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Sports Debate: What Athletes Should Be Using Social Media?

Ryan Stephens — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:00:09 +0000

Question: Who can benefit more from social media: small-time or big-time athletes?

Ryan: My initial reaction is small time athletes and big-time athletes once their career is in a decline. I will start with the argument for small-time athletes. Upper echelon and mainstream athletes already have significant followings. Many have endorsement deals, sell tons of merchandise, etc. Why do we like certain athletes? Because they’re A) really good at what they do. B) something about their personal life, approach, style, etc. resonates with us.

Big-time athletes have two big advantages: 1) They’re better players. 2) This enables them to be on television more, do more interviews and enable the fans to get more insight into their personality. On both accounts, it’s easier to “like” the more mainstream athlete. Social media helps level the second playing field. Dwayne Wade is always going to be a better basketball player than Charlie Villanueva, but now that Charlie has a presence on Twitter fans get significantly more opportunities to witness his personality in action and grow their affinity for him as a person.

Thoughts?

Sam: It’s a tough question, because I think both small and big time athletes have a lot to gain from social media. Even though I whine a lot about guys like LBJ & Tiger not being on social media, I tend to agree with you, that small time athletes probably have the most to gain. A good example is Kerry Rhodes of the New York Jets.

Now, Kerry isn’t necessarily “small time,” but I wouldn’t consider him big time either, not yet at least. We (VaynerMedia) started helping Kerry with social media towards the end of 2008. We actually helped him create his Twitter account. Now, Kerry has 350,000+ followers on Twitter because of his hard work, responding to fans, providing them with good content, and just caring. So, that’s a pretty huge testament to the power of social media for someone who’s not necessarily in the spotlight.

There is an inherent value for big time athletes with social media, because they’re almost guaranteed to gain a lot of fans or followers without too much work. Then, look at big time athletes like Steve Nash, Ocho Cinco, and Shaq, guys who have excelled with social media. They’re not necessarily getting new sponsors bigger contracts because of their social media followings, but all three have made a lot of headlines, and a lot of new fans, because of what they’re doing online. I think social media has definitely helped their public perception.

Social media helps fans connect with athletes, big and small, on a level like never before. So maybe it’s we, the fans, who are the real beneficiaries of social media.

Ryan: This is a great segue to the second argument I wanted to make. I think a lot of the appeal for the big-time athletes you’ve mentioned is that they’re primarily on the down slope of their careers. Granted, all three are still putting up solid numbers, but could it be that they all have the foresight to realize that getting involved in social media can enhance their brand and enable them to remain relevant after retirement?

I think it would be interesting to evaluate a true marquee athletes’ use of social media at the peak of their career, but I can’t think of any right now. Nash, and Lance Armstrong are probably the closest, and Lance isn’t involved in a sport that gets much attention (in comparison to others) save for the Tour de France coverage. That’s one reason social media makes sense for him.

Sam: Good point, Ryan. I think you’re right. Those guys (Nash, Ocho Cinco, Shaq) are all heading towards the ends of their respective careers, and I’m sure that’s part of the reason they’ve taken such an interest to social media.

At the same time, I don’t think we’ve really seen a big time athlete in the prime of their career truly take advantage of social media. Dwight Howard might be one. He’s on Twitter, with 1.5 million followers, and currently has a My Touch 3G branded background. My Touch clearly saw value in Howard’s Twitter presence.

There are other young, star athletes using social media (e.g. Larry Fitzgerald, Dwayne Wade), who really add value for the fans. They’re the pioneers. I think that in five years, nearly every big time athlete will be utilizing some form of social media (whatever that may be in five years), because they will have no other choice.

In conclusion [Ryan]: I think we can both agree that at this point in time small-time athletes probably get more benefit from social media, and there are a multitude of examples to illustrate this belief. That said, it’s also a win-win scenario for a big-time athlete because with less effort they can acquire a bigger following due to the extent of their athletic success. Like Sam said, the real beneficiaries are the fans, and as athletes adopting social media becomes more commonplace we can only hope that it will take the fan experience to a whole other level.

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Image by NYCmarines

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About Ryan Stephens

Ryan is an Associate Media Analyst at Sports Media Challenge where he helps champion social media strategies for sports, lifestyle and entertainment brands. In his spare time he serves as a social media consultant who is passionate about the power of web 2.0 and its ability to cultivate conversations, build relationships and spread of ideas. Feel free to leave your thoughts on his article in the comments section below, connect with him on his blog at Ryan Stephens Marketing or on Twitter @ryanstephens, and read the rest of his bio here.

