Annie Finberg of The Atlanta Hawks on Growing As A Digital Pro

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Social managers often have to be multi-talented, but Annie Finberg takes it to another level.  She’s been an NFL cheerleader, she taught English in Asia, and now she’s the senior coordinator of digital content with the Atlanta Hawks.

After graduating from Kansas, Finberg interned with the Orlando Magic in their social media department. About a year later, she landed a full-time role with the Hawks, where she is now in her third season. Finberg also hosts the Winging It podcast alongside Kent Bazemore and Vince Carter on The Ringer.

In today’s episode, Finberg discusses her unique position working both in the NBA and with The Ringer, growing as a professional within digital media, the challenges of being a woman in sports and keeping pace with how fast the sports world moves.

Edited highlights appear below:

How the Winging It podcast came to be (15:47):

“I’ve always had kind of another career goal, which is to get into broadcasting, whether that’s a pregame show or doing sidelines. So anything that I can do to perfect that craft along the way is something I’ve tried to do. The podcast actually started last year with Kent Bazemore and Mike Muscala, and we were part of the Road Trippin’ gang. Channing [Frye] and Allie [Clifton] were a big help to us in getting that all set up, and Uninterrupted was great. It was a really great learning experience for us. Then after that we brought Vince on and just with kind of our restrictions and stuff that we had, we went with The Ringer, and they’ve been great so far. I couldn’t say more great things about them. Bill Simmons is obviously quite opinionated, but he is a great boss, and he’s welcomed us in with open arms, and we’ve really enjoyed it so far.”

On continuously growing in a constantly changing digital landscape (18:26):

“First of all, I have to credit Jaryd Wilson for pretty much everything I know, who I know was a guest on this podcast as well. Jared took a chance on me [by] hiring me to come into the Hawks because that was my first full-time job. The space has changed not as much as you would think over three years as I’m sure you guys both know. I think that Jaryd was kind of one of the pioneers of the sarcastic, witty personalities [on social]. I learned as much of that as I could from him, but I think that the social space has just grown into bigger and better content and higher quality. You can’t just really post a Snapchat warm-up video of layup lines anymore. People are doing so much more. Every time you got to outdo yourself with better equipment, better access, all that.”

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Advice for people struggling to get their foot into the door (26:59):

“Patience is key. We have a part-time position [at the Hawks] and we’ve had people come in and out of that and they have a hard time finding a full-time gig outside of that. You get frustrated and impatient and maybe you even apply for jobs you don’t really want just because you’re desperate to have one. Which, I understand. You got to pay the bills, but I think you have to be patient and be ready for whatever moment it is that’s prepared for you. I think everything happens for a reason, and your next break is just around the corner. I think a lot of people tend to give up before they get that break or don’t have faith enough in themselves to continue to push. Then once you’re in, it’s all about making connections.”

Favorite part of the job (31:13):

“My favorite part about working in the social space is just being there to experience and capture these small moments that people might not see unless they’re at the game sitting courtside, whether that’s a pregame dunk or Vince Carter and Dwayne Wade exchanging jerseys and being able to experience that moment and then also share it with the fans. I know that before I came to the Hawks, they had some live coverage like that but not a ton. So I kind of made that my goal to get as much boots on the ground live coverage as I could get.”

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