Do you ever get caught up watching cooking shows on television? Reality TV programs like Masterchef Australia, My Kitchen Rules, and anything with the English guy who swears a lot get huge audiences across Australia each year.

We sit at home, watching people that look just like us, learning to prepare, cook and serve up amazing dishes of food for the judges.

With preparing, cooking and serving any meal, there is a strategy, or recipe if you will, for success.

With preparing, cooking and serving up awesome sports social media content, there’s also a recipe for success that can be followed across your online presence that’s sure to satisfy the ‘judges’ in your world.

If you were a chef, what would you dish up? How would you serve it? Who would want to eat what you’re cooking?

We are living through a time of unprecedented access to leagues, teams, coaches and athletes through social media.

As an organisation or individual, the opportunity you have to communicate your story to fans, friends, teammates, opposition, media, sponsors has never been easier… That is, if you know the secrets to serving up a tasty dish.

So what’s on the menu?

There are many things that help make awesome sports content on social media. What takes the two-minute noodles we fall back on, to a hearty meal of [insert fancy sounding pasta dish]?

Here are a couple of proven winning menu items to start with.

1. Behind the scenes

You know what phrases get sports fans excited? Things like ‘money can’t buy’, ‘behind the scenes’ and ‘exclusive access’.

A simple touch of a screen can transport your followers beside you back-stage at an awards night, or event, or to the dinner table at your family Christmas gathering. A social media update from you can take your fans into the locker-room as your team prepares to take the field, or onto the training track as you complete a recovery session.

For the everyday person, providing access to behind-the-scenes gives them an inside look into your life, your world. What they find can inspire, motivate, or purely entertain them, giving them an awesome fan experience.

Immediate access

How are you feeling after that win, lose, injury? Give your fans a reason to follow you by posting on social media your true and authentic thoughts. The simplicity of platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter lets you share what is happening in your world, almost immediately. No longer do sports lovers need to read tomorrow’s newspaper, watch the news, or even wait for a web-story. You tell your story, and break the news of the ups and downs in your life, in your words, as they happen. But always think before you post, as social media updates often become part of the news themselves.

So now that you know some of the content/dishes that your fans will metaphorically devour, how do prepare and serve it to them? By following this recipe.

 

VALUE + CHARACTERISTICS + AUDIENCE WANTS + GAME PLAN = AWESOME SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT.

 

Step 1

VALUE

Serving customers: be proactive and reactive. Ready to help and solve issues and answer questions. ‘Why does it taste like this? What is in this sauce?’ ‘How do we engage/follow along/sign-up?’

Create valuable content executed in the ‘native’ fashion of the platform. Remember, valuable content is something that is one or more of the below;

• Engaging
• Entertaining
• Educating
• Inspiring
• Motivating

 Step 2

CHARACTERISTICS 

Presentation: Often referred to as ‘plating up’. How you display what you’ve made is very important. One characteristic or element missing or out of place, can ruin your entire effort. Food Underdone? Too much or too little? Broken link? Incorrect hashtags or text only post when an engaging image or video would have added so much!

When sharing valuable content, what at are the most important characteristics to include in content?

• Imagery
• Video
• Mentions
• Tagging
• Hashtags
• Keywords
• Links

Step 3

AUDIENCE WANTS

Customers: Consider your theme, or type of dish you will serve. Who are your customers? The theme or type of restaurant is important. Do people want burgers and you give them caviar? Are they fans of your summer dishes, but you only serve that three months a year. Give them what they want, what they enjoy, when you can. 

Understanding what is the most important thing in the world of your audience.

What do the professionals provide on social media to satisfy their fans?

• Real time/Immediate Access
• Behind the scenes
• Asking Questions/Solving Problems
• Authenticity
• Interaction

Step 4

GAME PLAN

Preparation: Timing is important. Plan the dish, prepare the ingredients, don’t overcook, or make people wait too long for it to be served (un-timely). What about the other courses? Entree and dessert are important to provide context… Why is this being served up? What’s the plan?

The professionals have a ‘game plan’ to set themselves apart and continually deliver awesome social media content. What do they always do?

• Plan ahead
• Be pro-active
• But also re-active
• Fish where the fish are’ – are your fans on the platforms you use?

THE EXAMPLE

How about a professional athlete sharing awesome sports content to his audience, that is actually a recipe? Now that takes this theme to new levels!

Delly’s smoothie ticks all the boxes.

Australian Olympian and NBA star Matthew Dellavedova shares a healthy smoothie post on Facebook, following our recipe perfectly.

1. VALUE: How he stays healthy. A direct insight into something he drinks as a professional athlete. 


2. CHARACTERISTICS: Imagery, a collage of the creation process, shared from Instagram to Facebook to capture a wide audience. Simple text, step-by-step instructions. 


3. AUDIENCE WANTS: Behind the scenes, exclusive access, problem solving, authenticity. 


4. GAME PLAN: Plan ahead to take pictures of the process. Take the time to write down the ingredients so they can be shared. *One question asked here in the comments, that could have been included in the post is about the exact amounts of each ingredient. Just another problem or question that could have been solved.