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Top 10 Sports/Social Media Trends of 2010

Ryan Stephens — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:00:29 +0000

Jason Peck recently asked 16 sports industry thought leaders (a few of us who write here among them) to share their thoughts and predictions for sports and social media in 2010. The result was an awesome ebook full of some solid insights.

In this post I’d like to build off the foundation Jason (and the others) created and identify the top 10 trends to anticipate in 2010. My methodology was relatively simple. I read through the ebook a couple of times and took diligent notes on the reoccurring themes that emerged among the contributors’ predictions.

Here are the results:

1.) Transition to Social from Traditional – This is trend is happening everywhere, not just in sports. We’ll continue to see companies pull dollars out of traditional media and invest in growing their communities, engaging their fans, and providing unique experiences. This was never more evident than when Pepsi announced they were launching the Pepsi Refresh Project instead of buying Super Bowl spots this year.

2.) The Rise of Online Video – As Brian Gainor, the Blogs with Balls guys and others mentioned, Flip Cams are beginning to pop up everywhere. The cost of entry to getting video on the web with fancy cell phones and new technology is easier than ever and bloggers, fans, and even athletes will be taking advantage of this fact. We will be able to connect more intimately than ever before, but will the space become over saturated by novices blasting their messages? By athlete meltdowns ala Marbury?

3.) Hyper Localization – With Google, Craiglist and Yelp leading the way, and iPhone apps like Four Square emerging as power players, teams will begin experimenting with disruption models intended to inform local markets, ‘direct traffic,’ and provide on location calls-to-action. Can game day tweet-ups, and last minute discounted ticket sales entice people eating in Uptown Charlotte, or maybe working late, to walk a few blocks for the Bobcats game? (Okay. So maybe the Bobcats are a bad example.)

4.) Personal Athlete Branding – Superstars like LeBron don’t need Twitter, but aging veterans looking to increase their relevancy and offer up an additional platform or value-add for sponsors might. And what about role players? Retired athletes? Charlie Villanueva is the perfect example of a guy I might not have cared about unless he was on my fantasy team, until now. Unfortunately, like the Blogs with Balls guys mentioned in the ebook, I fear this means we’ll see an influx of smarmy “online gurus.”

5.) Increased Restrictions/Less Free-Flow of Information – And because half of these guys (see: Larry Johnson, among others) can’t figure out what they can and can’t say, or when (not during games guys) they should say it I think we’ll continue to see increased restrictions and more rules and procedures coming from the executive brass. I’m okay with that, particularly with the athletes just as long as universities don’t restrict their fans.

6.) Real-Time Interactions (Increased Fan Interactivity) – Mobile is a HUGE part of this. Steve Cobb discussed this in the ebook, but what it boils down to his convenience. Fans want to connect with athletes, they want to connect with each other and they want to do it all the second they think of it. With the increased capability of smart phones we might see relevant fan tweets popping up on jumbotrons during games within the next year. What about an app for fans of opposing teams to “square off” and shit-talk each other during games?

7.) More Best Practices – Perhaps this goes without saying, but with increased adoption across the board and more teams and brands trying different things, some of them are bound to be successful.

8.) Specific Goals & Refined Methods – Whether it is seeing others succeed or tasting it themselves, brands will realize the capabilities of the social web. With more best practices and proof of concept, teams, athletes, and smarmy “online gurus” will all start trying to “swim with a purpose,” as Russell Scibetti said in the ebook. With other teams/athletes figuring it out, others will not be able to justify playing casually in the sandbox anymore.

9.) Increased Attempts to Monetize – Part of justifying social media entails actually making money off of it. While it’s true that it’s usually inexpensive to get started, more advanced strategies involve resources like time and people that aren’t always so cheap. Showing positive cash flow as a result of your social media efforts gets the big boys to buy in and open their wallets to try new ways to continue engaging fans. And where there’s fans, there’s usually sponsorable content.

10.) Fine Tuned Measurement – No longer is throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what will stick an appropriate strategy. With clearly defined goals, it’s critical to have measurable objectives. All of these won’t necessarily equate to dollars (i.e. sentiment, traffic, subscribers, etc.) and it’s important to measure these things too (depending on what matters to your brand, obviously), but brands will become increasingly responsible for measuring ROI (yeah, as in dollars) also.

