Episode 245 Snippets: Karen Ramming of TrackTown USA

BEST OF THE DIGITAL AND
SOCIAL MEDIA SPORTS PODCAST
EPISODE 245: KAREN RAMMING
On episode 245 of the Digital and Social Media Sports
Podcast, Neil chatted with Karen Ramming, Senior Director,
Innovation and Digital Strategy for TrackTown USA. Karen also
discusses her time with Pac-12 Networks and the Golden State
Warriors.
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

Karen’s Career Path
“My career path is a little funny as I think anybody who has had a career in
digital is. I got my start in public relations. I was actually working for
TrackTown USA in undergrad and immediately after in contract positions,
working as a PR and Communications assistant. So I was drafting press
releases, doing websites, interviewing athletes, doing mixed zone stuff.
And at that time — this was 2015 — so social media was a line item on
everybody's job description rather than being a specific job. It was while I
was doing that that I realized that I love social media and I loved the
combination of data and creativity and communications that it allowed me
to have. So from PR and comms, I kind of branched out into social media
and decided to focus specifically on that for a good chunk of my career.

“I was at Pac-12 Network for three years. During that time I started
as a part time freelance social media producer and then by the
time I left three years later, I was managing the entire social media
team. After that I went to the Golden State Warriors where I
oversaw social media for the Warriors, Warriors Shop, which is
our retail store, and for Chase Center, which was the arena that
opened while I was there. While I was there our team also
expanded from 3 to 7. Then I did a little stint at the University of
Washington getting their [NIL] program off the ground. And now
I'm here at TrackTown USA where I oversee digital strategy,
content and PR and communications. So kind of a combination of
all the steps along my career path into one role now.”

On deciding to develop her career in social media after working in PR and
Comms
“To me it looked like the opportunity to have fun at work if I'm being
completely honest. You know, I was 23 years old and I was spending a lot
of time on social myself and I was like, ‘Oh, if this is something that could
actually be beneficial to businesses and companies and I enjoy doing it,
why wouldn't I do it?’ At the time, you couldn't attach a video to a tweet, it
was still 140 character limit. It's a completely different animal now than it
was back then. And back then the primary channels were Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram and that was pretty much it. And like live streaming was just
just starting on social. So the landscape was completely different.

“But I decided to go in that direction for my career because I
genuinely enjoyed it. I liked that I got to be more creative in social
media than I did on the PR and communication side. I liked that
there was the data element to it, that I could actually look at posts
and see, ‘Oh, this one's doing really well. I wonder why,’ and
experiment a little bit. And I liked that it still had the communication
element to it that I was still representing a brand online and that I
was having toe dip in the waters of PR and comms for lack of a
better phrase. So it just combined all of my interests and I told
myself I'll keep doing this as long as I'm having fun. And so far I'm
still having fun, so that's why I'm still doing it.”

On balancing sports coverage across sports at Pac-12 Network
“I want to start by saying that the reason why I was drawn to working at Pac-12
Network was because of their coverage of Olympic and women's sports. I ran track
and field growing up [and] I ran it for a couple of years in college and I personally
saw the value in covering sports like that. But at the time, again, this is 2015, the
businesses didn't see the value in covering Olympic or women's sports. And the
reason why I was drawn to Pac-12 network is because they were doing that, they
were broadcasting 850 live events every single year, [and] a lot of those were
women's sports, the bulk of those were Olympic sports. And even outside of those
broadcasts that they owned, they also were covering events on ESPN, on FOX, on
the school-hosted live streams even. So it totaled about 1300 events which, yeah,
that's a shit ton. That is an insane amount of events to be covering.

“So what it actually looked like was there is a team — it flexed between five and
eight social media people depending on the time of the season — that were on the
digital team. We also had a team of about 3 to 5 editorial, so the website content
folks, and we had a team of probably about 3 to 5 video folks as well doing some
of those higher quality edits…We had our fearless leaders in Justin Karp and Sam
Silverstein and they would have the schedule of everything, they would have the
storylines that we should be watching, any kind of key players to know, if anybody
had just won awards. They had the summary for everything, like the SparkNotes of
every event. We would get to work and we would be assigned X, Y and Z games. I
think the most games that I watched trying to cover at once was four just because
the volume and it was like you have to kind of pick — you have three screens here,
you have one on your computer, which one are you listening to? Okay, this one's
at halftime, [let me put] the volume on this one instead. You have SnappyTV up,
which was the video cutting platform for clipping highlights in real time.

