I follow several different team fan pages on Facebook, both for personal interest and to see what different tactics teams are taking with their social media marketing. Yesterday during the course of my usual Facebook usage, I noticed the automatic “Become a Fan” suggestion that you see on the right. Because I am a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers, Facebook thinks I should also be a fan of Wawa.

You may ask what’s so special about this, but in case you didn’t know, Wawa is a very big sponsor of the Philadelphia Flyers. This got me thinking – how great would it be for integrated property/sponsor social media efforts to be aware of certain sponsor relationships and be able to cross-promote each other in such a natural way through Facebook’s standard interface? Maybe this is actually an instance of it already happening!

In this specific case, the more likely scenario is that there is a very high index between fans of the Flyers and “fans” of Wawa (Wawa is HUGE in the Philadelphia and South Jersey region). Facebook is simply recognizing the overlap and making a suggestion that is statistically logical. Of course, that statistical logic is further support for the team/sponsor relationship that the two entities have.

With the power that Facebook has to collect and instantly analyze large amounts of consumer data, I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing new measurements like the “Facebook Index” that supplement the current standard consumer research data that a company like Scarborough Research provides.

Have you noticed the slightly new look that ESPN has rolled out for their news articles? Take a look at the screen shot to the right (or click here to view the article). Right up top in prime viewing position,  you can see:

• Email/Print links (have been there for a while)
• A Comments quote box with count
• Twitter and Facebook share buttons

I don’t know what you think, but all of a sudden, this layout has a lot more of a “blog” feel to it, and I think it’s great. To me, this is an example of how “traditional” media (a news website) has identified elements of “social” media (blogs) that will positively influence their business. These elements highlight an emphasis on generating conversation and sharing information, two key principles of social media.

Now you might say that ESPN has been using their “Conversation” product on their website for a while. However, instead of burying it at the bottom, they’ve put it above the fold, showing an increased dedication to this aspect of their site. They’ve also made the Facebook and Twitter buttons more prominent, which will easily lead to more active sharing of their content across these social channels.

It’s great to see how new forms of communication and media continue to be a positive influence on more traditional channels, and a company like ESPN trying to combine the best of both worlds.

In the midst of my usual sports business ramblings on Twitter last week, I wrote the following message:

“Come on @ispsportnetwork and @learfield. Two of the biggest college sports marketing brands – you guys can do so much more on Twitter!”

I didn’t think much of this at the time. I sent it because I noticed that these two corporate Twitter accounts had a very low number of followers, didn’t tweet much and offered little in terms of actual content. I was pleasantly surprised when a few days later, I got the following reply from@Learfield:

Learfield: @rscibetti Guilty as charged. Been working on the Grown-Ups for 3 years. How about a blog post: “10 Reasons Learfield Sports Should Tweet”

So, at the prompting of the @Learfield Twitter account, here are ten reasons why Learfield Sports should tweet (in no particular order):

1. Raise awareness for your properties – At a most basic level, Twitter gives you a popular communication channel to promote all the great things that your college teams are doing, both on and off the field.
2. Create an engagement opportunity to connect with fans and customers across your properties – Beyond promoting the schools and teams, Twitter will let you interact with the fans in those locations, building a deeper connection to the property and also providing you valuable feedback.
3. Help test and execute social media campaigns that you can share as best practices with your properties – What better way to assist your properties than by learning about Twitter yourselves, finding out what can be most effective, and then spreading best practices across your different locations.
4. Engage in conversation with other sports media and sponsorship professionals – Twitter is an incredible educational platform that gives you an easy way to learn from other industry leaders and apply those ideas to your company.
5. Leverage your network of properties to create high-value social media promotions that generate direct value for top-level sponsors – It’s one thing for a corporate partner to run a Twitter contest with one location…you can harness the power of Twitter across multiple locations to really generate a powerful campaign for a sponsor.
6. Get direct feedback about current marketing promotions that your properties are running – People on Twitter are honest and direct, which will help you learn what is and is not working.
7. Connect with future Learfield employees – There are a lot of talented individuals on Twitter that have unique skill sets that could benefit both Learfield and your properties.
8. Create more value that can help retain customers – If you are at risk of losing certain partners, perhaps developing integrated, cross-property social media campaigns as an addition to their current elements can provide more value and help retain your customers.
9. Build a stronger relationship with your properties – Some schools are running great social media campaigns, while others are well-behind the curve. If you can leverage your own Twitter presence is a way that educates and assist these schools, you provide more value and make your relationship indispensable.
10. It’s fun – I wanted this to be last, but there’s importance to it. There is a uniquely fun element to engaging with others through Twitter, and I believe that whoever at Learfield shares this responsibility will get more satisfaction out of their job, which will in turn make them a better employee.

