Episode 259 Snippets: Bill Voth

@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
On episode 259 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil
chatted with Bill Voth, Owner of Bill Voth Digital.
In this episode, Bill offers a plethora of insights and lessons from his
years in sports content and cross-platform media, with particular focus
on his years with the Carolina Panthers.
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.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 259: Bill Voth

Bill’s Career Path
“I started my career as a sports TV anchor. I did that for ten years, starting
in Burlington, Vermont, [then] Richmond, Virginia, Charlotte [North
Carolina]. Then in about 2008, 2009, I logged on to something called
Twitter and that really just changed my life. It opened my eyes to, wait a
second, the business I'm in — like, yeah, me telling you the news at 11:20
something at night wasn't really the future of this stuff. So I got really into
social and digital left TV in 2011, started a social media and digital video
company called Spiracle Media in 2011, me and a couple former TV guys.
We helped brands, athletes, and teams in those early days of social
understand what this narrative building and storytelling was all about.

“But as I was doing that, I missed being in the media and I saw there's an
opportunity here in Charlotte to cover the Cam Newton era [Carolina
Panthers] from a digital and social first perspective, so I started a website to
do that in 2017. [The Panthers] bought my website, brought me in to
eventually help redo what they were doing from a from a digital and content
and broadcasting side. I did that until this past spring and this past spring, I
stepped aside to start my own thing, really wanted to create some space to go
figure out what I was going to do next. But in the meantime, it was, hey, I'll
start my own thing, be my own boss for a little bit again. I enjoyed it before,
I'm going to see how that is now. So that's what I'm doing now, I started an
LLC creatively [named] — I mean, why wouldn't you want to have me be
part of your creative services when I have such a creative name of Bill Voth
Digital?

“So that's what I'm doing now, mostly in the content strategy space. I help
organizations, teams and other other places build a really a holistic content
strategy that aligns with the brand's goals, aligns its goals with all of its
digital touchpoints. You know, I think too many businesses are
disconnected and and use a spray and pray approach on digital, which
leads to wasted opportunities, energy and resources. So I try and bring all
that in, and it's hard being an outsider doing that stuff because you don't
know everything that's going on internally. But still, I think I've been
fortunate to have some wins over these first few months.”

On Bill’s career aspirations coming up
“In seventh grade I decided I wanted to be a sports broadcaster. We had a
broadcaster from the Cleveland Indians stop by and talk about his day job and it
was like, oh, that would be cool to go just get paid doing sports. So that's what I
decided to do. I got a paper route every single day so I could go to Syracuse
because that's where people go a lot of times; I wanted to be the next Bob
Costas. I fell short of that. But yeah, that was the dream growing up. Now, what
I wanted to do specifically play by play, radio, TV, I even liked writing a lot, but
where I landed on as I went through school was I wanted to be that local anchor
that you just knew, that you knew around town because, yes, dating us, that
used to be a thing, right? You used to watch your sports highlights at 6 or 11pm
and you knew that anchor and he would show up at a game or whatever.

“First of all, everyone kind of knew who you are, so that was fun, [you’re]
part of the community. And also if you're in a big enough market and you
have been there long enough, you're making a lot of money. That business,
of course, is pretty much gone away now. But that was the dream.”

On how Bill first gravitated to social and his early perspective on it
“I would say iPhones and Twitter are what changed my life. And I'll keep
referencing 2008 to 2009 because it was just right around there. I
remember specifically standing at a practice and my colleagues were
laughing at me because I was on this thing called Twitter, and I tweeted that
DeAngelo Williams wasn't practicing that day. And then 12, 13 hours later, I
said the same thing on the news at night, and I was like, wait a second — I
know people are kind of rolling their eyes at this Twitter thing, but the way
we're going to be sharing information is changing. Like, no one's going to
wait this long [to get information]. So I remember that, and then the iPhone
for me and recording video and getting it posted on this thing called Twitter
right away also was a big eye opener.

“So in 2010 I went to the Olympics and I shot some stuff and sent it back to
my TV station that they used on air because I was, like, ‘Listen, yes, you're
still using [broadcast] trucks, these are huge costs that you're spending on,
but as the technology gets better, you're going to be able to do things
cheaper, and all this stuff's going to change.’ So that's what really got me
into it as far as how technology is going to change the way we communicate
with each other, social media being one of the avenues, iPhones being one
of the tools.

