Pittsburgh Riverhounds Social Media Strategy

Written By Pursue Persuade

By Brooke Massaro

Who are the Pittsburgh Riverhounds?

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds are a beloved professional soccer team based in Pittsburgh. They were founded on March 11th, 1998 by Pennsylvania native Paul Heasley. He created the team for his son Lucas, a soccer player and fan who had no local role models to look up to in his sport. Heasley’s aim for the team was to “embody the character of Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania, and fuel the ambitions of young soccer players in this region.” 

Photo of the Riverhounds Stadium

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds Statidum overlooking the beautiful Monongahela River. Photo from Highmark Stadium.

What is the goal?

The Riverhounds are known for their beautiful stadium, iconic mascot, and loyal fans. However, due to other teams in Pittsburgh that have more popularity, the Riverhounds often get lost in the shuffle of Pittsburgh sports. Through this social media strategy proposal, the goal is to increase ticket sales of Riverhounds tickets to people within 50 miles (driving distance) of Pittsburgh. 

Photo of 3 soccer balls sitting on grass

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds are part of the Eastern Conference of the USL (United Soccer League).

How to implement strategy

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds social media pages are extremely active with content that centers around their players. There are a few posts thrown in that focus on fans and ticket sales, but not often. If there are posts that focus on something other than the players themselves, they are just simple photos of players interacting with fans. While this is still beneficial to the team, it does not create much engagement with the posts, or necessarily persuade someone to attend a game. Here are a few options of social media strategy initiatives that the Riverhounds could implement to increase ticket sales: 

“Neighborhood Night"

A social media strategy that the Pittsburgh Riverhounds could implement is a “Neighborhood Spotlight” series. This would entail focusing on a different neighborhood local to Pittsburgh each week on their social media channels, and specifically offering discounted tickets for a certain game to people who live in that area. 

Pittsburghers are extremely loyal and take pride in the neighborhoods they live in, so this would be a way to highlight the culture of each neighborhood as well as increase ticket sales. Nathalie Nahai, author of Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion, says that in order to increase sales, a company should make the product seem personal: “We tend to trust people who are most like us … like-minded viewers will be more likely to relate and trust your comments, which will in turn increase sales” (Nahai 171). 

For the Riverhounds, this sentiment is extremely vital to the success of this strategy. If fans know that the Riverhounds are supporting their specific neighborhood at a game, they are more likely to buy tickets to attend the game. According to research done by the British Journal of Marketing Studies, developing an effective marketing strategy that focuses on fans, spectators, and the players is extremely helpful when trying to increase ticket sales (Coutinho and Luzzi Las Casas, 46). 

How this will work in practice is that there will be content that goes out on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok highlighting each neighborhood. This can be going to local business, attractions, or events in the neighborhood with Riverhounds players. If there is a Riverhounds player from a neighborhood that is featured, then they will be highlighted in the content. At the end of the post and in the caption, there will be links to purchase the tickets at the discounted rate. Fans would have to enter their address to prove that they live in that area, then the discount would be applied. At the games themselves, there will be neighborhood themed activities implemented into the game-day operations. 

Another aspect of this strategy would be to partner with local businesses in the neighborhoods that are highlighted to appeal to fans in the area. Not only would the businesses be featured in the content, they could also do a pop-up event at the games with specialized products focused on the Riverhounds. They could also promote and sell the discounted tickets at their businesses, offering them to customers in person.  

Influencer Marketing

Another social media strategy that the Riverhounds could implement is more of a focus on influencer marketing. This is an extremely popular tactic used on social media today, by companies as well as creators themselves. With Instagram and TikTok being some of the most used social media platforms today, it is an easy tactic to ask a creator to promote a business, product, or idea on their social media channels. Hootsuite projects influencer marketing will reach $32.55 billion as a market by the end of 2025, which is double the value it had in 2021. 

For the Riverhounds, this is a fairly simple strategy that can be done at the same time as the previous one mentioned. They already do promotions with local celebrities at games, which can also be done concurrently with this strategy. Specifically, this strategy would mean focusing on influencers (rather than celebrities) that are local to Pittsburgh. This could mean inviting them to games, or even making them a partner for the whole season. They would make content to post on their own social media channels, as well as be featured in the Riverhounds social media content. 

Final Thoughts

While the Riverhounds have an active and thriving social media, it is focused on the team and players themselves, not on the fans. With a fan centered approach to their marketing, this will more than likely increase their ticket sales. According to an article on Forbes, “the brand message first, experience second” model of marketing is a thing of the past. Having a “fan first” approach is much more effective than promoting the experience as a whole. The fan being in the forefront of marketers’ minds is due to the shift in society to focus more on user-generated content, and letting the fan have more control over their experience.

The Riverhounds implementing these strategies will not only likely increase ticket sales, but it will also help promote a positive brand image and bring more attention to the team and sport. 

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