ESPN

How does a sports network drive more traffic to their articles and videos?

Challenge

Increase distribution of and traffic to ESPN’s web content.

Solution

Implemented Twitter Web Intents throughout the ESPN.com site.

Results

  • 1,250 Tweets a day
  • 15 clicks per Tweet back to site
  • 10% of Tweets with ESPN links sent via Web Intents
Tweet

ESPN (@espn) is the world’s premier website for the latest news, video and in-depth sports reporting. With the most widely-viewed sports content on the web, @espn uses Twitter to drive both the distribution of and conversations about the articles and videos they produce.

Their challenge

Whether it’s the stories after a big game or video snippets from the SportsCenter team, Twitter has long helped @espn distribute their content to sports fans everywhere. To maximize their Twitter strategy, @espn wanted to find ways for them to tweet directly from ESPN.com sites and help spread the content even further.

Their solution

@espn used Twitter Web Intents on their articles to drive content sharing. ESPN’s sidebar moves down the page as a person scrolls, making it easy for them to click on the embedded Twitter bird logo at any time. When clicked, Twitter’s Web Intent pops up a window with a pre-loaded, custom Tweet, enabling users to quickly share the content with their followers.

ESPN.com

ESPN also placed Tweet Intents in each video near the play/pause progress bar. A simple click of the Twitter bird brought up another window with the suggested Tweet from the ESPN team. Tweet Intents can be implemented with a simple URL.

Their results

Over a 30-day period, users sent over 40,000 Tweets from @espn’s site, (averaging over 1,250 Tweets per day). 10% of all Tweets with @espn links were generated using the Tweet Intent. During that same period, all Tweets that contained links to ESPN resulted in an average of 15 clicks back to the site.

2 keys to success

  1. Empower easy sharing from your site.
    Twitter Web Intents can encourage users to share content directly from your site. ESPN.com integrated these into their site and videos to make user sharing a breeze.
  2. Pre-populate Tweets for consistent messaging.

    Pre-populated Tweets help you spread your words through your users’ Tweets. ESPN.com popped up a pre-populated Tweet when users clicked on the embedded Twitter logo, giving them a one-click way to share content with their followers.

    Learn how to implement Web Intents