Social Media Manager of One of the Six Teams in the National Women's Hockey League

By: Cass Ferguson

When you think about it, what really brings a brand, a team, the fans, values and goals together into one? A simple answer to that questions is social media. We sat down with Juliana Nikac who is the Social Media Manager with the Boston Pride, who are one of now six teams in the NWHL (National Women’s Hockey League).

Her journey to getting to where she is now was one for the books. Nikac said that she, “has never run social media platforms for other brands the way she has run them for Boston Pride, and that’s pretty exciting.”

Like we say all the time, everyone’s story is so different and how people get to their current roles is even more different. So, we asked, “What is your background? What have you done in order to get you to where you are today?”

“I’m going to be honest, when I first went into college/ university I had no idea what I wanted to do. I applied everywhere as a psychology major because that is what I had originally wanted to do”, but things changed the more research she did. “It just didn’t seem like something I wanted to do. It didn’t seem like me.” 

She started finding some love for communications so she took courses in that realm. Some of the courses were in sports journalism, but shortly realized that wasn’t for her. With some shuffling around, she found her niche in Public Relations. 

While pursuing this journey, she did just a little bit of everything from areas of website content, editing website content, writing opinion pieces, social media, planning and editing a magazine, and called hockey games.

So needless to say her path set her up for success in her role as ‘Social Media Manager’.

When chatting with her we wanted to know what her day looks like while being a Social Media Manager. We asked her to take us through what a regular day and even what a game day looks like when running social media platforms. 

Every day is consistently different, but it keeps Nikac on her toes. On a daily basis she’s responsible for, as she put it, “everything.” Creating content, monitoring platforms, analyzing campaigns, creating graphics, etc. Nikac said, “If you were to compare a regular day to a game day, they are completely different and it’s a weird transition between the two.” She mentioned that on non-game days she will post a few times Twitter, once or twice on Instagram and Facebook, but game days are “me running around with my head cut off, which is like the ‘ol saying, ‘running around like a chicken with your head cut off.’” Games involve posting “like every hour leading up to game time.” 

Game days are all about keeping the content as engaging as possible, and she mentioned she does that by posting questions, jokes, and creating branded team content based on trending topics or memes.

When running a social media platform on game day it can be busy, but Nikac recommended organizing yourself, plan content ahead as much as possible, stick to a routine and all should fall into place. 

While providing content that is engaging to the fans is fun, physically creating the content and chatting with the fans “is the best part of the game” for Nikac. 

Everyone is different and you know what, that is okay. We asked Nikac what are the three best words to describe herself.

1. Outgoing – Nikac described herself as outgoing because she is not afraid of talking to people “even if it’s a tree.” She made her mission to make a friend in every class or study group while attending schools. 
2. Authentic – She’s someone who will tell it as it is, even in the nicest way possible. She will always be herself and not change for anyone else, no matter what. 
3. Empathetic – She likes to put other people’s emotions first. She always tries to find a way to connect with people’s feelings. 

Working in social media, you have to realize that it’s not always a 9-5 job, and knowing this we asked what are some soft and hard skills someone should have when looking to work in social media.

• Knowledge of Adobe (Photoshop, In-design, etc.)
• Knowledge of filming and editing videos 
• Experience in copy writing (have the ability to get to the point when writing on social media) 
• Be open minded (things are forever changing in social media)
• Be a team player (working in social media, you’re not just working alone, you work for so many people from different levels of the brand) 
• Be willing to adapt 

Finishing off our chat, we wanted to see how social media has had an impact on the NWHL as a whole and even the sport of hockey for women. 

Nikac brought up a great point: “Social media as a whole for sports, let alone women’s sports, is great. There are thousands of hockey fans, women’s hockey fans across the country and the fact that social media enables us to spread our voice is just so amazing.” When it comes to the NWHL they don’t have a budget as let’s say the NHL, so the ability to market the sport, teams and goals through social media becomes the main focus for marketing. A better outcome is revealed through the use of more social media. 

Just remember, everyone you connect with, all the experiences you are a part of will help you out in the long run. Keep working towards your dreams. 

Connect with Juliana:
Twitter: @juliananikac

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