Caity Kauffman had never seen a hockey game before she talked her way into an internship with a minor league club.
BY SAMANTHA OUIMETTE
NNB Student Reporter
TAMPA – Managing an entire brand at the age of 25 would be a daunting task for most.
But Caity Kauffman has never been reluctant to take on the unknown.
She is the social media and digital marketing manager for the Tampa Bay Lightning, a professional sports team that has been in the area for 22 years. Though it operates in a non-traditional hockey market, the team has become one of the most popular brands in the National Hockey League, thanks in part to Kauffman’s efforts over the past season and a half.
Adweek magazine says the team has more than half a million social media followers, which is significant for a smaller market team.
A native of Miami, Kauffman got her introduction to hockey during a college internship with the Florida Everblades, a minor league team. She had grown up wanting to be a journalist so she embraced the chance to work in the team’s broadcast and public relations departments.
One problem: She had never seen a hockey game. But she “took a risk and sort of talked my way into it, and once I was there I realized that I could learn anything,” she said.
Despite her hasty introduction to the sport, Kauffman quickly developed a love for it. After she graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University in December 2011, she landed a job as a producer for “Hockey Unfiltered,” a talk show on Sirius XM radio. She had tweeted out her resume. Someone re-tweeted it, and she was contacted for an interview.
Twitter also figured in the next two opportunities for Kauffman, who likes to say that “every tweet is a 140-character piece of art.” She used it on her next job, with a public relations firm in 2012 and 2013, and she embraces it now for the Lightning.
The advent and rapid growth of social media have prompted professional sports teams to rethink their branding strategies, and Kauffman is the first to hold a social media and digital marketing job for the Lightning. She plays a key role in interacting with fans as well as jovial joshing with other teams, and she notes that there are special challenges in her job.
Despite her age, Kauffman has helped make the Lightning one of the most popular brands in the NHL.
“I think you can’t go into professional sports seeing it as a job; you have to see it as a lifestyle,” Kauffman said. “If that’s not your work ethic, then it’s not for you. There have been times where I’ve been on vacation and I’ve had to drop everything to work. It’s difficult to keep up with on a daily basis, but I’ve always been a hard worker so it’s something that I enjoy.”
On the surface, Kauffman’s job may seem as simple as sitting at the computer, but on game nights she is constantly moving. With the Bolts Social Captain program, which she implemented last season, Kauffman’s job entails being a sort of escort for the high-profile guests as well as managing the team’s various social media efforts across platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Though Kauffman’s job is usually fun, there are still challenges. She must maintain the Lightning’s relatively conservative brand while monitoring the popular, and more liberal, precedent set by the Los Angeles Kings and some other teams. She also must help report team news that might be unpopular, such as trading an admired player, and work to minimize the fallout.
Even through 12-hour days and seven-game home stands, Kauffman notes that the temporary exhaustion never allows her to forget how lucky she is. After all, she says, she is one of the few people who have found their dream job.
“I get paid to do what other people do for fun. Even when it gets to the point of having worked for six nights in a row and I’m exhausted, I am so grateful to be in this position,” she said.
“I get paid to tweet and watch hockey; it doesn’t get much better than that.”
On the web
Watch Kauffman’s appearance on the PBS show BizKid$ in 2011/