“So that's how I got started at Pac-12 just in the weeds of every single
event. Then as I progressed through my years there I ended up
managing the team and being the one to actually set the strategy and
determine the KPIs and figure out the staffing plan — that's where, to
your question about like how do you deem if something is successful
when you have just so much going on, that's where those questions
really started to come up and. For us we learned through Pac-12
Network the value of the niche spots on the Internet. We learned the
value of being one of the only outlets to be covering college women's
basketball to the extent that we did and the value that it brought our
channels in that the fans are like, ‘Oh, you guys are the only ones
posting highlights. We're going to follow you and we're going to be
sharing your content because nobody else is.’

“So being niche on the Internet in that way, but also the value that
it was bringing the actual schools, players and coaches. Tara
VanDerveer, Cori Close — they were writing to us on a very regular
basis saying, ‘Your coverage both linearly and digitally has helped
our recruiting classes and it's helped advance our programs
because people are realizing, Oh, there's somebody covering us
and we can get our names out there and we can get more eyeballs
on us, our team and our sport.’ So for us, success was really
determined by were we benefiting the schools? Were we
benefiting the programs and were we benefiting the student
athletes? And by doing that through as equitable as we could with
coverage of those sports.”

Balancing super-serving existing fans vs. trying to pull in new fans
“It's always both…I'm still working in a niche sport [now]. But with niche
sports in general, you want to make sure that you're serving the existing
fan base because they're the ones that are going to keep you alive
online. But you also want to make sure that your coverage is appealing
so that way, yeah, you can break through that bubble of whatever sport it
is and reach a potential new audience because at the end of the day, if
you're working for or with a niche sport, they probably want to grow that
sport and they want to bring more fans in. So how can you balance those
two things of still serving the existing fan base and creating content in a
way that's accessible to potential new audiences?

“I remember when I was at Pac-12, this was also when Twitter was testing out live
streaming full games…I think this is back in like 2016 or 17. We were putting ice
hockey on Twitter and there was a chat function where if you were tuned in to the
Twitter live stream, people could chat next to it, kind of like YouTube live streams. I
remember I like broadcasting one of the hockey games and there was this person
who came in the chat and [asked], ‘What is this?’ And then they were like almost
live tweeting their discovery of their love of hockey, and by the end of it they're like,
‘This shit's lit. This is amazing,’ and they came back for lke multiple broadcasts and
they, according to their tweets, had never watched collegiate ice hockey before.
“So it's definitely both. And I think that that's something that niche sports have a
real opportunity in doing is trying to appeal to both and making sure that whatever
strategy you have for any kind of content distribution, whether it's online or linear
or anywhere else, that you keep both of those opportunities in mind.”

Content appealing to storytelling and student athlete stories alongside social media-
friendly ‘viral’ clips
“I think that the Venn diagram that you're describing is almost a circle because. yeah, like
the thing about those snackable viral moments that pop off on TikTok or Reels or wherever
else — there usually is a story behind them and it's just a matter of knowing how to
package it. Like, is this going to be a full on feature or is it going to be a five second thing
that ends up going viral? And yeah, some of them are super fun…Let's say a mascot race
or like a baby race or whatever, those things are helping tell the story of the brand and the
experience and the athletes. And I think that especially when you're looking at growing an
audience of a sport, the stories are what grows the sport, especially for new audiences.
Nobody is going to turn on like a cricket match or whatever and then pick up a book and
read all the cricket rules and become a fan because they suddenly understand the ins and
outs of the game. They're going to become a fan initially because they found somebody in
the sport that appeals to them and that makes them want to come back and root for them
and learn the sport on their behalf. That's my opinion at least.

