The social media strategy document outlines the Washington Wizards' plan to grow their online fan base and drive more traffic to their website through engaging social media content in 2016. The key objectives are to increase social media followers and engagement, share more visual content, and increase website traffic by 30% over five months. Major strategies include boosting popular posts, promoting hashtags, and creating a video series featuring star player John Wall surprising fans. Progress will be measured through analytics on social channels, website traffic sources, and hashtags used by fans.

1. Social Media Strategy
Elizabeth Barrett
February 6, 2016

2. Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary, February 2016
2. Social Media Objectives
3. Online Brand Persona and Voice
4. Strategies and Tools
5. Timing and Key Dates
6. Social Media Roles and Responsibilities
7. Social Media Policy
8. Critical Response Plan
9. Measurement and Reporting Results

3. Executive Summary
Our major social media strategies for 2016 will be
growing our online following and community by
fostering genuine relationships with our fan base.
The primary focus will be to support revenue goals
through driving more traffic to our website by
sharing more engaging, relevant content and building
deeper relationships with our customers.
Two major social strategies that will support this
Objective:
1. Implement a plan that will not only increase the
volume of content published on our social media
profiles, but increase engagement and develop a loyal
fan base as well.

4. Social Media Objectives
In 2016, the primary focus of our social media
strategy will be to support revenue goals through
driving more traffic to our website via our social
media profiles. To do this, we will create content
that sparks conversation and generates excitement
about the Washington wizards franchise. We will also
prioritize building deeper relationships with our
fans so that they feel connected to this franchise on
a more personal level, and are proud to support our
brand.
Some specific objectives include:
1. Increase volume of visual content on Facebook by
20% in 5 months
2. Increase Twitter followers by 20,000 by June 1,
2016
3. Increase traffic to website by 30% in 5 months
via:

5. Social Media Objectives
Our brand recognizes that a majority
of our fan base is male, and 75% is
between the ages of 18-49. 10% of all
social media content, across all
profiles, will specifically target
this audience.

6. KPIS
1. Number of weekly photo and video posts
2. Number of Twitter followers
3. Number of Facebook posts shared
4. Number of TWITTER MENTIONS
5. NUMBER OF VISITORS TO WEBSITE VIA FACEBOOK and
Twitter
Key messages
. The Washington wizards are a young team on the
rise
. It is an exciting time to be a wizards fan

7. Online Brand Persona and
Voice
Adjectives that describe our Brand:
• Exciting

8. Online brand persona and
voice
• Fun

9. Online brand and Persona
• Boastful

10. ONLINE BRAND AND PERSONA
• Creative

11. Strategies and tools
pAID
Every game-day boost the most popular organic post to
build hype and excitement. The post must have a minimum
organic reach of 100, as well as a minimum of 50 likes
and 20 comments. Before every home game, promote the
most popular organic tweet. The Tweet must have a
minimum of 30 retweets.
OWNED
Encourage the use of the hashtags #WashWizards and
#DCRISING in tweets. Promote the use of these hashtags
by retweeting or shouting out a minimum of 2 pieces of
user-generated content that include these hashtags.
Introduce #wizkid posts to facebook every Friday. This
post will shout out a loyal wizard fan and highlight how
much we appreciate their support.
Earned
Monitor twitter for keywords and terms: washington
wizards, verizon center, dc rising, and beat ________

12. Strategies and tools
Earned
Partner with john wall, the face of the franchise,
to co-develop 10 piece video series “Wallstar” to be
shared on social channels. Each episode will show
wall surprising a fan at his or her home. Fans may
enter the contest to be featured in an episode on
the website. IF under the age of 18, a parent or
legal guardian must enter the contest for you. This
video series will promote a loyal fan base and show
our appreciation for out dedicated fans.
Tools
Approved: Hootsuite, kapost and vimeo
Rejected tools: N/A
Existing subscriptions and licenses: photoshop

13. Timing and key dates
Holiday dates:
Internal Events :
Valentine’s Day
2/9 Away game @ knicks
President’s day
2/11 Away game @ bucks
St. Patrick’s day
2/18 Home game vs jazz
Easter Sunday
2/19 home game vs Pistons
Earth day
2/20 away game @ Heat
Mother’s day
2/23 home game vs Pelicans
Memorial day weekend 2/24
away game @ bulls

14. Timing and key dates
Internal events continued:
3/11 away game @ jazz
4/3 away game @ clippers
3/12 away game @ nuggets
4/6 home game vs nets
3/14 home game vs pistons
4/8 away game @ pistons
3/16 home game vs bulls
4/10 home game vs hornets
3/17 away game @ 76ers
4/11 away game @ nets
3/19 home game vs knicks
4/13 home game vs falcons
3/21 away game @ falcons
3/23 home game vs falcons
** play-off schedule tbd

