CBSSports.com's Tim Cary on the #DSMSports Podcast, episode 7

Best Of... CBSSports.com's Tim Cary
Episode 7 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast
On episode 7 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast,
Tim Cary, Social Media Editor for CBSSports.com discussed:
the importance of building relationships on social media,
prioritizing engagement over all else, the value of influencers,
and more.
What follows are some snippets from the episode. Listen to
the full podcast on iTunes or DSMSports.net

@njh287; DSMSports.net


On getting started with his career “With the growth of live blogging and Twitter and technology
changing on the fly, I was fortunately caught in the middle of
it.”



“I used Twitter very intentionally to network with people in
sports media...I built relationships and reached out to them
about [a job opening I wanted].”



“When you really reach out and try to build relationships,
there are people willing to do that...you get so much value out
of those relationships – people that have experience that you
don't. The connections I have developed on Twitter are
[priceless].”



“I have people I can point to that were willing to go overboard
to help me and give me advice...I've thought how can I do that
[now] for people in that same situation?...Now that the [roles
are reversed], I'm willing to do that [and help] people willing to
work hard and reach out.”



“Platforms come and go, trends change, but the [goals of]
engagement and driving traffic to CBSSports.com remain the
same.”



[paraphrase]
I'd always ask myself how can I write better? I'd look at how
other, professional writers took that same story and those
sames quotes and wrote their stories.



“A lot of sports journalists have a rooting position...but if you
come with a level of expertise [fans are ok with it]...”
“The more conversational you can be, the more receptive
people are to it. That doesn't mean you have to take away
professionalism from it...people can enjoy conversational
writing as long as it is communicated clearly.”



“The trick is not to be emotional...fans tend to be so worked
up, you can't take them seriously [as journalists]...People
[should not be able to tell] which side you are on. You limit
your audience when you [put in your rooting interest] in to a
story.”



“You can be positive without being emotional...people
understand you have a bias, but the question to measure [the
value] by is: can people still enjoy that post without sharing
your viewpoint?”



“My job now writing things the size of a headline, [a big
change] from thousands of words...it's surprising how little of
my job is who won the game and what's the score? It's all the
other little things that people talk about [on social media].”



“NFL is king when it comes to sports content, but a lot of
times a story will take off and isn't necessarily on you see
coming.”



[paraphrase]
Bloggers across all sports do a great job knowing what fans
of their sport will interact with; they do a good job [for us] of
curating what is out there. In addition to the content our
writers create and news they break themselves.



“We have data tracking to see what the most popular stories
are and where that traffic is coming from...the main thing
we're looking at is traffic, but also social shares too...If
something is getting a lot of social shares on the site, we'll
put it on [our social media].”



On growth of social media and its effect for CBSSports.com
“Not only are we getting more likes, more retweets, more
shares, we're also building the core audiences on those
pages.”



“We decided doing less things [on fewer platforms] better,
where we can get the most audience and most bang for our
buck, [is the best for us.]...We want to dominate [those]
spaces.”



On seeing the same fans sharing/commenting over and over “A superfan is a good thing to have. If you have someone that
is engaging on Twitter and [always] talking back, that's a
good thing. It will grow your audience...there are people out
there who are helping you [spread your content].”



“Personally, I think the #1 thing you can do is be fast. You
need to be accurate, but speed becomes a big difference.” He
explains how he'll often have different headlines ready as the
ends of games nears, particularly for close games.
“If we are first consistently, then if someone follows
@CBSSports on Twitter, they don't have to follow [the
others].”



“Every sports editor is in the business of analyzing and
aggregating first...if we can share news [even from other
sources] more quickly, we're more than happy to have fans
click through our site.”



On balancing coverage across sports and writers “We collaborate because we all want to see the company do
well...all of the divisions and people are working together to
accomplish something for the brand...Ultimately, the more
assets you have at your disposal, the more you can do from a
social perspective.”



“We're pretty much responding to what is happening, but we'll
obviously have a little bit more focus to what is happening on
CBS networks.”



“Each department has certain goals they have to accomplish,
but you develop relationships and communicate those goals
to each other...Ultimately, you work together to help the
company do well.”



“If there is a big story on our site, we want to make sure [fans]
click to our version of it and not one another site has
aggregated.”



This episode's Helpful Tool: GIFBoom, a mobile app to create,
import, and share GIFs (and GIFs are viewable in Twitter)



On responsibility of speaking on behalf of CBSSports.com on social:

“If you are sending something that thousands of people are
seeing at a time, there is a responsibility with that.
“We look to have a professional tone to our posts, we also
look to have a voice...We don't want to be just an RSS feed,
we want to talk like the fans.”



“You want to be conversational and you want to be
professional...I want to make sure every 'I' is dotted and every 't'
is crossed, but you err on the side of being professional...
It's okay to [cause reaction] in a post, it increases engagement.”
[Cites example of a post with sarcasm getting more response
than formal language]



Sports story that garnered the most social media engagement:
Linsanity, Lebron decision, Tebowmania, uniform alternate
designs, Barry Bonds paying for Bryan Stow's needs



On CBS Sports:
“We want to be accurate, we want to be typo-free, and we want
to be first.”



The episode's Share-able Stat: For decisive game 6 of World
Series: 19.2 million TV audience, 8.4 million Twitter TV audience
(per Nielsen and Major League Baseball Public Relations)



Sports story that was craziest / most chaotic to cover:
Superbowl during the blackout and the Dwight Howard free
agency story, from start-to-finish, especially the last hours



Common misconception about social media and sports:
The story with most 'viral potential' will get the most
engagement/shares; a lot of times it depends on if an individual
with a lot of influence shares it; you try to think about how the
masses will react, but a lot of times it comes down to just one
person [sharing it].



“The teams with the best social media are ones that respond the
most [to fans] and show they're dedicated to social media and
get a reputation for being responsive.”
Cites standout teams: Lakers [local teams for him] Columbus Blue
Jackets, Cleveland Indians



Social platform with the most consistent engagement: Twitter
“If Facebook [or another platform] disappeared from my life, I
probably wouldn't miss it a whole lot...”
(The recent growth of CBS Sports on G+ is more than all their other
platforms combined)



“If you like watching news and TV, you should have a Twitter
account...news stations have just become a way to curate
information [already] shared on Twitter [hours ago].”



Favorite sports story:
From the past: Ones he has attended – Final Four, US vs. Mexico
qualifiers in Columbus
Present: Real-time, unpredictable stories [not the stories with
longer lives that are talked about at length], when something
[unexpected] blows your mind



Tim's pick for this season's college football BCS National Champion:
Not Alabama



Social Media All-Stars To Follow:
@BTNDaveRevsine - Dave Revsine of Big10 Network;
@JamesonFleming of CBS Sports;
@KathleenHessert, social media manager; CEO of BuzzMgr



Where To Find Tim:
@TimCary, @CBSSports
Facebook.com/CBSSports
Plus.google.com/+CBSSportscom



Thanks very much to Tim Cary for sharing his experience,
knowledge, and personality with us on the Digital and Social
Media Sports Podcast!
For more, visit DSMSports.net and follow me, Neil Horowitz, on
Twitter @njh287


CBSSports.com's Tim Cary on the #DSMSports Podcast, episode 7

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CBSSports.com's Tim Cary on the #DSMSports Podcast, episode 7