December 2010

Sports and Social Media in 2010

by Sam Taggart|December 31st, 2010

2010 was a big year in the world of sports and social media, as leagues, teams, individual athletes, and sports fans alike began to truly understand and harness the power of social platforms. For me, 2010 was the year when social media went mainstream in the world of sports. There were many highlights, too many to name. But when I thought back on this year, these five moments stood out (in chronological order): [click to continue…]

About Sam Taggart

Sam is a Creative Strategist for VaynerMedia, a social media agency based in New York City. Sam previously worked as an Account Executive for the New York Jets as well as the New Jersey Nets and spent time working with former NBA player Jalen Rose as well as NFL safety Kerry Rhodes. He now focuses on creative strategy across VaynerMedia's portfolio. You can follow Sam at http://twitter.com/gosam & visit VaynerMedia at http://www.vaynermedia.com.

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Now Hiring: National Football League Head Coaches

by Michelle Hill|December 30th, 2010

The unemployment line continues to grow for NFL fired coaches this season. Locker room epitaphs might read something like, “his players gave up on him”, “he took the hit that player personnel should have taken”, or maybe even, “he deserved it.”

With the firing of Brad Childress, Wade Phillips, Josh McDaniel, and most recently, Mike Singletary, other coaches with fledgling teams are feeling just a tad of uneasiness about the future of their j-o-b.

As each team evaluates their future, and player personnel puts on their thinking caps, what will these teams be looking for in their future head coaches? Some of these teams have had several coaching changes in the past few seasons so how can they ensure they have the right man for the job this time around? First, foundational work needs to happen in the front office. [click to continue…]

About Michelle Hill

Michelle Hill, the Strong Copy Quarterback for Winning Proof, is a sports and fitness copywriter. My mission is to help pro athletes, coaches, and sports agents increase their success score in their entrepreneurial endeavors with my writing expertise and creative turn of mind.I write website content, client letters, media pitch letters, sponsorship proposals, and brochures for sports-related companies. www.winningproof.com

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An Interview with San Francisco Giants’ Director of Social Media

by Brendan Wilhide|December 28th, 2010

The San Francisco Giants enjoyed a banner year in 2010: they won the World Series and embraced social media as a means of engaging diehard fans at AT&T Park and across the country. We sat down with Bryan Srabian, the Giants’ Director of Social Media, and asked him about the successes in 2010 and the future of social media in sports. [click to continue…]

About Brendan Wilhide

Brendan Wilhide runs Sportsin140.com, a site that covers sports and social media. He is currently co-authoring a textbook on social media for the sports industry. Follow him on Twitter: @BrendanWilhide and @Sportsin140.

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How Sports Marketing Makes the Super Bowl

by Lewis Howes|December 27th, 2010

It’s safe to say ‘Super Bowl Sunday’ has become a national holiday. As soon as the Christmas decorations are packed away and New Year’s resolutions broken, it’s time for January’s bright spot: the Super Bowl party.

Sports marketers, however, began planning for this year’s Super Bowl as soon as the Guy Lombardi trophy was awarded to last year’s winner. Super Bowl Sunday is a sports marketer’s dream, an excellent example of the symbiotic relationship between professional sports and marketing. [click to continue…]

About Lewis Howes

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A World Without Sports Marketing

by Lewis Howes|December 24th, 2010

Although careers in sports marketing are relatively new, sports marketing as a practice is over a century old. As sports began to professionalize, savvy promoters, athletes, and entrepreneurs quickly recognized that the business of sports required marketing support.

Sports marketing has two distinct, interdependent, forms: marketing of sports and marketing through sports. If you market sports, you work with organizations, players, venues, and teams to promote games and related events. If, on the other hand, your job is to market through sports, you use those same teams, players, and events to promote your company’s products. Through the symbiotic nature of sports marketing, each side benefits. [click to continue…]

About Lewis Howes

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Interview with Andrew Krafsur on Spira Footwear and Sports Entrepreneurship

by Lewis Howes|December 23rd, 2010

I recently got to meet the CEO of Spira Footwear, Andrew Krafsur. He is a lawyer turned entrepreneur and with the help of his brother, they launched the revolutionary Wavespring technology used in their running and walking shoes today. The technology has been proven to give athletes better results (both in comfort and in speed), so much so that it is ‘technically’ banned in many marathons. Having been called the steroids of running shoes,

Andrew talks about how to deal with PR controversies and turning it into a marketing tool. Andrew is an inspiring and innovative guy and was a pleasure to talk to. Also, if you listen to the end, there’s a little something extra for you. Definitely check it out!

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As a side note, Andy sent me a pair of shoes to test out for myself. Here are the results:

I hadn’t run 2 miles in about a year (I’m normally a sprinter) so I spent seven days running 2 miles each day to see how much I could drop my time. I dropped about 20 seconds off my first and second day personal bests, and on the third day when I got the Spira shoes on I dropped over 40 seconds of my personal best. The shoes felt light and I could definitely notice a difference in my speed even when my legs and lungs were feeling fatigued.

About Lewis Howes

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Networking in Business Beyond Social Media

by Michelle Hill|December 22nd, 2010

The explosion of social media has expanded our sphere of influence and connections to the farthest parts of the world. We’re able to do business with anyone in any country with the click of a button and a twist of the mouse. PayPal has made it possible to receive payment and pay our vendors within minutes.

Social media has allowed me to do business with pro athletes I would never have crossed paths with in a million years. Through LinkedIn and Facebook, I’ve been able to build rapport and long-lasting business relationships with my target market. Many are now clients and friends. But, how do you cross the border from a first contact via social media into relationship building and marketing? After all, it takes more than just a few emails to garner the ‘know, like, and trust’ dynamic that brings business your way.

Here are five easy steps that will move you beyond making that initial contact and into a solid relationship with your potential clients: [click to continue…]

About Michelle Hill

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Top Twitter Athlete of 2010

by Sam Chan|December 21st, 2010

In 2010, we’ve seen professional athletes come a long way in social media, and perhaps there’s no better platform as evidence of this than Twitter. The amount of engagement in the last year going on in the space has been phenomenal but after doing polls on the top sports professionals and top sports resources of 2010, we were curious to see who you thought the top athlete on twitter was. For more information how each athlete has ‘won’ using Twitter, read below the fold. Voting will end on next Monday and we’ll announce all the winners shortly after!

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About Sam Chan

Sam is the community manager of Sports Networker and the Sports Executive Association. He is passionate in all things sports, mobile, and social media. His dream is for the Vancouver Canucks to win a Stanley Cup in his lifetime, although so far, its looking kind of bleak. In the past, he worked with BlackBerry and helped relaunch their Business-to-Business network. With his experience there, he can probably help you change your ringtone, maybe. When he finds time (never), he also writes infrequently at his personal blog. If you would like to talk sports, write a guest post for us, or argue about why iPhone > BlackBerry, you can find him on Twitter, Facebook or email.

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Aussie Football Goes To China

by Lewis Howes|December 20th, 2010

(This is a guest post by Andrew Collins)

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall men in a single bound, look, up in the sky, it’s AFL footy. In what is bigger than any religion Down Under, the Australian Football League is making a surprise inroad in the world’s most populous country, leaving major codes like the NFL for dead.

2010 saw China play host to Australia’s biggest sporting code as the Melbourne Demons played the Brisbane Lions in what became a thrilling encounter in Shanghai. What eventuated was a landmark TV deal, an online AFL Chinese community, 7100 Chinese spectators and a commitment from the local Shanghai government to support further games. [click to continue…]