What the Spice Girls can teach Sportswomen about Social Media

I interviewed a bunch of Aussie Olympians when they returned from London in 2012. And you know what their most memorable moment was? The Spice Girls!

Yes, I’m looking at you Caroline Buchanan, Jess Fox, Mel Rippon, Lauren Mitchell, Jade Close, Carmen Marton & Liz Cambage.

Did you know the Spice Girls have a lot to teach you about Social Media? Well, they do! Read on…

Are you Scary, Baby, Ginger, Posh or Sporty?

One of the questions I know some of you worry about is, just how much should you share about yourself?

The answer: create a persona, or a personal brand, just like the Spice Girls did.

Figure out 3-5 things that really define you and stick to talking about those. It could be a cause or charity you’re passionate about, your pet, your work, your favourite band or team, how much you like coffee (a lot of you REALLY like coffee!) and of course, your sport.

Deliver Real Value

“Spice up your life!”

Now just sticking to just those few things is a good start but you want to spice it up a little by giving your followers a glimpse of your world.

Extra content like photos and videos go down really well and it’s so easy to get creative with apps like instagram. Show them behind the scene things they don’t normally get to see,  share particularly awesome game day photos and fooling around with your teammates? Always amusing.

#WNBL Spring Shield photo shoot #itstime #gocaps couple of old witches @bibbyj11 @WNBL pic.twitter.com/w3Y0HkROb2

— Carly Wilson (@CarlyJWilson7) September 21, 2013

Support Each Other

“If you wanna be my lover. You gotta get with my friends”

Ok, I always found that lyric a little off! But… point here being, support your friends and fellow athletes on social media. If you see an article on a teammate or a friend, share it.

Fans like to see you interact with each other and it also has the added bonus of introducing fans to athletes they may not have heard of. So get that cross code banter happening!

Here’s a list of tweets from Aussie Sportswomen on Twitter – subscribe to keep up with your fellow athletes’ activities.

Build Relationships, One Fan at a Time

The Spice Girls spent a lot of time nurturing relationships with fans. It doesn’t have to be a big job, just take a few minutes here and there to respond to a select few.

If you’re feeling really adventurous, you could run a twitter chat. Give me a shout if you’d like a hand with that.

Also, you know who else you should be talking to? The media. That’s a very broad range of journalists in this age of digital media, so don’t just focus on the ‘big guns’. Here are my tips on who else to follow:

• Editor of the local paper where you grew up or went to school

• Radio – there’s plenty of community radio stations with sports shows. And ABC Manstand… I mean, Grandstand could do with featuring more sportswomen. Hit them up!

• Bloggers – There’s bound to be niche blog or two for your sport. A good place to start is with these awesome women.

Pick a few key people and start chatting with them. Read their articles and comment on them. Is there a current issue in your sport, offer your opinion.

Additional Inspiration

I had a chat with Caroline Buchanan about all the amazing work she puts in promoting herself. Hopefully you can get some tips too:

This article was inspired by Steff Moore’s Five Social Media Lessons from the Spice Girls over at Spin Sucks. It’s a great blog, they’re more focused on business but I highly recommend checking them out.