15. Timing and key dates
Player birthdays:
Reporting dates:
Marcin Gortat 2/17
reporting will occur one a quarter
Ramon sessions 4/11
in February, march, April, may and
Dejuan blair 4/22
June. Precise dates tbd.
Garrett temple 5/8
Otto porter 6/3
Bradley beal 6/28

16. Social media roles and
responsibilities
Marketing director: Rebecca win
Director of digital media: jacob raim
Web/digital media coordinator: brad bobrow
Community relations manager: kristen miles
Sr. director of communications: scott hall

17. Social media policy
Social media is used to spread washington wizard
messages, interact with partners, engage with fans, and
share our news, activities, ideas, plans and more. As
an employee and representative of the washington
wizards, you are expected to demonstrate best practices
and a sense of etiquette in your use of social media by
abiding by the following:
• Be respectful
• Employees must clearly brand their online posts
associated with the wizards as personal
• Be polite
• Act helpful to customers
• Be the solution, not the problem
• Beware of privacy issues
• If you are unsure— ask before you act.
The washington wizards strictly enforce these guidelines. If
employees violate the social policy, they may be subject to

18. Critical response plan
Track brand name with hootsuite
Scenario 1: inappropriate tweet sent from
@Washwizards
Action plan
1. When tweet is detected:
• Take screenshot
• Delete tweet
• Alert brad bobrow (web/digital media coordinator). If you can’t
contact Brad, alert scott hall (sr. director of communications)
2. Brad and scott discuss severity of incident and
evaluate.
3. Brad to develop appropriate follow up tweet, scott
to approve.
4. If media has picked up tweet, scott to manage all
direct contact. If scott is unavailable, Rebecca
(director of marketing) will handle all contact.

19. Critical response plan
Scenario 2: incident involving player
(ex: player acts out )
1. Alert scott hall (sr. director of communications)
2. Scott to evaluate severity of incident and determine
if it requires social media acknowledgement or control
3. If media has picked up on the incident, scott to
manage all contact. If scott is unavailable, rebecca
(director of marketing) to handle all contact.
4. Scott to push messaging to social channel where news
broke first. Continue to monitor spread of the news to
other social channels and push messaging there as
necessary.
5. Scott to evaluate need for a longer statement and
write one, if necessary.
6. Scott and rebecca to continue to monitoring the
situation

20. Measurement and reporting
resultsQuantitative kpis
Reporting period: 3 months
Date as of February 6, 2016
Website traffic sources assessment
Timeframe: monthly average, November 2015 to January
2016
Source Volume Percentage of
Overall Traffic
Conversion
Rate
Facebook 42,000 unique
visits
+17% growth
23% 4.6%
Twitter 19,200 unique
visits
+11% growth
9% 2.1%

21. Measurement and reporting
resultsSocial network data
Timeframe: as of February 6, 2016
Our social content team has done a great job of curating and
creating creative and engaging content. We have already
surpassed our goal of increasing visual content by 20% on
facebook. traffic to the website has already increased by 14%
and we are on track to reach 30%. in just 3 months our twitter
following has increased by 3%, or 13,740 followers. We are on
track gain 20,000 followers by the end of the 5 month period.
Social
Network
URL Follower
Count
Average
Weekly
Activity
Engagement
Rate
Facebook https://www.facebo
ok.com/Wizards/?fre
f=ts
1,290,791
+21%
growth
140 posts
per week
8%
Twitter https://twitter.com/
WashWizards
458,000
+3%
growth
217
tweets
per week
2.2%

22. Measurement and reporting
results
A key tactic to this growth has been our ability our
ability to track user-generated content with the
#dcrising and #washwizards hashtags and share it on our
own networks. The “wallstar” 10 piece video series is
very well received within the community and has
stimulated positive conversations.
#dcrising hashtag:
Between November 1, 2015 and Febraury 6, 2016, the
hashtag was mentioned 28,500 times on twitter and
15,300 times on Facebook.
#washwizards
Between November 1, 2015 and Febraury 6, 2016, the
hashtag was mentioned 14,700 times on twitter and 8,600
times on Facebook

23. Measurement and reporting
resultsQualitative KPIS
An analysis of the interactions on 500 facebook posts
and 500 tweets revealed the following:
• Positive sentiment from fans after a wizards win.
This includes sharing photos and stories of their
experience and an overall sense of excitement for
the rest of the season.
• The biggest driver of negative sentiment was related
to the wizards playing poorly and pricing of
tickets,
Proposed Action items
• Continue #dcrising and #washwizards campaign
• Continue giving out free tickets to loyal fans who
promote the hashtag up until play-offs
• Continue shouting out fans every Friday to show

24. #DCRISING