Episode 204 Snippets: Reece Carter of the National Rugby League (NRL)

On episode 204 of the Digital and Social Media Sports
Podcast, Neil chatted with Reece Carter, Social Content
Manager for the National Rugby League (NRL).
What follows is a collection of snippets from the
podcast. To hear the full interview and more, check out
the podcast on all podcast platforms and at
www.dsmsports.net.
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 204: Reece Carter

Reece’s Career Path
“I always loved sport. Grew up playing multiple sports. [I] graduated school
and I wanted to get into sports. I liked the idea of sports journalism, so I did
a bachelor's degree in journalism, down at Wollongong University. That was
a three-year period and during that time I did get a little bit of a work
experience [with an] internship at one of the NRL clubs with their media
manager. That actually came off the back of us coaching a baseball team and
the son of the media manager was playing and I was just writing match
reports and he sort of noticed that I could write. He asked me what I was
doing and he basically offered me to come down and do some work
experience at the [Cronulla] Sharks. So that's how that started.

“I was there for a couple of years and, you know, quite low resourced. We had
no CEO at the time, the team wasn't doing so well [and I got] a little bit burnt
out. So I went traveling with some mates to Europe for four months and
came back after that and started straight back up at a digital agency called
Pillar. I was there for a few years, and wore quite a few different hats there in
project and account management, working across social media, production,
digital media marketing content initiatives for agency clients.
“And then basically I had enough there and started at the NRL as Social
Media and Community Manager and I have been here for — this is my
seventh season at present...”
“I never started out to get into social media, I was just the young one at the
Cronulla Sharks. It was in the media world and I took on the role of looking
after the social channels, and it went from there basically.”

About the National Rugby League (NRL) and where it fits in the Australian
sports ecosystem
“It's a form of rugby, but rugby league is different to rugby union. It’s
probably easy for [people outside of the country] to say they are similar, but
although they use a similarly shaped ball, they've got quite different rules,
concepts, and interpretations.
“Rugby union is probably more of a global sport. It's big on a global stage,
but it's not as big here. So we’ve got two major football codes in Australia, I'd
say. Soccer fans might not like hearing that, but the NRL and AFL are the two
major football codes, particularly from a broadcast perspective as well.
Soccer at an elite level probably isn't as popular here, but now it's got
massive junior participation and a lot of fandom with the EPL.

“A lot of Aussies have an EPL team, whether it's Liverpool, Man U, Man City,
Tottenham, whoever it is. It's probably the go-to league for a lot of soccer-
loving Australians. So the A-League is the elite competition [for soccer] here,
but it's probably not, it's definitely not on the same level as the NRL and AFL.
“The NRL is probably its most popular in New South Wales and Queensland
on the east coast. So — Sydney, Brisbane, and Gold Coast Townsville. We also
have a team down in Victoria and in Melbourne, which is where the AFL's
more popular. So AFL sort of goes across Victoria, South Australia and
Western Australia. They’ve got a couple of teams in Sydney and in
Queensland, but it's sort of that southern region of Australia is where AFL is
more popular….

“I think now it's becoming a little bit more normal for someone to be a fan of an NRL
team and AFL [team], but usually if you follow NRL, you'll follow NRL and not really
take too much of an interest in AFL. You might have a team and keep an eye on
things, but I think as a whole it's probably like that.
“Victoria is probably the only real — Melbourne's probably really the only team that
— you know it's such a heavy AFL-dominated state that everyone's got obviously an
AFL teams that they support, but they'll also support the one rugby league team in
the Melbourne Storm down there.
“We've got 16 teams in the NRL and there's nine in Sydney alone and the rest are
across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, ACT. I personally support the
Cronulla Sharks, which is right on the east coast of Sydney; that's where I grew up…”

On how the NRL looks at AFL fans from a marketing perspective
“I'm not sure we're looking to convert [AFL fans to NRL fans]. I think if
someone loves the sport or a particular league, it's very hard to turn them
over to just liking our league. I think what our goal is is to know if they've
got an AFL team, great, but you also have an NRL team. So I wouldn't say
we're actively converting, but it's definitely something we're wary of. And I
think the AFL, from a grassroots level, probably have the hold over the NRL
in terms of getting into schools and doing community visits and that sort of
thing. The NRL certainly do it, but I think The AFL probably do it better in
terms of hitting the big regional areas in particular where there's high
participation levels.”

