Sports and Social Media

Managing Your Social Media

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:07:27 -0400

If there’s one gripe heard most often when discussing social media, it’s “I don’t have time to,… (fill in the blank),” i.e. post, tweet, monitor, etc.

While the reality is, if you can find time to take a shower, you can find time to update social media, it’s still hard for some people to think they can carve out a few minutes to post on Facebook while they’re already swamped with the day-to-day.

So instead of looking at social media as one big chunk, how about dividing it in segments? For example, dividing social media into themes and corresponding days helps you break down your social media strategy into manageable bites.

It’s a novel idea that the University of Missouri is implementing with its social media strategies for its sports programs. It’s still looking at its social media campaign as one big effort, but also segmenting it so that it doesn’t seem like such a daunting task.

So, courtesy of the Missouri Sports Magazine, here’s how Mizzou is tackling its social media platforms to keep Tiger fans engaged, even during the summer months:

“Mizzou Monday” offers information and tidbits about the student-athletes, coaches and programs

“Trivia Tuesday” is what it says—hardcore Tiger fans will want to test their knowledge

“Where in the World Wednesday” lets fans show off their Mizzou gear from locations around the world (think how Ohio State fans photograph themselves spelling out O-H-I-O in various locales).

“Throwback Thursday” looks at Mizzou’s athletic history

“Food & Friends Friday” lets fans share tailgate recipes to get ready for game day

So instead of having a staff wondering how in the world they’re going to fill content on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube during the summer, Missouri has divided it up so each day has a theme, and, in at least two cases, are inviting fans to submit content for them. As the Guinness ad says, “Brilliant!”

The Tigers’ social media strategy contains three specific points that anyone can follow when mapping out their social media schedule:

Have a specific goal in mind. Missouri wanted to engage fans during the off-season, and came up with a way to do just that.
Follow an editorial schedule. Content just doesn’t drop out of the sky. Decide what your message is during a certain calendar period and stick with it.
Engage your fans/followers. That’s the beauty of social media. It’s not a one-way discussion, it’s a two-way conversation.

And when you divide it up into little chunks, the overall task is manageable, after all.

Get Gaga with Gamification: Social Media as Ticket Strategy By...

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 14:49:00 -0400

Get Gaga with Gamification: Social Media as Ticket Strategy

By Betsy Ross, Game Day Communications

Hate getting those game invitations on Facebook? You’re in the minority.

The top five Facebook games (Words With Friends, CityVille, Hidden Chronicles, CastleVille and Texas HoldEm Poker) have, in total, 38,600,000 Daily Active Users as of March 1 of this year, according to insidesocialgames.com. (FarmVille, if you’re wondering, is sixth).

There’s an audience for social interaction gaming. And it’s time your team took advantage of it.

When Lady Gaga’s social media team came up with its own gaming strategy to launch the “Born This Way” album, more than 13 million fans were able to unlock and download songs as they completed gaming tasks. It also resulted in making “Born This Way” the fastest selling album in 2011.

How do you do something similar for your fans? It’s a given that your fans and followers want to get inside information that they perceive is not available to the general public or casual fan. That’s why they subscribe to your e-blast, follow you on Twitter and ‘like’ you on Facebook.

So see how they use social media to connect with you. Which social media platforms do they use with you, and how do they use them? Are they there for the game or for the social experience? Are they families with young kids, or young professionals?

Whatever way you find your social audience connecting with you, use that platform to extend the reach and solidify the connection. Let’s say, for example, your minor league baseball team, the Center Town Sharks, has mainly young families with pre-teen youngsters as your audience. So you want to make that connection with the kids to bring the families to the park. Since the under-13 crowd is already computer savvy, it’s not a stretch to have (with parental permission, of course) a “Find Sharkey” game on your website.

Sharkey (your mascot) is somewhere in the middle of the ocean and needs to get to the ballpark in time for the game. As the player answers questions about the team and the city, every correct answer moves Sharkey a little closer to the ballpark until he finally arrives, just in time for starting lineups. Once he gets home, you also get to go to the ballpark with a free ticket voucher your parents can print off. You’ve educated the player about the team, you’ve built interest, and most importantly, the child will harass his parents incessantly until they all go to the park with Sharkey.

Or if you find your audience is 20-somethings who are there for the party more than the game, and spend their time on Facebook, use that platform to connect with them. Release info on special promotions first on Facebook; encourage them to post their photos from the game on the team’s Facebook page (make sure someone monitors them!) and have a photo contest once a week. That week’s photo contest winner gets a free ticket to the next home stand.

There will always be forums and platforms for stat geeks who want to find out more about your team’s first-round draft choice. Those fans will be there, no matter what. You want to find the casual fan, make him and the family loyal to your brand, and give them the opportunity to interact, even when they’re not at the game. Don’t re-invent social media, use what your fans are using. And make them feel like they are part of your team.