“Also back then I would try and tell my bosses about this stuff and they kind of would laugh at
me, roll their eyes. I asked to have my Twitter handle put on my lower third [on-screen graphic]
and I was again laughed at. Back then I was like, because I wasn't this old, I vowed to myself that
as I get older, I'm going to listen to the coming generations. Because while I'm going to always
try and stay ahead of this stuff, the people coming behind me are going to know so much more
and be able to be so much more nimble than I will be and the worst thing that I could do is sit in
that chair and be like, no, this is the way it's always been done. So I've been obsessed with what's
next. Like, I don't care that this is what's being done now, I want people to emulate what we're
doing. I want to be the trendsetter. So as I've gotten older, I'm not the one who can really come
up with the trends anymore. I'm not that smart, I'm not that socially savvy. But I would like to
be the leader that can find those people who do know how to hit those marks and empower them
to then become the creators. They're the creators. They're the ones doing it. And then also
inspiring them to be like, listen, the kids coming behind you, you're going to need to get the hell
out of the way one day, too, because this is just going to continue to change and change and
change and we don't know where it's going to go. We just know that it's going to change.”

“One of our jobs as creative leaders is to let the creatives below us, the real
creators, the ones who are doers — I'm not a doer anymore, I used to be;
again, you don't want me making your Reels or your TikToks — to
empower them. There's all this red tape above them in these organizations,
there's all these meetings and all this other stuff, and it's your job to deal
with all that stuff, to figure it out and to not micromanage them, and to let
them go create and be. I think that that's going to continue to be that way
in this business for quite a while.”

On the Panthers blog he started Black and Blue Review and what it was like then
joining the Panthers when they acquired the blog
“At the simplest form, there's two tracks — there's the outside media and then
there's the team. it's weird that I have these specific memories, but in 2010 I was
at the gym and I went to one of Spiracle’s co-founders who was there as well, and
I said, ‘One of the next big things is the beat reporters, the daytime radio people
— I was wrong about that the local TV folks sort of, like, those jobs are dying,
those businesses are dying. So all these reporters who cover these teams in these
markets, they have to go somewhere and you know where they're going to have to
go, they're going to have to go to outlets online. So that's what we should start. So
that was The Athletic. That was the idea that The Athletic was able to take and
run with, and I wasn't able to be business savvy enough to figure out how to do it
back in 2010.

“But I say all that because here in Charlotte, yeah, you have a local media
that was acting very linear, very just how it was for a very long time. And I
would be sitting there at a Cam Newton press conference and I'd record it
on my iPhone and I'd cut it as I'm sitting there and I'd post it to Twitter
right away, as opposed to the local TV cameras which are recording it, and
then you might be able to see it on your local news hours later. That didn't
make sense to me. So first of all, there's an opportunity there to get stuff
posted right away for this growing digital audience that wants stuff right
away, not waiting to get their news or their information or their
soundbites.

“From a team perspective. The Panthers were slow to adapt to a lot of this.
Former ownership didn't really get it, it wasn't really a priority. With that
said, the president at the time, Danny Morrison, and then our mutual
buddy. I'm sure you know him, Dan LaTorraca — they got it. They
understood. I think the Panthers have had a good reputation in the digital
space for quite a while, Dan's the one who started it. Amie Kiehn is the one
who then took that ball and ran with it and and so on and so forth.

“But the team wasn't really covering itself well either. Dan could only do so
much. Dan had a great vision, but a lot of the folks around him, it was still
like linear TV. It was coach's shows, it was 30 minute shows and and Dan
didn't have that content that could be posted right away and digital first
and social friendly. So that's one of the things that I was brought in to do
was, hey, we need to take this from a linear-based philosophy to a digital
and social first. And that's not a ship that you can steer quickly. That takes
quite a while, it takes buy in. But we were fortunately able to do that after a
year or two.”

On the goals and success metrics for digital/social
“Depending on your perspective, we were either fortunate or not fortunate
because we didn't have to be all that sophisticated. We were starting so far
behind. And also we didn't have to do the ticket messaging; the Panthers
are essentially always sold out, so we didn't have to pump in a lot of ticket
messaging. Our main remit was connect with the fans, build the fan base,
connect with the current fans. And we were fortunate we had a head coach
who got it, but we had players who were stars who connected with the
community. It was inform and connect and give this fan base something to
be really proud of, which is Panthers on digital and social being
tremendous.

