Karlo Sy Su is the Digital Content Manager for ESPN Los Angeles – the flagship station for the Los Angeles Lakers, Rams, and LA FC. Karlo spoke at the 2023 BSM Summit and since that presentation, there have been some exciting developments at ESPN LA on the digital side.
ESPN LA has the largest cumulative social media following in sports radio. 518K follow the brand on Facebook, 246K on Instagram, 95K on X, and 17K on TikTok. Another 37K consume the brand’s content on YouTube. That’s just under one million collectively across all platforms. All of that by the way is without adding the station’s radio audience.
In our conversation, Karlo explains why niche audiences on social deliver greater impact, how sponsorship activations work in the form of social campaigns, how ESPN LA leverages its flagship partnerships to develop unique content and how social media can greatly expand the impact of terrestrial radio.
Sports media professionals are encouraged to watch the full version of the interview on our YouTube page. Also, if you haven’t checked out our prior interviews with other social media managers, click here. Please be aware that the interview below has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Alex Reynolds: Put me in your day-to-day and tell me about the team that you work with on the digital side. From your interaction with talent, PDs and others inside ESPN LA.
Karlo Sy Su: What we love Alex is that not a day goes by where it’s the same old same old. Going into the day, a lot of constant communication goes on between the digital team, which I’m proud to say I have a digital team. I know a lot of sports stations or radio stations in general can’t afford even just one person to dedicate to social media. Because of Good Karma Brands and the load that we cover, we’re able to utilize part timers who are hungry to participate in producing digital content and finding ways to create opportunities for themselves.
That communication also involves the content team and the sales marketing consultant team. That allows us to be on the same page when it comes to creating content. Having that same mindset and those same goals of who we want to target our content to.
AR: What would you say the top three platforms are for ESPN Los Angeles?
KS: I always love that question. Instagram, to me, is such a great network to be able to engage with our fans. The engagement rate for us is much higher on Instagram than on other platforms. Because of that, we prioritize Instagram to communicate directly with those who are consuming our content.
YouTube is also up there. I would rank that as like a 1a and 1b not even a one and two. YouTube we prioritize as a platform to live stream nine hours of daily programming. We’ve used YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and X to stream and simulcast our radio shows. We’re able to surprise our fans and partners by showing them that ESPN Los Angeles is no longer a station on your radio dial inside your car. You’re able to stay connected with us no matter where you are, on your phone or on your computer.
AR: Why is it important to be on not just live streaming on your primary channel, but every channel possible?
KS: We cater to our audience! Our audience doesn’t have channels on every platform. So we’re making it as easy as possible for our audience to access us. If you’re connecting with us on X, we want you to be one tap away from following us and able to communicate. If you are on Facebook it’s the same thing. We want to make it as easy as possible by being on as many platforms as possible.
AR: Tell me about the growth strategies that you go through at ESPN LA.
KS: We let our content do a lot of the talking. By doing that, it shows that our audience is willing to engage with it. And they show that they’re hungry for more. We want to follow the numbers, study the analytics, know what is and isn’t working and grow from there.
By seeing what is working, we want to cater to that audience and provide them more of that content. People know they can go on YouTube or any of our social media platforms and get content from us on a regular basis. That shows that we are a reliable source.
AR: Tell me a little bit about those brand partnerships and how you’ve been able to make social media into a revenue driver for the station.
KS: It’s been an incredible year on that. Being able to push our partners in that relationship between our fans and our talent has been a top priority.
I would say one of the biggest things I’m proud about is a campaign that we had with Bibigo – the official Jersey patch of the Los Angeles Lakers. One of their big priorities was brand awareness. Their product wasn’t being pushed to the forefront by the Lakers. So they turned to us as a team partner of the Lakers for ways of continue improving that relationship.
We were able to, with communication with the Lakers, put the product in the players’ hands on media day. It was a huge win for us and a huge win for them. The players actually loved having Bibigo in their hands, tasting the product, eating it on camera with us. In these meetings, we had the idea of having fun with it. Doing a a dumpling dunk contest in adding style points to the piece.
One of the biggest compliments that you can get is from fans who are watching the video and saying, ‘This doesn’t feel like an ad.’ That means you did your job. It’s another level for us to not just put up an ad but to organically integrate our partners into the content that we’re already doing. We’re used to having fun with players on media day. Now we integrate a partner to it.
Also, if you watch our social media live stream, we have lower thirds integrating a logo from the partner. Maybe it’s a promo code or an offer that talent are passionately pushing. It’s just about finding different ways to include the partner in the relationship between talent and fans. And it gets hilarious sometimes when you’re watching the YouTube livestream and you look in the chat and totally unprovoked you have fans talking about the product that they see. Not because we’re forcing them to do this but because our fans are becoming passionate about the partners that we have.
AR: Speaking of partnerships, being a flagship station is huge in the radio business. You already mentioned the Lakers and the Rams. How have those partnerships opened up doors in terms of social content?
KS: Because of how we approach our team partnerships, we want to be able to bridge our fans and give them the same access that we have. I remember growing up when I was an intern, I’d get these awesome opportunities to be in the Lakers locker room talking to Kobe [Bryant] and Pau [Gasol]. That was a lifetime dream for me. I grew up with Laker fans in my family and my friends. They wanted to see the same things that I see and I grew that foundation into what we believe here at ESPN Los Angeles.