“And I think that especially when I was at Pac-12, we had just a really talented staff. I
mean, you called us all-stars, which was very kind, but we had a really talented staff
both on the digital and studio side of finding those stories and then managing to
package them in ways that were appealing online, on TV, in email, on web and it
benefited, again, our schools, our channels and all of that. One of them that I always
like to call out whenever somebody asked me about things like this is I think it was
2018, if I remember correctly, Kate Scott was our sideline football reporter. Shout out
Kate Scott, [who] is now [doing] play by play for the Philadelphia 76ers. I think she
was our sideline reporter and she was interviewing Adoree Jackson after USC won a
football game and it was supposed to be run of the mill like stats, football, football,
football. And she noticed that Adoree's mom was standing like ten feet behind him and
she was looking a little emotional, ao Kate brought her in. She wasn't supposed to do
this, but she brought her into the interview and she was like, ‘Hey, mom, you're
looking pretty emotional. Tell me what that's about.’ And she handed Adoree’s mom
the mic not knowing what she was going to say and Adoree’s mom says, on TV, she
had breast cancer all last year. She couldn't see any of the Adoree’s games, so being
able to see him play in person was just such a blessing from God and it was so special
for her.

“That's what I'm talking about when I say identifying those
stories from the athletes and within the sport that are
appealing to even non-fans. Like, that clip went viral for us. It
was just really resonating with a lot of people because it was
the story within the sport that Kate, she has a sixth sense for
them, but she was able to identify and pull out and we were
able to take it, package it and distribute it to the world.”

On going from covering hundreds of teams with the Pac-12 to the NBA’s Golden State
Warriors
“Honestly it was fantastic for my mental health going from having 12 universities with
28 sports to cover to one team, one sport, and a roster of 16 guys. It was just really
nice to be able to focus and be able to know that you're doing an intentional and good
job because that is what you're doing and you don't have to worry about these 18
other things going on. So it was super nice.
“There were learning curves going from a company like Pac-12 Network, which is
pretty big but it's pretty big in the United States, to a company like the Warriors,
which, when I was there, the Warriors were flexed between being the 10th and 12th
largest sports brand in the world and the second largest NBA brand in the world. Just
having that kind of shift in terms of brand recognition and brand implication and
everything that we did — that was huge…

“Pac-12 Networks was fairly good at resourcing, but the digital team
definitely needed to like shoestring it because it was, again, early days of
social and the value just wasn't being seen there quite yet. The Warriors
were a little bit ahead of that in terms of we got pretty good resourcing, but
with that resourcing came expectations. You know, when I got hired my two
primary goals that were put in front of me were make sure our brand keeps
its reputation online while also growing our audience. They had a really big
focus on international growth and also we should be bringing in more
money. So our audience grew tremendously. We ended up having we had
over like 60 million followers. The majority of them lived outside of the
United States, which was great. [We] tripled the amount of revenue that was
being brought in. It was just bigger, and everything that you did online had
a bigger implication just by the nature of the brand that you were posting
on behalf of.”

“I think that definitely most of it was about keeping the [Warriors
successful social media] train moving. Like I mentioned, it was a very
well established brand. Any time that you go into something that's
that recognizable across the world, you don't want to be changing
things up immediately or in any kind of drastic way. So part of it was
definitely keeping the train moving. But another part of it was, like I
mentioned, to grow the brand, to increase revenue and to do that you
need to make changes. And a lot of that looked like, you know,
restructuring some of our priorities and KPIs, restructuring some of
our workflows. And a lot of it also came down to developing really
good and strong, solid professional relationships both internally and
with some external partners and with other folks in the league.

“When I joined the Warriors, it was during a time of pretty big turnover across the
board in the organization, so naturally when there's so many new faces, especially
faces in the social media department where we are, there's naturally just a little bit
of hesitancy there. So we had to spend a lot of time building that trust between our
team, between PR, between basketball ops, between corporate partnerships, just to
ensure that we are on the same page, we are playing for the same team. And when I
got started, you know, our social team didn't have any access beyond what the
traditional media had. So we could only go to the last ten minutes of practice and
we were sharing the baseline with Kerith Burke and everybody else who was in the
Bay Area covering the Warriors. So a big part of my own personal goals was to
develop that trust so that way we could get the extra access and we could get the
added content with the players that's going to be adding more value to our
channels and therefore more value to our corporate partnerships team so that way
they can go out and sell some stuff and more value to our audience growth teams,
so that way we maintain or even jump up the charts in terms of brand
recognizability around the world.”

