How the Colorado Rockies social media team has succeeded without baseball

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PARIS, FRANCE – DECEMBER 10: In this photo illustration, the Instagram logo is displayed on the screen of an iPhone in front of a TV screen displaying the Instagram logo on December 10, 2019 in Paris, France. The Instagram social photo and video sharing website wants to prevent young teenagers from accessing its platform. According to his statement, released this December 4, the legal age to access the platform will be 13 years to stop viewing some violent content or cyberstalking that young people may be victims. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images) /

In his 10th season working the social media side of the Colorado Rockies business, Julian Valentin has had a unique puzzle to figure out since mid-March. How do you keep baseball fans engaged with the sport they love when there is no clear time frame of when that sport might return?

As the director of brand management and social media for the Colorado Rockies, Valentin has had one constant thought pop into his head each week since baseball went on hiatus.

“Every Sunday night, I sit down at the desk in my home office to prepare for the week ahead and think to myself, ‘Maybe this is the week things slow down a bit and we can enter into a routine.'” Valentin told me in an exclusive chat. “That definitely has not happened yet and it doesn’t seem like it will. Things have been crazy.”

Without games to detail or on-field milestones to mark, @Rockies and Colorado’s other social media accounts have had a unique set of challenges to conquer. Valentin, however, said that he and his team have looked at it as an opportunity rather than a roadblock.

“This time has certainly had some unique challenges,” Valentin said. “I think, having done this for so long, the games can be something you fall back on as easy content because they kind of write themselves. Now, we’re really relying on creative activation and some outside-of-the-box concepts and, for us, that’s right up our alley.

“Even when we have games, we’re always looking for new or different ways to engage our fans and this is no different without those games.”

That engagement of fans has included everything from the massive undertaking that was this year’s Stay at Home Opener broadcast (that took the place of what would have Colorado’s home opener on April 3 against the San Diego Padres) to having Ryan McMahon and Ian Desmond read children’s books as part of a promotion with the Denver Public Library to help keep literacy front of mind with schools out of session.