“Also, one of the reasons I was brought in was to bring a certain credibility
to the website and to our voice. It was not cheerleading. The voice was, I
think Amie used to term it as kind of like the the cool kid in school, but not
the too cool kid in school. Like, we would hang out with all the jocks and
the nerds and we just got along with everyone. So that was kind of the
voice. But also we weren't like, hey, you know, Panthers lost 42-10, but
special teams played well. We weren't doing any of that stuff. We
understood there's ups and downs, and with the downs, we're going to be
with you and we're not going to feed you a whole bunch of crud. So we just
really understood what the fan base was feeling, and we didn't try and force
feed positive feelings when there weren't positive feelings. And then when
there were positive feelings, of course, we jumped on that.

“I just think what Amie and the team did when the Panthers traded for Sam
Darnold a few years ago, they just threaded a needle so perfectly where they
weren't trying to sell the fan base that Sam Darnold is going to be the
quarterback coming in here and going to save everything, but they also were
just like, hey, here's here's the new guy. He may or may not work out, but
[instead] here's some fun things to know and here's some ways to humanize
him a little bit. But they didn't like ‘QB1’ and all that other stuff; like, come
on, just stop.
“So we were really able to thread a needle. We were not cheerleaders, but we
really were just transparent with people. We went on the journey with the
fan base, and I think that really bought us a lot of credibility for a while.”

On not sugarcoating everything and being a relatively objective source for fans
“There's so few organizations that are willing to do that. And if you are going to do that,
you have to have a really strong owner that's going to just [be like], listen, the buck stops
here. This is what we're doing. The Cowboys do a lot of stuff that would make a lot of
teams uncomfortable. Like the whole Dak Prescott tweet last year [referencing his poor
play I just I rolled my eyes at it because there's nothing wrong with it. But of course
people [were like] Oh I can't believe a team would do that. Why? Like, Dak didn't play
well. The Cowboys didn't play well. Why are you shying away from it? Why would anyone
come to your website if all you're doing is sugarcoating stuff? That makes no sense.
“So all these tools are out here to be able to tell your story. But if your story is like a
corporation, then fans can see through that. So they're going to stop listening to you,
especially when you need them. But when you actually need to sugarcoat some stuff, well,
now you're the boy who cries wolf. Now they're not listening to you ever.

“But going back to your other question, I knew I would miss some stuff, but let's
be honest, the whole reason we were connecting with fans and trying to build up
engagement numbers is, of course, to be able to monetize off of that stuff. That
was another thing that we started quite far behind, as far as an infrastructure of
how you could monetize content, and there's still quite a long way to go. But of
course, the more you can monetize, the more staff you can bring in, the more staff
you can bring in, the better content you can do, the better content you can do, the
better sponsored content you can do. And it goes around and around and around
and it feeds itself. So I am a big believer in if you can do really great content and
you can make a lot of that branded or sponsored content, and you can really build
up your numbers, you can do even more branded and sponsored content, [and]
you can make money, the content people are happy because they're doing good
content; you can actually do good sponsored content, not just check the box
sponsored content. So that was a big part of what we started as well.”

On the infrastructure for sponsored social content for the Panthers and its
evolutions during Bill’s time
“When I got there, it was like most teams, and I think a lot of teams are still
like this. There wasn't a lot of communication between the digital
department and the partnerships or sales department. So a sponsorship
[salesperson] would go sell something, and then the digital teams [would
get] told they have to go do this. And the digital team's like, well, this is crap
content. This isn't going to work. So it's bad for your channels and then it's
also bad for the sponsor. So we took some inspiration — The [Atlanta]
Falcons had someone many years back, a guy by the name of Chris Jones.
And that was like, oh, he's the bridge between sponsorship and the digital
team.

“So we hired someone I want to say 2019, her name is Sam Baier, to act in
that role. It's not an easy role. It's very difficult because she's got both sides
who a lot of times are angry at each other. But it's really making that
communication better and having the digital folks much more part of the
sales process. Because again, you can do good sponsored content, but if the
sales people are just out there selling stuff or it's just logo slaps and then the
digital people are being told what to do and here's the messaging they want,
well, that doesn't work. Put the social people in the room and they can help
ideate. They can they can help make it all better, so it works better on your
channels and it works better for the sponsor, because if you're just putting
up crap sponsored content, it's not going to perform well. But hey, at least
the sponsor got the copy they wanted, but that doesn't that doesn't help
anybody.

“So that was a big part of what we tried to do was at least help that process
out a little bit more. I think we could have done better, but I think we still
do better than some other teams. I think some other teams still don't have
that direct bridge position and I think that's one of the more valuable
positions in an organization, and I don't think enough organizations value
those positions. I think that bridge could become more of a department
more so than just a role.”