On building trust with players, team ops, and PR as a social media team with the
Warriors
“I think that before we even touch on building trust with the players, a lot of it is a
step back and building trust with operations and with public relations — they're
the ones who who are the gatekeepers essentially to player access on a lot of the
teams. It's not just the Warriors but a lot of professional teams regardless of
league operations and PR, they work really closely with the players and they have
a lot of say in terms of who has access and what can we actually do with the
players. So the first step was to establish trust with them. And luckily I'm pretty
extroverted and an over-communicator by nature, so that was the approach that I
took and just being really proactive with my communications with them, over-
explaining everything that we were doing, showing them the results of what we
were doing and that was how we earned that internal trust.

“From there building trust with the actual players, they have to see
you. So we were at practices. When we flew, we were on the same
plane. They got to know us as being colleagues and as being
trusted coworkers within the space. And there's also a balance of
especially when you're interacting with younger athletes like a lot
of these guys were in their early 20s, college athletes obviously are
typically 18 to 22 years old, there is the corporate need and the air
of professionalism that is absolutely essential to make sure that
you don't cross the line, but also making sure that you're a normal
person and that you aren't coming across as very corporate Karen
who's only there to get this prerecorded video and make sure that
you do the sponsor placement and all of that.

“So it's kind of a balance of being really professional, knowing
exactly what you need from them so that way you don't waste their
time while also being just a normal human and talking to them in a
way that shows that you respect them as a person and not just as
an athlete who will bring a million new followers or whatever it is to
the channels. When it comes to the athletes that have their
established brands like obviously Steph Curry, Draymond Green,
Klay Thompson — those guys have their own brands, they have
their own teams, they have people who do that with them and for
them for their brands. Then you have folks like the two way players
who, you know, maybe they just got verified on Instagram and
they're looking for our help to actually grow their brand.

“So yeah, it is a mix of obviously we want to cover everybody on the
team and we want to get content with everybody on the team and just
knowing — which you learn the more time that you spend with these
people — knowing which opportunities should go to the more
established veteran players and which opportunities should be going
to some of the younger guys. And also just learning athletes
interests. You know, some athletes are really into TikTok and so they
will drop everything and just and do a TikTok. Like, they're super into
doing that because they think it's fun, so it's mutually beneficial that
way because they enjoy doing it. It's helping the team's brand, but
then it's also helping theirs because they might not be as established
veteran of a player, so they're getting a little bit more exposure on the
channels.”

On resisting the temptation to always go to the superstar well to
maximize social numbers
“It's definitely a mix… Like we knew when I was there that we could
post a clip of Steph hitting a halfcourt shot once a day and nobody
would get tired of it and it would hit a million views every single time.
But that would be doing a disservice to our players, our team and our
fans by not showcasing the other players. So it wasn't even just the
social team that was keeping that in check and making sure that there
were faces getting on the feeds, it was our entire marketing
department. So whether it was out of home or TV ads or anything like
that, it was a very real thing that we kept top of mind.

“Especially one of the seasons that I was there was the season where
it's Steph broke his hand, Draymond wasn't playing a ton, Klay was
coming off of the 2019 injury and I remember at the start of that
season we were posting things and every single comment was like,
‘Who the fuck is this guy? Who is this? What is this roster? I don't
know any of these people.’ So, yeah, that is discouraging, but it also
presented an opportunity to say our fans aren't leaving us because
we aren't posting Steph, we need to be doing a better job at posting
these other guys and telling their stories and showing their
personalities. We thought that we were doing a good job of it last
season, but clearly we weren't. So we took that opportunity to do it
that season when the quote ‘more well-known players’ were decidedly
not around as much because they were dealing with injuries.”

On selling the Warriors as a brand just as much as a
basketball team
“The short answer is yes, we are. I mean it's that's the thing
about the team is that it's not just what happens on the court.
Like these guys are people outside of that and they have
personalities outside of that. And there's a million things that
go on when it comes to a team beyond what happens on the
court within those regulation minutes. So it was definitely a
priority for us to mix both types of content in.”

About the goals for TrackTown USA’s digital, social, and comms strategy
“The short of it is that we are existing online to connect fans and new
audiences to the sport and athletes that they love and that maybe they don't
know that they love yet. So yeah, I mean we're selling the entire experience to
put it very succinctly. You know, it's the interaction with the athletes, it's being
at Hayward Field, which is seen as one of the best venues hosting some of the
best track and field meets in the country. It's the entire experience of the sport
that you get. And with that, like, yeah, of course we want to grow our own
audience like any digital person that says that they don't want to grow their
own audience [is lying]. It's just that is a priority for us and it is a priority for
us to actually develop some revenue generation on our channels as well.