Our College Bowl Game social media analysis. For a complete...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:09:56 -0500

Our College Bowl Game social media analysis. For a complete report, email Jackie Reau at jreau@gamedaypr.com.

Discover Orange Bowl wins the BSC Social Media Challenge

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:09:01 -0500

By Michael Farris, Mike Myers and Jackie Reau

If you are an avid fan of Saturday Night Live, you might have seen their recent spoof entitled, “ESPN Bowl Madness.” The SNL cast took their turn in naming a few bowl games that a college football fan might tune into during this past bowl season. Fans were introduced to a commercial spotlighting bowls such as the “Ruby Tuesday Hanes Her Way Prejudice Bowl” and the “Mucinex Arizona Beef Council Pencil Bowl”. This medium brought true attention to the marketing problems that bowl organizers face on a yearly basis.

With the number of bowl games, it is important for the bowl games to keep their brand and sponsorships within the minds of college football fans. Of course, bowl games faced many challenges including the changing of teams from every year including the quality of the game and possible sponsorship changes. Social Media has become a venue for bowl games to continue to interact with college football fans throughout the year, but does the bowl season actually lead to growth or just a quick peak and fall? To examine this, Game Day Communications has analyzed every bowl game’s social media initiatives for the bowl season from November 2011 to January 2012 featuring their total number of impressions (facebook, twitter, and youtube) and special initiatives they utilized with their fans through all platforms. For this particular study, each form of traditional social media was given the same weight because they each provide a touch point to the bowl brand.

From the study, the Discover Orange Bowl is the undisputed champion of social media with 269,647 impressions beating 2^nd place by over 170,000 impressions. The root of their dominance is within their continued growth on all platforms with double, triple, and even quadruple growth over all platforms. Overall, the Orange Bowl increased their social media by nearly 40 percent. Three of the four BCS bowl games are featured in the top four for impressions. The Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO ranks 14^th and has over 50,000 fewer impressions than the other BCS bowls.

Out of the top ten bowl games for overall social media impressions, the Insight Bowl experienced the greatest growth. The bowl game’s 80 percent growth could be attributed to their partnership with the Fiesta Bowl, which also hosts a BCS bowl game, and this year’s game featuring two top historically prominent programs, Oklahoma and Iowa. However, they are the only bowl to be ranked in the top four that is not a BCS bowl. Outside of the bowl operations form of social media, Insight Enterprises, the parent sponsor, leveraged the bowl game through a 17-week program on their companies YouTube page. Each video prepped for the upcoming bowl game leading through the announcement of the teams and preparation for the bowl game. This includes non-sport topics featuring the coaches talking about leadership and interacting with Insight employees. This is a great example of how corporations can leverage their bowl game sponsorships to their employees and customers.

On average, Facebook showed the highest growth, 198 percent, in impressions for all bowl games. All the bowl games interact through Facebook and feature links to other forms of social media. Many bowl games were able to create fan-driven competitions through the platform that featured team allegiances, athlete awards, and fan experiences. The Capital One Bowl used Facebook as a means for fans to schedule their trip to the event.

32 of the 34 bowl games interact through Twitter (170 percent growth) and 22 of the 34 bowl games host their own YouTube pages (136 percent growth).

The most progressive social media concept from this bowl season is the Chick-Fil-A Bowl application for Android and Apple users. The Chick-Fil-A Bowl is the first bowl to host their own application for their fans. The application provides fans with nearby hotels and restaurants, bowl history, and weekly events for the bowl game. Within the application, fans are able to access all forms of social media with the bowl game and will be updated on information from both teams. As the app is one of the first places that a fan might be able to interact with the many events of the bowl, users are able to buy tickets to specific events through the application.

This analysis shows us that every bowl game experienced a positive growth of their social media impressions during the bowl season. Every bowl game experienced at least a double digit growth and the 34 bowl games average growth was 163 percent. The prosperous growth of social media details how much attention every bowl game receives from sport fans. This particular bowl season was highlighted without the start of the NBA season, which could have helped boost the social media impressions for all bowl games. To explore the effect of social media and the brand presence of the bowl games, it would be vital to understand the behavior of the social media during the bowl off-season. Would they all experience a decrease in impressions? If so, how can bowl games create sustainability through the off-season no matter the teams that are playing? These questions are vital for consideration as marketers and sponsors continue their relationships with bowl games.

Street to Seat: Fan-based Decision Making

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:59:47 -0500

Tonight, I will be presenting on a panel discussion on Sports Trends for 2012 at the fall meeting of the Cincinnati Sports Professionals Network along with Don Schumacher of the National Association of Sports Commissions and Dr. Joe Cobbs from Northern Kentucky University.

