NWSL Front Offices on Twitter

We're shifting gear today from our last post, on a global look at XI great logos in women's soccer, back to the North America geography and the digital space.

Social media has totally rocked the women's soccer world. If Title IX was the milestone moment that most impacted our opportunity to participate in soccer, and if the '99ers were the team that ushered the game of women's soccer to hearts and minds of the world, then the advent of social media is the Title IX or the 99ers of media for women's soccer.

The social media-driven decentralization of news creation and distribution enabled a monster opportunity for platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram to grow into a powerful voice for a club, especially when a lack of mainstream media coverage exists.

And it's been the players leading the charge "being the media" (a term coined by the digital rockstar Amy Jo Martin at Digital Royalty) by sharing the inside scoop about their careers, their clubs and national team experiences through updates sent 24/7 via their smartphones and computers, birthing a sort of player-journalism era. Check out our earlier post here on player voices on Twitter.

What's more rare is the chance to get in the minds of the business women and men of the front office, who juggle the dynamics of building rosters, salary cap management, marketing, ticket sales and operations. There's something really impactful about the people running the show making themselves available to the fan base, and sharing their passion for club. It's totally addicting and connective.

Today we go on a quick trip through the Twitter landscape of the front offices in the NWSL. Have a scroll down to see who we've captured from across the eight teams, listed by the number of combined front office followers. Let us know if there's anyone we missed that is making noise out there.

SNAPSHOT
While the Portland Thorns FC have the most combined followers at over three times the next team (mostly due to highly active owner in Merritt Paulson, who also tweets disproportionally more about his second property the MLS Timbers), it's the Chicago Red Stars who have the deepest Twitter roster, a front office the most involved on Twitter.

Owners of half the NWSL teams (four of the eight teams) are available on Twitter, at varying involvement levels.

Branded Twitter profiles are a rarity in the league outside of the official team profiles but its the Breakers staff who are elevating their profiles with the most cohesive branding. Staff Twitter profiles all have header photos tying directly back to a Breaker visual.

BEST PRACTICE HIGHLIGHT
Chicago Red Stars integrate the twitter handle into the staff list on their website - check out the screen shot below. There's a lot to love about this. Chicago doesn't make it hard for fans to follow the team, and more importantly it makes them connected to the community. This is such a smart approach, that can also feed back insights to the club who can choose to listen and react.

PORTLAND THORNS FC (11,655 combined front office followers)
Owner @MerrittPaulson
Head Coach @cone_cindy
Assistant Coach @JohnRGalas
Equipment Manager @missmarielo

CHICAGO REDSTARS (3,598 combined front office followers)
Owner @arnimiii
GM @alahue
Head Coach @dames_rory
Head Athletic Trainer @cherlyneFC
Sales Director @RedStarJay
Ticket Sales @J_Badger
Operations @MargoAshton

BOSTON BREAKERS (3,583 combined front office followers)

Head Coach @Lcole22

GM @LB_Breakers

Communications Manager @writerwood

Account Executive @PR_Breakers

WASHINGTON SPIRIT (3,308 combined front office followers)

CFO @SoccerWasho and @Breakintosports

GK Coach @GKeepersUnited

Assistant Coach @mparsons_1

SEATTLE REIGN FC (2,087 combined front office followers)
Owner @billpredmore
Head Coach @LH1505

FC Kansas City (1,235 combined front office followers)
Director of Sales, Marketing, PR @jeffhusted
Director of Ticket Ops @CharlieGGCoach
Account Executive @BrentGarrison6
Strength & Conditioning Coach @athletefitcoach

SKY BLUE FC (647 combined front office followers)
Owner @HofstetterTh
Assistant Coach @erwinvbennekom

---

UPDATE (5.7.2013): We missed a few handles in our search, apologies to those we didn't catch - we've listed them here now.

Boston Breakers

Sales Director @EM_Breakers

Account Executive @JT_BBreakers

Seattle Reign FC

Assistant Coach @mastercoach2010

Equipment Manager @webstaryachts

Director of Team Administration @maryannboddy

FC Kansas City

@kcsoccerdome

Washington Spirit

Ticket "Guy" @bartlett84

Ticket Sales Account Executive @SincWonzSpirit

Ticket Program Manager @npardo519

Related Posts:

Player Voices on Twitter

Player Led Twitter Chat