How did the S3 Report grow over 400% in 4 months?

How did the S3 Report grow over 400% in 4 months?
by Kirk Wakefield – June 2013

Thanks to you, the growth in readership and membership at the S3 Report has been exceptional. Let’s start with who we are and then how we’ve grown.

Who are we?

The S3 Report launched in January 2013 with a following of no more than 75 members of our S3 Board and staff who write for us.  Within four months, we had 300 registered members (up 400%). Starting from scratch in January (visits = 0), where has your support taken us?

  • 4,506 unique visitors, 7,174 total visits, and 37,625 page views since January 1.
  • 1,792 unique visitors since May 1: 
    • 67% new visitors
    • Over 98% stay on the site for 3 minutes and view over 5 articles each visit.
  • Now over 400 registered members representing exec’s from:
    • Over 60 major league teams
    • NFL, NBA, and MLS league offices
    • Over 30 NCAA athletic departments
    • Over 50 corporations/agencies

How did we get here? You.

First, we started with influencers. Executives from leading teams in every league and among major sports advertisers from the Baylor S3 Advisory Board provided the foundation as our writers.

Second, more influencers like you joined the community via social media. With the help of the first 75 influencers and their followers, traffic was generated primarily through Twitter referrals. Over half of our traffic (51.3%) comes from referrals via social media and other websites, with another 16% from search traffic and 30% direct traffic to the site.

Breaking down the referrals with Google Analytics, we can see how most new visitors get here:

Bottom line? Keep on posting! As we all know from our careers in sales and marketing, referrals from friends are the most trusted source of information.

Content is _______

We get tired of hearing it, but the King is not dead. And, no, we don’t mean Elvis.

Excluding articles from the editor, what are our most popular posts so far?

Rank Article Author Organization
1 Which comes first: Happiness or success?
Shawn Achor
GoodThinkInc
2 No more cold calls: 3 steps to making informed calls & increasing close rates
Flavil Hampsten
Bobcats
3 The Sales Commandments According to This Disciple
Carson Heady
T-Mobile
4 Sales Training: How to Handle Objections
Sean Ream
MLS
5 How to get promoted in sports sales careers
Rob Zuer
Rockets
6 How to manage the new generation of sellers
Murray Cohn
NBA
7 Executing successful sales events: Three teams who are doing it right
Corey Breton
Hawks
8 So you want a job in pro sports?
Charles Johnson
Sixers
9 Part 2: Managing the next generation of sellers
Murray Cohn
NBA
10 Practice? We talkin’ about practice?
Bob Hamer
Suns
11 S3 Board Member Spotlight: Kelly Cheeseman, AEG Worldwide
Jerry Ruiz
S3 Editorial Staff
12 Social media in the NFL: Strategy and tools
Nick Schenk
Texans
13 Here’s a method to turn sponsorship assets into answers
Bill Glenn
The Marketing Arm
14 How to look good at the interview
Jeannette Salas
Texans
15 S3 Alumni Spotlight: Taylor Bergstrom, Texas Rangers
Jennifer MacIntyre
S3 Editorial Staff
16 I’ve got the golden ticket! 
Ken Troupe
KT SportsMarketing
17 Ticketing technology: How can we reduce barriers for renewals?
Chris Faulkner
Broncos
18 Just trust me
Lolly Daskal
Lead From Within
19 Are you investing enough time into training? The 3 elements of good programs
Drew Ribarchak
Blue Jackets
20 Evolution of analytics in sports: What’s next?
Aaron LeValley
LA Kings/AEG

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”400px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]If you missed any of these, the good news is our archives are always open. If you haven’t yet joined our community, the best news is it’s free. Just click here![/dropshadowbox]

 

Why aren’t sports teams building the most popular Pinterest boards?

Why aren’t sports teams building the most popular Pinterest boards?
by Kirk Wakefield – May 2013

Why your digital marketing manager should be all over Pinterest

The majority of Pinterest users are women (about 2/3rds). What should this tell teams?

A great way to reach women is through Pinterest. Last time I checked, women are an important audience for any sports team. The fact that teams aren’t effectively using Pinterest likely says more about the makeup of the digital marketing team than it does the potential benefits of building out the team’s Pinterest boards with the same intensity as we have our other social media.

What should stand out to you from these Pinteresting facts is that 28% of users are moms with household incomes above $100,000 and that the referral rate from Pinterest dominates other social media.

Pinteresting facts
by Christine Erickson

In addition to directly building and reinforcing fan passion among women, teams should effectively communicate with women because of their influence on joint family decisions, like buying season tickets and influencing media viewing habits.

How can we do a better job?

What teams are doing a good job with Pinterest? Comment below or send an email to suggest follow-up articles on the S3 Report.

A couple of suggestions

Given what’s of most interest on Pinterest now (below), how could teams capitalize on the millions of followers? I’ll start with two ideas: First, partner with a brand who does well in targeting women. Second, start a board on Weddings at the Ballpark.

Most popular brand boards on Pinterest
Most popular brand boards on Pinterest (click to go to source article)