Thanks for your comment!

In the end, the the players have to understand (and they will) that social media is going to be very important for their sport. Also, they will realize that the value of social media is the ability to connect with fans, the people who support them on the ice. So, I think they will come around, because hockey players definitely care about their fans.

IMHO to succeed (business definition), the story of Hockey needs to be updated with new characters that we can engage with; love the heroes, hate the villains. Heroic players such as Gretzky had massive awareness among general public, but the younger and arguably more exciting generation that we would be paying to see today (if we could get “into” the storyline) have not yet claimed the spotlight. Social media is the forum to do this. Fire at will.

I think you have to look at the NHL’s unpopularity based on society. The days of blue collar popularity is over. Twitter, facebook, do you think any athletes of the NBA or NFL would have been on twitter or facebook daily if it was accessible? Hell no, NHL players are still about respecting the opponent and keeping things in house. You dont have Chad Ocho Cincos in the NHL. Even the knucklehead players in the NHL like Ray Emery would be model NFL players.

“That being said”… (Larry David haha), i feel this is the reason the players dont interact on Twitter or Facebook, Anerican or not, hockey is still a blue collar sport and players will never embrace pop culture or the rediculous internet hourly interaction that dominates todays society.

-Everly

ps. Taggard you suck at hockey!!!

I believe the most important thing we have achieved to date is that the League 1) has a firm belief in the importance of social media; and B)we are trying to raise the collective social media IQ of the League on a daily basis. To that end, it’s been an important development that the NHL has created a dedicated department to oversee it, and invested other resources in it (we consider Vayner, for example, to be a strategic partner).

When we combine these resources with analytics (including feedback like that in this blog), we can’t help but do a better job serving fans over the long haul – and we are viewing this as a marathon, not a sprint.

In any case, I thank you for your interest in the NHL, and for your feedback. I would be pleased to actually speak to you in person about our efforts any time you wish.

Mike DiLorenzo
MDiLorenzo@NHL.com

Here’s an odd twist on it all — because hockey is so Canadian, and because Canadians seem to LOVE social media (and I’m not just saying that, but I find many more Torontonians than Londoners on Twitter, for instance) — that might have something to do with what I would say is a rock solid use of all the social media marketing channels.

Disclosure: I’m American.