How “StrictlyBBall” Utilized Their Following to Infiltrate the NBA Bubble

If you’ve been following the NBA during this pandemic, you’ve likely noticed the virtual fans. Propped up on a large screen, around 300 people are given the spot per game. Genfluencer sat down with virtual fan Joe Doerrer  to talk about his unique journey to virtual fandom. Alongside his partner Nolan Newberg, Joe is the co-owner of popular internet basketball personality, StrictlyBBall. Utilizing their large TikTok following (over 200,000) fans, Joe was able to attend six virtual games alongside his partner through exclusive access to NBA officials. 

His campaign began on August 1st when he decided to email every NBA team in the league. However, Joe and Nolan did something a bit different than most. Given their large Tiktok platform, the pair decided to document the experience for their fans. Naturally, the videos blew up. Due to their large fanbase and unique content style, the original video amassed over 900,000 views. 

Upon the release of part 1 (in which Joe documents his process of emailing/calling each team) the video received thousands of inquiries about the situation. The post/application eventually reached an NBA employee, who granted the two friends virtual access to 6 different games. We had the chance to talk to Joe about his experience and his input on aspiring content creators.

Q: What inspired you to come up with this idea of being a virtual fan? 

A: I’m one of the biggest NBA fans there is, so not being able to attend games has been very devastating to me. When I saw you could be a virtual fan at these bubble games, I knew I needed to do it. Secondly, this scenario and unique experience may never come around again. I was super inspired to make it happen, and the best way to do most things like this is just to reach out to as many people as you can. It worked!

Q: Did you think that an outcome of this magnitude was possible?

A: When I first came up with this idea, I’m going to be honest, I really believed that it would happen. I believed I could reach at least one game with the amount of people I contacted and with the followers we have. What I was surprised by was the magnitude of this virtual fandom—going to 6 games, meeting Ronnie2k, getting on Bleacher Report, and getting millions of views? That was not expected.

Q: What is StrictlyBBall about, when did you create it, and what’s your biggest achievement with it so far?

A: StrictlyBBall is a platform we created to make videos about our passion for basketball. It all started on Vine back in 2013. When we started the Tiktok account in March of this year, we wanted to grow a community of basketball fans. We want StrictlyBBall to be bigger, spread across many platforms, and become a major brand in the basketball social media space. I’d say our biggest achievement to date would be the amount of people who support our account. Followers is one thing, but the amount of people who really engage with us and care about us is incredible.

Q: What has this opportunity done for you, and how do you plan to capitalize on it?

A: It’s given us a large number of supporters. We’ll be able to expand on this by staying creative with our passion and branching off into different spaces. We plan to start a podcast and start posting consistently on YouTube. 

Q: What advice would you give to people trying to grow their personal brand on TikTok? 

A: The most important thing is to stay consistent. Don’t worry about the views right away. If you think you’re making good content, then keep doing that. The views will come. It’s inevitable, trust me.  Secondly, stay within your interests. If you don’t like making your posts, you will give up much quicker.  Finally, once you have a decent platform, Study what works and what doesn’t and adjust your content accordingly. Never branch outside of what you enjoy doing.