“This sounds cheesy, but you have to understand that you are on the same
team. So I think there's a lot of ‘Ugh, sponsorship’ or ‘Ugh, sales’ and it's like,
well, yeah, because you're so used to being told to do crap content from those
departments; well, let's work together. Let's get together and actually
understand we're on the same team and actually work together. It's really
bringing people out of their silos. And I understand not everyone in each
department can do that, but that's why having at least one bridge person and
just having better relationships between the digital and content side with the
sales and sponsorship side just in general, and understanding that neither of
neither of you are the enemy. The sales folks are upset because digital doesn't
want to do this, the digital folks are upset because sales wants them to do this,
but when you have an adversarial relationships like that that hurts everyone
and it doesn't have to be adversarial; let’s do cool stuff together, it is possible.”

On gaining the trust of team ops and players and coaches enabling the Panthers
to get great access and content
“The ecosystem I wanted to build was the social folks just go and do. And if it
fails, if it fails, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But the only way we're failing is
if we're not trying things. And so it was giving them a lot of freedom to just go try
stuff first and foremost. I got the hell out of their way and they could just go mess
around with stuff. So Angela — and I'm going to mispronounce her last name —
Denogean, I worked with her for many years, and I still cannot pronounce her
name correctly because she has an accent with it, so I'm not even going to try. But
I swear I think she started the mini mic trend. I believe she was the first one that
that brought mini mics. But anyway, she was our social number two and she
brought a mini mic in once and started taking it down into the locker room and
started messing around with it and it grew from there.

“So I think it's having an ecosystem of try stupid things, try fun things. And
when you have people like Amie Kiehn and Angela who are like, okay, let's
go play in the sandbox and let’s try this, let's try that, ,a lot of times a lot of
that content is going to hit and you can set trends. And that is definitely
one of the things we tried to do for years with the Panthers. It was, okay, if
a team is doing something, like, I automatically didn't want to do it,. So I
didn't have a hard and fast rule — don't use The Office, don't use
SpongeBob, don't use talking heads like Max Kellerman and all this stuff,
don't use L’s, but was very much like, hey, can you try and not do content
with that stuff because everyone else is doing it? So if your win graphics
had an L, you're not being different, and our whole thing was what are we
doing that's different from the [other 31 teams].

“Now we weren't always successful and every once in a while we would use
SpongeBob or we would use The Office. But our philosophy was what are we
going to do that the other 31 are not doing? So stuff like the mini mic, if you
create an ecosystem like that, that's how you can generate content like that.
But if you're copying other teams and you're doing what other teams are
doing — we stopped doing signing photos. Going into the Covid free agency
we said no more signing photos because every team in every sport does
signing photos, so why would we do that? So in 2020, before Covid kicked us
out of the building, we were doing that. We were going to do the whole when
tennis players sign the camera — we were going to do something like that. So
instead of a standard signing photo, the player comes in, signs the camera
and that's the whole hey, they've signed. We weren't able to execute that
until 2021, and then we did it again in 2022.

“But yeah, it's how do you not do what everyone else is doing? It's not easy.
And a lot of times you are going to do what everyone else is doing because a
lot of that stuff works. But really it's being obsessive about what can we do
that other people are not doing is how things like mini might start.”

On getting into the non-football, personality content and ensuring players and
team ops were on board
“It's empowering your digital and social folks to go down in the locker room and
just be normal and human with these players. So when I was brought in, one of
the things I was supposed to be was the face of the website because that was my
background. It was around 2020 when the Panthers drafted D.J. Moore and I was
doing some stuff with D.J,. and it wasn't his fault, but it was like, I'm not feeling a
connection here. And it was like, you know what? I'm the old white guy. That's
just the reality. I'm the old white guy and I'm not going to get as good of content
from D.J. Moore as a younger, probably more diverse content creator can get. So
that's why we were really intentional about diversifying our department the past
few years, not only because it's the right thing to do, but also because it gets you
better content, because our social folks get better stuff out of more than I could.

“Now, again, it goes back to me having those bosses who never wanted to
change. If you have these teen reporters, these older teen reporters who have
always been there, and this is how we do it, I need to be in the locker room, I
need to be holding the microphone, I need to be asking the guy ‘So how was
practice today?’ That's not good content and fans don't care. What fans want
is mini mic stuff, fans want is players interviewing players. This is why you
see all this athlete led or former athlete led content blowing up all over the
place with Silver Tribe Media or Audible and all this stuff. Now Colin
Cowherd, if you're not a former player or something like that, you have to
kind of just be way out there like a Colin Cowherd. But this stuff needs to be
athlet- led. No longer should it be — I'm not just saying old white guys like
me deciding what the content needs to look like or me having to front the
content.

