Headed by Vice President of Digital Jeramie McPeek, the Phoenix Suns employ perhaps the largest digital department in pro sports. No surprise, considering they pioneered the digital realm in sports.
During this interview, Jeramie and I discussed:
- How the Suns have led the digital space
- What differentiates the Suns’ from other digital experiences
- How you can find the right fit with freelance opportunities
Follow Jeramie on Twitter
Sports Job Interview with Jeramie McPeek
Sports Job Interview Transcription
Hi, this is Sam Miller with Sports Networker.com. I’m here with Jeramie McPeek. He’s the Vice President of Digital at the Phoenix Suns.
The Phoenix Suns’ Digital Department is a 10-person department, is that right?
Including myself, we have nine full-time employees.
Why do you think you were the right guy to lead that department?
Good question. I’ve been with the Suns for 20 years now. I just finished my 20th season, so I’ve grown up with the Internet. I still remember when the NBA first rolled out NBA.com and told all of the teams that we were each going to have our own portal on the information super highway. A lot of us had no idea what they were even talking about at the time.
I was kind of given the reigns to that early on. I also worked on the team magazine at the time. I have fallen in love with digital and Internet and Web and how it’s always evolving. I’ve kind of been here since the beginning and have brought along a team to join me in Digital in the last four or five years. I think we have a really good team in place.
How were you able to keep up with all those changes in the last 20 years?
It’s not easy to keep ahead of the curve, especially in the last few years. Things change so fast. There’s always some new product or some new service that’s come along that we have to learn about quickly and determine if it’s valuable for us. As I mentioned, my team really helps me, helps us as an organization to stay ahead of that curve. We have a number of guys who are tech savvy, creative and passionate about what we do. They are always bringing ideas to the table, and we’re always bouncing things off each other. Some guys have strengths in one area, some guys have strengths in another. It helps to have that team to figure out what is valuable and what we should be doing right now.
Speaking of the team, as I look around at sports teams, it seems like there are not a lot of big staffs as far as the digital world is concerned. Am I correct in saying that?
Yes, we are probably the largest digital staff in the NBA, maybe in all of pro sports. We are very fortunate that we have the support of our upper management who sees the value of digital. But we also oversee a lot more than the Phoenix Suns’ digital channels, which I think is a reason our team is so big. We also oversee the Phoenix Mercury of the WBNA and the US Airways Center. We run our print publications through my department and help our community relations department and our Phoenix Suns charities.
What are your responsibilities as VP of Digital? Are you able to spread those responsibilities out among your team, or is it something where everyone has specific responsibilities?
Everybody in our department has a different role. A lot of guys have similar strengths, so they can complement each other. We have a couple of beat writers. We have a couple guys who specialize in video production. One of the writers I mentioned also handles our print publications. We have a full-time Web designer, our creative specialists, a social media specialist, a photo archivist and a digital analyst. I lead the department and have a lot of responsibilities interacting with our different departments, whether that’s corporate sponsorships, ticket sales, community relations, public relations or marketing. I work with those departments to figure out how digital can support all the other efforts the organization is doing.
I noticed that the Suns’ site has received prominent awards from Sports Business Journal and the NBA. Was that something where the awards came first, so they added the staff or did you do well and then expand?
I think it’s a little bit of both. Once we were able to add two or three people in addition to myself, we were able to do some great things back seven, eight years ago now. But I think it was a matter of showing our upper management if we added more staff it was going to help us generate more revenue. A lot of our sponsors are interested in digital elements now through our social media channels and our Web site. Being able to add more staff allowed us to create more content which was great inventory for our sponsors. Additionally by having a full-time designer and an analytic person, that’s allowed us to sell more tickets online.
Did the Suns start with their own site, or has it always been hand-in-hand with the NBA?
It’s always been a hand-in-hand relationship. The NBA launched NBA.com back in 1995. They support all the team sites. They host our team sites, provide us statistics, analytics, photos, video highlights, live scoreboards, as well as a content management system. They have always been there to support the teams. At the same time, we have the flexibility and the creativity to take what they give us to the next level.
On the Suns’ side, what sets them apart as far as social media?
We’ve got a lot of social media strategies. It’s really about growing our fan base, engaging with those fans, making them feel important and appreciated by listening to them and interacting with them. Also, we want to entertain them and inform them by providing them with an inside look in the organization that they can’t get anywhere else. By doing that through social media and by occasionally peppering in a ticket message or a sponsored piece of content, we’re able to generate some revenue too. It’s about connecting with our fans and making them feel special.
It’s interesting you said “occasionally peppering in a ticket message.” With some of the other teams, you see more ads to buy stuff than you see genuine interactions. How have you learned that balance?
We realize fans are following us because they love the Phoenix Suns, and they want to hear from us. They don’t necessarily want to be sold to all the time. Social media is different than TV, or even the Internet, where people expect ads. Social media is a place for communication. We try to respect that and to respect our fans and not just shove messages down their throats to buy tickets or to buy a sponsored product. It has to be a natural experience when we tie in sponsors. We try to do it in a way that enhances the content that we are providing and brings the sponsor along as somebody who is helping provide that content to the fans. In terms of tickets, we know our fans do love the Phoenix Suns, and we hope that they would be interested in coming out to our next game. We try to throw out some ticket offers from time to time, but we try to do that sparingly so fans feel like they are getting value out of our channels.
On the Suns’ Facebook page, there is concerted effort to say “like this” in all caps or “Do you like this?” Have you gotten more likes by doing that?