“But yeah, our emphasis is ‘what's the experience?’ I always
like to say, this is just my opinion of course, that track and
field is really good at marketing to track and field fans,
because it is a very niche sport and in theory it should be
simple to expand to new audiences because it's the most
participated-in high school sport in America, but then that
participation doesn't translate over to fandom. We could have
a two hour conversation about why that is, but we are looking
at ways to cover the sport and to market the sport in a way
that isn't just appealing to track and field fans.

“We're in a really unique position at TrackTown USA where we're
not a traditional media outlet, so we don't have any kind of ethical
obligation to cover every single meet that happens and to report
just the facts. We're also not a shoe company, we don't have the
obligation to cover just Nike athletes or just Adidas athletes. We
can really be creative and flexible in our own lane of even just
determining what that lane is and how we can bring track and field
to the masses.
“So for us, right now, that looks like, yeah, what does the
experience of track and field look like from a TrackTown USA, from
a Eugene, Springfield, Hayward Field kind of angle?”

The business imperatives for TrackTown USA and how that fits directly and indirectly
into growing the sport
“We are an events company. We were started to put on events. We exist because we
get contracted by governing bodies like USATF and World Athletics to host events. So
yeah, obviously being an events company, our objective is to secure those tentpole
events, host the shit out of them and get butts in seats; that's what keeps us afloat as
a business. My team fits into that by, yeah, selling tickets — we sell tickets both by
doing actual hard pushes to the audience but also by again marketing the entire
experience and by identifying those points of connection within our huge community
of track and field that really relate back to the brand. Track is a very unique sport in
that there were almost 900 athletes at the USATF Outdoor Championships last year. So
depending on your classification of what a professional athlete is, having almost 900
of them, that's a lot. There are a ton of track and field meets across the country and
across the world. They sometimes are happening at the same time on the same
weekends. Broadcast is its own mess in terms of where things are actually getting
distributed and how you can watch them.

“So we're looking for those points of connections that bring
people back to Hayward Field, to Eugene and Springfield. Like,
why is this brand talking about this? Then as we're developing
that audience, growing that audience, then yeah, it all circles
back to we have this audience, we have this interested fan
base we can sell tickets to. Let's get these people into the
stadium, let's secure more of these tentpole events And they
just kind of work together in that cycle.”

About marketing the full suite of track and field disciplines and the common
entry points to engage a wider audience
“It really depends on the on the person. But you know, we were talking about
niche audiences when we were talking about Pac-12 Network and
understanding how to be niche in content and coverage through Pac-12
Network has definitely helped so far with the sport now with my current
position. Because yeah, to your point, there are a lot of people who they are
throws fans and they care about the throwers and discus, shot, javelin,
hammer that's what they care about and that's great. How can we serve them?
How can we create content for that specific audience? Same thing for sprints,
jumps, distance. How can we be a better company in terms of creating content
online but also experiences in person that are tailored to each of those
audience types?

“I think that it's unrealistic to think that, yeah, because you're
a fan of one thing, you're a fan of all things. I think that
naturally, especially online, things are going the more and
more segmented and focused route and people are looking for
specific community rather than a blanket solution to things. So
how can we do that with our content, our marketing and our
experience strategy to really serve each of those groups with
their specific interests?”

“It's great to have breakout accounts for these specific interests, but
then once you have those breakout accounts, how do you actually
break back into the mainstream? So I don't think that I have an opinion
right now in terms of segmenting jumps, throws, sprints and distance,
necessarily, but instead looking at how we structure actual content
packaging. So for instance, right now we're doing this series called
Road to TrackTown, where it's a mini docuseries that's following four
athletes in their lead up to the series USATF Outdoor Championships.
We're doing five episodes on each athlete. It's a mix of training,
competition and their life outside of the sport. And we intentionally
chose one runner, one jumper, one thrower and one multi event
athlete, so that way it could appeal to those specific fanbases while
still all living on our larger TrackTown USA Channel.”

About athletes and entrypoint to the sport for fans
“I think that when it comes to entrypoint to the sport, it is going to be a mix
of folks who value just pure athletic achievement. I mean, that's why I love
track and field is that it's so raw and it's like it's who can run the fastest,
like that is what it is. It's who can jump the furthest or the highest and who
can throw the furthest. So thinking about it from that standpoint, it should
be an easy entrypoint for people to understand that, yeah, best mark wins
and that's what it is. There are obviously a ton of nuances with the rules
that come with that, but that is an easy entry point where if you go to a
track meet as a casual fan, depending on the structure of the meet, you
should be able to watch an event and have a very clear understanding of
what is a win.

