February 21, 2016 Victoria Cela

• Executive Summary

• Social Media Audit• Assessment• Website Traffic• Audience/Competitors

• Social Media Objectives

• Online Brand Persona and Voice

• Strategies and Tools

• Timing and Key Dates

• Social Media Roles and Responsibilities

• Social Media Policy

• Critical Response Plan

• Measurement and Reporting Results

Table of Contents

• Our major social media priorities for the 2016 offseason (March-August) will center around increasing our online fans and followers.• The primary focus will be to generate future fan followers by increasing

online traffic through what content we publish on our accounts and when we do so.

Two major social strategies will support this objective:

1. A plan to regulate the frequency and volume of posts published to our social media platforms.

2. Boost more two-way communication between the team/players and fans/followers.

Social Network URL Followers Activity per Week

Facebook Facebook.com/newenglandpatriots

6, 463, 819 7+ posts/week

Twitter Twitter.com/patriots 2.3 M 30+ posts/week

Instagram Instagram.com/patriots 1.8 M 10 posts/week

Google+ Plus.google.com/+patriots

1, 221, 697 4 posts/week

Pinterest Pinterest.com/patriots 24.4 K 1.9k pins

Vine Vine.co/patriots 145.5 K 9 posts/week

Snapchat Patriots n/a > 5 stories/week

Foursquare Foursquare.com/patriots

27, 513 60+ likes

LinkedIN Linkedin.com/company/new-england-patriots

7, 847 1 post

At present time, the highest number of interactions per post occurs on Twitter with over 30 posts per week reaching more than 2.3 million followers. Little to no interaction takes place on Linkedin. It seems the team merely uses it as a reference page to redirect viewers and followers to the main site.

February 2015

February 2016

Source Volume

Twitter 1.2 M

Facebook 2.8 M

Instagram 1.1 M

Vine > 100k

The Patriots’ main site is currently ranked #3,577 in the country based off its website traffic compared to all other sites. It generated over 4 million hits in January 2016.

*Almost 30% of traffic comes from social media, specifically Facebook.

At present time, Facebook is by far the biggest driver of traffic for the brand. However, the team’s Twitter account gained over 1 million new followers in the past year alone indicating a significantly high interaction rate.

• > 66,000 average fans attended regular season home games for the 2015-16 football season

• Based on a study done by Scarborough Sports Marketing in 2011, the following can be deducted:

• The average Patriots fan could be

described as a single, white

male in his early-to-mid thirties.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Male 60%

Female 35%

Age 30-44 45%

Age 45+ 33%

Black 5%

Hispanic 4%

Competitor Name Social Media Profile Strengths Weaknesses

Dallas Cowboys Instagram:Dallas Cowboys

Huge fan base all across the country; dubbed“America’s Team”. For the month of February, they have had an average of 29,000+ likes per post.

A lot of the photos resemble one another and appear to use the samekind of filter over and over again.

Miami Dolphins Twitter:@ MiamiDolphins

Member since February 2009. Does a good job at promoting specific hashtags with lots of different posts and RTs.

Could do a better job of responding or interactingwith fans on its profile.

New York Jets Facebook:New York Jets

Good variety of different posts, from articles and videos to personal player photos and updates.

Not many individualplayers are necessarily highlighted nor tagged in posts.

The above assessment focuses on three major competitors of the Patriots and their presence on three social media platforms: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. While the Dolphins and Jets are competitors more so on the field, the Cowboys rival the Patriots’ brand image and have been competing for the title of “America’s Team” for quite some time now.

• During the 2016 offseason, our main focus is to keep our current fan figures as is, while trying to generate future fan followers through our social media platforms.• To accomplish this, our social media purpose will be for our online

presence to gain more recognition to users outside of the typical fan-sphere by posting and sharing more content that these individuals would find more entertaining and even relatable.

• Specific objectives include:• Increase volume of snaps posted on Snapchat by 30% by the start of the

regular season (approx. 6 months).• Designate a specific day for each player to “take over” the snapchat account for a

specific time period (one hour).

