Over the past two decades, the New England Patriots have been one of the most successful franchises in the National Football League. With seven championships, they’ve been a perennial contender in the playoff picture. However, their past season ended much earlier than expected when they were eliminated in the first round by the underdog Tennessee Titans. This sudden upset and immediate loss of content presented their Facebook page with a significant challenge…
What would they post to continue interacting with their followers while still receiving high levels of engagement?
Luckily, this wasn’t the Patriot’s first battle. By revolutionizing the types of content they post, the New England Patriots were able to still have meaningful engagement from their fans.
Throwback Posts
Since the Patriots’ upset loss, tensions have been high amongst fans as they’ve been searching for reasons. Especially throughout comment sections as they’ve debated their different perspectives and “analysis”. Therefore the Facebook team started searching for more encouraging and happy posts.
Eventually, since it was the day of the AFC Championship, this led to the New England Patriots posting a throwback video to their notorious “Ice Bowl” victory.
This post did very well for a few reasons…
1
Since they posted it on the same day as the AFC Championship, it was a pleasant reminder for Patriots fans of the team’s prior success…except against the Eagles. Therefore, fans weren’t as upset as other teams were playing for their chance to go to the Super Bowl.
2
Additionally, since it was a throwback, this Patriots memory is much more well known and widespread. Especially on platforms like Facebook where, according to Katie Sehl of Hootsuite, usage has grown increasingly among older generations. Therefore, this post was able to reach a much wider audience with a pleasant memory which led to higher engagement from those viewers.
User-Generated Content
After ending their season with a playoff loss, the New England Patriots Facebook lost a major source of their content. Since the team was no longer competing, they wouldn’t have new photos or news to share about the team’s next match up.
This led their Facebook team to search for content created by their followers. By introducing fan submission driven campaigns like the “Lil Pats Fan of the Week”, they were able to gather a multitude of user-generated content and pictures of cute babies (who wouldn’t want more of that!). More importantly, it was content that was interesting to fans since it was submitted by them! Therefore, leading to more meaningful engagement with shares and comments.
Since everyone could use a smile and it’s nearly impossible to dislike children, here are a few other “Lil Pats Fans of the Week”…
Linked Content Posts
Despite their variety of content, many of the Patriots’ followers follow them to receive football news and content. Since their loss to the Titans that ended their season, creating meaningful football related content has been a struggle.
However, according to Christina Newberry of Hootsuite, they’ve been able to combat this by sharing content from other thought leaders in the football industry. Through this practice of Linked Content Posts, they’ve been able to post interesting articles to their audience that drives viewers back to their website.
Sharing this content from outside sources relating to free agency or other off-season news has kept their followers interested. Doing so has even increased engagement among viewers as they discuss and debate potential front office decisions facing the team.
Since the Patriots were eliminated from the playoffs, they lost a large source of their content. However, they haven’t panicked like most would. By implementing different types of content like throwbacks, user-generated, and linked content, they’ve been able to keep their millions of followers interested and engaged.
However, simply posting a variety of content isn’t enough. The New England Patriots’ Facebook team still have practices that they need to improve on to take their page to the next level.
What do you think? Do you follow the Pats on Facebook? Leave me a comment!
Dave's Social Media Blog 
Great post! I don’t follow the Patriots on Facebook currently but I just might have to now. I liked the point you made about throwback posts resonating with the older population on social media and found it very interesting
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Hi Dave,
First of all, Pats suck and Eagles rock. All team allegiances aside, great post and analysis. The Pats do a great job on Facebook with user-generated posts and throwback posts.
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