“But then also flip side to that is like I think that in any sport the athletes
are absolutely the most valuable piece of marketing and the soul of the
sport itself and especially in something like track and field. I mean I talked
about how it's such a raw and pure sport - the emotions from these
athletes that come through that are raw, like what they're feeling in that
moment — most of them are going to show you. Especially when you look
at these events like US Olympic trials or USATF Outdoor Championships,
they've been training for years for their entire career for this potentially ten
second moment to determine if they're going to make an Olympic team
and fulfill their lifelong dream or if they're going to make a world team or if
they might be able to secure a sponsor for the next season. There's not
many millionaires in track and field, so they're doing it because they love it
and because they're passionate about it.

“So that comes through in the competition and being able to
experience that kind of raw emotion from athletes directly when
you tune into a track meet, whether it's online, on TV or in
person, I think is what makes the sport really special. And even
outside of those moments, like obviously these athletes are
humans. They have hobbies and interests and they have other
stuff going on. So understanding how we can better tell those
stories to make them more relatable and potentially find new
audiences through them and who they are as people is is really
valuable. I think that, it's not untapped because there are people
doing it, but there's just so much more to be done on that front.”

On maximizing the limited time in the spotlight around TrackTown’s tentpole
events
“It's a lot of work and it's a lot of planning. I think that something that folks get
wrong about the content and coverage space is that ‘Oh, you you were lucky you
happened to get that shot.’ Like, no, we got the shot because we understand the
sport. We understand the potential for moments and we had a person in the right
place at the right time to get what we needed to fulfill that content or coverage
need. So a lot of it is just a shit ton of planning and to think about, you know, how
are we structuring the physical event, especially now being within the events
company itself where we decide where the tents go and where the athlete path of
travel is. Having that kind of internal knowledge when we're thinking about our
content and coverage plan is so valuable because we can make sure that we have
the right people in the right places at the right time to do our best effort to cover
the sport.

“Hayward Field is, I think, the pinnacle of track and field venues in
my opinion. And we've put in a lot of work to host a lot of the really
big events like the US Olympic Trials in ‘08, ‘12, ‘16, ‘20, ‘21, the
USATF Outdoor Cchampionships for many years, the NCAA
Championships for many years, this year the Prefontaine Classic,
the Diamond League Final — it's never been in the United States
before. So we're getting these huge meets and we're doing
everything in our power on the front end to plan for them and to
plan around these moments that are inevitable because these
athletes are insanely talented to make sure that we're doing them
justice as much as we possibly can in terms of coverage to reach
as many people as we possibly can.”

On the media relations and broadcast partnerships side of TrackTown’s events
“From a PR and media operations standpoint, we want to make sure that we are making things
as easy as possible for our credentialed media members. That way they can get the stories that
they need so that way they're aware of potential other storylines that could be appealing for
their audience or whatever outlet they're representing. So I mean, this is not the sexy part of it,
but it's like, how is the media mixed zone laid out? Where are they actually sitting? What is the
Ethernet situation? Communicating with them well in advance in terms of travel plans,
credential pickup, making sure that they're informed about athletes and potential collaboration
opportunities. It's also looking at the physical space within the hotel where the press
conference is. How can we better use that space to make it easier for these media members to
work with us and to work with athletes to get more content and more stories out there?
“So yeah, a lot of it is honestly just about communicating with media members, understanding
what they need, who they're trying to reach and why and working with our venue development
and operations team to set up the space to be the best physical space as possible to make their
jobs as easy as possible.”

About innovating with TrackTown’s broadcast to enhance fan engagement
“I think the broadcast space is another area where we could have a two hour
conversation about. In track and field, the broadcast rights holders vary so
drastically from meet to meet. So there are some meets where we will be able to
post highlights of the competition, we can actually post a video that we took of the
competition, but then a lot of the larger meets that we work with the broadcast
restrictions are reserved for the rights holders, which might be the governing body
or it might be the actual broadcast distributors such as NBC. So looking at that,
that's where we get to be really creative in terms of, okay, we've built the sandbox
with our partners in terms of what we can do and so how can we actually play in
that sandbox now and where are the areas of opportunity for content and coverage
within the rights restrictions that don't necessarily need to rely on results-based
videos; like where else can we go? What other stories can we tell, what other
content can we capture?

