Winning feels good doesn't it?
The Texans are in the midst of a four game winning streak, the longest since I've been employed by the team. My first season was 2013, which coincided with a different type of streak, the kind you don't want to remember. As everyone recalls, the Texans won their first two games and then...let's not even say it.
We obviously cover the team (and organization) here at HoustonTexans.com, and as you can imagine, the sentiment in the digital world can change quickly. This is why any good digital and social media strategy is always evolving, because the emotions of your fan base are a moving target, especially during the season. While a month doesn't seem like a long time, in our world (or any team's), it could mean a drastic change.
Think about it.
A month ago, the Texans were coming off a 44-26 loss to the Miami Dolphins. Our fans were understandably disappointed and upset, and we heard about it. Social media gives everyone a voice, and trust me, we heard from all of you. I don't write this to try and gain sympathy, but just to paint the picture and explain the situation. During that time our social voice took a step back, both during that Dolphins game and the days that followed. We had to simplify our message as a way of understanding what our fans were going through. I don't want to date myself with a Dragnet reference (I'm not that old), but our strategy became, "just the facts ma'am". Most of you needed to vent, so we sat back and listened. At the time, it was the right thing to do.
Fast forward to the past week, and everything is different. The Texans are winning, the fans are excited and the morale is high. So, as the mood has changed, so has our threshold. We've begun to have more fun with our reactions during the game, to better connect and make you feel like we are hanging out watching the game with you. That's why you see a few more memes and the occasional GIF (that's a lie, I love GIFs) like the ones below.
We can even joke about the things our players do.
I sent out this tweet on the Tuesday after the Texans defeated the Jets. It went viral, as people from both the New York and Houston media markets wrote stories about it. This tweet has since been retweeted over 2100 times, a total higher than anything we've ever done. When I first heard that DeAndre Hopkins did the air quotes during his interview (I didn't see it), I immediately thought of the famous movie villian Dr. Evil. I am a big fan of the Austin Powers movie series, and for me it made perfect sense to put those two images together to create a funny GIF for our fans.
My emoji use and tone was meant to laugh at the fact that 'Nuk actually used the air quotes, not that we were laughing at the idea of Revis Island or mocking the talented corner. However, looking at it after, I can see how people may have taken it that way. The point is, when you are winning, you ride the wave of positive emotion and try to enjoy the moment. You'd never tweet something like this after a loss. Everyone (including us) was happy, so we tried to keep the good times going.
I'm simply stating the obvious. It's harder to have fun when you aren't winning. The numbers back that up.
The past two weeks on HoustonTexans.com have been among the best in our site's history. This past Sunday we had the highest number of mobile visitors to our website...EVER. On Twitter alone we nearly reached a million impressions BEFORE our matchup against the Saints even started. That number a month ago? Three times less. Are we that much better at our job now than 30 days ago? I like to think we are always getting better, but we aren't that much better.
We are winning...and that's fun. All the way around. Let's enjoy it.
