How a Former NFL Journalist Uncovered 5 Shocking Secrets to Mastering Social Media Strategy!

As Kasey Perez stood on the field at SoFi Stadium, surrounded by 70,000 cheering fans, the moment felt surreal. Before joining the Los Angeles Chargers organization in 2022, Perez, now the senior manager of paid social media and content analytics, had never even attended an NFL game. This past fall, with a camera in hand, she captured the players’ entrance, telling herself, “This is a memory that I hope I never forget.”

Perez graduated from California State University, Chico, in 2017, where she discovered her passion for communications and public relations. The summer before her sophomore year, she committed to majoring in journalism. She gained practical experience at Tehama Group Communications, Chico State’s student-run PR agency, where she worked with clients like Catalyst Domestic Violence Services and the Chico Art Center. “It was the best hands-on experience I could have gotten as a college student,” she noted.

Her journalism professor, Debra Johnson, recognized Perez's leadership skills and said, “It’s great to see her thriving in an industry she’s so passionate about. Our current students in our new sports media minor can follow her career and see options for their own career pathways.”

After refining her resume and interviewing skills under Johnson’s guidance, Perez ventured into the professional world without a set plan. She moved to Chicago that fall, ready to embrace uncertainty. After hustling through interviews, she landed an internship at a small public relations firm, Agency H5, which offered her a full-time position on its social digital team after six months.

As a coordinator, she discovered a passion for managing content calendars and analytics, producing photo shoots, and publishing posts for clients in the hospitality and food industries. “It was a whole new world of opportunity,” she recalled, explaining how it provided instant gratification while keeping her rooted in PR and communications.

After three years, during the pandemic, Perez decided to return to Southern California to be closer to family. After a brief stint as a freelancer, she took a significant step forward by joining Nike’s global marketing team. “Nike was a huge door opener,” she stated, highlighting her work on influencer campaigns and marketing strategies for Nike’s women’s division.

This two-year experience at Nike honed her strategic skills and paved the way for her unexpected leap into the sports world. She said, “I grew up playing soccer, and my dad went to [the University of Southern California], so we grew up with season tickets to USC football games. Our family also had season tickets to Angels games and Ducks games. We were a sports family for sure, but I never saw it as a career.”

“Social media is everything for organizations—it’s where people go for news and information, and how they’re exposed to brands more than ever.”

—Kasey Perez

In her role with the Chargers, Perez leads the paid social strategy across various marketing campaigns, driving ticket sales, partnerships, and overall fan engagement. Much of her work focuses on platforms like Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn, where she develops advertising campaigns for single-game tickets, season packages, group events, and premium experiences. Recognizing a gap in their approach, she built the organization’s content analytics strategy from the ground up, transforming social and web data into actionable insights that guide the social team’s decisions.

“Our whole strategy on social is we want to either inspire, inform, or educate,” Perez explained. The content team’s goal is to make fans feel part of the team and its legacy. “Games are obviously important, but there are only nine home games a year. The rest of the time, if you’re a fan, you want to know everything about the team: who they’re looking to draft, who they’re going to pick up in free agency, who they’re going to get as a new coach. Social media is the primary way fans stay connected and feel like they’re part of it all.”