Anyone who’s ever had a subscription to an online job board will tell you the same thing: “I sent my resume to everyone, but didn’t hear back from anyone!”
To be fair to the online job boards, most students that send out resumes and cover letters—and that’s all they do—don’t have a clue about what it takes to land a job, especially in sports. (That would include me when I was student.) [click to continue…]
Chris McKinney is the president of SPORTS LAUNCH™, a career services firm dedicated to helping college students and career-changers launch sports careers. Chris' new book, How to Land Your First Job in Sports: 7 Simple Steps can be found on www.SportsLaunch.net.
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Today’s media environment is highly fragmented. For brands, the challenge of reaching consumers is becoming increasingly difficult. Even if a brand can reach its consumers, making them sit still and pay attention to the message is key.
This is where sports is so powerful. Sports generates so much free publicity. Due to its live and unpredictable nature (who could have predicted Manchester United scoring 8 goals against Arsenal earlier this week?), sports is chat worthy – whether that is office banter around the water cooler, online blogs, or social media commentary. Additionally, live telecast makes it harder for you to skip the ads on your DVR, Tivo or IQ box. Sports can really break through the clutter. As we all know, passions around sports run high and the emotional connection can be strong. It is this passion and the fact that sports can be so compelling that makes sports marketing an effective and efficient way of reaching consumers – if done well (but more of that later).
In SportsPro magazine (Febuary 2011 edition), Boutros Boutros, vice president for communications and controller of marketing at Emirates Airlines (a prolific sponsor of sports such as soccer, rugby and cricket) summed it up perfectly:
“To me, sponsorship is still, among all the marketing mix available – including new media – the best medium to reach people’s emotion and interest.” [click to continue…]
Chris is a strategic programs analyst at the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) focusing on, amongst other things, sponsorship research, analytics and acquisition. He holds a MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Business (AGSM). Chris took part in the school’s exchange program by completing a semester at Stern business school, NYU where he studied sports marketing and sports economics. Connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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Phil Parker has been a Head Coach in the PAC Ten and Big Ten Conferences, and in the California Community College System, coaching wrestling, a sport he excelled in atIowaStateUniversity. After being widely recruited out of high school, Parker went on to become a three-time All-American, and member of three national championship teams as a Cyclone. In addition, he has planned, developed and run numerous camps, clinics and seminars for athletes and taught nearly every known athletic-physical education course over the years.
Phil has a Master of Science (MS) advanced degree in Counseling Psychology. He has worked with people of all ages and from all backgrounds, from elite collegiate athletes to youths at risk and foster care system.
This week Phil was gracious enough to take time from his busy schedule to answer a few of my questions. You’ll find Phil’s depth and wisdom between the lines along with his intensity and heart in every word. [click to continue…]
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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Everyone wants to be known as the expert in their industry. So how do you accomplish this? It’s easier said than done. Before the digital world, industry leaders used traditional methods like speaking engagements, giving interviews, and writing books. Though these methods are practiced today, they are not practical for everyone.
Today, open sources like wordpress allow us to build websites quickly and inexpensively. A website for a company or an individual is an important part of their online identity and provides anyone with various ways of establishing themselves as an expert. [click to continue…]
www.bluefountainmedia.com Dmitriy Gamarnik is a marketing analyst for Blue Fountain Media. He is passionate about two things – sports and marketing. Sports have been a big part of Dmitriy’s life since he learned to crawl. When he isn’t keeping up with the industry and providing top notch analysis in New York City, he works on his golf swing and coaches basketball in his home town of Plainsboro, NJ.
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You would think a 250+ lb. athlete wouldn’t need protection of any kind. You would think they could pulverize any person with one punch and maybe that is true to a certain extent. However, they have other things on their minds…things like playbooks, training, and game strategies. They don’t have time to think about stalkers and other security threats that often follow pro ball players.
