Using Sports References To Combat Negative Social Media Comments

Question: I own a small bar in East Texas. Everyone here is up in arms about the NFL. I have some promoted posts about NFL Sundays with drinks specials, etc. So many negative comments. So, first, how to respond? Or do I? Second, should I stop promoting NFL games?

That’s a great question and typically I rarely follow sports and seldom help restaurants and bars with their social marketing, but this question intrigued me and I wanted to offer my advice.

It seemed everyone who was following this bar owner on this particular social media Facebook group page were telling her to delete the negative comments and block the unfriendly posters.

Well, that’s all fine and good…however, why not have fun with it. I mean, after all it’s a sports bar. So, why not use sports references to respond?

And since we are talking NFL, don’t you think using jargon associated with football would work. Of course it would.

So my response was…

To which many in the group replied…

So what are these NFL referee calls? 

There are 36 calls that a referee could make depending on the player, the team or the crowd.

1. Touchdown, Field Goal, or Successful Try
2. Safety
3. First Down
4. Crowd Noise, Dead Ball, or Neutral Zone Established
5. Ball Illegally Touched, Kicked, or Batted
6. Time Out
7. No Time Out or Time In With Whistle
8. Delay of Game or Excess Time Out
9. False Start, Illegal Formation, or Kickoff or Safety Kick Out of Bounds or Kicking Team Player Voluntarily Out of Bounds During a Punt
10. Personal Foul
11. Holding
12. Illegal Use of Hands, Arms, or Body
13. Penalty Refused, Incomplete Pass, Play Over, or Missed Field Goal or Extra Point
14. Pass Juggled Inbounds and Caught Out of Bounds
15. Illegal Forward Pass
16. Intentional Grounding of Pass
17. Interference With Forward Pass or Fair Catch
18. Invalid Fair-Catch Signal
19. Ineligible Receiver or Ineligible Member of Kicking Team Downfield
20. Illegal Contact
21. Offside, Encroachment, or Neutral Zone Infraction
22. Illegal Motion at Snap
23. Loss of Down
24. Interlocking Interference, Pushing, or Helping Runner
25. Touching a Forward Pass or Scrimmage Kick
26. Unsportsmanlike Conduct
27. Illegal Cut
28. Illegal Crackback
29. Player Disqualified
30. Tripping
31. Uncatchable Forward Pass
32. Twelve Men in Offensive Huddle or Too Many Men on the Field
33. Facemask
34. Illegal Shift
35. Reset Play Clock–25 Seconds
36. Reset Play Clock–40 Seconds

In the case of certain negative posts, pick a call from the list above and make it your comment.

As the bar or restaurant social media manager you take on the role of referee.

You get to make the call.

If the comments get really out of hand and you need to call the person out…

#29 “Player Disqualified” is a fantastic response.

Your social media engagement will increase the more you bring the sport into the page.

And not just for football.

The same concepts work for hockey, soccer, tennis or any sport that has a referee calling out rule infractions.

The whole goal of social media is to educate, entertain and engage your audience…the more you can do that…the better chance your audience will trust you and buy from you.