“It’s very easy to be super popular on TikTok with using inappropriate language
or super inappropriate jokes and stuff. But the guy is legitimately funny and he
also is able to tie it back to what the Washington Post is, a very reputable news
source. It is a perfect marriage of brand, what the brand is already, and what it
has been for [many years]...,and what TikTok is; it’s about as good as it gets.”

Where to find Perry and the Jets on digital/social
media
The Jets are @nyjets across social
Find Perry on @pmattern7 on Twitter and
Instagram, and hit him up on LinkedIn

Thanks again to Perry 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.

Episode 217 Snippets: Perry Mattern of the New York Jets

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