“And I hate to say this, I shouldn't say it out loud, I don't know how much of a
place team reporters really have anymore, to be honest with you. When I got
there, [it was like] we need to do this, let's bring the talking heads together to
have these draft specials. And it was like, that's so boring. No one cares what I
have to say. Let's have players come on and talk and let's have former players
come and talk to each other, because you know what a) fans are more
interested in that. And also they know a lot more what they're talking about
than I ever would. So long winded way of of trying to answer your question of
how that began and became organic. But I think it's letting the younger content
creators go and just connect with these players, as opposed to what old
traditional media has always been, being very intentional in your diversity for
for many, multiple reasons, and then understanding that content has to look
different than it has in what people like me used to consider good content.”

On the content mix and balancing the basic football content with more novel
content
“It depends on the market. So a lot of my philosophy, what I've just been
spewing about, is market-specific. In Charlotte I did not believe there was a
big enough market or a place for 30 minute coaches shows or 30 minute
highlight shows. If I was doing content in a Cleveland or a Pittsburgh or a
Green Bay or in Dallas there is absolutely a market for that type of content.
It's specifically to the Panthers fan base. And I think that's why in these jobs
you have to specifically know what your market needs and requires. So my
philosophy is what I'm talking about here. To be clear, it's specific to what
the Panthers needed at the time and where they should have went from a
content perspective.

“To try and answer this question, because I didn't think that X's and O's
content, by and large, really hit all that great with this fan base, yeah, I think
being different and funny and fun — we leaned more on that stuff than, okay,
the Panthers won this weekend, let's break down what happened. You get a few
people reading, a few people clicking, a few people watching, but the fan base
isn't big enough to draw on those numbers that you really want if you're going
to spend the time to make content like that. Now, if you go up and you look at
what the Eagles do, the Eagles do such an incredible job of mixing really smart
X's and O's content with fun content, and it's required up there. But if you're
spending the resources to do X's and O's content, those are resources being
spent somewhere. The Eagles fortunately have enough resources. We had the
resources we had, and I felt it was best to focus on the things that would engage
our specific audience the best, and that was being different.

“I think that started with Dan and Danny, when Panthers social started to
become a thing. Let's be honest, as well, the Panthers in the scope of 32
[teams] don't make that big of a dent. So if you're going to act like a
traditional team, if you're going to act like the Bears and the Packers and
all these teams that have bigger fan bases, then how are you ever going to
stand out? You have to be different. You have to be irreverent. You can't
take yourself all that seriously. Again, so much of this stuff is market-
specific, so if we were stodgy and we were serious and we tried to break
things down and X's and O's and da da da da da, the Panthers were never
going to make a dent. The Panthers had to be different to make anyone
ever care about them.”

On establishing the Panthers distinct brand and voice and how it has
remained over time
“It's a credit to Dan LaTorraca, he's he's the one who started that. And then
when I came in, it was like, well, don't screw up an already good thing. And
then Amie took over the channels and continued that voice and put her
own spin on the voice, and now Angela's done the same thing. But Dan's
the one who started that. Dan's the one who understood that we have to be
different, like, we have to be cheeky, we got to take some shots when we
can. So that wasn't any great thing that I came up with. That was just, hey,
this is what's working, of course, this makes sense.”

On the role team ops plays in the brand/voice fo the team
“Absolutely. And that's my bad for not even addressing that part of your
question, probably because I don't want to go down that road because you
shouldn't talk too poorly. But yeah, whenever you get a new head coach or
a new GM, it's essentially like spinning the Price is Right wheel, and a lot of
them are like the black spaces or whatever, and then there's the red and a
green or something...So you spin the wheel and usually you're going to land
on a coach or GM that's not going to be all that easy to work with.

“So we spun the wheel a few times. Someone like a Ron Rivera is definitely one
of the money spots, someone like a Scott Fitterer the GM is definitely one of the
money spots, but I won't say any names, but a lot of times if college coaches
come in, they bring in — and if you have some listeners here from the college
space, they'll understand — they bring in a much different philosophy than, hey,
just let the creative department go. A lot of these coaches, like the digital and
social is so important to what they do [in college] because of recruiting, they
have control and power over it. So sometimes a college coach might come into a
professional organization and say, well, I need to have power over the digital
and social department and see every post that you post ahead of time, which of
course isn't going to work in a professional organization. So we may or may not
have had to deal with that for two and a half years and that did affect our voice.
Those were not easy times, but a lot of teams are dealing with that stuff.

