VIDEO: Boston Celtics’ Peter Stringer Keynotes SMX Social Media Marketing

Having millions of fans and followers on social media sounds like every marketer’s dream, but when you’re talking about a rabid group of sports fans that can turn against you when the team isn’t winning, it can be both a blessing and a curse.

That was one of the topics that I had the pleasure of discussing with Peter Stringer, the Boston Celtics’ Senior Director of Digital Media, at our SMX Social Media Marketing conference a couple weeks ago in Las Vegas.

The Celtics are one of the most storied franchises in any sport, and they’re also innovators on social media. But converting those millions of fans into customers is difficult when very few of them will ever buy game tickets or become a team advertiser. During our hour-long conversation, we talked about how the Celtics set and try to reach their conversion goals on social media, how they target certain types of content to different social channels and many more topics.

We also spoke about social media in a crisis situation: Stringer was in charge of directing the Celtics’ response on social media last April when the Boston Marathon bombings shook the team’s hometown (and the world, for that matter).

In addition to our live blog coverage, the full keynote conversation video is now available on YouTube. And it’s embedded below so you can watch without leaving Marketing Land.