Which of these trends do you think will emerge as the MOST important in 2010? Which of these is YOUR company most concerned with in 2010? What are other significant trends that we might have missed?

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2 Ways to Enhance Marketing for Unpopular Sports

Ryan Stephens — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:06:25 +0000

There’s two co-workers in my office who love soccer. “That’s cute,” I like to tell them and accuse them of being unpatriotic for not liking football or America’s pastime more. But that poses the question. What if you’re trying to market soccer in America? Hockey in Texas? The WBNA anywhere?

1. Educate People About the Game

Fans often don’t appreciate what they don’t understand, and while most of us play soccer when we’re younger (Our Dad’s just sign us up so they can stare at the soccer mom’s when our mom’s aren’t looking?) we often quit before high school and play the sports all our friends are playing.

Casual sports fans probably like wheeling bicycle kicks, headers, penalty kicks and other exciting shots, but could careless during the other hour and twenty minutes that ‘nothing is going on.’ It’s because they don’t understand the nuances of the game. If someone can’t tell the difference in Lionel Messi and Charlie Davies that means they ‘don’t get it.’

Not understanding the nuances of the game usually equates to not being able to appreciate anything aside from the goals. People in Michigan and Minnesota like hockey because they grew up playing it, but in Texas, they group up playing football. There’s no reason Texan’s should like hockey except that they haven’t been exposed to it the same way people from the north have.

Use time outs (maybe flops in soccer?) to explain basic rules, host online campaigns on the US Men’s soccer page showing good non-scoring plays (and explaining why they’re good.) If a fan understands what he’s watching he’s more prone to enjoying it.

2. Provide Access to the Personalities

The NBA is exceptional and marketing individual players so it’s probably no coincidence they’ve been the quickest league in adopting social media. Lewis wrote a great post about some of the things he’d do if he were still playing today to increase visibility.

Have players to post game interviews that are live on Ustream (instead of hours later on sports center or a sound byte in the news paper the next morning). Have players answer 2 questions each on a platforms such as Twitter or Facebook. Host tweet-ups with your athletes and fans that bought special packages, etc.

The bottom line is that if fans aren’t a huge fan of the sport it doesn’t mean that they won’t become a big fan of a particular player that resonates with them. Personally, I love the scrappy guy that doesn’t have Adrian Peterson or Carl Crawford’s tool set but finds a way to make plays, to win games, to orchestrate come backs on sheer heart and grit alone. If those guys are giving me access you can bet your ass I’m tuning in.

In Conclusion

Often times make marketing out to be a lot harder than it has to be. Tell compelling stories, find compelling stories and then share them (or give your fans a way to share them for you.) It starts with education, people have to understand what they’re watching. But they also have to know why, why they should care. It’s the stories (and the personalities that make up those stories) that entice people to flip to that channel.

Sometimes people make that story easy. See: Usain Bolt. But other times the people doing the marketing (YOU!) have to dig a little deeper. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

Oh, and who are we kidding, NOBODY can market the WBNA.

What do you think? How would you sell soccer in America? Hockey in Texas? Cricket in Canada?

Post inspired by Anita Lobo

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3 Reasons Athletes Should Use Social Media

Ryan Stephens — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:34:19 +0000

Last week Antonio Ramirez wrote in from Mexico to ask what the best arguments were for convincing players to participate in a social program.

It’s a great question, and in Antonio’s case, for a great cause. Childhood obesity is quickly becoming an epidemic in Mexico, particularly surrounding low income areas and schools. And he’s looking to get a few futbol (soccer) players to be ambassadors for a program to inspire/lead these kids.

Certainly the kids would love if athletes would take time out of their day to visit a couple of times during the semester, but I’m certain there are people with more experience in philanthropic endeavors far more qualified to answer that question than me.
So, I’ll take a different approach and give Antonio (and all of you) my best advice on how to get athletes to participate in social media, which can still empower and inspire not only local kids, but anyone who wants to follow them. Ah, the power of social media.

Why?

It’s All About the Story

First, tell a compelling story, very similar to the one Antonio told Lewis. Athletes won’t be compelled to participate, much less to help if you don’t give them a damn good reason.

As a quick aside, here are two things I do know about philanthropic efforts:

1.) Don’t make the problem seem insurmountable. Define it such that someone knows their contribution will make a difference.

