bestselling author Jay Baer said. “T e goal of so- cial media is to take people that already like you and make them love you. Do that over and over and over and over again, and you’ll have a power- ful personal brand.” In addition to working with brands such
as Nike, Adidas and the U.S. Olympic Com- mittee, Baer has a daughter who competed as a lower-level competitive fi gure skater for many years. He explained that authenticity is the key to winning with social media. “You can’t act one way online and a totally
diff erent way offl ine,” Baer said. “T at just con- fuses the public and invites them to question your motives. T e best personal brands — and the most successful — are nearly 100 percent au- thentic.”
Content creation is king when it comes to social media, but it needs to be consistent for the audience to care. “Select two networks and commit to posting original content on a consistent basis,” Schawbel said. “Also, promote other skaters and ask them to support you in return. T e top peo- ple on YouTube have such large followings in part due to them appearing in each other’s videos.” Once the networks are chosen, it’s import-
ant to keep your accounts populated with fresh content. Skaters have many options to build in- terest in what they’re doing, Schawbel explained. “Some of the content they can publish in- cludes clips of them performing triple Axels, in- terviews they have with the media, advice to up- and-coming skaters and their training routines,” Schawbel said. However, incredible and impeccable perfor-
mances will continue to draw fans to the sport more than anything. “Skating is the only Olympic sport that can cast a unique spell on the audience,” Hamilton said. “But the way the system is now, it’s harder to cast a spell on the audience.” When Hamilton was performing on the
professional circuit, his strategy was simple: “Do everything I could to get the audience on their feet.”
When he performed on the Stars on Ice
tour, he realized that he needed to appeal to every person in the audience, especially the ones that weren’t die-hard fi gure skating fans. “For every married man who was in the au- dience, who had been dragged there on a date night with his wife, I told myself, ‘If I can win this guy over, I’ve got a career,’” Hamilton said. Hamilton’s own brand of skating — hu-
morous, clever and high-quality — continued to draw those audiences in. And there will always be a place for incredible quality, which will lead to ignited interest. “Jason Brown’s performance at the 2014
nationals is a great example,” he said. “T at Riv- erdance free program became one of those wa-
ter-cooler moments. It was all about the ‘share, share, share’ on social media.” T e combination of incredible quality of skating, coupled with a smartly packaged pro- gram and a compelling personality like Brown’s can be magic. “I realized when I watched that program that audiences are still really hungry for this,” Hamilton said. “T at performance warmed peo- ple’s hearts and minds.”
Tai Babilonia
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SKATING 35
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