“You look at the Raiders. The Raiders are going to be going through, like
what number of coaches, so I think it depends on your situation. If you have
an owner that is going to tell a coach, sorry, you're going to leave them alone,
this is what we do here, which I think probably is what Jerry Jones does. It's
funny, the Patriots, a lot of the stuff that the Patriots write — and I'm
probably speaking out of turn here, but I don't know a lot of the stuff the
Patriots write is ‘wow that's interesting.’ Now I don't think they have a great
relationship with the football side, but I do think Robert Kraft gives them
some freedom to say, hey you can write the truth here. So a lot of it I think
depends on owners. But you were correct that you never know what you're
going to get with the coach and GM. Some will play nice, some won't care,
some will want control and you just have to build as many good
relationships as you can and try and work with that as best as you can.”

“It's funny because you still see comments like, give that social intern a raise and
these social professionals, they are so important to these organizations. They're
the front door of these organizations, which gives gives them so much power. It
gives us so much power. With that power of course, comes tremendous
responsibility. With that responsibility comes everyone in your organization has
an opinion about what you're doing on the front door of your organization. So
every department is like, why aren't you doing this? You need to do this. And
everyone has an opinion on stuff. So these jobs, well, everyone thinks they're fun.
They also come with a whole lot of second guessing and pressure from all parts
of the building, and that's where someone like me comes in, which is trying to
fight those battles before they really get to the social folks, the ones who are
executing so that they can go execute and they have the freedom to go be. And in
certain iterations of my job, I wasn't able to win some of those battles.”

“And I'm very partial to the social media managers. It probably rubs some
of my video folks, some of my graphic folks the wrong way and
photographers; not saying that they don't have a say at all, of course they
do. But I want my social folks to be the leaders because it's your channels,
you need to be telling us what content will work best on your channels. So I
believe that social folks, you have to allow them to have one of the loudest
voices, if not the loudest voice in the room. It's so vitally important.
Through crises, they just they need to be in all these meetings and I still
think that social folks are left out of way too many things that
organizations try to do when it's like, all this stuff is being judged on what
you're doing socially and digitally, why aren't you including the people that
know your channels the best?”

On the social team internalizing insights about how fans react to content and
stories
“I think it depends because people like me are in those meetings, but people
like me are still like, well, yeah, I know a lot, but like, my social folks know
even more than me. And with that said, I had a lot of times when you are
reading all the comments, as we know, a lot of that we can we can
overcorrect and listen too much; a lot of times that's not reality. So you have
to filter through and make sure that you're always going through a filter of
what reality is. Just because fans are complaining about this doesn't mean
that it's actually reality. And I think you can overreact to that and sometimes
be too sensitive and not pull some levers because you were afraid of this.

“But I think social folks, social media managers in particular, still need to
be in the room more. I think it's come a long way where as you and I
started getting into this digital and social, we were never included in
conversations. Now, people like me, kind of executive-ish type people are
in the meetings, which is good, but I still think the people who —
unfortunately you can't clone your social media manager, so it would
require them to be in more meetings and whatnot, but I still think it's
worth it when you're working through big events, when you're working
through, as I said, crises, when you're working through, hey, how are we
going to make this big announcement? Your social folks need to be part of
those conversations and not just telling them, hey, this is what we're doing.

“And yeah, I hope it continues to get better. But it's come a long way in the
10 to 15 years that we've paid attention to this stuff, but I still think it can
be a lot more sophisticated and let the people who are running these things
drive the bus, give them the keys. I know that a lot of the higher ups don't
want to do that, but they know how to drive the bus a lot of times better
than you do. So let us — you can be next to them in case it starts going off
the rails a little bit, but let them guide us a little bit more.

“If you look at the Titans during schedule release — they posted two videos
during schedule releasee. The main video they dropped at 8:00 was a
wonderfully produced video. I'm sure whether they did it internally,
whether they used an agency to do it, I'm not sure, I think they probably
did it internally, but it was wonderful. But then of course they posted the
the ‘Man on the Street' video that you know was just a couple social people
saying, hey, why don't we try this? And that's the magic that can happen
when you listen to your social folks, instead of having these big, long
meetings with these big projects; like, social folks can be a lot more nimble
and come up with a lot more creative ideas, so we need to have them in a
lot more of these meetings when we're talking about big tentpole events.”

