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.

The Game

We played the game at the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex, on the lower west side of Manhattan. Both teams arrived, warmed up briefly, and we got started. We hoped to show the game live on Ustream. We even invited a friend, Internet personality Owen JJ Stone, to emcee the event. Unfortunately, the wi-fi connection at the facility was not fast enough to stream, so we instead live tweeted the whole thing.

Carrot jumped out to a 5-0 lead right away, but we quickly responded to go up 22-7, and then 43-19 at halftime. The second half was back and fourth, but VaynerMedia ultimately prevailed by 20 points. Susan Shan, a sports blogger, came to cover the event and put together a great video recap.

What’s Next?

In the end, the game was about friendly competition and having fun. However, it served many other purposes. After the game, the two companies went out for a couple of drinks. We networked. We got to know each other on and off the court, in a much different sense than we would have at a more traditional event. Only a few of us had ever crossed paths before the game, but after the game, we had a new-found camaraderie and friendship that will benefit us both down the line. We also got some press out of the game, which was completely an added value.

I’d like to see more of this. Forget conferences or meetings or networking events. If you’re reading this article on this site, you probably like to compete. Get together with other entrepreneurs or companies in your area and make it a good time!

Since our win, we’ve talked with Carrot about having a rematch, maybe in another sport, and we have received challenges from a number of other companies and entrepreneurs. If you hadn’t noticed already, VaynerMedia is quite the competitive company. Our founder, Gary Vaynerchuk, insisted we would beat any company on Twitter, including Facebook & Digg. It’s possible he forgot about @NBA…

What do you think about the game? What could we do next time to  make it a better experience (keeping in mind that we planned to stream the event but could not)?

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.

Web | Twitter | LinkedIn | More Posts (49)

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

Notice something strange in that URL? There is no “p” in Memphis. Pretty large mistake. I don’t necessarily want to highlight the fact that the Grizzlies made a typo when claiming their Facebook URL. However, I do want to explain I gave them fair warning before writing this post.

Yesterday afternoon, I tweeted out, “Check out the Memhis Grizzlies on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/memhisgrizzlies #iThinkTheyForgotTheH” Then, a bit later, I tweeted to the Memphis Grizzlies’ official Twitter account, “@memgrizz i think you forgot the ‘h.’ http://www.facebook.com/memhisgrizzlies”

Now, I don’t mean to call out the Grizzlies, because I do respect that they are on Facebook in the first place, and attempted to get the custom URL. Plus, I’m a USC grad, and a big O.J. Mayo fan (even with the whole taking money while in college and refusing to cooperate with an investigation thing). It happens (at USC). I just want this to be a warning to players, teams, and brands in general, how important it is to be careful about the little things. Even more importantly, how crucial it is to listen to your fans.

The fact that the typo existed in the first place is pretty bad, I admit. However, it’s worse that I bothered to let them know and they were unable to react. While it may be impossible for athletes and teams to respond to every tweet, it is important that someone is at least watching and monitoring, because more often than not, fans are worth responding to.

Note: There is a possibility they did see my tweet and have submitted a request to Facebook to change their URL.

What do you think about the Grizzlies’ mistake? How do you feel about the level of interaction you receive from some of your favorite athletes and teams? Feel free to discuss in the comment section, below.

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.

Web | Twitter | LinkedIn | More Posts (49)