The NRL’s structure and resources as a league
“We're definitely not very well-resourced here. I think [the group of NRL
clubs] particularly is quite under-resourced, which is unfortunate. I think
there are a couple of teams that do it really well and really are resourced
well, but I think we're still quite a way behind, say, the [United] States in
terms of resourcing and understanding the power of social. Budgets are
quite low and I know in club land there's quite a lot of turnover or burnout,
which is tough. So, you know, you might have a social media team at a club
for a season or two, but no doubt there’ll be a new set of staff in two or three
years. So it's really hard to sort of form relationships with a lot of the clubs,
because there is such a high churn through of talent.

“There are a few clubs like the Melbourne Storm who are probably the best in
terms of the structure of their social team. They sort of got a year ahead of the
social and brand marketing type role — they've got a video editor, they've got a
set of graphic designers, they've got some producers. There are a lot of teams
[where] there's a lot of people just wearing multiple hats. You know, they might
have two people that work across website, video design, social producing,
producing live game coverage, so it's pretty full on. And that's just from being in
club land myself and learning from experience. You don't have a lot of support
and you seem to be working really hard 24/7, both during and the off season.
“In terms of the NRL [league office] set up, we got to a point pre-COVID last
year where we were in a really good spot. We had eight staff within the social
media team, from our social lead to myself managing the content output side of
things, working with designers, video editors.

“We had a video editor, some producers and a couple of casual staff that
would work across the weekend as well on live game coverage. But we took a
bit of a hit, so we are at about four staff now. There's myself, our Head of
Social Cass and then a couple of producers; which is tough, it's really hard to
do a good job and manage all of the channels correctly. We don't even have a
video editor within our social team, we rely on the nrl.com team for any video
requests that we need, [so] we have to really think in advance and plan in
advance with them to be able to get the content that we need to push out at
certain times of the year. So now, at the moment, we're planning our
offseason, what content we need for our offseason with the nrl.com team.
“And even those guys themselves are quite under-resourced. So yeah, COVID
hasn't been too kind to us nor has it been kind to a lot of businesses...So
we've sort of had to focus more on the bigger picture than churning out a lot
of content, which is probably a good thing anyway…”

On what holds Australia back to achieve the same level of buy-in and investment for
social media as it sports organizations in the US have
“I think it's slowly getting to that, but I think we're quite a while away, it's definitely
still a battle for our team just to get staff on board. The fact that our social team
doesn't have a video editor alone speaks for where it’s at. Graphic design — we have a
designer who we have access to probably 80-90% of the time, but they don't sit
within our team. I think it probably depends on what business you're talking about
or what team, but I think as a whole social is probably an afterthought for a lot of
businesses. Which is unfortunate, a constant education process. I think there are
quite a lot of people that do understand the importance and value of a solid content
or social media strategy, but there's definitely a lot of clubs or executives or teams
that don't quite understand the value of it.
“I think that's purely based out of not being as educated, or they haven't been
brought up in a world of social, so it’s not something they probably think is as
important as, say, the traditional marketing side of things.”

Where Reece looks for inspiration for the NRL’s social media strategy
“On a personal level, I definitely look at the States, I keep an eye on
what teams and leagues and clubs do, but I probably follow more the
creators themselves. I follow a bunch of graphic designers, a bunch of
motion designers, a bunch of illustrators, a bunch of video editors all
from across the States where I don't really mind what team they're
from. Like, if I see a good piece of content on, particularly Twitter —
that's probably where I find a lot of my inspiration and look to — I really
try and cherrypick what each team does best and basically bring it all
together from each team to form a pretty holistic strategy for our social.

“We're fortunate we have had some decent budget over the last couple of seasons
where we have been able to use freelance creators and agencies. I'd probably lean
towards more freelancers [over] agencies just out of a cost [perspective] because
agencies do cost quite a little bit. So if I like a designer or say a designer on Twitter
that I like, I'll literally reach out to them and see if they are interested in doing
some freelance work with us. So I've got a little bit of a pool of [freelancers] that I
work with depending on what piece of content or what creative, which is nice.
“So yeah, I definitely look towards the States in particular. And not just the elite
level, [but college too], there's a lot of amazing college creators as well, which are
great. So yeah, that's where I look to for my inspiration and I form lists. I've got a
list on Twitter of social creatives and marketing talent... Basically I add anyone that
pops up that works in club land or for a team or whatever, I'll add them to that
[list]. And just sort of keeping on that list…