So that is my list of 10 reasons why Learfield Sports should tweet. I hope I’ve made a strong case for it, and if anyone at Learfield would like to talk more about this, they can reach me right here!

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Amanda Rykoff, a NYC-based sports fan, TiVo junkie and social media consultant. Amanda shares her observations, commentary and diatribes on these and many other topics on her blog, The OCD Chick. She is a former Director of Business Affairs at ESPN and previously hosted the ESPN podcast, “Play Ball! with Amanda and Melissa.”  You can follow her on Twitter @amandarykoff. This post previously appeared on The OCD Chick.

Social media is literally a game changer in sports. It’s leveled the playing field (pun most definitely intended), as fans can communicate directly with athletes. Social media has changed and is changing the way we receive, process, deliver and consume all information. Stories break on Twitter before they’re picked up by the so-called “mainstream” media. Blogs make everybody – including fans – reporters to a certain degree. Access to news and information changes every minute. The line between “mainstream” media and blogs blurs each day. And the impact of the blogosphere cannot be underestimated. Just look at Deadspin, which has become as much a part of the sports vernacular as ESPN.

Given the monumental impact of social media both on and off the field, the New York Times presented “Unleashing Social Media on the Sports World”, featuring the following panelists from a variety of perspectives in and around sports:

• Moderator: Gary Vaynerchuk (@GaryVee), Partner and Co-Founder of VaynerMedia, author of the best-selling book Crush It, and an unabashed New York Jets fanatic.
• Michael DiLorenzo (@NHLdilo), Director of Social Media and Business Communications for the National Hockey League
• Matthew Cerrone (@matthewcerrone), Founder of metsblog.com
• Tyler Kepner (@tylerkepner), National baseball writer for the New York Times
• Jim Bankoff (@bankoff), Chairman and CEO of SB Nation

As noted above, the panel represented a variety of perspectives (a league, a blogger, a mainstream media sports writer, a businessman who runs a blogging network, and a fan). Personally, I would have liked to see at least one woman on the panel (attention powers that be: there are plenty of female sports writers and bloggers); there were many women (myself included) in the audience.

After brief opening remarks by each panelist, Gary V. immediately opened up the floor for a lively and engaging Q&A session (in which I was a willing and vocal participant – another shocker). What follows is my Tale of the Tweets from the panel. For a complete wrap-up and more detailed analysis, check out the outstanding post by Matt Wurst of 360i at the SWMNY blog.

The bottom line: thanks to the emergence of social media, the boundaries in the sports world shift every minute. The old model has been turned on its head. This represents a challenge for some, an opportunity for many, and an exciting time for all.

Keep reading below to see a complete “Tale of the Tweets” – live commentary via Twitter of the discussion panel.

continue reading "Guest Post: Game Changer – Sports and Social Media"

The National Sports Forum starts this Sunday and runs until Wednesday, February 3. Representatives from almost every major team and league will be in attendance for three packed days of breakout sessions, networking activities and presentations. In preparation, I’ve put together a list of which sessions I’m most looking forward to and why. If any of you are attending, please send me an email, or a DM on Twitter, as I’d love to meet as many TBOS readers as possible!

Sunday, January 31 - Case Cup competition: Some of you may not know, but I am a member of the final (for now) Sports Business MBA class from Arizona State University. Four of my classmates will be participating in the annual Case Cup competition. I am excited to cheer them on (silently) and hopefully go out on a winning note!

Monday, February 1 – Morning: After the General Session and Super Panel, the first round of Breakout Sessions start. The one I’m planning on attending is: ‘New Media = New Opportunities: Using the Latest Communication Technologies to Generate Revenue.’ It is a panel, and considering my current fellowship at Digital Royalty, I’m very interested in how the sports industry responds to and takes advantage of new media. You’ll notice this as a theme throughout the week.

