Recap: Social Media Basketball

by Sam Taggart | August 20th, 2010 | View Comments

A couple of months ago, NYC-based social media agency Carrot Creative challenged the agency I work for, VaynerMedia to a game of basketball. “Hey @vaynermedia,” they tweeted, “Since our comps are the 2 best Sports Social Media Shops It is time to battle it out on the Basketball court! #challenge.” Of course, we accepted the challenge and played the game. VaynerMedia won, 61-41.

The Website

Carrot created a fantastic microsite for the game, called SocialMediaBasketball.com. They included both teams’ starting rosters, complete with names, nicknames, and the ability to follow all of us on Twitter. Even cooler? Visitors had the ability to “like” the team they were rooting for / thought would win. Finally, a live feed featured anyone who tweeted about the game with the hashtag #CCvsVM.

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Pay Attention to the Little Things (and People)

by Sam Taggart | January 29th, 2010 | View Comments

Screen shot 2010-01-28 at 7.22.16 PMAn 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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