As I prepared for the discussion, I started thinking about my own sports fan experiences mixed with my professional interests and expertise. With this in mind, my discussion objective is to think about turning the tables on sports organizations and athletic programs. Sports fans are in the driver’s seat and the teams/organizations need to not only recognize it but embrace it.

The question “Remind me why I want to pay $149 for an NFL ticket and watch the game in 30 degree weather while buying a $7 beer, when I can watch my 60” HDTV TV on my couch with the thermostat at 72 degrees and Yuengling in the fridge?” rings very true these days.

With the main stream adoption of social media, sports fans are one very vocal group who can are your “frienemy” when it comes to posting positive and negative experiences. I believe with a solid strategy, a team can use social media for research, marketing and new revenue.

Here is my brief presentation:

http://www.slideshare.net/gamedayjreau/sports-fanbased-decision-making

I welcome your thoughts and posts.

Chicago Marathon gets social

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:56:16 -0400

On behalf of the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon, I worked the Chicago Marathon Expo for two days in advance of the race. Instead of the traditional trade show booths, where companies hand out brochures, I noticed many of the companies stepping it up with interactive displays to encourage social media interactions.

Nike, the official merchandiser of the Marathon, won the Expo booth battle in my mind. Their store was decorated in brick facade featuring all of the registrants names on the wall as bricks (see the photo above). Participants loved it and the lines were three deep to take photos next to their names.

With 10 aisles of exhibitors in the expansive McCormick Place located on Lake Michigan, the Expo offered more room for exhibitors to increase their footprint. VW, the official auto of the Marathon, created a mini-showroom with a free photo lab for participants and their families to take group shots to share on Facebook.

Running a marathon is certainly a milestone in one’s life and these sponsors took advantage of the opportunity to share in the runner’s memories with branded and interactive displays.

Meet the NBA's social media team

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 10:42:32 -0400

Meet the NBA's social media team:

A good story by Jason Feifer from FastCompany.com on how the NBA manages their social media. In my opinion, the NBA has been one of the best professional leagues to use and manage social media.

Should athletes be banned from social media?

Sun, 15 May 2011 10:53:40 -0400

Should athletes be banned from social media?:

A tweet by the Steeler’s Rashard Mendenhall who used Twitter to ask, “What kind of person celebrates death?” after hearing about the death of Osama bin Laden brings the question to many media departments along pro teams and colleges. Here’s the full story from ESPN.com.

So should athletes be banned from social media?

The easy answer is yes, so they and their teams don’t have to deal with it and write/incorporate another training session on how to best use social media. Not to mention, monitor what is being said on social media and the tone being used.

The proper answer is no. Teams and their SIDs have the opportunity to educate and encourage their players to properly use social media platforms to increase awareness and engagement with their teams and players.

Would Mendenhall have said “What kind of person celebrates death?” into the microphone in the media room at Heinz Field in front of the corp of media covering the NFL beat? Probably not. With that said, he has probably been trained by the NFL and the Steelers in how to manage the media to position himself and the team in the best possible light.

This same sort of understanding and training needs to be offered to athletes. They will not play the game they love for the rest of their career and some may need to find their next career, a 9 to fiver. Social media is now a large part of most communications and marketing plans launched by Fortune 500s not to mention mom and pops and charities.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this position.

The Ultimate Sports Cities

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:53:00 -0400

The Ultimate Sports Cities:

From the sports travel website, www.TUSL.com, comes The Ultimate Sports Cities with LA, Boston, New York City, Chicago and Dallas leading the way. The formula took into account the sporting events that each city has hosted from the Olympic Games, to Super Bowls and events such as The Masters.

Here is the full list. Let me know what you think.

High School Sports and Social Media Guidelines

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 07:15:20 -0400

High School Sports and Social Media Guidelines:

The Connecticut Athletic Directors Association provided a 56-page guide to social media for its administrators and coaches. Most of the topics were preventative (collect all cell phones and lock them up until after the game) and non-educational.

I would rather see a course and guide provided to the H.S. players to teach them how to best use and harness the power of social media in a positive way. I think this was a lost teaching moment for athletic administrators and ultimately their student-athletes.

Coke Zero, March Madness and Social Media

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:14:11 -0400

Coke Zero, March Madness and Social Media:

Coke Zero has done a great job of making it easy for basketball fans to use their social media platforms to discuss the tournament and their favorite teams. As a partner with the NCAA, Coke Zero has created the Coke Zero Social Arena managed by social media staffers who are reporting live from the various games with scores, insight and the occasional Coke Zero brand message.

I especially like the Facebook integration where fans can vote on who they think will win the game in each bracket. FYI: Kentucky fans are on top as I write this post—fresh from their win over West Virginia today.