“And I use bookmarks quite a lot as well. For an idea or a piece of content that I
think might work down the track for something else, or I can put my own spin on it
I'll bookmark it and save it for later. I probably need to get the paid version of
bookmarks because I've got so many.
“But I mean I look from when I first started in 2015 - we only had a Digital and
Social Media Manager, which was Matt Henry...he's probably one of the smartest
and most knowledgeable guys in the digital sporting landscape in Australia, and then
we had one community manager or producer who actually worked with [the NRL] in
agency land. So in terms of headcount, there were really only three of us in 2015 that
managed social right across the board. So the internal structure was still pretty bare
bones, but we worked with an agency called VML as well for a couple of years there,
just to help us out with resources, particularly around our tentpole moments or
major events. Particularly, State of Origin.

“I’m not sure if you’ve heard of State of Origin...That's basically Australia's
greatest sporting rivalry, biggest sporting rivalry — it's Queensland versus New
South Wales; state vs. state. It's a three-game series that sees the best players in
each state play against each other during the middle of the season.
“It's kind of like an All-Stars concept. It means a lot more to the players. It's a lot
more intense now, there's genuine hatred for each other. The event's been
around for 30 years now, it’s that one sporting event that even if you don't follow
NRL or rugby league, people will still watch it with their mates. I think a big part
of that is due [to the fact that] it’s quite an aggressive, brutal type of game. It's
just a different level to the NRL. It's that next step up where it's the best. It's just
a different beast...People tune in [hoping] that a brawl or fight might break out
and fans just got nuts for it...

“[State of Origin] is still the highest rated television show every year on free
to air [TV], including non-sporting programs. So that's sort of where it sits
within the stratosphere.. And internally you're probably not meant to say it,
but State of Origin is seen as the pinnacle seen by the players, probably as the
pinnacle of rep 40. It's much bigger than I'd say international rugby league.
And if a player had to choose whether they played for Australia or State of
Origin — at present I reckon a lot of them would probably say Origin; as
crazy as that sounds. Australia, obviously it's very prestigious and you want
to play for your country, and I definitely think a lot of players would still
probably say Australia over state, but I reckon a majority of them would say
Origin.
“It's just a different breed of game. And honestly if Americans knew more
about NRL and State of Origin, that they'd get nuts for it. It's the NFL on
‘roids with limited breaks, it’s pretty full on.

On deciding where to spend budget and resources for freelance and/or highly produced
content
“Cass, our Head of Social sets [the] budget and I'll sort of lean on her to get an
understanding of what I've got to work with. I’m basically the one that will decide where
the money goes, I guess. So if I got 40k I'll break that down to say let's work with so-and-
so on this motion piece or illustration piece. I'll try and work with our internal designer
on a lot of the everyday BAU-type work that is quite straightforward...it's probably easier
for someone that understands the game to work on that sort of stuff...but it's really up to
me.
“We'll brainstorm ideas and what we want to do, and then we'll go from there and if we've
got 10k to spend the motion design,, I’ll set out what we can actually use that on whether
it's a kickoff graphic, whether it's a game ay graphic, whether it's a series of head-to-head
graphics or wallpapers. I’ll just sort of divvy that up that up into different sections from
illustration, motion, general graphic design, cartoon character-type artwork...

“We want a suite of graphics. It's very rare that I'll be briefing one
ad-hoc, random graphic, unless it's an illustration or a cartoon
character piece of content. So if I do work with a freelancer now
I'll give them a suite of graphics. So they might work on State of
Origin. There are three games so they work on the three gameday
graphics and will then work on a head-to-head sort of player stats-
type graphic. They will do the full-time template. They will do the
champions -type illustration or graphic as well, so that they'll have
a suite that they sort of worked through. And I just sort of flush
that out within Google Docs, in a spreadsheet and then allocate
what we'll do internally versus what we'll do externally.”

Repurposing and prioritizing content across platforms
“I think we've got more of a collaboration approach with the whole business
now. So we'll work really closely with, say, marketing and events. So if we've
got some animations that we'll want to put out [when] someone scores, the
events team will use animations on the big screen. So how do we work with
them to recreate now a 4x5 or a 9x16 on our platforms, and how that sort of
translates onto the social [channels]. So instead of creating a whole new
animation or motion graphic for just social, we'll work with the events team
on how that looks on the big screen and then how we can showcase that on
social as well, so we're not doubling up essentially on resource or budget.
And that's the same with the marketing team. We'll sort of work on — they've
got their own designers, so we'll work with them on what the marketing team
can do for us what they need and then how that also translate onto social and
where we can use that.