“So those second screen possibilities, potentially working
with some additional partners, there's just a ton of room for
innovation in terms of content and coverage and track and
field. And luckily we are in a prime position to try things out.
We're going to fail. Of course, that's the best way to learn stuff
is to try things and have it not succeed. But yeah, we're going
to keep trying new things and see what ends up sticking.
Hopefully some of it does.”

Karen’s most memorable run
“It was Hood to Coast, the 200 mile relay race from the top of
Mount Hood to Seaside, Oregon. You split it up over 12 people
[and] everybody does three legs and you end up running in the
afternoon and the dead of night and first thing in the morning.
It's definitely type two fun. So that means that you hate it while
you're in it, but at the end you feel this endorphin rush like
nothing that you've ever felt before and all of a sudden you're
signing up again for next year.”

Karen’s favorite piece of content that they produced during her time
there
“I know that this isn't going to be what people expect, but in 2018, I
think for the NCAA Track and Field Championships, myself and
JuanPedro Huerta from our studio or from our video team were up
covering that event and we miked up Michael Norman's parents
during his 400 meter race and he ended up breaking the record. He
won, it was this huge moment and we just did a side-by-side video of
them and just having the actual feat combined with the emotion of his
parents was really special for me and I reference that a lot actually
still to this day and in a lot of my professional conversations.”

The most oft-repeated piece of advice Karen gives to athletes when it
comes to building their brand on social
“This is going to sound really basic, but post more…A lot of these
athletes, they're getting a ton of content from their sides, from the
content teams depending on if they're collegiate or pro, and the only
way that people can find you on social is if you're being active on
social. So I know that there's a lot of hesitancy around flooding the
feeds or [posting] too much, but a lot of times in my conversations with
athletes around like, well, ‘Why don't I have a big following?’ It's like,
well, you post, you know, once every two months. So I know that that's
on super basic and tiny, but that was those were a lot of conversations
that I had had.”

The track and field athlete whose social media presence that Karen thinks is
really good that she wants to shout out and why
“Anna Hall, specifically on TikTok. (@annaa.hall). She is the American indoor
record holder in the Pentathlon, and she is just a TikTok queen. She's so good
and she's on top of the trends. She's hilarious, she is really great with her
personality. So yeah, definitely Anna Hall on TikTok.”
“She's just been blowing up. This is her rookie professional year and she's been
blowing up in terms of athletic performance, you know, setting an American
record during this past year's USATF Indoor Championships, but also online. Her
presence is exploding right now and I think that's because she's really fucking
good at what she does and she's really relatable and she's pretty open and just
she is who she is and she puts it out there.”

The social media platform that Karen wishes she could spend some
more more time on professionally
“TikTok will always be my number one professional social media
platform love. I launched the Pac-12 TikTok. I I launched the
Warriors TikTok, I launched UW Athletics TikTok and I launched
TrackTown's TikTok. It's just I love that platform. It's so fun. There's
so much potential for brands on there, but you do have to spend a
lot of time on the app to understand it because it's a really unique
ecosystem, but I genuinely love it. And if I was still in the weeds of
like creating and publishing, I would be in it every day for hours.”

Karen’s favorite Warriors memory
“I'm going to give you two answers because my real answer is so
cheesy and everyone's gonna be like, Okay, that's not what I wanted
to hear. But my real answer is any time that I was spending with my
social team — I loved everybody on our social and content team and I
don't think I ever had a truly bad day at work because they were just
so great to be around. It's really special to work somewhere where
people are just as good at their jobs as they are good people. It was
always fun, even if we were in the bowels of Chase Center for 14
hours like we were having a good time. So those are actually my
favorite memories.

