The Future Of Women’s Sports, Told By Social Media Experts
Over the last decade, social media and the presence of teams, leagues, and athletes have been on the rise on platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok.
Every team has a page, every talking head has a following, and anybody who wants to talk about women’s sports has the space to do so. That’s how it happened for three of the biggest names in the women’s sports social media scene: Ari Chambers, founder of HighlightHER, Jessica Robinson, the co-founder and chief content officer of Togethxr and Kaitee Daley, the vice president of social media for ESPN.
These three powerhouses sat on the panel at the 2023 ESPNw Summit in Brooklyn on May 4, moderated by Julie Foudy, to talk about the growth and momentum of women’s sports media.
“This is a movement, not a moment,” Robinson said.
The conversation centered on multiple topics. They discussed different types of curated content in both long and short form, how each of the panelists got their start in the women’s sports space, and what the future looks like.
“We are fortunate to have incredible storytellers,” Daley said. “So our team’s focus is more that of short form, one minute or less. One thing that we found on Tik Tok is that hook those first 2-3 seconds and making sure we are delivering visually.”
Daley mentioned an example in the video her team created on Erin Matson, UNC’s newest field hockey coach. They compare her to Michael Jordan and establish that connection right at the start, to let the audience know just how good Matson is. Creating short-form content is something that does well on platforms like Instagram reels and Tik Tok. Both ESPNw’s social pages on those two platforms have 679,000 and 961,600 followers, respectively.
Conversely, Togethxr takes advantage of long-form videos for social media. Things like YouTube videos and docu-series favor the company and its style.
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“The long-form is important to us because we want to make these women visible,” Robinson said. “They’ve been in the margins and we want to pull them out and center them and one of the best ways to do that is to spend time with them and really get to know them and show all of them and a way to do that is long-form storytelling.”
Chambers is a former cheerleader, who noticed some big discrepancies between the New York Knicks’ cheerleaders compared to the New York Liberty’s. It wasn’t the only disparity in women’s sports. Bleacher Report eventually backed her cause and HighlightHER was born.
“All the tools are in the palm of our hands,” Chambers said.
Robinson recalled the start of Togethxr came from a phone call with Alex Morgan, one of the founders, alongside Sue Bird, Simone Manuel, and Chloe Kim.
“When Alex Morgan calls, you pick up the phone,” Robinson said.
The payoff of that phone call has exceeded whatever expectations Robinson and her team had. They have high fan interaction on their socials, their merch sells out, and there are even more, bigger projects in the works.
As for the future, many wonder if the industry will continue growing. Or, has it reached the top and we are in a stage where engagement might dip, or even plateau?
“If we plateau up here, it's still up here,” Chambers said. “At 12 million right now. Keep rolling, keep reinventing. It’s not rocket science. You don’t need to overthink it.”
Photo credit: Courtesy of Mackenzie Meaney
