Self Promotion, Haircuts and Grapes - Marketing in Pro-Wrestling in 2011

Charlie Sheen might hold the record for the most amount of Twitter followers in 24 hours but in the world of pro-wrestling it’s all about self promotion, as online networking becomes a vital tool for professional wrestlers world-wide.

When Matt Hardy has a haircut people listen, almost 200,000 people infact as the former WWE star successfully kept his name in the spotlight thanks to self-promotion through Social Media. 

Without being featured on WWE Television his YouTube clips are regularly viewed by an average of 20,000 people. Almost 5 million people have watched a sometimes weird, sometimes strange Matt Hardy talk to his “fans” and eat grapes.

There is no irony in his twitter name being “MATTHARDYBRAND” because that sums up exactly what is going on here. Matt Hardy is a “brand”, a brand that has its own marketing and a brand that requires its own media.

This helped Hardy secure a nice contract with the 2nd biggest pro-wrestling company in the world, and caused a few people headaches along the way.

Not everyone has quite worked out how to best use Social Media, the man formally known as Val Venis – Sean Morley has 2,914 followers and has been busy picking online fights with Hardy over the past month. Actually a smart thing to do considering the amount of followers Hardy has, but not only has Morley not increased his followers but he has damaged his brand along the way.

Nobody knows what he  stands for or what he is doing, he doesn’t have an agenda, he doesn’t attract followers as he doesn’t have an audience. While Matt is shooting footage with fans outside hotels in Australia or thanking followers for his support Morley comes across as an old bitter washed up former WWE talent looking for a booking.

On an independent level Social Networking has exposed the raw and often underground world of professional wrestling where almost anyone manned with a video camera and a spotlight have shot some of the worst promos in the history of the business.

Facebook has plenty of wrestlers who spit out promo after promo, often without a direction with the company that are booking them, and often to get a “like” from a family member or personal friend, it achieves nothing.

So why does Matt Hardy have 200,000 followers ?

Because like the Miz, Hardy understands that he in himself is a brand that people will buy, like Coke, like McDonalds, it’s all self promotion and it’s what you need to do to make it in the wrestling business in 2011.

WWE Champion The Miz has a healthy 170,000+ followers, almost as many as Matt Hardy, but not more. When  I spoke to him about Twitter last year and promoting yourself online he very clearly stated: “The Miz is a brand, I am a brand and I need to get my media out as much as possible everywhere I possibly can”.

Why did the Rock plug his Facebook page during a live promo on RAW ?

Why did WWE shut down the “WWE Universe” page and move everyone to Facebook ?

There is a change in the wind for professional wrestling which for years has painted the Internet as a place of gossip and dirt, a 21st century version of dirt sheets with unfound gossip and 12 year old Internet journalists blogging about storylines.

But now WWE has an entire Digital division in the company, and what is the Digital Strategy for the largest professional wrestling organisation in the world ?

Mark Keys (VP, web production, WWE) on mashable.com is quoted as saying:

“In addition to our televisions brands, like “Raw” and “SmackDown,” each of our talent in and of themselves is a brand. There are just as many people who love John Cena as there are that hate him. And there are just as many people who love Randy Orton as there are that hate him. So, we try to focus on our talent as individual brands.”

Mashable report that WWE’s Digital strategy seems to be working for them so far:

“It has 16.8 million fans across its Facebook pages, and it’s an active fan base. The main WWE Page ranks at #45 on the list of top pages by fan count, and each posts yields on average 5,000 interactions (comments and likes) each. Last year, WWE’s top 30 Facebook Pages received more than 1 billion post impressions and 7.1 million interactions, according to WWE”.

The WWE digital strategy team goes to go where “people are nesting” and instead of spending marketing dollars trying to persuade them to come to you, a perfect strategy for any professional wrestling company in 2011.

Top 10 Tips for Independent Performers:

10 – Link and Promote : Get the company to link to your blog/twitter and be sure to use their hash tag when talking online or promoting your appearance with them

9 – Connect with your audience : As you do in ring, you should do on social networking. Like a hope spot and if the crowd aren’t involved then you’re doing something wrong

8 – Kayfabe is still Kayfabe : Nothing worse than talking about your upcoming match against “wrestler b” while your Facebook has photos of you out together the night before with “wrestler b” having drinks and partying

7 – Don’t destroy your brand : Treat YouTube like it’s a TV network, not like a video of you growing up that your parents keep and watch to embarrass you

6 – Be careful of “Internet wars” : See Val Venis for more information

5 – Sell Yourself : There are plenty of ways to sell yourself to promoters globally, don’t think local or just your audience in your home town, it’s the “world wide web”, the world is watching

4 – Blog and Blog again : If you are going to blog then do it regularly, not just once a month or when you feel like it, content is the king and so are regular updates

3 – Nobody Cares : Actually not many people care if you eat grapes or go for a haircut, but try to keep your posts atleast somewhat interesting or topical

2 – Don’t Shoot : Nothing easier than letting off steam in a twitter update or grabbing a camera and yelling for 5 mins about something nobody understands, don’t do it

1 – Promote Yourself : You are a can of soft drink, what makes you different to all the other flavours? And why should people buy you?

It’s a brand new world out there, and those who adapt will “win” – just like Charlie Sheen

Thanks for reading.

Rohan Herbstreit
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

More Reading:

How WWE Conquered the Social Media Arena
http://mashable.com/2011/01/28/wwe-social-media

A Social Media Experiment in Professional Wrestling
http://iwantwrestling.com

20 Ways Local Promotions Can Use Social Media
http://wrestling.net.au/commentary/1510-20-ways-local-promotions-can-use-social-media

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