Absolutely. We were fortunate to hire a social media specialist just about a year ago. Greg Esposito is his name. He’s fantastic, both with our Facebook and our Twitter account. He’s always coming up with creative content for us. On Facebook, there is a strategy not only to put the content out there but to get fans to interact with us. With every single post we put up, we always include either photo or video or some sort of visual element. We keep the status updates short and sweet. We always include a call to action so fans don’t see it and keep going, but they think, “Oh, yeah. I want to leave a comment. I want to let you know.” That really has increased our interaction.
You mentioned listening to fans. How do you prioritize who you are listening to?
Obviously it’s tough in the social media space where fans can tweet you or leave a comment 24 hours a day. You can’t be glued to the computer, but Greg Esposito is on 40 to 50 hours a week, sometimes 60 hours, constantly monitoring all our channels. He not only pushes out great content but sees what fans are saying as well. I also spend quite a bit of time on social media taking a look at what our fans are saying. We have 40 employees who serve as social media ambassadors, tweeting about our jobs and giving fans a behind-the-scenes look. We have a lot of different people keeping an eye on what the fan base is saying. We try to respond to fans as quickly as we can. If they have a question or a concern, or if they just want to compliment the Phoenix Suns, we try to thank them for their support. If they tweet out a great picture of a game or a picture of their child wearing a Suns uniform, we try to retweet that. We try to let fans know that we do hear what they are saying and that we do appreciate their support as Phoenix Suns fans.
I’ve seen that you are a sought-out conference speaker. Why do you think that is, and what message do you typically bring?
I have been fortunate enough to be asked to speak at a number of events over the last three or four years. I think the fact the Phoenix Suns were kind of one of the early adopters in the social media space was a reason early on that I was asked to speak at a number of conferences. It comes down to that we are always trying to come up with new ways to use social media to connect with fans and to grow our fan base.
When I’m at conferences, I try to share a case study of not only what we have done in using creative ideas but also what we have seen other teams in the NBA (or other teams and pro athletes) doing with brands that are maybe a little bit different.
What are some of the biggest skills you use?
I’ve got a sports journalism background. I wanted to be a sports writer coming out of college. I think that probably has helped me quite a bit in terms of being able to write good articles and to know what fans are looking for online. I grew up a sports fan. I grew up a Phoenix Suns fan, so that probably helps a lot. I think I have probably been blessed to have some creativity. I’m always trying to think outside the box and think of a new way to do things. That’s probably one of my biggest strengths. I’m always looking for new ways to connect with fans because I’m a fan. I’m a fan of sports, I’m a fan of movies, I’m a fan of the WWE, I’m a fan of Star Wars. I’m a passionate fan. I know that the fans of the Phoenix Suns are as well, so I try to bring them something they will enjoy.
You’re an editor-at-large at HOOP magazine. What advice do you have about working multiple jobs that complement each other? For example, a lot of us are freelancers.
I was very blessed to connect with the editors of SLAM magazine back in 1995 when the All-Star Game was here in Phoenix. SLAM magazine was brand-new. It had only been on the newsstands for probably two months. I loved the style of the magazine. I thought it was different from other sports magazines out there. I introduced myself to the editors when they were in Phoenix and said, “If ever you could use a freelancer…” I was fortunate enough that they gave me a small 200-word article to write for an upcoming edition. I built up a good reputation and a relationship with those guys. Eventually the top two editors of SLAM left and went to work for HOOP magazine and Inside Stuff. I kind of followed them back in 2000, and I have been writing for HOOP ever since.
I guess the biggest thing I would say is it’s tough to do additional freelance work outside of my full-time job, but there are some similarities in that it is basketball and I’m covering the sport. I would say if you are a freelance writer and you want to get more experience, pursue those magazines or newspapers or Web sites that you love and you follow and you have a lot of passion for. That will shine through when you are presenting yourself and when you are pitching yourself and pitching your ideas to the editors for what you would like to contribute.
You said you personally don’t have much of an offseason, but for a fan, obviously one of the major stories is Steve Nash going from the Suns to the Lakers. How do you go about transitioning?
That will be difficult, I’m sure. Obviously fans have fallen in love with Steve. He’s been here for eight seasons, 10, if you include the first two back when we drafted him in 1996. He’s probably one of the best players, if not the best, in Phoenix Suns history. It’s definitely going to be hard moving on without him, but I also think fans realize he’s going to be 39 this season. He’s probably only got a couple years left in his NBA career. Hopefully they are great years for him with the Lakers. Obviously the Lakers are hated rivals, and I’d hate to see them win a championship, but for his sake, I’m going to be cheering for him, even if he is wearing a Lakers uniform.
I think for Phoenix Suns fans, we have made a lot of moves this offseason, a lot of exciting moves. We have brought in some young, athletic talented guys. We brought Goran Dragic back, who spent the first couple years of his career here in Phoenix. Phoenix fans know him and loved him when he was here. We’re excited to see him back, and hopefully he takes that next step in his own NBA career. We have added Michael Beasley, an incredibly athletic guy. Obviously he’s had some off-court troubles early on in his career, but hopefully he gets a chance to mature and grow and develop into that player everybody thought he could be when he was drafted pretty high. We’ve added Wesley Johnson, another young player. He’s got a chance to shine here. Although we don’t have Steve Nash or Grant Hill anymore, I think fans have a lot to be excited about. They can jump on early with these young guys and follow them and see where we are two or three years from now as this crew blends together and grows up together in the NBA.
Do you think the Phoenix Suns are the best team in the NBA at leveraging social media? Let us know in the comments below or send us a tweet to @SportsNetworker
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