Sportsman Channel’s Social Media Growth Soars Past 500,000 ‘Likes’
OutdoorHub 12.03.13
Success Fueled by Multiplatform Social Strategy; Sportsman Doubles Twitter Followers and also Becomes Leader in Interactive Engagement
Sportsman Channel, the leader in lifestyle TV for the American Sportsman, announced today that its Facebook users grew by 77 percent in 11 months, which has fueled it past the 500,000 ‘Like’ mark on Facebook. Additionally, on October 16th, the network reached nearly 2 million people in a single post. Executives estimate the Sportsman Channel Facebook page will have nearly 1 million ‘likes’ by the end of 2014.
The impressive growth figures are a result of a strategic, multiplatform social approach that puts a focus on quality content, real-time response and engagement across numerous networks including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. The strong results have allowed the network to become the leader in interactive engagement in the Outdoor TV category and allow the network to excel in other areas from TV ratings to sponsorships to promotions. Additionally, executives cite the network’s aggressive acquisition of best-in-class programming, heavy marketing and promotion, and powerful seasonal brand campaigns as other reasons for growth.
Sportsman Channel’s social media interactions are connecting valuable, younger male viewers to the network. The network’s M18-34 demo is 43 percent of its total Facebook ‘likes.’ The average for that Facebook demo is 33 percent.
“Facebook is Sportsman Channel’s primary social hub and it’s allowing us to reach a younger audience,” said Brian Moyer, Sr. Director of Digital Services, Sportsman Channel. “We have put a focus on building and engaging communities across several key social platforms and that strategy has resulted in not only more social users but – more importantly – increasingly higher engagement rates on Facebook and Twitter.”
With Sportsman Channel’s dedication to finding programming that “sticks” with viewers, it also sees a rise online. For example, the network’s “Aporkalypse 2013” programming block saw an increase on Twitter of 700 percent compared to its previous weeks in August.
According to Simmons research, 70 percent of sportsmen and women are social media users, which is up 10 percent from the prior year. Of that percentage, 46 percent have visited Facebook in the last seven days. Additionally, reflecting the rise of mobile usage, sportsmen and women are 59 percent more likely than the average adult to have a hand-held smart device. That percentage has nearly doubled from a year ago.
“Most people don’t realize that sportsmen and women are heavy technology users,” continued Moyer. “Sportsmen are very active on social networks and we’ve put a focus on growing our social communities to facilitate engaging and valuable relationships with our viewers.”
Below are a few Sportsman Channel social media statistics:
- Facebook growth: EOY 2010 (20K); EOY 2011 (106K); EOY 2012 (280K); today (500K+)
- In the past two months there have been four posts that have reached more than 600K people
- YouTube: More than 4.5 million video views on daily updated videos.
- Facebook page is 82 percent male and 18 percent female
- Since the end of 2012, Twitter followers have more than doubled from 15K to 36K in 11 months
- The network has nearly 600K connections spread across seven social platforms
