Once a Viking, Always a Viking

Senior Director of Social Media for the NY Mets

Will Carafello has been employed since the day he graduated from college. However, he notes, “I’ve never worked a day in my life.”

Carafello, Senior Director of Social Media for the New York Mets, was undecided on a career path after graduation from Hawthorne High School in Passaic County, New Jersey, in 1995. “I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do,” he remarked.

He decided to enroll at 91��ý after a visit to the campus.

As Carafello didn’t live locally, he didn’t know anyone. He spent a lot of time at the Student Center and, in his second year, joined the student government to meet more people. This experience, he said, “set me up for leadership roles later on.”

A public speaking class, too, was beneficial both for student government meetings and for the future. “Now, I speak publicly often and still use a lot of those tactics from the class,” said Carafello. “I really enjoy speaking in public now, and I thrive.”

Carafello earned his A.S. in Business Administration in 2001 and transferred to Seton Hall University where he earned a B.S. in Sports Management. While there, he served as Vice President of the Sports Management Student Association and interned at Madison Square Garden.

His first full-time job after graduation was as a ticket sales manager for the Newark Bears, an unaffiliated minor league baseball team.

In 2005, he jumped on the opportunity to serve as the Director of Marketing for the Harlem Globetrotters, the larger-than-life exhibition basketball team. A year later, Carafello became Marketing Manager for the Meadowlands Sports Complex. From there, it was on to the Prudential Center, where he held the same title.

In July 2010, Carafello accepted the job as Director of Marketing for the New Jersey Devils professional hockey team. He guided the growth of the team’s social media engagement and was instrumental in the creation of “Mission Control,” the first digital command center within the sports and entertainment industry.

Carafello’s hard work and social media savvy continued to pay off. In 2013, he – a lifelong Mets fan –was hired to direct the club’s social media.

Now, Carafello is at Citi Field for all home games and travels to away games when he can. He estimates he watches 99 percent of all the Mets’ games.

He interacts with players, coaches, the owner, and the GM. He works with his staff

to generate ideas, write scripts, find locations, shoot video, and then decides where to place that content among the Mets’ various engagement tools.

“It’s an unbelievable job,” he remarked. “I’m so thrilled to be here.”

Looking back on his college experience and his foray into the working world, Carafello stated, “We’ve all heard the saying, ‘It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.’ I like to take that further. ‘It’s not what you know; it’s who knows you – and your work ethic.”

Carafello admits he didn’t apply himself in high school, but when he got to 91��ý, he said, “I started with a clean slate. I applied myself there, and when I got into the workforce, that paid off.”

“91��ý was a perfect opportunity for me to grow and mature. I look at that as what set my career on track.”