Tag: sports business

Do Social Media Hubs Add Value?

By Guest On May 7, 2014 In Social Media with 6 Comments

I’ve never been one to embrace social hubs with open arms (and by hubs I don’t mean a social media directory, but a place on your site where you expect people to interact and consume content).  When you work so hard to build a community online, I’ve never really understood why you would want to pull people away from it. To me, hubs have always seemed to negate what our industry is really about… being social.

Every time I see someone tweet that a new hub is off and running, I ask the same questions over and over again- do they add value, what’s the goal, what makes the hub so special? Too often in social media we equate launching something as a success. We celebrate a team when they get on a new platform or we celebrate a brand that launches a social hub without really digging much deeper into the why.

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Should Teams & Leagues Actively Engage With Fans on Twitter?

By Guest On July 15, 2013 In Best Practices, Lessons Learned, Twitter with 4 Comments

The other day I watched a wonderful SportsCenter Featured piece on two former high school wrestlers (one of the wrestlers is now a Paralympian) and an unlikely bond they formed with former ESPN producer Lisa Fenn. Since the feature was so compelling, I tweeted out the link. This is what followed:

I was impressed that I got a response from @USParalympics since I didn’t tag or mention them in my tweet. Their social media team knew the SportsCenter Featured piece was bound to get some traction, so they monitored the link (in all forms, long and shortened) and engaged with those who felt compelled to share the story.  Basically, they were capitalizing on a new, captive audience they had at the moment. Smart move.

Their tweet got me thinking about the importance of listening, engaging and building relationships on Twitter. All too often, brands just push on the platform. No longer is Twitter just a platform to inform; it’s a community where teams and leagues need to engage. 

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What’s the Worth?

By Guest On March 15, 2013 In Best Practices, Facebook, Social Media with 2 Comments

Quality over Quality
I’ve seen it before, not just in sports, but with any brand: A large fan-base, little engagement.

It’s not a new approach, but I firmly believe engagement (clicks on links, shares, comments, etc.) is just as important– if not more important– than the number of fans or followers. If fans aren’t engaging, consuming, or seeing content, then what are they really worth? Think about it.

Long gone are the days of focusing on number of fans alone; here to stay are the days of creating killer content, telling a story, building a community and humanizing your brand.

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Four Perks of Student-Athlete Generated Content

By Guest On March 3, 2013 In Social Media

We all talk about the idea of using fan-generated content to help tell our story, but what about using student-athlete generated content to help tell the story of teams, athletic departments, etc.? I think it has leverage. Here’s why:

1. Humanizes
If anyone can capture the personality of the teams, it’s student-athletes themselves.

With the rise of social media, there is a greater demand for content beyond the stats, wins and losses.  Social media isn’t about spitting off stats or the next game time; it’s about giving fans an inside look into the athletic department, the teams and what it’s like to be a student-athlete. Social media is about the people; it’s about humanizing your brand.

Student-athletes can tell an athletic department story better than anyone else. It’s time to empower them to share a story idea, give them an outlet to blog or allow them to submit photos from practice, on the road, etc. to be shared on social platforms.

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NASCAR’s Decision to Remove a Fan YouTube Video: Five Lessons Learned

By Guest On February 24, 2013 In Lessons Learned with 3 Comments

During the NASCAR Nationwide race at Daytona International Speedway, Kyle Larson crashed on the last lap, slammed into the fence and sent debris flying into the stands where fans were sitting. It’s no surprise people were tweeting, taking pictures and filming during the moments of the crash; firsthand accounts popped up all over social media.

Among the things circulating on social media was a video of the crash a fan posted on YouTube (see video below). Though the video does not show anything graphic, the view from the eyes of the fan is terrifying. It is also apparent through the clip that a tire flew into the stands, injuring a fan.

This one video (below) would turn into a social media / PR debacle for NASCAR:

Brief Timeline
NASCAR had the video taken down from YouTube, without any acknowledgement of doing so. People were outraged that NASCAR  censored the video and conversations unfolded with people trying to explain their copyright laws, reason for removing the video, etc. Through all of this, NASCAR had no voice in the conversation.

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