It’s no secret that professional sports teams are finding tremendous value in engaging in social media these days. It provides them with an additional touch point to connect with their fans and drive traffic to their website. However, many sports teams are finding it challenging to monetize social media because of the fine balance between using social media as an engagement tool versus using it as a means to generate revenue.
Carson McKee is a sports social media consultant that works with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. I had a chance to talk with Carson at the Strategic Sponsorship Summit hosted in Toronto, Canada and asked him to share some insight on how he works with teams as well as some of the ways the Wild are attempting to monetizing social media.
Know of any sports teams that have been able to monetize social media? Leave your comments below and make sure to share this article with your friends on Facebook & Twitter!
Monetize Social Media In Sports – Carson McKee Interview – Transcript
Trevor
Hey guys it’s Trevor Turnbull here from sportsnetworker.com and I’m in Toronto, Ontario Canada right now at the Canadian Sponsorship Summit and I’m actually here to present on how to leverage the athlete brand from a social media perspective. I’m also here with my good buddy Carson McKee who just presented today on monetizing the digitial brand. So I wanted to ask Carson a couple of questions on that to give you guys some insight on what he does and how he works with some of his clients to essentially monetize what they’re doing from an online perspective. So I’ll take the camera from Carson here.
Carson
Hi, I’m Carson.
Trevor
And there he is.
Carson
My company is Direct Contact. I work with sports teams on their digital spaces, their social media sites for monetization; an engagement perspective. One of my clients is the Minnesota Wild and we’re doing some work right now in activating current sponsors in the digital space and in the social space. So the focus is really taking those sponsorships and driving them through other activations as well. From a renewal perspective and from an up-sale perspective I provide those clients with other values in digital and social. Things that fit into their current digital campaigns or social media strategies; those are really important to the deals that we do.
Trevor
Awesome. So Carson, you obviously have a ton of experience and a wealth of expertise to offer in this area. A very social guy; I actually met Carson on Twitter. How can people connect with you so they can continue these types of conversations online?
Carson
The first, best and easiest way to reach out to me is on Twitter @CarsonMcKee.
Trevor
Perfect. Let’s go inside and grab a drink with all the attendees
Whenever I get a chance to watch my Buckeyes crush opponents on television these days, I always catch myself checking my Twitter stream or Facebook feed in between plays and during commercial breaks. I may catch a commercial here or there, but for the most part, I am too busy socializing online about the game to pay attention.
Social media has become a regular part in my sports-watching experience. For kids growing up now, it’s a whole new ballgame than the one we grew up where we had to bear through every single advertisement impatiently wondering if there will be another first down. The geniuses at Espresso’s Infiltrators capture this essence perfectly in the deck below. They go through the age of sports that us ‘old folks’ went through and compare it with the new age of social media: sports 2.0. [click to continue…]
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.
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.
It’s no surprise professional athletes are using social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and even Ustream everyday. Being an ex pro athlete myself (even on a smaller scale than the NFL) I loved connecting with my fans before and after games.
I had my regular group of fans that would come down by the field and say hi after every game. If I would have had Twitter back then, it would have given me a great opportunity to thank them online, and get them excited about the next game.
Although I didn’t know how important building a personal brand online was during my playing days, I definitely see the value of it now for helping me achieve a number of my professional goals.
Want to know why pro athletes should be building their personal brand online and how they should be doing it? Then make sure you check out this video where I interview Dan Schawbel of Personal Branding Blog to learn more.
What ways do you see pro athletes using social media the right way? How are some using it the wrong way? More importantly, how does it make you feel when you see a high profile athlete doing things “right” or “wrong” online?
In November 2009, I introduced a series of articles I called‘Social Media Report Card,’ where I graded each of the four major sports leagues – NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB – on their social media presence. I made a point of being harsh. In particular, I criticized each of the leagues for only utilizing the major platforms (Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube) and not adopting some of the emerging platforms (Tumblr, Dailybooth, and Ustream), as well as for not interacting enough with the fans. The series received a lot of positive feedback, so I’ve decided to continue with my ‘Social Media Report Cards,’ this time focusing on individual athletes.
I chose to start with Steve Nash for a few reasons. First, Nash is one of my favorite athletes from any sport right now, which is saying a lot since I am typically a hometown fan (Phillies, Eagles, Sixers). Second, he has always been incredibly entertaining to watch on the court, and has also done some really cool and fun stuff off the court. Third, I think he is one of the most underrated social media users in the sports world. So without further ado, here we go!
Visibility (B+)
Steve Nash might have joined Twitter because of his former teammate, and social media rock star Shaquille O’Neal (@The_Real_Shaq & @The_Real_Nash), but he has fully embraced it and created a really great presence. He has more than 110,000 followers. Nash is also on Facebook, with over 575,000 fans. And to complete the trifecta, he has a YouTube account where he has racked up more than 630,000 total upload views. Before all of these, Nash was challenging fans to competitions (e.g. most free throws in a minute, staring contest) on Baron Davis’ social network, I Beat You. While I haven’t seen him go live on Ustream or snap photos on DailyBooth, Nash has embraced social media across a variety of platforms.
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.
“In full disclosure, Jalen Rose is a VaynerMedia client. We are assisting him in growing and diversifying his brand online, primarily through the use of social media.”
Yesterday, former 14 year NBA veteran and current ESPN analyst, Jalen Rose, launched a giveaway on Facebook and on Twitter. He will give one winner a signed basketball and personalized video message. The contest ends on Friday at 11AM EST/2PM PST.
We have seen social media giveaways in sports before. Last NBA season, Shaq and Paul Pierce both gave away tickets to fans via Twitter. This season, OchoCinco tried to get around the NFL’s social media restrictions by giving away tickets to Twitter followers. And a few months ago, the New York Jets gave away 39 pairs of tickets to Twitter followers for their final preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles. [click to continue…]
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.
How do you measure social media ROI? What should you be measuring? Are you seeing a return on your efforts? Is it even worth your time to be using social media tools in sports, or any industry for that matter? Luckily, SportsNetworker’s featured expert, Amy Martin with Digital Royalty, breaks it down for us in this video to show you exactly what you can do to measure your results using social media.
(This is a must-watch video for anyone serious about learning how to maximize social media… via @lewishowes).
Amy Martin spent eight years living the agency life working with clients such as the Arizona Cardinals, Phoenix Coyotes and the the Super Bowl XLIII Host Committee. She recently spent three seasons with the Phoenix Suns developing and monetizing their digital media platform. During her time with the Suns, she was responsible for concepting, pitching, executing and measuring digital marketing partnerships (sponsorships).
Digital Royalty, Amy’s Digital Integration and Social Marketing agency, focuses on developing strategies to help corporate brands, professional sports leagues, teams and athletes build, measure and monetize their digital universe. She has developed a proprietary Return on Influence (ROI) measurement formula to demonstrate the value of social marketing. Her most recent example of social media success is the growth of Shaquille O’Neal’s digital brand via social media and implementing measurable strategies which have resulted in securing major endorsement deals.
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It’s no secret that professional sports teams are finding tremendous value in engaging in social media these days. It provides them with an additional touch point to connect with their fans and drive traffic to their website. However, many sports teams are finding it challenging to monetize social media because of the fine balance between using social media as an engagement tool versus using it as a means to generate revenue.
Question: Who can benefit more from social media: small-time or big-time athletes?
In November 2009, I introduced a series of articles I called ‘Social Media Report Card,’ where I graded each of the four major sports leagues – 
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