2.) Pick out one person. Find one overweight kid and highlight him. He resonates; people identify more with one person than the entire group. See above.

Now that you’ve told a compelling story, it’s important to remember that chances are these athletes are important people, at least they think they are. And you can bet your ass they’re asking what’s in it for me.

3 Reasons Athletes Should Use Social Media

Here are three arguments you can make that will work every time:

1.) At some point your professional career is going to be over. One of these days your body won’t be physically capable of doing what it could when you were 24. If you’ve saved your earnings you might live a nice, comfortable, quiet life. But having lived in the spotlight all your life is that really want you want? To ride off into the sunset? (Note – If they haven’t been in the spotlight, having a kick ass personality in social media is one way to get there.)

Being active in social media maintains your relevancy long after your sports career is over. Look at Shaquille O’Neal. His best days are behind him, but that didn’t stop over 2 million people from following him on Twitter. You think that even after he’s done playing he can’t leverage that following for more sponsorship dollars? For a goofy television show? Think again.

2.) You know how hard sending a tweet is? About as hard as writing a text message. Yeah, no excuses. Your fans want to connect with you. They love what you do on the court, but they want to know what you do off of it, what goes through your head during games, who you hang with, what team you play with in Madden ’10.

Being involved in social media a great way to increase your humanize yourself and increase your brand affinity. Oh, you didn’t think of yourself as a brand? Well there was your first mistake. Chad OchoCinco was an average wide receiver last year, but fans are still buying his jersey like crazy. Why? Because he’s got a shtick, and because fans can witness it because he provides them that opportunity via social media platforms: Twitter, video, etc.

3.) You can only sign one autograph at a time. You answer post-game questions on the spot when they’re asked. The media can see you out with a friend and tomorrow’s tabloid will say you’re cheating on your wife. Did you know that social media gives you the power to influence, facilitate, and protect your brand on your terms?

Instead of one autograph at a time you can take 15 seconds to send a tweet out to all of your fans at once thanking them for their attendance, their support, whatever. You can say what you want to say post-game on YouTube, in a blog post. You can sit down and craft the message you want to convey, not what you were forced to come up with on the spot with a microphone shoved in your face. And finally, you can clear up all the BS by setting your story straight on the platform of your choice.

If you take the time to tell a compelling story and then explain these three simple reasons, there’s no way an athlete will refuse to participate in social media; not if they ‘get it.’

And from there, the sky’s the limit. Can you imagine soccer players in Mexico writing blog posts, posting videos or tweeting about their workouts, their elaborate diets, how hard they practice? It’s not foolish to think that the youth in Mexico would follow these athletes, and start trying to prevent obesity.

It’s tough to tackle such a complex topic in 900 words, but I hope I answered your question Antonio, at least to some extent, and I hope I gave all of you some solid reasons to convince athletes to participate in social media. Unfortunately they’re not having the impact they could/should have. At least not yet!

image by frank_z

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Relinquish Control, Empower the Passionate Fans!

Ryan Stephens — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:48:55 +0000

Sports marketing thought leader, Jason Peck, said something two weeks ago that really resonated with me. After hearing a company say they controlled their brand in social media he said this, “The words influence, facilitate and protect your brand should replace control.”

Frankly, I couldn’t agree more…

… Provided it’s your fans who pay money to come see your games/events and who are already having the conversations you’re trying to control, and will have them regardless. Seriously, get over it. Better yet embrace it!

You can’t CONTROL what your fans are doing, especially when there’s 80K+ packed into a stadium. Most of them love you. They’re going to take pictures, text/tweet their friends about the game, and stream video from their iPhones. Some are frustrated with you – they’ll write negative blog posts about you, hammer you on forums, and turn an awkward photo into a caption contest for how bad you suck.

You can’t police that many people on the interwebs.

So what can you do?

Influence. Facilitate. And Protect.

And maybe it’s just a language barrier. There are some brands that are actually doing all three, but cite control. Marketing is about perception. Many of you reading this had a crazy marketing professor that showed you a bunch of advertisements and explained the subliminal messages involved. Some of them were a reach to say the least. But it’s not a reach to say that fans perceive ‘control’ as stifling.

If you try to control your fans chatter, you’re a stodgy old brand that isn’t with the times, that just “doesn’t get it.” Professional sports entities, and collegiate teams are already viewed as behind the times by many so why amplify that perception by trying to censor your most passionate fans?

Back to – So what can you do?

You can put the spotlight on the positive!