Monday – Afternoon: This session will be spent at ‘The 3 Social Media Musts.’ I see a lot of Top 10 lists, or articles about ‘20 things to do to improve your personal brand,’ but three is a number I can handle. I still consider myself somewhat new to Twitter, and a total rookie when it comes to LinkedIn, so I think this session will be a good litmus test for my social media savvy.

Monday – Evening: One of the events I’m most anticipating is on Monday night. Digital Royalty is hosting a ‘meet-up’ at the ESPN Zone in Inner Harbor. We’ve put the word out through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as inviting our friends and colleagues. Anyone who will be in Baltimore is invited. Come out, have a drink, get an ESPN game card, and meet some of the dR crew (ie Amy and me).

Tuesday – Super Panel: Tuesday’s Super Panel looks really interesting. Cal Ripken, Jr. and Kevin Plank from Under Armour are two of the guests. I’m excited to hear what Mr. “Iron Man” Ripken has to say. He seemed to play the game with such joy and passion, and was looked to as the penultimate leader. Kevin Plank has led Under Armour to amazing growth in a market that must have been intimidating considering how dominated it was by Nike and Adidas.

Tuesday – Morning Breakout: For this session, I’ll be front row (if not backstage) for Amy’s presentation on ‘Social Media: The Bottom Line.’ In the short time I’ve been with Digital Royalty, I’ve been really impressed by the amount of metrics and data that go into their social media campaigns and presentations. For anyone who works for a company that is trying to monetize social media, or who needs to justify to the ‘higher-ups’ the time commitment to do social media correctly, I think this is a must-see.

Tuesday – Lunch: Wow. Ari Fleischer. I’m really interested to see how many times the BCS comes up during his keynote speech. I have followed InsideTheBCS for awhile on Twitter, and feel a little like I’m getting sent propaganda, but regardless, this is an absolute lion in the Public Relations realm. I’m pretty sure there will be some worthwhile takeaways.

Tuesday – Afternoon: I’ll be attending ’7 Touches.’ Besides Sports Business, I am also specializing in Strategic Marketing and Services Leadership at ASU. Ever since my first services marketing class, I have been hyper-sensitive to customer service, and how each and every interaction with a brand shapes the way you feel about that brand. Knowing that, I think customer service for teams and leagues right now should be a huge focus.

Wednesday: I’ll be attending the “What Keeps You Up At Night” Super Panel. I especially want to hear what Kevin Payne, the President & CEO of DC United, has to say. I know they have had some on-going stadium proposal issues, and are facing ever-increasing pressure from new MLS teams. My ears will be tuned for his comments in particular.

Wow, just writing this has been a little exhausting, so I can only imagine what the actual four days will be like! I hope to see some of you there, and would love to hear what sessions you’re most interested in attending…

Jason Peck (www.jasonfpeck.com) has put together an excellent e-book titled “Sports and Social Media Predictions 2010.” Jason reached out to several sports professionals and asked them a simple question: “What are your thoughts and predictions for sports and social media in 2010?” The answers provide incredible insight into the different ways that this aspect of the industry can grow and develop in the coming year.

Without giving too much away, here are a few quick quotes from the book:

• Brian Gainor: “The smartest U.S. brands will look to benchmark the mobile marketing practices of our European and Asian counterparts, who are paving the way with some innovative campaigns.”
• Joe Favorito: “People have to get some kind of ROI on what is going into the development and the time that social media consumes, and as of today very few if any smart brands have figured out a way to monetize what they are spending.”
• Lewis Howes: “I predict we will see even more opportunities for sports fans to engage in real-time interactions.”
• Pat Coyle: “In these favorable conditions, 2010 could very well be the year in which we see some teams moving social media from the periphery to the center of their marketing strategies.”
• Rob Katz: “Moving forward, controlling the message means active participation and some level of transparency to allow deeper, more sustainable audience engagement.”

This is just a small selection of what this e-book has to offer. I’m personally honored that Jason let me contribute to this project…you’ll have to read it for yourself to see my thoughts and predictions!  I’ve included a copy of the e-book below that you can view here, or you can click the download link to get a PDF version. Great work by Jason, and I encourage everyone to download this today!