“We've [also] got our own set of graphics; what we design, we’ll pass on to the
marketing team, potentially with a different spin for any of their paid stuff or
digital billboards or that sort of stuff. And then we'll also pass it on to the
nrl.com team; they might want to include a graphic within a story or use it as
their hero image on a story as well…”
“I think we probably learned from a couple of years ago — there was so much
doubling up on a lot of content. So that was a big reason why [we thought] why is
marketing doing this and we're also doing this? Like, let's just have a uniform
approach across the board [so] that we can use and share content where
appropriate. We're not gonna use everything that marketing or events create, or
they're not going to use everything we create, but where we can manage that
output and workload, let's do it.”

On the goals for Reece and his team with NRL
“I mean, we do work with clubs and amplify club content where we can, but I
don't think we're at where we should be with that. And I think that is due to a
high turnover in club land; there's just that relationship constantly needs to be
rebuilt each year with different clubs.
“So I guess [the] underlying goal of our channels is that we want to use content
to drive engagement for the purpose of entertaining fans and delivering best-in-
class fan experiences. So if our content is driving fan engagement, fan
engagement builds relationships, relationships obviously builds trust and then
trust drives revenue. And I guess each channel has its purpose to do that in a
different way. For me, I'm quite creative-minded, so I've always had a fan-first
approach or put myself in the fans’ shoes. What do I want to see [as a fan]? And I
feel that's why we've been able to build such a large, engaged audience over the
last six or seven seasons.

“So we're now in a position where content can be monetized. I've got an
amazing relationship with Cass, we’re pretty honest with each other about
different ideas. I feel like we complement each other quite well. We may not
always agree on the same thing, but we definitely respect each other's
opinion and the majority of the time we're on the same path.
“So, yeah we obviously need to [promote our major events [and] work with
the marketing team on that,. We've got special rounds, women in league
round, indigenous round, we've got an All-Stars match at the start of the
year. We have the women's league as well. A lot of our content also ties back
into general tune-in to our broadcast, helping push that broadcast message
for our partners. Tickets and merch is obviously a big area, but that's
probably more in the paid space.

“And then, yeah, I guess the hardest thing about working social
is that it's constantly changing. There's new platforms that pop
up, algorithms [are changing], every six months is a new
change and you've just got so much more competition. You
know how the social landscape, I guess, looks today — our
content doesn't only compete against other sports in the
country or other brands in our category, we compete against
every brand period. Every single social media account — all of
YouTube, Netflix, TikTok — we're competing against all
entertainment content in general for eyeballs.

“We need to make sure our content has to be so good for people to engage
with it that we're focusing probably more on a bigger picture than
worrying about pumping out a lot of content now; which is probably what
we were doing quite early on. We probably lack the community
management or proactively starting conversations with our fanbase at the
moment. We did have a community manager pre-COVID that did a bit of
that, but it's just something, as important as it is — and to be honest it
should be a must — we just don't have someone that's dedicated towards
that. So it’s a few of us managing and looking after that.
“And there's a couple main pages or brands within the NRL space that
literally have built their brand on building community and they do such
an amazing job. You can just see how important it is for businesses or
brands to be interacting and engaging with the fans on a regular basis.”

On working off the content and storylines that play out naturally vs. pushing and preparing
content around contrived storylines
“It’s probably a mix of both. I'd say we're probably more on the reactive side of things, but I
mean we obviously also have to be quite proactive with a lot of our campaigns and events. Our
planning is done months and months in advance for a lot of events. Our offseason —
essentially the crux of our offseason is essentially already set in terms of what we're pushing
out in what week and what we require from designers on our team, team video editors and
that sort of thing.
“We obviously got storylines where we'll work with the media teams and the head of
marketing on , let's say the vaccination push at the moment; obviously we're pro-vaccination,
we’re pushing hard for everyone to be vaccinated. So we've had a campaign around that. We'll
work with the marketing team and the Head of Media as well on what that actually looks like
and working with the players on that content and filming to push that out at the moment
that's sort of happening.
“It’s a mix of proactive and reactive. I think naturally in sport a lot of news happens you can’t
plan for. But to an extent we definitely plan ahead of time where we can and set storylines…”

On the great content the NRL produces in collaboration with players
“So, to start with, we're probably more a team-first sort of vibe. Like if you
support a team, it's for the team, not necessarily a player. Obviously
everyone's got their favorite players, but traditionally, if a player leaves, they
won't really be followed, they’ll probably then be hated in Australia.
“It's not like the LeBron situation, you don't just follow a player here in the
NRL. You follow a team, it's very tribal. I think that's pretty easy to
distinguish here in Australia...
There are a couple of teams that definitely have some strong rivalries and
traditional rivalries. The Sydney Roosters vs. the South Sydney Rabbitohs are
one — both those teams started back in 1908...they're [located] next to each
other geographically...

