Paul Brown Media today begins a new editorial interview series called Creative Sparks, featuring some of the top talent in our industry.
We start with Adam Hulme, Head of Social at Liverpool Football Club.
YOUR BACKGROUND
Name
Adam Hulme
Position
Head of Social
Work for
Liverpool Football Club
Previous companies
Multi-Media Assistant (Chesterfield 2007-2010 during university part-time and 2010-2011 full-time), Multi-Media Officer (QPR 2011-2015), Social Media Manager (BT Sport 2015-2017), Social Media Manager (Everton 2017), Head of Social (Liverpool FC 2017-2020)
Your first role in the industry
During university, I got involved with my local lower league/non-league clubs; I managed an unofficial Chesterfield FC website, worked for Chesterfield FC covering their youth games for the official website and matchday programme and wrote featured articles for Alfreton Town.
YOUR ROLE
Describe your role in one sentence…
‘Broad’. The way social media has evolved over the years, not just in football, but life in general, now means my role naturally stretches across all areas of Liverpool FC. Therefore, my team are involved in an incredible amount of different conversations, campaigns and creatives at any given time.
What’s the most important personal quality for working in social?
A desire to learn and back yourself, too. Social media is constantly changing and it’s important to be open to starting at the bottom when algorithms change, consumption habits move and platforms shift. It’s also incredibly important to be brave with decisions and have the confidence to get an idea across. Everyone is a consumer of social media, which is fairly unique as you don’t have many professions where almost everyone is involved to such a level, therefore, everyone will have a view – it’s important to listen but also make your own decisions based on experience, platform understandings and your editorial head.
What do you love most about working in social?
No doubt about it, it’s working across those big, special and unique moments that only sport, and in particular football can produce and being in such a privileged position to deliver breaking/exclusive content to the fans in the moment and share that raw emotion worldwide. I’ve been very fortunate to work on some incredible moments; trophy-winning games, a last-minute play-off winner at Wembley, that night against Barcelona and the launch of new shows on BT Sport. Although all different in occasion, they’ve all been incredible moments to savour and moments that don’t feel like work.
Favourite channel personally & also professionally?
Both are the same, as my worlds and consumption habits crossover so much between personal and professional life. It would be Twitter and Instagram. That’s purely down to my interests, consumption habits and I love the real-time nature and creative expression of both these platforms.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Your proudest piece of content or campaign on social?
It’s a long list! I’m really proud and privileged to have been involved in some brilliant content and campaigns over the years, and extremely fortunate to have surrounded myself with so many talented individuals and team players. One recent campaign that sticks out would be the graphical matchday series – from this season and last season – at Liverpool Football Club and working with Dave Will on that project. It’s been really fun and great to try something new each matchday.
Best piece of content or campaign you’ve seen on social – sport?
I’m going to pick an example from the world of sport – but which isn’t at the same time. It’s the way that Marcus Rashford has used his personal feeds and his sporting audience for good recently. It’s been incredibly moving and just fantastic to see.
Best piece of content/campaign you’ve seen on social – non sport?
There’s too many to mention – but pretty much everything Nike do is just amazing. They are just exceptional at capturing the moment and narrative – and putting it across in such a way that people stand up – or stop scrolling – and pay attention.
Which team/organisation/individual is doing it best on social?
I’m a big fan of what England Men and Lionesses social media presence has achieved over the past few years.
Three social accounts you check daily?
I tend to check lists I have set up which are built and filled with a lot of people within creative and digital, not just sports but a lot of tech companies as well. One that has been great through COVID-19 is Jon-Stephen Stansel. He is good for anybody working in social and discusses all the fairly unique things we tackle each day.
In terms of industry peers in social, who do you most admire?
Jess Smith and Paul Rogers are two incredibly talented people.
YOUR PREDICTIONS
Channel to look out for in 2020?
We’re pretty much three quarters through the year, but obviously TikTok has been a big one for us at Liverpool in terms of creating different content for a different audience.
What do you expect to be hot on social in 2020?
I’d have to say brands and feeds finding their voice more and using their presence and audience reach to affect positive change.
Paul Brown 