• Increase Instagram followers by at least 10,000 by the start of the regular season.

Adjectives that describe our brand:

• Strong

• Loyal

• Entertaining

• Successful

When interacting with customers we are:

• Helpful

• Welcoming

• Cooperative

• Patient

• Good-humored

• Paid:• Use Facebook account to boost most popular Instagram posts every Friday for the

week.• * Posts must have generated >20,000 likes and at least 200 comments to be eligible.

• Owned:• Continue to promote our #FanArtFriday posts on Instagram.

• Encourage submissions by sending out reminders via appropriate social media channels.

• As the season gets closer, offer incentives ( T-shirts, caps, photos, etc.) for best submission.

• Earned:• Analyze twitter for the following key words and/or hashtags: Gronk, spike,

touchdown, Patriots.• Top 50 fan accounts to use key words/hashtags the most creatively will be entered in

a drawing to win a personalized, autographed photo of Rob Gronkowski himself.

Tools used- Buffer, Hootsuite, Photoshop

Charitable Events

• October: • Hometown Huddle

• November: • Thanksgiving-in-a-Basket• Special Olympics of Massachusetts

Flag Football & Cheering State Games

• December:• Children’s Holiday Party• Gifts from the Gridiron

League/Team Events

• March 9: • 2016 league year and free

agency period begins at 4 P.M., ET.

• April 28-30: • 2016 NFL Draft

• July-August: • Patriot Training Camp

• Senior Vice President of Marketing and Brand Development:• Jennifer Ferron

• Director of Digital Media: • Jana Gauthier

• Senior Director of Marketing Services and Operations: • Gail Titus

• Social Media Manager: • Cecily Faenza

• As social media continues to become a part of our personal and business lives, it’s important for employees of the Patriots to keep a few guidelines in mind: • Be professional• Be constructive• Be supportive• Be respectful (to everyone: fans, opposing teams, janitorial staff, etc.)• Create excitement • Be considerate • Don’t forget your manners

The New England Patriots do not condone any inappropriate, disorderly or disrespectful content on our social media pages. The New England Patriots’ main goal is to maintain fun and engaging profiles for fans and followers.

Scenario: Inappropriate Snap added by player

• Action Plan

1. When Snap is detected:1. Save Snap (open app, play story, click ’save’ option).2. Delete Snap.3. Alert Cecily Faenza (Social Media Manager). If Cecily is unavailable, reach out to

next in charge.

2. Cecily to sync with next in charge to go over aftermath.

3. Cecily to develop appropriate follow-up message for Facebook and Twitter (largest audiences), next in charge to approve.

4. Cancel Snaps for remainder of day.

5. If media picked up on Snap, Jennifer Ferron (Senior VP of Marketing & Brand Development) to handle all direct contact.

6. Cecily to sync with Jennifer, Jonathan Kraft (President), Bill Belichick (Head Coach), and athlete involved to discuss possible consequences.

*Pre-approved messaging: Depends on nature of the Snap.

Social Network URL Follower Count Activity per Week

Facebook Facebook.com/newenglandpatriots

6, 509, 461+1.5% growth

10 posts/week(more on weekends)

Twitter Twitter.com/patriots 2.36 M+2.5%

32+ posts/week

Instagram Instagram.com/patriots 1.81 M+0.5%

14 posts/week

Snapchat Patriots 20x more views One hr takeover per day

Timeframe: as of March 1, 2016

• Our Instagram account has gained over 8,000 new followers in the past three months, on track to hit our goal of 10,000 by the 6 month mark. Surprisingly, our Twitter account gained the most new followers.

• The frequency of posts on the social media profiles have become more organized and scheduled. It’s important to note our #FanArtFriday has become a huge success since the last report.

• Snapchat take over by the athletes generated a whopping 20x more average story views than before. Most notably was the take over day with Gronkowski, of which views sky rocketed over 200%.