“But when we promote games, there is that team element,
but I think there's the player element as well...There's
definitely that mouthwatering sort of match up side of
things as well that we promote. There are a lot of good
players that come up against each other [where] the
head-to-heads are definitely worth promoting rather than
team v. team. It's really dependent on who's playing, what
time of the year it is, what type of match it is, etc. So we
definitely promote those head-to-head matchups.”

“[I’m] pretty lucky [working with players on content]. I get to go
into a lot of the camps. During the season, it's obviously been a
little bit harder over the last year or two. But wherever possible,
I'll go into an All-Stars camp with the team, I'll go on tour with
the Australian Kangaroos team for a World Cup or a full nations
tour. So I'll get to be embedded within camp and work with the
players directly. I think it's quite hard for us at the NRL in
general, because we have limited access to players when they're
playing for their clubs, but when they get to the representative
stage, where we’re sort of leading the charge there, where we can
have someone in camp working with them.

“These relationships aren't built in one or two years, it's taken a solid seven years
to get to where I am. And even now our chief photographer Chucky...he's been in
the game for 20 odd years now and he's got a really good relationship with
players that — if the NRL needs something — a lot of the time they'll go to him or
myself to get content while we're in camp. They won't go through the team
manager or the media manager, they'll just ask us. So we've just built
relationships with players over time and earned their trust.
“I think it's very easy obviously to be burnt by certain sections of the media. So,
you know, you become familiar — if you're in camp with someone, you become
quite familiar with them and get to know them.[We’re] similar ages as well,
where we enjoy the same things and can talk about the same things and they just
say this is one of the boys You'll go to dinners with them or coffee in the
morning, or have lunch with them or go to the beach or whatever it is when
you're in camp. But you'll also be able to get that real solid, direct access to them
whilst working…”

On the size of the NRL’s social platforms vs. those of players
“I think the NRL is probably bigger as a whole in terms of
engagement [compared to player social accounts]; players obviously
always are going to get a higher sort of engagement rate than a
league or a club. I think that just it is what it is and that won't
change ever, which I think is a good thing. But I think the NRL —
with the audience size and, and growth that we've had over the last
six or seven years, it’s gotten to a place where we've got players
inboxing us and asking us to post photos of them on Instagram and
tagging their accounts so that it can grow their followers.

“There's a lot of players this year who have wanted a
blue [checkmark] who were sort of new on the scene
and they're just stinging for a blue tick to be verified.
So yeah, I think the NRL still holds a pale; there's
obviously a few marquee players that don't need that
support or promotion, but as a whole, I'd say if the
NRL tags them, they get pretty excited about getting
some new followers...”

On the social savvy of NRL players and across generations
“I think definitely [for] the old generation [social media is] an afterthought.
There are a couple of smart players who utilize their platform in certain ways,
but the youth definitely — I feel like a lot of them are on the platform, but don't
quite use it. They definitely don't take advantage of their current influence. I
feel like a lot of players will retire and then start trying to build their brand or
focusing more on their brand or a product that they want to sell or their
academy. They should be doing that whilst they're playing sport from an early
stage and maximizing their influence. Because if you're playing rugby league or
iNRL for 10 odd years and you do nothing and then finally retire and they go
‘Oh, well I should have taken advantage of it.’ So many players just don’t. As
sad as it is, there are a lot of players that no one really — unless you’re like a
Tom Brady marquee-type of player — the hardcore fans will obviously still
follow it and like you to a certain extent, but a lot of them will drop off.

“They don't care what X player is doing once they retire, they
just don't care. They've missed the boat. So I think it's
something I'm quite passionate about in building and helping
players with their brands and maximizing the opportunity
while they're playing sport. They're driving five to 10 times the
level of engagement across their social audiences compared to
clubs and sporting leagues and brands. So it's still an education
piece. I think there are definitely a few players, there's
probably not many that really understand the power of it.