What if you built a passionate community of your best fans?

What if you encouraged them to submit photos and videos and the like, or filtered and aggregated it into one place for them? I bet they wouldn’t go searching through YouTube all day, but instead visit your website/community where they knew they could find what they were looking for.

You wouldn’t have to accept the media that portrayed your team and/or players in a bad light, but would it be the end of the world if you did? What if you took a negative blog post from a fan and posted it front and center for everyone to see and asked fans for their input? I bet most of these fans would have your back with all kinds of explanations… explanations you could use to perpetuate positivity throughout the community.

I understand. I know it’s scary not have control. You couldn’t stop that bad message from being posted, but you can do something with it once it’s up that helps build brand affinity for your team.

What if you highlighted the fan who had the most posts on the forum during the week leading up to the huge rivalry game? What if you posted the top 5 fan submitted photos from last week’s game? What if you let two respected forum members square off in a debate over who should be your team’s starting QB with additional comments from others?

If you have an active and engaged community with tons of rabid fans, don’t you think companies would pay to sponsor some of the contests you run? Buy ad space on your site? The university could even increase merchandise sales through your community. There would be tons of opportunity for monetization.

There are a multitude of ways to increase affinity for your brand by cultivating a community of passionate people while influencing, facilitating and protecting what’s important to your efforts, but controlling what your fans are doing is NOT one of those ways.

Relinquish control and witness what happens.

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Photo Credits: Fan ; Top Posts

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How can social media tools drive your sports marketing success?

Ryan Stephens — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:52:57 +0000

What brands have succeeded in using social tools to increase their engagement with their fans? Enhance their brand affinity? Drive their bottom line?

These are all questions WE’RE going to explore today, together. That’s right, I’ll get us started, but then let’s use the comments section to build out both lists until we have a pretty extensive resource sports professionals can refer back to in the future.

So, how can social tools drive your sports marketing success?

1. Find where your fans are. Are they on Facebook? Twitter? Commenting on Blogs? Forums.

2. Listen to what your fans are saying.

3. Social media is the perfect place to get the pulse of your fans because anyone can hit publish.

4. Engage your fans. Humanize your brand by reaching out and connecting with your passionate fans and influencers.

5. Provide platforms and resources for your fans to connect with each other.

6. Have giveaways, promotions, access to your athletes/team.

7. Build trust.

8. Monetize.

8-25+) What are some other great ways to leverage social tools to drive your sports marketing efforts?

What brands are already doing some of these well?

1. Shaq

2. Kerry Rhodes

3. Lance Armstrong

4. Chris Bosh

5. Calgary Stampeders w/ Stamps Connect

6. Yardbarker

7. Ballhype

8-25+) We don’t have to name every professional athlete on Twitter (though be my guest if you insist), but what other sports teams/entities/players are using social media to drive increased success (and not just in increased engagement and return on emotion, but the actual bottom line?)

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Life-Streaming 101: The Starbury TV Experiment

Ryan Stephens — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:03:37 +0000

Stephon Marbury should’ve refrained from life-streaming. Starbury TV, as far as I’m concerned, was an epic failure. Why?

David Neiman of Athlete Interactive put it so poignantly that I’ll just share what he had to say and let you judge for yourself:

“We want athletes to awe us, and that’s precisely what they do when they’re doing what they do best: playing sports. Think of your favorite highlight — Michael Jordan hitting over Bryon Russell, John Elway going head over heels into the end zone, whatever comes to mind. That moment has an epic, emotional power; you might find yourself shaking your head in amazement right now just thinking about it. But more than just witnessing that moment, you felt part of it. A critical part of being a fan is sharing in the experience of athletes you like.”

Do you see where this is going?

“With rare exception, what people don’t want – despite claiming the opposite – is to really “know” athletes in a way that diminishes them, a point driven home by Marbury. When it comes to athletes, people want a sense of connection, but only if it reinforces awe or respect.”

I think David is spot on in his assessment of Marbury’s experiment. Read the entire piece here.

On Twitter athletes can control their 140 character messages easily. On Facebook, the same with their status updates. They can upload YouTube clips of their highlights, funny interviews, game pictures, etc. Even on a blog they can carefully construct the message they want to share with their fans. They can even do this with short prepared videos, but not in life streaming, not the way Marbury did it.

Being forced to be “on” all the time is tough. Being in the raw, exposed in the flesh for your fans is a tough scenario for even the most seasoned media veterans, much less a loose cannon like Marbury.

