This is my final collection of Jersey Swaps I've made in my time with Offsides! As I've moved on from that chapter of my time as a designer and Creative Director, I wanted to have one last showcase of the edits I got to make this offseason!
As we jump in, I wanted to share a little more about some of the adjustments I got to make to the Swaps this offseason in order to optimize engagement across each of the posts:
As happy as I am with how this Jersey Swap of Derek Carr turned out, it didn't bring in the engagement on Instagram that I believe is up to par: Only 10.7k accounts reached, 775 likes, 6 comments, and 7 shares. Disappointing numbers for an edit that took so much effort and time.
So, what could I control to bring in more engagement?
I went back to look at our other posts that brought in way better numbers to try to pull some ideas from that previous success.
I came across this post. Slapping the Super Bowl LVIII logo on some NFL players and building up fans' hype seemed to be a perfect idea to experiment with on the next round of Swaps.
With those numbers in mind, I decided to include that same patch on any new Jersey Swaps that I created.
Since these Swaps were created in the offseason, pretty much every team has high hopes for a Super Bowl win by the end of next season. Could the new players each team adds in Free Agency or the Draft take them to the next level? Surely most fans would think so.
Each team's hype is through the roof for next season, so adding that LVIII patch only hypes up fans even more.
Adding in one extra element to the swap (the Super Bowl patch) resulted in significantly more comments that wouldn't have been there without it, upping interaction like comments and story reshares.
Let's fly through the rest of the swaps ⤵️
Adding that one extra element to each swap ended up increasing engagement in every category.
The average reach on the posts with the Super Bowl patch included more than doubled, the average amount of likes increased over 3x, average comments increased 6x, and the number of shares on average increased by over 30 times over.
And if you came here to look at the Swaps and not look at analytic numbers, here's one more bonus Swap. Just for you.
In Conclusion:
We both know that quality is expected.
Increasing engagement on a post doesn’t just come from making 'better' and/or better looking posts. Any social media coordinator, graphic designer or content creator can create something that looks good, but if users don’t have much reason to engage beyond a like, how much can it really help your brand grow?
Engagement takes innovation and commitment.
When things aren’t working as-is, people tend to turn over a new leaf and start over instead of trying to refine and perfect what already is. The same is true when it comes to social media content.
When something doesn’t work, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, the solution could instead be to make a more efficient wheel. It's a step-by-step process.
Want to make it better? Try a small change and see what happens! Details matter. Do everything with excellence!