We want to connect our fans, as much as possible to be the eyes and the ears of the content. As if they were a fly on the wall inside Crypto or SoFi stadium. We know not every fan can afford to be there and we know not every fan has the same access that we do. But we want to share that access as much as possible.
We know it is also on the team to be gatekeepers of this content at times, and we are ready for them to say no. But as long as we have unique ideas and perspectives to share their stories, the teams are usually behind it. Because of that, it goes back to the reliability that we have and fans knowing that they’re going to get some of the best in-depth content from us, not just from the official team accounts.
I found it interesting that not every radio station approaches it that way. As a team partner, we want to provide social content that is similar, maybe even sometimes better than a one-sided voice from the official team accounts.
AR: You talked about measuring what works and what doesn’t. Social gives you a ton of data points to work with so, what do you feel are the biggest social and digital KPIs for you?
KS: It’s definitely got to be engagement. I know a lot of partners measure their success in impressions. GKB measures their success with followers. I love having the largest sports radio social media following in the country, that’s something I’m proud of. But knowing that we have an audience that continues to engage with the content, brings the impressions and the followers. I don’t think it’s the same story the other way.
Knowing that our fans aren’t just following us because we told them to or maybe because of a contest. But they actually follow because they believe in our content and want to see more.
I had a great discussion with one of my teammates about this. I asked, what are you more proud about on this post? Was it the 100 likes in the first two or three minutes or the 120 comments that came from it? We said it’s the comments because of the energy that your fans spend to engage to react to content. It takes more energy to comment then to double tap and scroll on to the next post. Our job is to make you stop scrolling. Not only did you see it because you follow us, but you stopped scrolling because you were passionate enough to engage with our content.
To me, that is more critical and valuable because we took your time.
AR: You guys do great and exciting content around teams but let’s bring it inside the station. Tell me what you believe are the keys to creating good social content out of radio.
KS: I feel so lucky to have a team of clowns. Not only do I have professional talent, who are great at what they do on radio. They have personalities, and I think that translates well on social media. Any vanilla person can deliver a message, but they integrate their hot takes with uniqueness. Our talent do a great job of that.
When you look at the numbers, and their followings, they’ve built them because of the persona that they’ve created themselves. I think it’s our job at ESPN LA in our social media accounts, to just supplement it. It’s not on us to build their persona. That’s on them, and our role is to continue showcasing it.
For example, Scott Kaplan is willing to integrate partners in unique ways. He’s thinking about things the same way that we are, not just looking to put a logo on something or read a sponsor tagline. He’s trying to find ways to implement it in his message in his content, and it’s awesome.
One person I want to mention, in particular, is Chris Morales. We’re lucky to have him. The radio industry would be so much better if there was a Chris Morales at every station because he gives that extra level of pushing talent to pursue ways of not being boring in integrating a partner or engaging other talent.
It’s unique, and it challenges us every day. Because of that, we’ve built a franchise like the Mandy’s where fans are willing to show up to root for our own talent to get awards from ourselves. It’s such a unique scenario that I don’t think everybody can duplicate.
One thing I want to add is- and this further supports the growth of the talent without our social media channels -on X, each of the shows (Travis and Sliwa, Mason and Ireland, Sedano and Kaplan) have their own X communities. They interact with their P1 listeners without [the social team] engaging with them. It’s all self driven, the producers and the talent are in there talking with their fans. Fans are talking with each other. They don’t need [@ESPNLosAngeles] to continue to push that message.
AR: Would you recommend that to other stations and other markets… breaking it up by show?
KS: That’s an interesting question. I actually looked across the GKB markets, and we were asked about our predictions for 2024. I said that social media would be more engaging in a smaller space. So being more of a private social media community, meaning like communities where you have to be a member, which provides that feeling of exclusivity.
If we decided to do show social media accounts, anybody can click follow. But to be part of a community, you must actually be a listener. You can set up quiz questions to be part of it.
This, again, creates that feeling that I don’t need to post something that is going to be seen by everybody. I’m just going to post something to the audience that actually cares about it. Because of that, it’s a more efficient way of getting your message out.
AR: You mentioned that you’re lucky to have a full digital team around you. But not all stations are like that. What advice do you have for stations that have one or maybe a few part-time people working on the digital and social side?
KS: I’m willing to bet there is at least one person who is interested in starting a social media page for the station. Continue to provide them with opportunities where they can grow the station in ways that are challenging right now. We know this current market isn’t prime for sports radio. This isn’t the golden era of sports radio. But to find ways to connect to a younger audience, even a larger audience that you may never have tapped into, social media is a great space for that.
There’s so much young talent coming out of school, that are social media savvy, that a lot of us in the radio business who have been in it for a while, may not be thinking that forward. In sports radio, we’re finding ways to connect with an audience. It’s the same with social media just on a different channel.
For us at ESPN Los Angeles, we don’t view ourselves as a radio station that is on from 6am to 7pm. We are always on because you can interact and reach out via our social media platforms, which are 24-25 hours, eight days a week.
Alex Reynolds serves as Barrett Media’s Digital Director. In this role, he oversees all social media scheduling and content creation, monitoring of the brands analytics, and contributes to the brand’s newsletters, conferences, and websites. Originally from Rockville, Maryland, Alex is a passionate lacrosse fan, and graduate of Elon University. He can be found on Twitter @Reynolds14_.