You SHOULD NOT lifestream when:

You want to share a personal message that will take less than 10 minutes. If you know what you want to say just use YouTube, Viddler or Vimeo to record your message then use your social tool(s) of choice to spread it to your fans/consumers.
You want to quickly engage some of your most passionate fans/consumers. Hit them up on Twitter, write a blog post asking them for their insights and opinions and respond to the relevant ones via the comments section.
You’re bored, you have a few screws loose, and you will invariably do something ignorant that may seem to you like you’re humanizing your brand and connecting with your fans, but in reality you’re probably removing your cloak of mystique and doing irreparable damage to your reputation.

So how and when should you life-stream, if ever?

1.) When you want to answer questions and connect with your fans for a reasonable period of time (see: 30 minutes to an hour). Taking the time to answer fans’ questions is an awesome gesture. If your brand is big enough you’ll get enough variety of questions that you can choose the ones you want to answer, which will enable you to build your brand and connect with your fans simultaneously.

2.) The only time you should EVER life-stream for more than an hour is for something like raising money for charity where part of the gimmick is the extended period of ‘live’ time. In this instance you should have segments and time blocks at least somewhat planned out. It would also help to interview other people, take breaks and allow other athletes, co-workers, members of your entourage carry some of the load.

What do you think about the Starbury TV experiment or athletes life-streaming in general? I understand it can be entertaining. I came out of a meeting Friday afternoon to see our entire office watching him, but let’s face it people like watching train wrecks, but they don’t build brand affinity for the train company. What are some other occasions where you think life-streaming would be appropriate?

Photo Credits: Stephon Marbury ; Athletes on Twitter

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Transformation: The Future of Sports + Social Media

Ryan Stephens — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:19:37 +0000

Or since transformation can be negative, let’s say intelligent growth or evolving.

People in the sports world do it all the time when they add another dimension to their game, or when they improve upon a certain facet of their skill set. Joe Mauer adding more power to his arsenal, LeBron improving his defense and free-throw shooting in the off-season, a pitcher developing a new pitch; these are all examples of athletes transforming themselves for the better.

But what about this online world that we live in?

Lewis’ personal (and professional) brand has been undergoing positive transformation since he stepped on the scene, and this re-launch of Sports Networker is a perfect example of thinking long-term and continuing to evolve. It’s what I’m doing by coming along on this ride, (and I’m very grateful that Lewis elected to keep me on his starting roster.)
I’d like to think that Sports Networker, and all the brilliant writers that I’m humbled to be sharing this spotlight with, is going to continue help ushering in positive transformation at the intersection of new media and sports.
But how? Sports are notoriously late adopters and there are few (relatively speaking) athletes and franchises that “get it.”

First of all, it doesn’t mean setting up a Facebook page, Twitter account and blog for every athlete and/or franchise.

It takes a lot of effort to execute even one of these mediums successfully. Learn to do one of them really well first, and then if that platform is resonating with you fans (or your clients’ fans) and you’re capable of doing another, and more importantly, it makes sense strategically to operate somewhere else, then and only then should you take that leap.

It’s important to have a clear-defined strategy and know why you’re using social media, and the specific tools affiliated with it prior to launching anywhere.

And let’s not forget all the snake oil salesman that will try and convince you that they can help you build your brand via social media just because they’ve used these platforms as a hobby.

There’s a big difference between using social media, and understanding how to strategically interweave it into an overall marketing approach conducive to humanizing a brand, connecting with fans, and driving ROI.

Knowing what not do is half the battle, but it’s still essential for the sports world (e.g. athletes, franchises, agencies, sponsors, bloggers, etc.) to understand where new media is trending.

I fully intend to keep you abreast of these trends (among other things) in the next two months here at Sports Networker, but in the interim here are 3 things you should be doing right now to stay ahead of the curve:

1.) Locate examples of athletes, teams, agencies, bloggers, etc. using social media tools effectively as a component of their overall marketing strategies. Analyze what makes them effective and share them with others so that we can all learn together.

2.) Understand that in part because of new FTC regulations there is going to be a chasm among sports bloggers. There will be those that abide carefully by these rules, amend their own community’s rules to ensure they’re a more credible source, etc. and then there will be those that don’t care about anything other than ad clicks and continue to post more pictures of scantily clad women than insightful sports commentary. Some will manage to marry the two. They will be few and far between.

