From the Court to Your Feed: What Sports Can Teach Us About Social Media Strategy
by Christian Talley
Highlights, Likes, and the New Language of Sports
Back in September of 2025, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stated that basketball is innately a “highlights-based sport”. Despite drawing the ire of fans for the bluntness with which it was stated, Silver’s comments have proven to be true throughout the last decade. Now more than ever, social media is being used to show off the best of what sports have to offer. All throughout the year, sports accounts are posting highlights of the top plays from their respective sports, helping to generate millions of likes across multiple platforms. The method has proven to be successful for all stakeholders, from the leagues to sports media, and even to individuals like you and me who consume the content. Social media has made sports as popular as they’ll ever be, and it will only grow from here.
How NBA Twitter Changed the Game
Despite being around for some time, social media was still a relatively new way for people to communicate 10 years ago. Apps like Instagram and Twitter, now known as X, were initially used for one reason: sharing content. It wasn’t until a niche group of basketball fans providing commentary on the game they love through something called “NBA Twitter” that social media shifted from sharing posts with friends and family to online discourse with strangers, not just around your state, but around the country and even the world. NBA Twitter is a highly engaged, fanatic online community on the social media platform X that revolves around all things basketball. From live game updates to player trades to the latest off-season drama, the community allows basketball fans from all over to discuss the sport they love with other like-minded fans. The sense of togetherness allowed people to feel like they had a second home on social media apps, and helped to drive engagement to the platform, which has only continued to grow in recent years.
Meeting Your Audience Where They Are
Social media is a great way to share your content in a way that is accessible to those who may not have the luxury of watching a team on a streaming service or through cable. As mentioned earlier, the NBA figured out long ago that if you want to expose people to your product, you must meet them where they are.
The method has proven to be fruitful for other leagues as well. The NFL is also constantly showcasing its top stars, like Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen, in posts that generate millions of views and impressions. Even the teams of the leagues themselves look to social media as a communication tool. The Detroit Pistons and Detroit Lions each have large followings across their platforms, and they use each platform to speak to an audience that they know and understand.
Detroit's Playbook: How the Lions and Pistons Built Loyal Followings
In recent years, the Pistons have shaped their identity around Detroit’s music culture, highlighting many Detroit-based rappers in their videos, including their official (unofficial) theme song from Detroit rapper Gmac Cash.
The Lions, once seen as the bottom of the barrel in the NFL, have exploded in popularity on social media after their recent success on the field. In 2022, coming off a big finish to their season, which provided a potential look at how successful the team would be in the next season, the Lions averaged the highest likes per TikTok video in the NFL.
The strategizing and quick thinking of both the Pistons and Lions social teams allowed them to capitalize on not just the team’s success, but the success of their brands as well, as both teams knew who their audiences were and made sure to home in on what they wanted. When it comes to sports and social media, your greatest strength as a communicator is showing the best of what you do and highlighting the people who help make it interesting.
The Bigger Lesson for Every Communicator
That mindset can be applied to all social media efforts. Over half of US adults say they get at least some news from social media, making it an adjacent communication tool to your typical digital and print media.
Social media has become so ingrained in our everyday news consumption that many stories will break on social media well before any news broadcast or publication can cover them. The modern age of communication has shown that you don’t have to be a big, multi-billion-dollar sports league to use social media to your advantage. What you do need is smart, well-informed social media teams with a finger on the pulse of who your audience is and what they want to see. There’s untapped potential in social media communication, and it feels like we’re only scratching the surface of what we can do with it.
How Truscott Rossman Can Help You Run the Play
Truscott Rossman understands that an effective social media strategy is more than just posting content. It's knowing your audience, telling your story, and showing up in the right places at the right time. Just as the Lions and Pistons built loyal followings by leaning into what made them uniquely Detroit, we help our clients identify and amplify what makes them uniquely themselves. Whether you're looking to grow your brand presence, drive engagement around a key initiative, or break through the noise during a critical moment, our team has the expertise to build a social media strategy that works. The potential is there, and we can help you unlock it.