There are definitely quite a lot of active players on there...I don’t
think there are any that are quite intricate with their strategies.
But I think that comes down to — player managers here [in
Australia] essentially negotiate contracts and might get them a
few appearances on a sports catalog TV show, and that's or get a
car deal, and that’s about it. But they won't really get to a point
where they're actively looking for partnerships or working with
brands and bringing in X amount of dollars on certain
campaigns or becoming brand ambassadors where they're
making X amount of dollars over a certain period of time.

“So that's definitely an area that where as a whole, it’s not just the
NRL, but just as a whole. I think actually quite a lot of the Australian
Olympians do a really good job on social. and they really maximized
that time whilst the Olympics were going on. And especially with the
quick turnaround, with three years to the next one, I think this is a big
period for them, but yeah, I think NRL players can be doing a lot
better.
“And they should be employing or working with community managers
or marketing managers to firstly build up the community and
engagement, and then off the back of that monetizing their brands.”

On Australian social media culture, similarities and differences vs. US
“We have a massive meme culture here. We've got a pretty relaxed topic
culture in Australia. I think it's the Aussie thing to do — just take the piss
out of each other. It's not out of the norm, so I don't think there's any one
platform as such; the meme culture is quite big across every platform. If I
had to pick one, it’s probably Instagram. As I mentioned before, there are a
couple of accounts; there one's called the NRL Roast, which essentially
started out where they were roasting players, but I think they've sort of
morphed and changed their strategy where they've become quite popular
with fans; just having a lighthearted chat about anything and everything
rugby league, or sports in general.

“There's another one called Bloke in a Bar, which is actually a
former player who launched his own beer called Bloke in a Bar. He
has literally built a community on social around meme culture and
just talking about rugby league where now he's bBloke in a Bar, he's
just thriving so much because everyone just loves him because he
just is a genuine, down to earth, very relatable human being that
just enjoys having a chat about footie and having a laugh.
So they're both filled up. They're a very engaged community and
they pump out [content] — I couldn't tell you how many pieces of
content they put out, but the fans absolutely go nuts for it.”

Reece’s favorite piece of content from his time with the Cronulla Sharks
“When I started a little before I started with the Sharks, I was doing my
work experience there with one of the players, Ben Ross — he actually broke
his neck during a game and needed three surgeries. I was lucky enough to do
a bit of a video feature with him during his recovery. I got to speak to the
surgeon, the doctors, Ben himself; [it was] my first really visual piece of
storytelling that I’d done and I guess it really kicked things off for me.
“I'm still mates with Ben now. He lives just around the corner and it was
really nice to share his story. That's probably my first relationship with an
athlete, which is cool.”

The non Australian sports league or a team whose social media content
Reece most admires and why?
Reece names a few
“I love what the [Los Angeles] Chargers do. You can just tell that they
operate on another level across the board, whether it's their fun
personality on Twitter, their viral videos with the schedule release that
they did with the [stock videos] and their recent all access pieces. Their
design and animation in particular is dope. You can just tell that they
get what social engagement is all about.

“I love the design work by the Brooklyn Nets. Not sure if it's just the black and
white color scheme that I love that their work is always just clean, sharp,
consistent. So, too, the Carolina Panthers — sort of a real minimal [look], using
lots of white space, just clean. Clemson Tigers — I have really liked their video
work in recent seasons, their hype packages that they put out are straight fire.
On TikTok, MLB and UFC — they have a real variety of content they put out.
The [Chicago] Bulls also do an amazing job with Benny the Bull. The All Blacks
— [I] have to give a mention to the All Blacks in New Zealand, they've got a
great account...I think a lot of teams do channels or platforms very well...But, as
I mentioned before, I probably follow more the creatives themselves.”

Reece’s social media mantra or guiding principle
“Creating and sharing content that really connects and resonates
with your audience. I saw [a quote] on Twitter the other week, I'm
not sure who it was from, it was like ‘Ask yourself, does this piece
of content — is anybody really gonna care about it?’ It's such a
really good way to look at it because I think you get caught up in
just creating content for the sake of creating content sometimes.
You just gotta make sure you do it properly, [it] has a purpose
and, or provides value to the business, not just doing it to tick a
box...”

How Reece keeps up with the social media and creative space
“Twitter Lists is definitely a big one for me. It can be public
or private, you can add people or accounts that provide
inspiration or education for you; not just in the sporting
space, you might be in horse racing or a completely different
sport or into crypto shares or whatever it's based off.
Influencers or people that you sort of admire or learn from.
So that's a big one.