Based in Atlanta,Georgia, NU Image Protection serves the athlete and has a combined service and experience of over 40 years in the security industry. I recently had an enlightening phone conversation with Stepfan Williams, CEO of NU Image Protection Security Services. Stepfan’s knowledge and expertise in the protection and security industry raises the bar on personal security for the athlete. Pay attention to the professionalism Nu Image portrays as Stepfan candidly answered my questions. You will find out that personal protection for the athlete is more than just a big dude looking around the crowd. [click to continue…]
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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Social media can be a beautiful thing for your sports career. Especially when you learn how to leverage it in a way that leads to a job offer from your favorite sports team or sports brand.
However, as great as social media is for networking yourself into a cool job, there’s an even more powerful tactic. And it’s available to everyone, free of charge.
I call it “Direct Networking.”
This is where you network – directly – with the person who has the power to hire you. Nothing (and no one!) comes between you and the decision-maker when you implement this job-search tactic.
Direct Networking can put you to work. Fast. It’s helped me with my career when I was just starting out. And it can work for you, too. I still use it today. [click to continue…]
Chris McKinney is the president of SPORTS LAUNCH™, a career services firm dedicated to helping college students and career-changers launch sports careers. Chris' new book, How to Land Your First Job in Sports: 7 Simple Steps can be found on www.SportsLaunch.net.
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This is a guest post from Max Wendkos.
This past Sunday, the Atlanta Braves hosted “#BravesBash” – a broad social media effort in which players and team executives interacted with fans on a variety of platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and Skype. Kudos to the Braves; this was a great idea and it was executed very well.
According to a Braves press release, over 13,000 fans tuned into the team’s live streaming Facebook broadcast, over 2,200 fans took place in a conference call with Braves players, and Braves players made and received over 100 Skype calls. And check this – the Braves gained over 16,500 Facebook “likes” and 3,000 Twitter “followers,” and the team believes that the #BravesBash hashtag reached 438,993 people! [click to continue…]
It seems like Quick Response (QR) codes are becoming a popular trend within the sports marketing industry. Like with everything new, the first campaigns I noticed were cautious and small. Not anymore.
Last week it was reported that a Bristish volleyball team will have sponsored QR codes placed on their bikini bottoms. Now that’s how to make a splash.
And I am sure there are more creative and unique QR campaigns to come. However, before you decide to jump aboard take time to learn a few best practices. [click to continue…]
www.bluefountainmedia.com Dmitriy Gamarnik is a marketing analyst for Blue Fountain Media. He is passionate about two things – sports and marketing. Sports have been a big part of Dmitriy’s life since he learned to crawl. When he isn’t keeping up with the industry and providing top notch analysis in New York City, he works on his golf swing and coaches basketball in his home town of Plainsboro, NJ.
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As Labor Day approaches, the Fall soccer season is upon us where nearly nineteen million soccer players will take the field. And for each one of those teams, there is a volunteer soccer coach. One of the major drags of coaching a soccer team is communicating with all the parents and players. While communicating with parents on the fly has gotten easier over time due to technology, it still is time consuming. Since practically everyone is constantly on Facebook, leveraging the benefits Facebook can make life as a soccer coach a snap. Use Facebook as a central hub for communicating with your team and with a simple message, you can communicate with everyone that needs to know. Set up a group on Facebook and unleash the ease and power of communicating with your team. Here’s step-by-step written instructions of how to setup a Facebook group for soccer teams: [click to continue…]
Plato once said, “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Plato lived almost 2400 years ago. Before social media, before the phone, before the fax, before e-mail and before the pony express.
In today’s value driven business climate I feel this getting to know the person, not the e-mail address or the @Plato, is where real connections and money are made. Notice! Connection comes first.
Technology has come a long way since Plato uttered these words, but the make-up of humans has not. Trust, respect and likeability are still found to be the top reasons people and companies do business with each other. Building rapport can come in many more ways these days, but I can’t argue with the logic in “you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” [click to continue…]
Tyler Johnson is an innovative thinker inspired by the likes of Bill Veeck, Jon Spoelstra, Pat Williams & Brooks Boyer. Currently working for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment as a Group Sales Account Executive for the Denver Nuggets. Prior he worked as the New Business Development Executive with the Chicago White Sox. Tyler has also worked directly with the inventor and creator of Arena football and also for Mike Ditka’s former Chicago AFL franchise. As a former collegiate athlete and business sensed individual Tyler ventured to combine his passions to get into the business side of sports.
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