Like F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, “action is character.”
99.999% of official sports team Twitter accounts are dry and dull. They’re corporate. They strive to be excessively positive all the time. By contrast, the LA Kings’ Twitter account is an exception: the best team official account in sports. And it’s not even close. There isn’t even a #2 that comes to mind.
While others are vanilla; they’re chirping and taking shots at other teams, cities etc. At times, the L.A. Kings can be quite funny, snarky and irreverent.
As the series progresses, it’s probably a good idea to keep on eye on the LA Kings official Twitter account. Like the rest of their 386,000 followers, you’ll be entertained.
bad guys score. pic.twitter.com/axTGDFEUTd
— LA Kings (@LAKings) June 5, 2014
Yesterday, ESPN’s top pairing of hockey experts, Barry Melrose and Steve Levy joined the media for a conference call, previewing the 2014 Stanley Cup Final. So for all the hockey zealots that think ESPN hates the NHL…well, they did this conference call, and they devoted “Outside The Lines” to the Cup Final. I think the WWL covers hockey as much as the market demands. Obviously, it’s not their focus, but I don’t see a huge groundswell of online interest that would command a huge increase in NHL coverage.
So when I asked about the L.A. Kings Twitter feed on conference call here’s what they had to say.
Barry Melrose: Luc Robitaille is here, and Luc played for me and I saw him yesterday, and he’s one of my favorite guys. He’s one of the big honchos here in charge of things in L.A. here and Luc has always been a cutting?edge guy. He’s always been a guy that would try things, even as a player. I remember I brought Tony Robbins into the dressing room and Luc was one of the first guys who really embodied it. He would try it. He would try the stuff Tony was talking about.
So I think when a guy like Luc is in charge of your team and all those things, you’re going to be cutting edge. You will try things. That’s why L.A. now is one of the models and one of the best organizations on the ice and off the ice in the NHL today. They have got people that will try things, and you know, those are the organizations that go places and now they certainly are one of those organizations.
Barry Melrose is a great insight into the inner workings of the Kings organization; given the many years he worked for them. Here’s what Steve Levy had to say when I brought up the topic:
The L.A. Kings, you’re right. I believe their team Twitter account is the first in professional sports to be run by the organization to have a sense of humor; to be like real people, not the politically correct, not be worried about every word that comes out. The tweaking of the Vancouver Canucks was brilliant. For those of you who are not aware, and I hope I get this right, the Canucks had taken umbrage with the Kings taking their slogan, ‘We are all Kings.’ I guess in Vancouver, their slogan was ‘We are all Canucks.’ And the Kings’ Twitter account fired back: ‘Okay, how about we’ll go with, ‘We’re in the playoffs,’ which was obviously, you know, a great shot and a lot of fun.
I follow two team accounts. I followed the Kings for a while, and now I obviously follow the Rangers because of the Stanley Cup final. Usually I stay away from team accounts because they are not going to give me anything I can use because they are going to be right down the middle, no slant, no opinion, unless it’s favored in their direction. But the Kings Twitter account is brilliant.
Levy is spot on about what the Kings did to that Canucks fan.
It was glorious.
The main reason the Kings Twitter account is phenomenal while others fail is because it’s run by marketing people, not public/media relations people. Most team accounts are geared towards followers who are already interested in the team and will follow no matter what. The L.A. Kings serve that interest; but they’re also here to create interest in the team. To add followers, especially those who might not be interested in the team.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on talk radio stations across the country. Banks, a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, has been featured in numerous outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin and the History Channel. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)