On the increased social presence of athletes and how it evolved over the
years
“I think, if they haven't already, athletes are more powerful than these
teams and these brands. Now it's not every athlete, it's not the 53rd guy on
a roster, [but] who knows? Look at what Pat McAfee has done, but there's
only one Pat McAfee. So it's not every guy on your roster. But you know,
it's funny, we spent all this money on influencer marketing and we build
these big influencer marketing programs, but all these teams have
influencers already in the building. How long are we going to be able to use
them and team led content? I'm not quite sure.

“Cam [Newton] was a perfect example where Cam knew his brand was much
bigger than the Panthers. So Cam wouldn't do a whole lot for our stuff. Now, if
Cam walked in the back hallway with his son and we happened to get it, then cool,
we could post it. But would Cam do that necessarily for us? No. What the Bills
have been able to do with Josh Allen to me is is just incredible. And it goes back
to — you know, you asked me a question before about buying in with general
managers and head coaches and even with players and my tangents haven't really
answered your questions directly, but you look at what the Bills have been able to
do with Josh Allen and have them being part of their content. That's so important
and it's really great right now. I don't know if if Josh Allen will continue to do
that, if the next Josh Allens will do that. Once athletes, once this NIL gets more
sophisticated and more athletes are going to be like, oh no, why would I why
would I have that on your channels? I'm going to put this on my channels so I can
monetize that over there. I'm the draw.

“So these athletes are your own inside influencers. So use them as much as
possible, which of course means building those relationships. And so yeah it's the
best influencers you can get unless you can get, you know, like a MrBeast and
stuff like that. Not the best influencers you can get, but it's the most convenient
influencers you can get.”
“The Vikings used to do a podcast with Kirk Cousins and when I was at the
Panthers I was like who could we have do a podcast and we never really got to
that point. But yeah if you're a Kirk Cousins now you're not doing a podcast for
the Vikings, you're doing a podcast for either your own podcast network or a
podcast network because that's just where things have gone. So I do think a lot of
the stuff where we're able to use athletes right now on teams, it may not last for
too much longer. I think right now it's cool, but I don't know if that's how it's
always going to stay.”

The most memorable day or story from Bill’s time as a local sports news
anchor
“I would probably go 2006 when little Davidson College and Steph Curry
beat Georgetown on a Sunday afternoon. I'd been telling people about
Steph for a couple of years, and rarely am I right about things when I talk
about things in sports, And I was right about that kid. That was really fun. I
loved college basketball growing up, I loved the idea of Cinderella, and to
be able to be so close to a story like that with such good people was really
great.”

The broadcaster[s that Bill looked up to most as a kid growing up
“There's certainly multiple. But I mean, Bob Costas, he's the GOAT; [the
GOAT talk] has been way overdone in our society, but he's the GOAT.”

Bill’s favorite player he got to work with during he time with the Panthers and why
“Josh Norman. I know this is a podcast and you can't see me smiling. One of the things you're
taught very early on at Syracuse is you don't become friends with with the people you cover. You
can be friendly. So I've always been arm's length, which doesn't work in the social media world. A
lot of social folks are becoming friendly with [players] and that's just a line that I'll never really
cross. But Josh still continuously puts a smile on my face. When he came back last year, it just put
a smile on my face. Josh is a kid who was literally sleeping on his brother's couch in college and
made himself into, whether it was legit or not, the highest paid cornerback in the NFL in 2016,
after he’d had a magical 2015 season. I was running my website in 2015, and as I as I talked about
in the earlier segment, I was really good at turning content around really quickly. And when Josh
Norman says something ridiculous after a game and I get that posted really quickly, I was able to
monetize a lot of that stuff.
“Josh was awesome that year. He knew what he was doing. He knew that he was giving us
reporters [good content]. He was helping us do our job, and then we were helping him market
himself as well., so it was a mutually beneficial relationship.”

The pro sports team besides the Panthers whose content you admire and why
“Dan and the [Carolina Hurricanes] are great. You can see he's doing what he
did at the Panthers, which is you're the Hurricanes. it's really hard to stand out if
you're the Hurricanes and they're doing the same thing. And they do such a great
job. But to go out of the state, I don't think there's any question that the Chargers
are the best in American sports. They're playing another sport at a lot of levels.
“But please indulge me and let me say that I think actually the best in the world
— and I can't say this with complete confidence because I haven't seen every
social media account in the world, but I think Manchester City is the best in the
world. They're the most well-rounded. But as far as in America, it's the
Chargers.”