How do you think Coke Zero can strengthen this effort?

ESPN's take on the mobile market via World Cup coverage

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:45:54 -0500

ESPN's take on the mobile market via World Cup coverage

Professional Golfer creates fan loyalty club: Meet Sofie Andersson

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 09:54:58 -0500

Professional Golfer creates fan loyalty club: Meet Sofie Andersson:

Professional Golfer Sofie Andersson, a Swede living in America and playing on the LPGA’s Futures Tour has launched her Birdie Club or a fan loyalty club. It’s one of the most creative marketing applications by an emerging pro athlete that I have seen. She’s doing it on her own with no marketing or outside support. It’s grassroots, sports fan development at its best.

I have had the pleasure of watching Sofie’s career for the past four years and have always been impressed by her professionalism, on and off of the fairway.

Sofie’s creative business strategy not only helps her with tournament fees and travel but also helps engage her fans with each stroke she takes. I have joined the Birdie Club and invite you to do so. The LPGA’s Futures Tour does a great job with live scoring and social media at their tournaments so you can actually follow Sofie live on the course.

From Sofie’s website, here’s how the Club works:

“I am scheduled to play in 20 tournaments during this season. For each event, I will be recording the amount of birdies I make and keep an up to date count on my website for you to follow, as well as share a monthly report in my newsletter emails. Every member of the Birdie Club chooses one membership level below, or an amount of their own choice. As an example, a “Par member” of the club contributes $1 per birdie I make, a “birdie member“ $2, an “eagle member” $3, and so on.

Previous years, members have pledged from $1.00 to $20.00 per birdie. Any amount you choose to contribute will be greatly appreciated. During the two previous seasons, I recorded 109 birdies over 18 events in 2010, and 124 birdies in 2009. I will send you a personal email four times throughout the year, with the current birdie count, along with a request of payment. May 8th, June 27, September 12th, and December 12th will be this year’s collection dates. Your Birdie Club membership lasts throughout the season from the date you sign up to become a member.”

Video: Recruiting a Social Media Coordinator for AAU Sports

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:44:00 -0500

Video: Recruiting a Social Media Coordinator for AAU Sports:

A great example of how to recruit a social media coordinator…using social media. Here is a video from the AAU organization. Hat tip to Leslie Spencer from the Greater Cincinnati Sports Corp for sharing this with me.

Create a :30 spot with Animoto Here is an example of how you can...

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:08:21 -0500

Create a :30 spot with Animoto

Here is an example of how you can create a quick, free :30 spot to be used on your website and/or social media platforms. A few quick steps:

-Register for the free version of animoto.com

-Upload your photos (about 12 for a :30 video)

-Record an mp3 voiceover or use music from the Animoto license-free library

-Hit submit and the Animoto software creates your video in less than five minutes.

-You can easily share the video via blogs, email and social media.

PGA loosens social media grip, pros need to set expectations

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:39:40 -0500

PGA loosens social media grip, pros need to set expectations:

Here’s an interesting story from the New York Times on the PGA’s new attitude toward social media, namely Twitter.

With @StewartCink leading the way with Twitter followers (well over a million), what should we fans expect from pros on the course?

@TigerWoods: Using the wedge on @Pebblebeach Par 3 #holeinonehopeful

While we golf fans would love to see this kind of tweet, it will likely never happen. If players and the Tour are going to embrace social media, they need to set expectations for engagement: what and when they will share behind-the-scenes news, how often they will reply/respond to queries and how they will use it to advance their marketing deals.

By setting the rules of engagement in advance, fans will have a clear understanding of how to interact with their favorite players.

Running a Social Media News Room for Road Races

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 09:42:00 -0500

Running a Social Media News Room for Road Races:

Betsy Ross and Jackie Reau from Game Day Communications gave a presentation on Running a Social Media News Room for the 2011 Running USA conference in San Antonio. Here is the full presentation.

Game Day Communications launches Mobile Media Center

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:09:05 -0500

Game Day Communications launches Mobile Media Center:

A nice blurb about our new Mobile Media Center capabilities. Thanks to Feoshia Henderson for writing about our firm, Game Day Communications.

10 Sports Marketing Trends for 2011

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 20:47:00 -0500

10 Sports Marketing Trends for 2011:

A nice overview of sports marketing ideas for 2011 including new technology and how to engage current and prospective fans.

In a nod to the Old Spice Guy, the Flying Pig Marathon (a...

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:51:53 -0500

In a nod to the Old Spice Guy, the Flying Pig Marathon (a client) has launched a new service for participants called the Runner Concierge. The new services is an opportunity for participants to ask questions to the FPM social media team who will then track down the answers in a video response.

Here is the first video post from Mary Enzweiler, a veteran runner of Cincinnati inclines.