Meet Tom Weingarten, Our Community Member of the Week

Name: Tom Weingarten

Job: Director of Digital

Company: Overtime

LinkedIn: Tom Weingarten

In 140 characters or less, tell us who you are and how you got to where you are today.

Lucky to be here. My parents were always the hardest workers in the room. I just want to be like them.

What’s one trend in media or marketing that you’re buying or selling?

One thing in media I live by is being real and never taking anything too seriously. I just want to see something dope that I feel like I can relate to and our audience can engage with. If you’re upfront with the followers and they can feel you behind the media, that’s when you build a real community.

How do you define engagement?

Engagement for me is just seeing whether people mess with what you’re putting out there. You can tell really quickly based on views and comments if people are into it.

What’s the project or campaign that you’re proudest of? Why?

I’m most proud of our “Overtime Roasts” on Instagram. We started replying to comments several months ago and realized people loved the interaction. Then we took it a step further and actually started doing playful roasts of our commenters (S/O Overtime Trey) and it just took off. It’s so different and makes our community feel so connected to Overtime. We’ve had the best interaction rate in sports for a while now and this is one of the things that separates us.

What are you working on right now? Any exciting future plans that you’re able to share?

Something really cool we just launched is our women’s basketball page, OvertimeWBB. You have to see some of the videos we’re getting on there, they are EPIC. The women’s basketball community is so big, but more importantly, it’s incredibly close. For us to be able to give a voice to all the ladies, especially high school and college athletes, I think it will be one of the coolest pages on social.

As a connected fan, what’s the most engaging piece of sports content that you have recently consumed?

I’m here for all the Spongebob memes that came out during the Super Bowl and anything that features Soulja Boy screaming DRAKE. The fast reacting content that so many creative people put out right when something viral happens is my favorite. (I’m upset these won’t be relevant in a week.)

What’s been the biggest high and low of working in sports?

The biggest high has to be the people I work with. Every day I get after it with some of the best people in the world and that pushes me to want to take it to another level. There are just so many smart and NICE people at Overtime that it’s really different. The coolest part is that it has somehow trickled down to our community as well. Our followers and people who interact with Overtime are just great and so positive.

The biggest low is losing on something on the internet. Whether we’re late to a trend or on getting something out there, that’s what crushes me. It’s fun because 10 minutes later you’re onto the next thing, but when it comes to epic moments on social media, I want to win every single time.

What’s one element of the sports industry that you’d like to see change?

In the sports industry, I think we can do a better job of educating younger people to know that jobs like this exist. As an athlete growing up, I really thought the only jobs in athletics were to play or coach. As I’ve gotten to talk to more high school and college athletes, I can see them light up when I explain what I get to do. If we can integrate this type of work at a younger age, we’re only making things better.

Get to know more members of the Hashtag Sports community here.

Hear more from leaders and creators across the sports industry this June at Hashtag Sports, an annual conference designed for media and marketing professionals.