“As I mentioned, I use bookmarks and save tweets, different
pieces or ideas that I love. I follow, industry leaders and
commentators, like yourself, Jess Smith, Matt Kobach, and don't
necessarily pigeonhole yourself into sport either. Have a look at
what other industries are doing, fashion music, FMCG, all that
sort of thing.
“And then if you're into podcasts and blogs, subscribe to podcasts
or blogs that keep you up to date, even if it's 10 minutes when you
first wake up or 10 minutes before you go to bed. Front Office
Sports or Hashtag Sports [are] both great platforms, [too]…”

Reece’s advice on maintaining mental health working in social
media and sports
“It's a really interesting question for myself at the time. [I’m] seven
seasons into the NRL, so I'm probably at a stage now where I'm
looking for a new challenge or new role in a different environment.
Obviously I still want to stay in the social and content space, but I'm
not sure what the next steps are for me. But yeah, I think working in
social, it's essentially 24/7. You’re never really fully unplugged as
much as the bosses or executives tell you to unplug. It just doesn't
happen.

“I think so often you're just consuming different kinds of media and information
outside of work hours that bring your mind straight back to work. I think there's
also the expectation, internally as well, but from fans to be always pumping out
content. If you’re quiet for a couple of hours...fans sort of expect [you] to be just
pumping out content, which isn't always the case.
“Especially here in Australia, as I sort of mentioned before I'm not sure we fully
understand the value of social media or what it takes to work in social and what's
involved from a resource perspective. And I think when you're young, especially
working in sports [and] social media, there's just no off button. I think now that
I've had the experience I’ve had, I’ve made it a goal of mine to just clock off every
now and then; otherwise you would just go mad and lose your love for [it]...

“It's hard when you first start out. Our work is so public,
it's there for everyone to see. Every bit of content you
push out or every bit of community engagement you put
out, it's there for the world to see. So there's a lot of
pressure for people. You want to do the best job you can,
especially when starting out to make a good impression
to not only your fan base, but the internal team or the
business that you're working for. Because they're on
social, too, and they're seeing the work we're putting out.

“You might get the odd internal comment saying ‘Why can't we
do this? So-and-so's doing [this].’ Well, (if you can) give me 10k
to spend on an agency to put together this amazing piece of video
content or hype reel. There's levels to content that people don't
quite understand. You can put a hype package out, but I think
there's levels to that hype package. It can be the pretty basic sort
of montage of highlights. But when you get to actually
storytelling, a piece of content with different sorts of
effects...that's probably my pet peeve — like, can we do something
like this where we can that, you know, do you have budget for it
or who's going to do it? Or why have you left it to the day before?

The non-mainstream social media platform Reece has his eye on
“I think Twitch...I think enabling the ability for influencers to play video
games and create a full-time income from their passion; the phenomenon of
e-sports has just taken over the entire world. It's probably an area I need to
become more educated on. Obviously I understand the importance and how
powerful it is, but I just need to wrap my head around the intricacies a little
bit more of it all. We have quite a lot of NRL players who are actually
gamers and I think it would be stupid not to look into it ASAP.
“I think it's just been a resource thing for us. And unfortunately there's only
probably so many channels that we can put our effort into and do a good job
of it. You can obviously be on multiple platforms, but if you're not doing a
good job on all of them, you're better off focusing on three or four than six
or seven.”

The NRL player[s] we should be following on social
“I'll give you two for Instagram. Brian To'o (@bizzzaa_) who goes under the name of
Bizza and Brandon Smith who goes under the name of Hectic Cheese (@hecticcheese).
They're probably the two biggest characters in our game. The fans love them, even if you
don't support[their team], they’re just loved across the board.
“They're just different characters. Brandon Smith has a bit of fun with his head coach.
Um, he calls him his father and it's sort of like a father-son combination. He likes stirring
him up. There's actually a video, a sequence of Instagram stories he posted the other day
where they're unloading the bags off the bus and they had actually filled the coach's bag
with rocks or stones.
“One of the boys is filming it and the coach hasn't even noticed when he picks the handle
up from his bag and just walked off and the boys are just laughing in the background.
Those guys are funny.

“Brian To'o, I don't even know how to explain him. He's
just a character. He can dance, he sings. He's a bit of
everything.
“[On] TikTok, I'd probably say Alex Johnston
(@alexjohnno). Ge's really good. He's got a few different
sort of skits that he does. You probably wouldn't think in
general he'd be entertaining on social, but his stuff on
TikTok is really funny and interesting and well worth a
follow.

