Not everyone believes the differences in location matter when it comes to NBA teams’ social content. Wilson, who runs the hugely-successful @ATLHawks handle in the middle of college football country, doesn’t believe that “different values” in different regions are an acceptable excuse to avoid urban themes.

“The market and the demographics play a little bit of a role but I don’t think it’s a major role,” Wilson says. “The main thing is, regardless of where you are, if you’re working for an NBA team, your social demo is going to be about the same, right? Age [is] going to be about the same. The gender split is going to be relatively the same. Regardless of market, fans are the same. Basketball fans—we know each other, generally speaking. So while markets may be a little bit of [an issue], it’s not a major [issue].”

Some teams continue to leave their accounts on PR garbage autopilot, but for those looking to actively engage with the new generation of fans, hiring young people to lead their social media charge has paid off tremendously. Particularly in terms of public perception. The Sixers were a horrific product on the basketball court, yet came across as lovable young underdogs to most people—and media outlets—that followed them on social. The Nets could be described as “painfully mediocre” or “low effort” had you only watched them on television, yet that view was softened on social by Przybyla and Culver’s ability to paint them as a veteran club trying hard to grind out a playoff spot. The Hawks—this year’s NBA surprise success story that secured the No. 1 spot in the East with a team of relatively unknown players—made multiple off-the-court splashes this season by coupling creative and groundbreaking social initiatives with real-world applications. The “Swipe Right” Tinder night, 2 Chainz taking over as CEO for a day, and adding a “W” to “Hawks” for every win of their 19-game streak all earned national coverage for @ATLHawks and helped raise the team’s profile. Far more than “playing it safe” and tweeting like a supportive grandmother ever could.

All of these benefits only make it that much more shameful how underutilized some official team social media accounts continue to be to this day. In the near future, having a 10-person social team may be the norm. There may be someone whose job it is to walk through the stands with a live Periscope feed to show fans watching at home what they’re missing by not attending live. There may be someone whose sole responsibility is to handle the stadium food account, tweeting deals that fans can purchase/win via an app depending on certain events that happen in the game. There may be another idea for a team-specific social media person that I choose not to share here and give away for free. The probability of social media expansion is almost 100 percent, and the reality of most teams having only one person with a social media job title should soon prove laughable.

“More and more, we’re seeing teams transition from hosting their content primarily on their websites to using their social channels for that purpose instead,” Rappaport says. “When I started with the Sixers, sharing a video from your phone to Twitter required you to upload it to YouTube and share the link. But now, with Vine, Snapchat, native video on Twitter and Facebook, Instagram video, etc., the process is not only incredibly simple, but it’s also way more effective.

“It won’t be long before we start to see [NBA] teams beefing up their social teams in lieu of staffing traditional content creators.”