Assignment #2: Analysis of a team’s social media accounts
The team which I have chosen to analyze on social media is the New York Knicks. In particular, I have chosen to look at their Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Tiktok accounts. Through this analysis, I will demonstrate the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities that the New York Knicks have on these social media platforms.
The New York Knicks utilize their social media platforms by creating exclusive player content and building authentic stories for their followers to see. This can best be seen by the content series on Instagram TV called “Mitch’s Block Party”. An example from this series can be seen here. In this series Knicks center, Mitchell Robinson interviews his teammates which allows for players to demonstrate their personalities and build their own personal brands. In addition to the authentic content from the players, the Knicks do an incredible job of incorporating the culture of New York in an authentic manner into their content. This can best be seen through the post linked here where the Knicks created a graphic for Julius Randle where they photoshopped Julius Randle with a crown. This graphic pays homage to legendary New York Rapper Biggie Smalls and demonstrates how the Knicks integrate New York pride into their content. The Knicks are also able to utilize individual news about individual players in order to drive their own narrative. This can best be seen by the post linked here where they celebrated Obi Toppin signing with Jordan Brand. This allows the Knicks to build their own personal brand through the equity that their players have in pop culture.
In addition, the New York Knicks utilize a consistent brand aesthetic and graphic strategy. This can best be seen through the Twitter post linked here. After every game, the Knicks utilize a similar template in order to create content that quickly communicates to their fans how the team performed. This style of post performs better than any other post on Twitter for the New York Knicks. Even more so, the Knicks do an incredible job offering real time updates and content on Twitter to keep their fans updated throughout games. The New York Knicks also utilize Twitter as an opportunity to speak to their fans in a natural manner. This can be seen through their usage of memes linked here. The Knicks utilize a sense of humor on their Twitter with memes in order to drive engagement and capitalize on relevant trends. The Knicks utilize Facebook as a platform to repurpose their content from other platforms. In particular, throwback content performed incredibly well on Facebook which demonstrates how the social managers understand the segmentation of their audience on Facebook. The Knicks also understand their audience on TikTok by utilizing various trends to connect with a younger audience.
Despite these strengths, the New York Knicks also have weaknesses on social media. Before every game, the Knicks post their players walking into the arena on Instagram. An example of this post can be seen here. Even though the Knicks have over 2.7 million followers on Instagram, these posts rarely gain over 10,000 likes. It is clear that their audience doesn’t engage with this content and yet they continue to post it. Another weakness in the Knicks social media can be seen through their Facebook page. The content on their social media lacks a true strategy or creativity behind it. The Knicks focus on long-form videos such as this one that don’t perform well on Facebook. The engagement on these posts is weak and demonstrates how it doesn’t offer any reason for fans to engage. In addition, some of the content that the Knicks post on Twitter is not evergreen. The Knicks utilize Twitter as a platform to react in real-time to various moments throughout games. Without any context, these Tweets can be confusing and don’t always age well in their feed. While they make sense in the moment, the Knicks should consider how to strengthen the story their Twitter feed tells their fans. It can be seen from here that there are a few weaknesses in the New York Knicks social media accounts.
Given this analysis, it clear that there are also opportunities for the Knicks to strengthen their social media strategy. The Knicks only posted three times during the month of February. The Knicks should be more active on Tiktok in order to engage with a younger demographic. The content on Tiktok should focus on the current trends and highlight the personalities of their players. The same way that this strategy works on Instagram, it will also work on Tiktok. Another opportunity for the Knicks is on Twitch. Knicks Gaming currently only has 758 followers. The Knicks should consider offering watch parties with players or having players compete in esports competitors against one another on the platform. As younger generations branch off onto new platforms, the Knicks should be aware of the opportunities they present and how they can authentically connect with their fans on less traditional platforms.
It can be seen from this analysis that the New York Knicks have a strong social media strategy. There are a few areas where they should consider improvement and new opportunities. By doing so, they will be able to further push the authentic storytelling that they do for the organization and continue to push their brand to new heights.
