Sports Social Networking Site

An amazing aspect of social media, for brands, is the ability to listen to your fans and customers. They will tell you when you do something great, but more importantly, they will tell you when you fail. The real-time web has given brands an opportunity like never before, the chance to listen and respond to actual people making legitimate claims about your product or service. The information is there, it’s the brand’s job to pay attention.

If you don’t already know, I work for VaynerMedia, doing online and social media consulting for brands, with a focus in the sports industry. Two of my clients include the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association, and the New York Jets, of the National Football League. I find it important to check out the competition. Sometimes, it’s from a competitor’s weaknesses or mistakes, that you find the keys to success. Yesterday, while I was running through the social media outlets of teams in both the NBA and the NFL, trying to find things they were doing right and wrong, I found this:

http://www.facebook.com/memhisgrizzlies

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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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Are you looking for a sponsor but are finding it harder to get funding because sponsors are cutting budgets and “spending smarter”? If so, SponsorPitch.com is your answer. Properties are fighting harder for sponsorships and looking for every edge they can get in reaching decision-makers. Luckily for us SponsorPitch is a company that provides a solution for both of these interests and takes on even greater importance, given the uncertain economic environment.

This article talks about how NASCAR is taking a huge hit right now because many major sponsors are backing out on funding. As fans continue to go crazy at the races, NASCAR executives are having a hard time finding something to cheer about.

It is nice to know this world is filled with guys like Kris Mathis, Founder of SponsorPitch, who was able to come up with a great solution for this problem.

Check out this video interview I recently did with Kris as he explains more about why he started SponsorPitch, how you can benefit from joining, and what you need to do to get started:

Additional Comments:

Chris founded SponsorPitch based on his experience within an agency searching for new sponsorship opportunities for their clients, but looking for a more efficient resource for finding, filtering and evaluating them. SponsorPitch’s virtual pitch platform allows marketers to evaluate opportunities in a smarter, efficient, and more comprehensive way.

•    It’s free to join. Start browsing pitches or creating a pitch in a matter of seconds.

•    No subscriptions. No commissions.

•    Open to opportunities of every size, genre and location. Bringing together the “longtail” of sponsorship opportunities and making it easy for brands, businesses and agencies to find them.

•    Currently beta testing: they have set aside a limited number of invites for SportsNetworker members so send me and e-mail if you would like to sign up.

•    If you’ve got a complimentary site, service or business, SponsorPitch would like to partner. Contact: [email protected] for more info.

Keep an eye out for more! SportsNetworker and SponsorPitch hope to work together in the future to create more business opportunities within the sports industry.

What are your thoughts about this new sports social networking platform? How could it be better? Feel free to share your thoughts on your own sponsorship experiences… how difficult was it, what were your main challenges for finding a sponsor, how could it be easier for you in the future?

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