How to leverage social reels & stories to drive interaction on your owned & operated platforms

It's no secret that social, video, messaging and games all play a pivotal role in how younger fans follow sports and players.

Together these forms of media offer snackable content that's unpredictable and rewarding - a combination that keeps people going back for more. These platforms foster habitual behaviours that when tapped into, also offer a significant opportunity to bring fans to your owned and operated platforms.

By utilising social to share enticing interactive content, you can tempt fans back to your website or app with an offer of enjoyment-oriented experiences.

And in turn, diversifying the fanbase and bringing in that coveted 16-24 demographic.

Using social reels and posts to generate conversion is a great method of bringing those audiences into your environment where you can encourage sign up, marketing consent and where you can own the data.

In this blog we'll cover how to convert your fans on social.

But before we do, here’s a case study to show this in action:

England Rugby use social media as a funnel to encourage fans to rapidly engage

England Rugby promoted Monterosa Experiences on social media to drive fans to compelling interactive experiences.

This has led to capturing over 28,000 new data records to date. Out of which:

An increase in the number of female fans: 48% of the new fan data
An increase in younger fans: 16-24 represented 35% of the new fan data

This shows a shift in the fan demographic - attracting a more balanced gender split and also increasing the number of young fans in the 16-24 bracket by 7x.

Why it works

Compelling interactive content: utilising social media to promote content that fans can participate in, will often see far higher rates of click through.
Frictionless experience: fans are taken from social media to England Rugby’s website with one click. And of course, simple user journey = higher rate of interaction
Boost traffic on O&O platforms: although these experiences use social media to attract new fans, they drive increased levels of traffic to England Rugby’s website. And once there, England Rugby can track all behavioural data to help optimise future content
Incentivisation: A strong CTA and a chance to win prizes further incentivise fans to participate
Using social media, not fighting it: it might be easy to feel that social media platforms have won the attention battle but instead, England Rugby used this to their advantage to integrate interactivity into their social content. And in doing that, were able to reach a whole new fanbase, in the 16-24 demographic

Examples of interactive Experiences that can be integrated into social channels to drive engagement

Instagram Stories

Stylised Instagram content, prompting instant interaction
Get fans to engage without leaving the app
Once link is clicked, fans arrive at the Experience landing page on their device

X (FKA Twitter)