“But I know that people are going to want something with the team. So also a really
great memory was our last regular season home game at Oracle Arena. We
surprised the players with a take on the throwback ‘We Believe’ jerseys and nobody
knew that that was happening. It was a complete surprise to the players, and it was
myself and a videographer from our studio team who were in the locker room with
the players when [Warriors equipment head] Eric Housen wheeled in the rack of
jerseys and we got to capture the guys reactions to those jerseys. It was really
special because obviously they were stoked. I feed off of other people's energy, so
that was really special, but also that just showed the amount of trust that had been
developed over that season between the social team and our PR and ops team —
the fact that we were invited to be in the locker room and trusted with this
information and exclusive content was just a huge milestone for me from a
professional sense showing that we got there and we did it and we have that trust
now. I still have [it]; it's like a four-minute video that I have on my cell phone, like
going around the locker room, and I don't think that I'll ever delete it.”

The most memorable game from Karen’s time as a student at Oregon
“I honestly didn't go to [many] games because I was working full time. I was a
bartender while I was in undergrad full time. But I do remember, I was there
during the [Marcus] Mariota golden years and so that's special in and of itself, but
I remember there was this one game — I don't know who we were playing, it
might have been Cal — and I had the night off and I went with my friends and it
was just a miserable experience, objectively. Like, it was pouring down rain, it
was freezing cold, our rain boots were getting filled with water, but it was still so
fun. And I still have weirdly fond memories of that game. Again, no idea who he
played, no idea what the outcome of the game was, but we had a great time
despite it being an absolute shit on paper fan experience. I don't know why, but
when you asked me the question that's just the first thing that came to my mind.”

The best meal to get Eugene and where to get it
“So I'm biased because where I bartended when I
was in undergrad is my answer — it's a place
called Agate Alley Bistro. It's just two blocks
south of Hayward Field and it's this like very
Eugene restaurant. It's really eclectic. It's an old
house that got converted into a restaurant. The
menu is seasonal and changes, it's so good.
Meal-wise, I know it's not a meal, but their sweet
potato fries are insane and they come with this
maple dijon dipping sauce that is so good. But
honestly, anything that you get there you can't go
wrong because it's like New American with a twist
and it kind of evolves throughout the year
depending on what season it is.”

The newsletter or podcast or book, any of the above that you you
want to shout out as a sure thing to check out
“The Link in Bio newsletter is so good. It's about just social media
in general. It spans all industries and the way that it's written, the
author's voice, her name is Rachel [Karten], she has just a very
approachable tone to it. She doesn't take herself too seriously,
she's not like thought leader-y saying ‘this is what you should be
doing.’ It's just it's conversations with people in the industry, it's
exploring trends and it's just talking about the industry and how
bonkers it is to try to work in something like social media.”

The track field athlete whose name we're all going to know after the 2024
Olympics
“If any of my European friends listen to my answer, they're going to be like,
‘What are you talking about? Everyone already knows her,’ but for the
American audience, [Dutch athlete] Femke Bol. She is a 400 meter hurdler.
Obviously Sydney McLaughlin is dominating the headlines around 400
meter hurdles because she keeps breaking her own world records, but
Femke Bol is right behind her and she is just another incredible personality
on and off the track. She's a stud at her event. I think she has a very good
chance to challenge Sydney in the upcoming years and she's still young;
like she has a long career in front of her. So I think Femke Bol is going to
be the name that we know.”

Karen’s Social Media All-Star to Follow
“So I think my social media all-star follow is Jess Smith
(@WarJessEagle). She primarily, on Twitter [and LinkedIn],
she also works in social. I'm sure that everyone who comes on
your show mentions her in some capacity. She is just widely
regarded as one of the people in social who gets it from a
management perspective, trend perspective, and she
evaluates the space in a way that's really uplifting and
showcases accounts and the work in a positive light…

“And then my other one I already mentioned is my friend Kate
Scott (@KateTScott), I have to include her as a social follow as
well. She is really good at what she does professionally and she's
very open about it. So especially for people who are interested in
getting into sports broadcasting, she, especially on her Instagram
Stories she will share the experience very much unfiltered or little
filter about just what it means to be an openly gay woman in the
industry and to be one of the first women to be an NBA play-by-
play broadcaster, and she is just such a great human and I love
her and she's really good at what she does. And I think that she
has a lot of valuable insight for folks looking to break into that
space.”

Where to find Karen and TrackTown USA on digital/social
media
Karen is on Twitter @kjramming
TrackTown USA is TrackTown USA on Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube

Thanks again to Karen for being so generous with her time to share
her 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 245 Snippets: Karen Ramming of TrackTown USA

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Episode 245 Snippets: Karen Ramming of TrackTown USA