Catgory: Lessons Learned

Why Michigan Basketball Won on Twitter

By Guest On April 9, 2013 In Best Practices, College Athletics, Lessons Learned, Twitter with 3 Comments

Last night the Louisville men’s basketball team and Michigan men’s basketball team played on the biggest stage college basketball has to offer; millions of people tuned in to watch the top-notch programs compete for the NCAA men’s basketball title.

Since the programs had a captive audience last night, I was interested to see how they would capitalize on the excitement throughout social media. So, I decided to pay close attention to how the programs handled themselves on Twitter.

If the programs were judged by their Twitter game alone, Michigan won. Below are my thoughts on how each program handled coverage on Twitter during the championship game and why Michigan stole the Twitter show.

continue reading »

A Lesson on Being Heartfelt, Genuine & Timely

By Guest On April 1, 2013 In Lessons Learned

Sunday afternoon millions of basketball fans watched Kevin Ware’s gruesome injury happen right before their eyes.  There was no getting around it; everyone in the arena and anyone watching on TV knew the injury was significant. As expected, there was an outpouring of condolences for Ware on social media. Yet, for some reason, Louisville was all crickets when it came to Ware.

On Facebook, Louisville celebrated the win, pushed merchandise sales and rallied around their team without one single mention or acknowledgement of Ware at all:

Screen Shot 2013-04-01 at 10.42.15 PM

continue reading »

Under Armour Women: What’s Beautiful Campaign

By Guest On March 11, 2013 In Digital, Lessons Learned, Social Media with 1 Comment

A group of women– and Under Armour brand ambassadors– just got back from UA Camp Sweat at the IMG Academy in Clearwater, Florida. They won the trip through Under Armour Women’s latest What’s Beautiful? contest.  Here’s a video explaining the campaign (take the time to watch, or you’ll get lost with this post):

For anyone interested in social media and digital, their campaign is worth noting. Below are thoughts on Under Armour’s wins throughout the What’s Beautiful campaign, and also, a few lessons learned:

Campaign Wins

1. The Point of Entry is Clear and Defined
Users need to be extremely engaged to win and get noticed in UA’s What’s Beautiful contest, but that’s okay, because the point of entry is extremely clear and defined:

  • Step One- Declare a goal.
  • Step Two- Complete challenges.
  • Step Three- Win UA glory.
    continue reading »

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.

continue reading »