Major League Baseball has come up with a new tactic to engage their online audience and spread the word about the exciting nature of the game of baseball. MLB has a large online following consisting of a target audience that loves baseball content, but cannot necessarily make it to many baseball games and events. Especially as a result of Covid-19 restrictions and a shortened 2020 season, the new social media campaign strategy revolves around bringing the exhilarating feeling of being at a baseball game to fans at home. MLB partnered with Twitter to engage fans online by printing the best baseball related tweets on batting practice balls during the World Series. To make it even more appealing to fans, the best tweets got their printed baseball from BP shipped right to the homes of the twitter users.

As a PR professional with Major League Baseball, twitter is an important platform to focus on gaining attention from publics because much of the content that MLB posts, including constant updates on baseball news and general baseball conversation, is part of the fast-moving twitter feed. Our public relations objectives within this campaign is to connect with our target audience on twitter, which includes loyal fans that are unable to experience the thrilling atmosphere of a major league game as a result of extenuating circumstances such as restrictions from the global pandemic, work, or location. Much of MLB’s audience spends a decent amount of time scrolling through baseball content on Twitter and interacting with the league’s updates and news.

We expect this PR campaign to be successful in getting people to talk about Major League Baseball and influencing publics to interact more with the organization on online platforms and boost the organizations online media presence. There are many different ways in which our PR department at MLB can engage in unique ways with fans across the country through media events such as the #FreeBaseball campaign. The purpose of this strategy was to give fans a live experience by allowing them to have their personal tweets on a ball used in batting practice during the World Series, and then having the opportunity to keep that same ball. Not only do fans enjoy the chance to win a free ball from their favorite team’s batting practice, but it gives social media users a virtual baseball experience that generates positive responses and drives conversation.

This social media strategy is meant to boost online conversation among consumers of MLB, and it certainly does a great job of engaging the organization’s target audience and spreading the word about baseball dialogue. Overall, the PR tactic by MLB and Twitter is a unique, conversation-starting method of connecting with an online audience. It gives fans and consumers the opportunity to generate their own content that can be used in major events for the organization, which ultimately serves as a way to get people involved more and increase online participation. By increasing online presence, MLB is able to advertise their organization in a beneficial manner, eventually increasing their brand value and identity. More campaigns such as this one can be helpful in getting people to talk about the organization and follow MLB social media posts with more attention to detail and more engagement.

https://marketing.twitter.com/en/insights/mlb-twitter-steven-miller