In the buildup to the first of Front Office Sports’ Huddle Series presented by opendorse on February 22, we’re introducing you to the huddle leaders who will be lending their expertise to the conversation.
Today, meet Kami Mattioli, social media manager for tennis at IMG. She will be one of the leaders of the huddle, “Where to Post: Developing a Better Platform Strategy.”
A Temple University graduate, Mattioli has eight years of experience in social media management, and along the way has learned many key lessons about creating channels, content distribution, and monetization.
Mattioli began her career in sports at her alma mater writing for Owlsports.com and running the athletic department’s social media accounts before a three-year run at Sporting News. Part of her time at Sporting News was spent as the associate social media editor before moving into roles as the company’s company’s college basketball editor and a national writer, both of which had a strong social component to them.
Mattioli then went on to a role as a social media manager with Endeavor before joining IMG in July of 2017. Since she has been with IMG, Mattioli takes pride in how she has been able to significantly grow the audience of the properties she works with, including the Miami Open.
“With the Miami Open,” Mattioli explains, “we build our audience around embracing what it’s like to be in Miami because the city has a distinct flavor and a very distinct voice. We’ve built our following with the Open combined to almost half a million across the big three platforms. For an event that’s only two percent of the year, to have that type of following I think is pretty substantial. We’ve hit between 20 to 30 percent growth each year both years that I’ve overseen social for the tournament.”
Mattioli and team also capitalized on key moment of the tournament: the iguana who interrupted play. Mattioli capitalized on this moment by giving the animal its own Twitter account.
Just blessin' ur timelines. Miss me? pic.twitter.com/qSNalBhWZk
— Iggy the Iguana (@MiamiOpenIggy) July 18, 2017
Mattioli and the IMG team also work with around a dozen other tennis events around the world, as well as a handful of players like Maria Sharapova and Madison Keys, on improving and refining their social media presence.
“With each partner we have, I want to show them how they can approach social from the business side and accomplish what they want on each platform,” Mattioli states. “The biggest challenge of digital for me is to educate people who don’t grow up understanding social media and don’t really see it as valuable and letting them know that it really does matter.”
🗣 Alexa, play “Move to Miami” by @enriqueiglesias #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/532IAkjEYi
— Miami Open (@MiamiOpen) January 17, 2019
When it comes to creating an effective social strategy and platform strategy, personality has become a very important factor to consider in Mattioli’s eyes. It has served her well with the Miami Open and others.
“The biggest lesson in my career was learning that personality is OK. Don’t just be a PR output for press releases and things like that. Consider each social account as a person: What does that person look like? What are they passionate about? What are some of the words that they associate with this account or this person? Accounts with personality are the ones building affinity for their brands right now — just look at Wendy’s and Moonpie.”
Meet Mattioli and hear more of her thoughts on the current digital landscape at the Front Office Sports Digital Media Huddle presented by Opendorse in New York on February 22. For tickets and additional info, click here.