3.) Come to terms with the fact that organizations will get over all the hype and the buzz words and insist on some real metrics that prove ROI where it counts, in the piggybank. (As an aside, monetary ROI has to be a factor, but we must also not underestimate ROI as it relates to a brand’s image and the equity that can potentially generate.)

What about you? What are you (or your organization) doing to positively transform yourself, to stay ahead of the curve?

*Photo Credit: PracticalOwl

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13 Underrated Sports Professionals on Twitter

Ryan Stephens — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:21:34 +0000

Lewis asked me to highlight some of the most influential sports business people on Twitter, and I’m all about making Lewis, and more importantly the Sports Networker audience happy. But when I sat down to make that list, all I could think about was BORING!

Those people aren’t hard to locate, in fact if they’ve done a good job providing great content then chances are you already know about them. If not, then you can start here or perhaps here with this list I made awhile back (it certainly needs to be updated.)

So instead of giving you the same old list of names, I thought I would share some under the radar sports business people that you should be following. For the sake of having a criteria, these are all people with under 1,000 Twitter followers, but that I consider to have interesting/valuable tweets about the business of sports.

Without further ado…

@JasonSprenger – Jason is PR/Marketing professional in the tech industry (I think), but his passion is sports, and it shows. He tweets about sports and unselfishly tweets good content about sports, PR, and marketing. He’s a former award winning journalist and blogs at The Sports Ace.

@JoshFeinberg – Josh is a networking champion (like Lewis) and is currently working for the Lakewood Blue Claws. He’s made an immediate impact in the organization (though I get the impression he would do that anywhere), especially with his recent Nine Innings of Networking promotion. (Heads up, it is a PDF.)

@Spiewak – The national football editor for CBS Max Preps.com, Stephen is constantly chatting with half the names mentioned on this list. He also has his finger firmly on the pulse of the prep scene, which is fortunate for us, because most people don’t follow it that closely.

@KatieBailey – Katie Bailey is a free lance sports writer, and ACC hoops fan. She blogs about sports at Sports Kate, and aside from sports you can catch her chatting about food (Krispy Kreme donuts in particular.) She has a master’s degree and is currently seeking an advertising/PR gig in DC. Hook a girl up.

@DMFreedom – David is the CEO of Pilote Media. He specializes in sports marketing, partnership and activation, as well as the use of emerging technologies and how they fit into the picture. He’s great about highlighting other users and leaving insightful comments on blogs.

@TimNATC – Tim is the coordinator for the Sport Management department at York college. What a great way to learn from a professor without having to pay to enroll in his classes. Like David, Tim always provides well thought-out insight that adds value to the conversations at hand.

@JackieAdkins3 – Jackie is an extremely diligent intern at Sports Media Challenge. He’s about to finish his senior year at UNC and is well versed in all things marketing, not just sports. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him. He shares his thoughts on marketing on his blog here: That’s All I Have to Say About That

@BgcDuke7 -Danny may have eclipsed the 1,000 Twitter followers mark by the time this goes live, but don’t hold that against me. He’s worked for all kinds of sports entities and is one of the most conversational sports peeps on Twitter.

@SportMktgProf – Like I mentioned, with Tim, I’m a sucker for soaking up knowledge from professors. Julie is a professor/entrepreneur who blogs about very engaging topics in the sports stratosphere. Not to mention her blogroll is a GREAT resource for those interested in sports/marketing blogs.

@BrianGainor – Brian is one of those guys that just “gets it.” Like me, Brian lives the double life. He’s an account executive at GMR by day, and runs his own diddy, Sponsorship Activation in his spare time. Make sure you check out his resources page for some real gems like, 25 Ways Sports Organizations can use Twitter.

@MMahoney13 – Mark is a sports marketing, sales executive for the Carolina Panthers. When he’s not cutting a rug with Sir Purr he’s helping serve the Carolina’s by connecting with sports companies and agencies to explore partnerships and sponsorships. His sweets are very high in sports concentrate.

@SportsInfo101 – Charles is a sports executive with an emphasis on new media, branding and technology. His tweets cover sports of all kind, sports management, and he blogs at The Sports Info Business, which features all kinds of relevant info including some great interviews with prime time players in the sports realm.

And finally, I’m throwing in a bonus just for good measure. This last person isn’t really a sports business/marketing professional, but she’s awesome so I’m adding her to the list.

