2020 Reflections: The #BauerToAnaheim Movement and Social Media

[John Taylor]

This post is going to be a little "Inside Baseball" as I reflect on 2020 from the perspective of someone who was asked to add content to AngelsWin Twitter account over the past year.

 

There are a few of us who run the @AngelsWin Twitter account, with myself and @Chuckster70 being the primary ones who will post and retweet on the account. I probably account for about 70 percent of the content on the AngelsWin Twitter every since Chuck asked me a while ago to take a more active role in Social Media for AW (I don't do much with the Facebook account because I despise Facebook, so I believe that is Chuck and Geoff), so if you see a poorly done photoshopped meme, it's usually me doing it.

My first few months I really struggled with what to do on the account, honestly it was kind of nervous being in the drivers seat for a Twitter account with almost 7000 followers. The idea that I controlled the social media face of one of my closest friend's websites kind of weighed on me, and since this is the age of social media justice, I was very worried about getting AW "cancelled", so I stuck to kind of dry stats and not so creative posts while I tried to get my bearings running one of the largest Angels based Twitter accounts, meanwhile the account would actually LOSE like 5-10 followers a month, and I was really second guessing myself.

There was actually a part of me was glad when the season was over because I felt like I could "rest" the Angelswin Twitter account during the slow points of the offseason. I still didn't feel completely comfortable and creative in my role and I felt like I was letting Chuck down, as I never felt I was giving my full potential to the account. I felt (and still feel) like there are far more creative folks on our board who could do a better job with it, Imposter syndrome is very real, lol

And then came the #BauerToAnaheim movement on Twitter.....

I actually missed the early part of #BauerToAnaheim. I was not as active on social media as I was dealing with my own mental health issues related to almost 7 months of covid related lockdown, in fact I first noticed it when @angelsnationtalk tagged the AW account to get us involved and Chuck was the one who responded. So I switched over to the AW Twitter account and started engaging followers, and retweeting the hashtag, while still being in somewhat of a social media funk.

I noticed that this was different, anytime I would post anything related #BauerToAnaheim, the engagement on the tweets would go through the roof, the account would gain followers, and it seemed like the Angels Twitter community would just start buzzing, hanging on every word and post from Trevor Bauer. This really got my "meme generating" juices going as I finally felt like this social media movement was right in my wheelhouse since Trevor Bauer was actively looking at and rating poorly photoshopped memes and fake headlines. I think the first poorly photoshop I did was taking the Angels hat and pasting it on top of all the other team hats:

And I was really excited to start seeing this used all over Twitter attached to the #BauerToAnaheim trend, and I was starting to feel like I was finally contributing something to AngelsWin,

I decided to make another photoshop of a fake news headline (I actually did this on a board post here years ago to make fun of Chuck for flexing his biceps in a picture for the millionth time), and decided to use a similar strategy for Bauer:

 

After doing the above picture, I then came up with the idea of the "12 Days of #BauerToAnaheim" even though I had no idea if I could come up with 11 other creative "Days". Honestly it's was hit or miss, as some days were funnier than others, and I could see that the days that I was really proud of getting more engagement than the days that I was like "it's good enough",

The coolest part of the whole thing is that the Angels Twitter fanbase as a whole are so engaged, it was actually the #1 trend on sports Twitter for a few days, trends regularly still, and in turn has made me feel more comfortable in my role of running the AW Twitter account. Honestly this entire #BauerToAnaheim thing has been a lot of fun to participate in, even if he doesn't end up signing with us (Which I can promise will cause a shitstorm on Twitter, and Bauer's courtship of other fanbases promises to piss off a lot of people on twitter whenever he signs to a team)

So to kind of summarize the whole thing since my post is long, the #BauerToAnaheim thing on twitter has been really good for the Angels fanbase during a slow offseason (unless he signs with another team, lol), has been really good for AngelsWin and our social media presence, but more importantly has been really good for me personally as it has helped me get out of a personal funk, and helped me regain some of my creativity.

 

These are the Twitter analytics over the past month for the AngelsWin account, hopefully Chuck wont mind if I share these, but this should give you guys the scale of #BauerToAnaheim and its effect on social media:

 

My goal is to hopefully get the Twitter account to 7000 followers, and also get it verified on Twitter so we can get the cool little blue checkmark (Targeting early 2021 when verification submissions restart), and then the larger goal of 10,000.

 

Also here is my latest low effort meme related to #BauerToAnaheim

 

[UndertheHalo]

I think the Bauer to Anaheim thing on Twitter and Angels Twitter generally is fun.  It’s cool that people see we're out there and that not all Angels fans are literally octogenarian old ladies.  That said, anything with Twitter tends to be deeply stupid and there’s plenty of that as well.  Stupid can be fun and fine.    You do a good job with AW’s Twitter @John Taylor.  Thanks ! 

Edited December 28, 2020 by UndertheHalo

[Redondo]

47 minutes ago, John Taylor said:

 

I like this, lol.

[John Taylor]

2 minutes ago, Redondo said:

I like this, lol.

Thanks! I actually stole the idea from myself, lol

 

 

[angelsnationtalk]

Fun stuff! Thanks for hopping along the #BauerToAnaheim train when you did. I feel like you, me and a few other accounts really got it going. 

Looking to keep working as a team in the future! @John Taylor @Chuckster70

[Mark68]

You're welcome/I'm sorry.

 

I got on the #BauerToAnaheim train, and started tearing into some random Mets fan about his team's lack of ability to bring home a crown since the 20th century...