The Journey of Becoming a Media Manager – “Tips to Become a Successful Media Manager”

Ever since the commercialization of sports, it has become increasingly important for sporting organizations and individuals to stay connected to viewers, fans, consumers and other stakeholders in the sporting industry.

And this has resulted in growing importance of media managers in the sporting domain. But do you know what media management is all about?

What is Media Management?

Media management is the directing and controlling of media-related businesses and business functions. In simpler terms, it involves handling media interactions like PR events, social media accounts, commercial deals, etc. for individuals or organizations.

In a sports context, media plays a crucial role in the development of any sport as a business. Individuals with precise knowledge of handling the different forms of media are necessary in today’s sports industry, as media interaction with fans and viewers plays a major part in branding of the athlete or the team.

Importance of Media in Sports:

In the current sporting scenario, an athlete’s on-field excellence is not enough to maximize earnings. It becomes equally important that the athlete has a strong media presence to rope in more revenue sources through sponsorships, endorsements, etc.

In today’s digital age, social media is at the forefront to achieve this. You might have already noticed that the most successful athletes around the world are also the ones who have the most social media following and impact. Thereby, it becomes a media manager’s role and responsibility to create a strong online presence of the athlete across the social media and other media platforms. The same concept also applies to sports organizations and leagues around the globe. Being active on social media is a great way for sports organizations to build impactful relationships with people.

It gives the viewers and fans a sense of belongingness and attachment to that particular sport or sporting organization. The benefits can be reaped in the form of increased loyalty, revenue and brand value.

For different sports teams around the world, media has always been the medium to keep the fans and viewers updated about the latest news and events happening in and around the team. This increased media engagement also opens up new revenue streams for sports teams.

Tips to Become a Successful Media Manager:

Now that we have glimpsed why media plays a vital role in sports. Let us take a look at the different steps involved in becoming a successful media manager!

1) Define your Goals and Audience:

As a media manager, it is extremely important for you to understand and identify your audience. This will eventually help in setting appropriate goals. It becomes easier to deliver more relatable and relevant media outputs by understanding your audience.

2) Choose your Platforms and Channels:

There are multiple platforms and channels available at the disposal of a media manager. Although social media has been the dominant force of all the available mediums in the current sports industry, it is important for every media manager to evaluate the kind of reach and impact that can be generated using all available platforms for such media activities.

3) Create Compelling and Relevant Content:

In terms of social media, the media manager’s job includes creating engaging content for viewers. It is important to stay updated with the latest news and happenings in the sports industry in order to build effective content strategies.

Staying updated with the latest events in the sports world allows a media manager to recognize the content required to engage the viewers and fans. It will also help to develop better and compelling content strategies.

4) Content Promotion:

No matter how good the content is, it will not have an expected impact if it does not reach the intended audience. Therefore, developing a good promotion and marketing strategy is a crucial part of media management.

5) Evaluate your Performance:

Once a media campaign or media activities are set in action, measuring the success and performance of it is also important. This traces back to the first point of setting goals and making sure that the actual performance aligns with the specified goals. This point also highlights that it is important to set measurable goals.

6) Learning and Improvement:

Another crucial part of this entire process is gathering data by evaluating your performance and then recognizing the scope for changes and improvement. You can use all of this data and experience to create better plans for the future media campaigns and activities.

Excerpts from our Podcast-

We at Buzz Behind Sports recorded a podcast with Mr. Nishad Pai Vaidya, who shared his entire journey of becoming a media manager.

Mr. Nishad has worked as a media manager for the Gujarat Lions, the Indian Premier League and most recently for the Gujarat Titans.

He explained how working as a media manager for IPL is different from working as a media manager for a particular team like Gujarat Titans.

He also explained how his recent stint with Gujarat Titans was different compared to his earlier work, mainly because of the evolution of media.

He highlighted the rapidly evolving social media that was earlier limited to Facebook live, while it has grown in various domains such as Instagram, Youtube, etc., for the purpose of fans interaction with the athletes.

Another highlight of this episode was some anecdotes and tips that he shared from his experience of working as a media manager with different organizations.

One particular piece of advice he shared was that a media manager should not ‘tell’ players what to say at a press conference or a media event. Rather, the focus should be on helping the player or person develop confidence for media interactions. This could include asking a senior player to accompany a junior player at a press conference or a media event, etc.

He even shared some wisdom on how knowledge gaining and building a strong network remain two of the most important and effective aspects to succeed as a media manager.

The entire podcast incorporates much more knowledge than the information given above. The podcast covers topics like the future of test cricket; the commercialization and globalization of cricket due to the T20 format, and much more.

Tune into our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google to get more updates about Buzz Behind Sports. Follow our instagram page, ‘iismworld’, to stay updated about the latest happenings at IISM.