In an earlier post, I suggested that sports organizations should look to social media for sponsorship activation opportunities.

This is new territory – right now, teams are just beginning to reach out to their fan base to engage them via social networks. Under the focus of ROI (and with an ongoing debate in social media circles), social media as a sponsorship platform can be a bit confusing and intimidating.

Instead of looking to educate sponsors on why they should look to invest their brand in Twitter, a better approach is to preach to the converted. Seek out brands that are already using Twitter – don’t sell the medium, focus on their brand and their goals. The internet is pretty good for providing lists, so…

• Here is a link to a number of brands on Twitter already.
• Some are a bit obscure… so here is a list of the 10 biggest brands on Twitter today.
• And here is a long list of brands that tweet.

Again, the goal in leveraging Twitter as a sponsorship opportunity is to engage into discussions with the brands that are already there. Of course, you need to have your own sizable network in order to make the relationship effective.

Preach to the converted – teams need to be looking at these opportunities as additional revenue streams. Start with the brands that are already there.