The number one tip Bill gives to someone that wants to work in sports media
“There's so many tips you could give. I would say be aggressive, which isn't really a
great tip because it can get you in trouble a lot. But in meetings and ideation
sessions, speak up, talk, don’t be afraid to fail, don’t be afraid to say, hey, we should
try this mini mic and people look at you like you're crazy. Because you know what
that mini mic idea could become? It could become something where all these teams
and all these other sports are using a frickin mini mic because you had enough
confidence or you had enough guts, and maybe you didn't have confidence, maybe
you were scared to bring up your idea in the meeting, but you at least said it.
“So speaking up in meetings, not dominating the meetings, but speaking up and
being able to have a voice no matter what level you're at to me is the number one
piece of advice.”

The most memorable game from Bill’s time with the Panthers
“I went to the Panthers in 2017 and that's the last time they made the playoffs. So
from 2018 through last year, there weren't a lot of memorable games. But
certainly the most memorable had to be when Cam Newton came back in 2021 at
Arizona in and my department got to live again. They got to smile again. They got
to do content like they could again. And I'm almost even getting emotional about
it now. That week and that game was so memorable because our content, you
depend so much on winning and good feelings. There's a lot of content
departments out there that we don't see the great work they do because they don't
win. So we had something called a content graveyard, and so much of our good
work was never seen because the Panthers weren't winning. So we got that feeling
back of the content team we could be thanks to Cam Newton coming back and
having that game against the Cardinals in 2021.”

The athlete who's not currently in broadcasting or media that Bill thinks
would have the most potential for such a role
“I'm being way too localized on these answers. I should really get out of
Carolina, but I think Cam Newton. Not in a traditional sense, I don't think
he would be good on a desk. I don't think he'd be great in a booth. I think,
obviously some things happened with Aqib Talib over the past year where
he's kind of disappeared, but I'm really fascinated by bringing someone into
these broadcasts or just around these broadcasts or obviously you have the
shoulder programing where they just talk to us like normal people and fun.
It's going to be around for a while, but our broadcasters dressing in suits and
ties, is that what a younger generation is going to really connect with? No,
it'll be someone like a Cam Newton just saying it how it is.

“Now, I think Cam has to let go of a lot of the things he's he's still saying
out there. I love Cam but he's hard to take seriously right now with some of
the things he's saying. So if he can get rid of some of that stuff and I just
think he would connect in a lot of great ways that would help himself and
probably not an old network, but a newer type of network.”

The best meal to get in Charlotte and
where to get it
“I would let you buy me a meal at
Alexander Michael's. I'm not going to say
barbecue because I imagine that's what
everyone would say. So Alexander
Michael’s is just this really quaint-ish
type restaurant near the stadium, and get
yourself a London broil sandwich or this
Cajun pasta they have. And Alexander
Michael’s is where it's at.”

The most important trait for a leader and the most important lesson that Bill
has learned as a leader
“The most important trait in a leader is to trust the people you've hired. Now
hopefully they're going to execute. But as long as the people you've hired can
execute, trust your experts. The whole reason you've hired them is because,
hopefully, they can do things ten times better than you can. And if you can
build a team of people like that and you've built a really good team. As far as
the most important lesson I learned, I learned so many lessons. And if I do
lead a team again, I hope to be much better as a leader. I think having
empathy and leading with empathy in the digital and social space, I could go
on and on and on. This is going to be a lightning round question though.

“Burnout is so prevalent right now. I was not intentional enough for
myself, but especially for my team and forcing people to take a step back.
We build these great teams, and we're not going to keep them because
we're just going to burn everybody out. So having empathy when it comes
to people's personal lives and some sort of work-life balance and being
human with them, I think, and doing a better job at that is something I
want to take into my next opportunity.”

Who's gonna win the Super Bowl in 2024?
“Can I say my Browns? No I can't because that would be stupid. I would
say Kansas City, but I don't think the receiving [personnel] is good enough,
so I will go with the Eagles.”

Bill’s Social Media All-Star to Follow
“I don't know how to pronounce his name, but I just recently stumbled upon
him on LinkedIn — his name is Alex Kopilow. He just started a sponsored
content newsletter [Sponcon Sports]. He's done digital digital partnerships
with MSG and the White Sox, and this guy gets it as far as connecting
content with the sales side. And he understands like, hey, this is how you do
good sponsored content, not just sponsored content and and how it really
can hit just as good, if not a lot of times better than what we would consider
organic content. So I'm going to reach out to him somewhat soon and just be
like, Alex, I really appreciate your stuff. So I don't know him, I've just
recently stumbled upon him, but I thought he was someone to bring up.”

Where to find Bill on digital/social media
Bill is @BillVoth on Twitter and find him on LinkedIn

@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
Thanks again to Bill for being so generous with his time to share his
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 259 Snippets: Bill Voth

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