“I'll give a shout out to Chad Townsend (chadtownsend10 is his YouTube
channel). He's probably the most knowledgeable on social media, in
terms of understanding the importance and value of it as a player. He's
probably not a marquee player as much, but he's definitely a player that's
a hotbed for a team. He was the first halfback that helped the Sharks win
the Grand Final for me. And now I'm mates with him. He does a really
good job across all social, but in particular YouTube; he uploads quite a
lot of vlogs; it gives a lot of behind the scenes type of content for fans to
follow along and fans really enjoy it and get a bit of a different feel for
what it's like to be playing for a professional sporting body, especially
when they're on the road traveling so much with COVID.

“Kalyn Ponga (@kalyn__ponga on IG) is another
one. He's probably the coolest player in the NRL or
one of, sort of real relaxed, vibey. He's got a really
good step on him and they call it a goose step. And
the younger generation really love him. He uploads
more arty type of content, you know, photos and
behind the scenes sort of content.”

The best meal to get in Sydney and where to get it
BISTECCA → It's a pretty unique dining experience. It's a
classic Italian cocktail bar and restaurant that basically is
dedicated to a type of tailbone cut of steak, which is in
Florence, a Florentine steak. So it's cut and weighed on the
spot depending on how much you want to order, um, and
then presented to the diners basically before it's been
cooked on fire over charcoal.
“They've got these private rooms, which you can book and
it sits within their actual wine cellar and it's really just set
aside. It's really private and it's just a really good modern
dining experience. And their starters are amazing as well.
They've got this candle that melts and it's actually edible
and you get to dip homemade focaccia bread into it.”
“If I had to give you another one, that's probably more
casual, it's a place called Totti’s. It's in the Eastern
suburbs...it’s more casual Italian, but yeah, the menu is
made up to share with friends or family. The burrata or
wood fired bread is delicious.

The Mount Rushmore of all-time Australian athletes
“Let's start with NRL, I don't think I can personally split Cameron
Smith and Darren Lockyer. Cameron Smith was the smallest player,
but in the forward pack who makes 40+ tackles a game. He played a
record 400+ games, which is unheard of in the NRL. He's got the
body of an accountant they say. He's obviously got a bit of muscle,
but he's definitely not the biggest player. He plays in the middle of
the field [and] does all the dirty work. He was the most durable. And
his influence on a game, although he's probably not the most flashy
player, he just could dominate a game...

“And then Dan Lockyer. He was a halfback, sort of like a playmaker, he just was
clutch. Any big game or big play that was needed, nine times out of 10 he'd step
up. He could win a game on the siren with a field goal or kick or a pass or
whatever it was. I just think those two are probably the two stand outs for me.
“[In] cricket, Shane Warne. I think most of the world knows Shane Warne. He
had it all. He could play, he's a character. Golf is a hard one, but I'd probably
have to say Greg Norman. Growing up, he was the go-to golfer for me.
“There's a lot [more golfers] now that are quite famous...Ian Thorpe, probably,
the swimmer, you know, he went to multiple Olympics and dominated, um, He
sort of liked the Michael Phelps of Australia.”
[Reece also brings up tennis players Lleyton Hewitt and Nick Kyrgios]

Reece’s Social Media All-Star to Follow
Jess Smith (@WarJessEagle on Twitter) → “She puts out regular
content that it's really educational and highlights the great content
that teams and clubs are pushing out.
Reece also shouts out Bloke in a Bar (@blokeinabar on Instagram) →
“He's an Australian, as I mentioned the brand before. He's got some
great content, really relatable content for a sports-loving Aussie or
just a sports lover in general. You probably won't understand half the
lingo if you're not from Australia, but he's definitely worth a follow.”

Where to find Reece and the NRL on digital/social
media
Reece is @Reece_Carter on Twitter and Instagram
and Reece Carter on LinkedIn
NRL is @NRL on all social channels — Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, etc.

Thanks again to Reece for being so generous
with his time to share his knowledge,
experience, and expertise with me!
For more content and episodes, subscribe to
the podcast, follow me on LinkedIn and on
Twitter @njh287, and visit
www.dsmsports.net.

Episode 204 Snippets: Reece Carter of the National Rugby League (NRL)

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Episode 204 Snippets: Reece Carter of the National Rugby League (NRL)