@LoisHeilig – Lois has been dubbed the “Sports Granny.” She’s a 75 year old Syracuse fan who loves Women’s basketball. For some more insight into Lois check out her fan spotlight here.

What is best about all of the people I’ve listed here as that not only are they extremely knowledgeable, but they’re also all very friendly so take a few minutes to add them to your Twitter network and start engaging them about the sports topics that interest you.

Finally, there’s no reason why this list has to stop at 13 names. Besides, isn’t that considered unlucky. Please use the comments section to include other sports business people we should follow, take the time to recognize, give a shout out to, etc. Ah what the hell, go ahead an include your own Twitter name so that we can make this post a destination for all this passionate community of sports professionals. What are you waiting for?

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How to Create Content Sports Fans Will Care About

Ryan Stephens — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:07:06 +0000

Image by SomewhatFrank

Using the framework set forth by Gary Hayes and Laurel Papworth (and expanded on by Valeria Maltoni) I’d like to continue the mini-series on using social media for sports marketing. Last time we talked about how to involve, and for this post I’d like to discuss how to begin the second phase, creation.

Creation boils down to making relevant content for communities of interest. Re-read that line, it doesn’t say make relevant content for your own interest, though I suspect the most successful bloggers are certainly interested in their niche and the value they can bring to the community.

If you take one thing away from this post, it should be that it is about your fans, and your customers, not about you. Read the Cluetrain manifesto to help you understand what the market wants.

So where does creation start?

There are so many different communication channels, and different mediums to produce content on that sometimes it is tough to know where you should start. Personally, I think a blog is the best place to start because it is a great hub from which you can branch off to other platforms. My friend Andy Drish likes to say that your blog is your home, and Twitter is happy hour, and I like that analogy.

Twitter is certainly the hot tool right now, but there’s only so much you can convey in 140 characters. Why not create content via your blog (or video i.e. YouTube), and then connect with people, promote your content, etc. via Twitter, social networks, Digg, etc.

Starting Your Blog:

Determine what you’re passionate about and where you can contribute the most value. See if there’s a hungry audience (or a market) for the kind of content you want to create. Start writing. If you’ve been taking the time to get acquainted with what is already out there via the involve stage, than you probably already have a good grasp of these things.

If you’re reading this blog, then chances are you’re very passionate about Sports. That’s great, but the chance of starting a really successful general sports blog is tough because there are already so many out there. You really have to find your unique value proposition and do something innovative.
Look at what Lewis has done with Sports Networker. He found a niche and has done a tremendous job exploiting it and providing value where there was a gap in the content currently being produced. Nobody was talking about sports networking, just like nobody was talking about Awful Announcing before that blog came along.

Pumping Out Content:

I know this sounds silly, but don’t sweat the quality of your content right at first. Start pumping out content as often as you can and let your readership grow, and then react. React to the kinds of things people are responding about, leaving comments to, and extending the conversation about.

For example, the first post I wrote on this blog about Twitter, and there was a huge response. I get it, I know people love Twitter, but remember that Twitter is a lot like Happy Hour. It’s a lot of fun, and you can go to it quickly and connect with a lot of people. After quite a few interactions you can start building real business relationships, but at some point you have to go home, and that’s your blog. Twitter should be a compliment to your other social media initiatives, not your one stop shop.

I know all of this, which is why I have tried to steer the conversation a bit, but I will inevitably go back to Twitter (most likely in my next post), because I know that’s what you guys want, and that’s invariably what is most important.

Re-Evaluation and Refinement:

After a few months, you will probably be a lot more comfortable with the content you’re creating via your blog. You will know what appeals to your audience, and where you can provide the most value. Hopefully, you’ll have a well-defined unique selling proposition that you can use to market your content to others moving forward.

This is the perfect time to take a step back and determine which route you want to go next? What is working? What isn’t? Do you want to keep writing about this particular topic? Do you want to quickly accelerate your readership?

It is important to periodically include this step in your content creation process because it enables you to hone in on what your goals are, and what steps you can take to achieve them.

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Are you thinking of starting your own blog about sports, sports marketing, etc.? Have you used this approach or some of these techniques to develop your blog? How do you use Twitter as a compliment to your blog?

Feel free to reach out to me in the comments section about any questions you might have about creating content to build your sports brand. I will do my best to answer every single one. And stay tuned for our next installment when I talk about the 3rd phase of using social media to build your sports brand, discussion.

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