Madison Noschese
mmn002@marietta.edu
Do you know the feeling you get when the puck drops on the shivering ice of PPG Paints Arena? That’s when most people think the game starts, but for the staff of the Pittsburgh Penguins gameday starts hours before, which I got to be part of.
Andi Perelman is the Vice President for the Pittsburgh Penguins digital department. The entire night was filled with opportunities that allowed for hands-on experience showcasing what Perelman does on a typical NHL gameday revolving around the growing and interactive social media within the organization.
When I first arrived at the arena, I connected with Perelman and other members of the digital department. Perelman had open arms to show me all the tasks that needed to be done before, during, and after the game to show exactly how their night looks which allowed for me to be prepared as the night went along.
Doors are now open for the ecstatic fans of Pittsburgh and the staff heads to the media deck multiple levels above the arena. This is the time where I sat between Perelman and Sydney Blackman to take part in social media platform postings. You don’t just start posting, but must have a plan when it comes to a game night in the media deck. In my position for the night I observed Blackman going through the department’s shared photo album of photos taken during warmups and watched her select a few photos to be posted. The photos were then captioned and posted on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for fans to engage with at the arena as well as at home.
Perelman was fully engaged with the postings on Facebook along with Twitter. Perelman had TweetDeck open and was able to see all the comments and quotes of the Twitter content from fans pop-up as they were posted. I was able to observe as she interacted with different tweets along the screen which showed the interactions the digital team has with the fans. Being part of the digital department makes you have multiple hats to fill during the night. Perelman was doing posting, but would you know that she worked with another person to quickly get videos of the goals scored by the Penguins and implement closed captions to make sure fans were up to date as soon as possible? The digital aspect of sport grows and revolves as the night goes along.
Penguins win.
Quickly the digital department organizes a win graphic that will be posted directly after the game ends. The atmosphere at the end of the game allowed for opportunity to assist the digital team with the creation of a caption for the social media pages, but the night doesn’t end there.
Transitioning from the media deck tasks to the post game interview, the digital team had Twitter open and ready to take any quotes from Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan. Once the interview was finalized, myself and the digital team waited for the Bold Penguin Helmet recipient video, which is a sponsor of the player of the game. Once all tasks were completed in the press room for the night, we headed back down to the offices to finalize the final game article to be posted on all Penguins platforms which then let us know that our night at PPG Paints Arena was complete.
The night with the Pittsburgh Penguins allowed for me to create many valuable connections and I was also able to gain a new insight on the social media part of professional sports. This experience gave me a hands-on look into a passion that I could turn into a possible career in the years to come. My experience with the Pittsburgh Penguins was unlike any other, and I can’t wait for more experiences!