Sports Social Media Predictions 2010

To continue with the trend of some of my recent posts, there is a great dialogue going on via Twitter from today’s NYC Sports Networker Summit. There are several panels discussing various topics in social media and sports, everything from the convergence of traditional and social media to ticket sales, retention and marketing. The panels feature excellent speakers, including Amy Martin, Lewis Howes, Tom Jolly, Jim Bankoff, Michael DeLorenzo, Brian Cuban, Ben Sturner and many others. You can follow the conversation by searching for the Twitter hashtag #nycsports, or you can scroll through the live stream of tweets below.

Yesterday I was able to attend part of the 4th annual Princeton Sports Symposium. Social media was definitely one of the most popular topics of the day, with multiple session dedicated to the topic along with regular mentions of the subject on various other panels. In fact, several attendees were sending tweets throughout the day with some great questions, quotes and highlights from these panels. You can find them all by searching for the Twitter hashtag #psports, or you can scroll through the list below.

Today’s guest post is courtesy of Christopher Byrne of The Cayuga Group. This post was in response to a discussion on The Business of Sports LinkedIn group regarding examples of current social media practices in sports.

Sometimes I think it is easier to say what teams, leagues and organizations are doing wrong. I do not know if it is intentional or the appearance that they do have a clue on what the world of social networking and social media is all about: collaboration and sharing.

I do not know if you remember Goofus and Gallant from Highlights Magazine or not (to summarize using the picture, Goofus is mean and doesn’t share while Gallant is nice to his friends and shares with others), but I will use their names and characters as an example.

• Goofus wants to manage all content, so his Facebook page does not allow people to share their ideas in the main wall thread.
• Gallant wants to engage people and build a community, so he allows people to post to the wall and interact with the larger member community, as long as they do it within the acceptable rules of conduct.

• Goofus deletes comments that they do not like (and I am not talking about profanity).
• Gallant realizes that people want honest, frank discussion, and that by allowing non-spun content actually helps build the page owners brand as a true social media/social networking participant/sponsor.

• Goofus wants everybody on the world to follow them on Twitter, but does not follow them in return. So he has no idea what they are saying about their organization. And because they are not followed, they cannot send feedback via direct messages.
• Gallant knows that the exchange needs to be two-way. First to get information out there, and second to receive feedback and monitor the conversation.

• Goofus wants all traffic to go to his web site, so he does not allow the embedding of any video from his site.
• Gallant knows that he will actually build up more goodwill AND increase traffic to their site by allowing people to embed video content from that site. He also knows that if he does not do it, people have no incentive to direct traffic to his site and that the risk of unauthorized pirating and distribution of the content goes up.

• Goofus thinks blogs are one way conversations and don’t allow comments of any kind for reasons that include corporate embarrassment.
• Gallant realizes that having a truly interactive blog is a way to not only engage people in community type dialog, but also a way to get unrestrained feedback from people.

So who are the Goofuses and the Gallants out there? Join the conversation on LinkedIn or leave your comments here.

Christopher Byrne is the managing partner of The Cayuga Group, LLC, a consulting firm focused on the development, deployment, management, and administration of information/collaboration systems including social networking tools. He writes about information technology and business process controls at the Business Controls Caddy, and sports media issues and opportunities at Eye on Sports Media.

At this point, everyone should understand how important it is to integrate social sharing links into any web-based campaign. These links provide an easy mechanism for fans to share the message with others and hopefully create a viral-like distribution for the campaign.

While I completely agree with this approach, I just saw an interesting report from Marketing Sherpa on the most common ways that people share links with friends and family. Take a look at the chart below:

The primary link sharing method of choice is clearly still email.  This is about 3.5x the number of percentage of people that share links via social media. Unfortunately I do not have a chart that shows the results of this question over time, but I’m sure that the social media percentage has increased as Twitter and Facebook grow in popularity.  In spite of this, for the time being email is still the king of link sharing. So don’t forget to include an “Email to a Friend” link with the rest of your sharing options and encourage your fans to email your links to others – they will probably be more likely to respond.