Digital Strategies «

The Social Media Honeymoon is Over

June 20, 2011 at 3:37 am | Posted in Blogging, Branding, Digital Strategies, Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter | 1 Comment
Tags: Facebook Plateau, Social Media, Social Media Douchebag, Social Media Rock Star

I’ve been wanting to write this post for some time now. So here goes…

Like you, I’ve seen a number of blogs and article criticizing social media “experts”, “gurus” and the like – and they are well deserved. Social is hardly new – and though it is still new to some, that’s ok. Some people are new to driving, oysters or gardening. This hardly makes these practices and interests unimportant. We’re simply seeing the demise of the 1st wave of social media as the answer, and all the excitement and opportunity within the social space that must inevitably stare ROI right back in the eye (pun completely intended).

Some humorous examples of these criticisms here, here and here.

It didn’t help that (some of) this 1st wave of social media types took to calling themselves rock stars. It made some sense at the time – remember when Facebook had “Fans”? And with the dizzying rates of new users, various social start-ups and “game changing” events – who can blame them.

But this time is long gone now. Trending is great. Lots of Followers and Likes are fantastic. But it’s hardly enough to be remotely noteworthy any longer. Social media is a marketing channel – like any other. Its digital. It can be really cool. But it needs to factor in some ROI. Big time.

Those of you who’ve read me for a while know this – I’ve spoken on my position previously, once or twice.

I’m a little weary of brands that position social so close to the core of their digital assets – I’ve seen a number of TV ads that give a Facebook page as the digital destination. There are an increasing amount of articles featuring stories of Facebook plateaus and user rates that are dropping.

Social is hardly “done for” – but the role it plays and the impact it has, is having and can have is changing. Social is what we make it, every post, tweet or status update.

Social is a place – a dynamic place. But it’s not the only place. Use it wisely…

How To Buy, How to Sell: Advice for Teams and Vendors

May 31, 2011 at 2:31 am | Posted in Business Development, Digital Strategies, How To..., Sales Tips | Leave a comment
Tags: sales process, Sales Strategies

I come across both teams and vendors in what I do; and, as a sales and marketing guy, I have a few opinions on selling. But the more I think about ideas surrounding selling, the more it informs my ideas about buying.

First off – a few words about Vendors…

Vendors often don’t seem to follow a set sales process in the sports industry, and in the tech space surrounding social media and mobile, pricing often borders on ridiculous. Vendors often look at teams as organizations with huge budgets – and they do – for players. Business operations is a different story… there are budgets and they are often tight. The lack of foresight among vendors regarding a team’s’ financial capabilities often simply frustrates the buyer and can chill an opportunity or be lost to a competitor real quick. Teams see through these prices and will forge for lower until they get it. The days of “shiny newness” regarding social and mobile are gone – the “must have” factor is always trumped by ROI eventually. Many of these buys are strategic, and when vendors employ a transactional process (in light of any process at all), price will always be the determining factor.

Some thoughts about Teams…

Many teams will look to leverage themselves as a point of entry to a vendor. The thinking goes a lot like, “If you give this to us for free, then everyone will come asking where we got this. We’re really helping you create business here…”. This makes sense internally; and to be honest, referrals drive the way almost anything happens in the sports business. But this kind of position just doesn’t hold water. Imagine if I went to my local grocery store with, “I’d like you to give me this food for free – I’m an amazing cook and everyone who eats my food will be asking where I got this from. I’m really bringing you a lot of business here…”. [Insert sound effect here] “Umm – Clean up in aisle 4″

Teams believe that a number of vendors will bend over completely backwards for the chance to work with them – but unless it makes business sense, they simply won’t/can’t.

Obviously, there are a number of other facets and factors involved in these complex sales – too much to tackle in a single blog post.

At the end of the day, this back and forth is frustrating and time-consuming for all involved. Vendors need to better understand how teams buy anything – how their budgets are structured, how does the product/service fit an overall strategy, how can they make the buying process easier? Teams need to consider how the vendor’s product/service meets their requirements, strategy and their ROI. If discussions start from a place such as this, both parties are off on the right foot…

What are your thoughts?

Video Blog: The Social Reach is Wide

February 2, 2011 at 11:39 am | Posted in Digital Strategies, Social Media, Sports Marketing, Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Tags: Local Markets, Social Marketing, Social Media, Sports Marketing

A video blog post… in sharp contrast to my first video blog from the beach in Cancun, Mexico; this message comes from the frozen shores in Northern Ontario. I wanted to drive home the message that a lot of fans don’t reside in local markets and they follow your team in the social space to stay close. Have a look…

Interview with LA Kings Director of Digital Media, Dewayne Hankins

January 18, 2011 at 11:31 am | Posted in Digital Strategies, Interviews, Social Media, Sports Marketing | 2 Comments
Tags: Digital Media, Facebook, Los Angeles Kings, Sports Marketing, Twitter

I first got to know Dewayne through a social media project with the Minnesota Wild. Now with the Kings, Dewayne still has a strong interest in leveraging the social space in order to reach the niche fan base within the huge Los Angeles market…

Here are 6 questions and answers:

1. LA is such a large market and from a social media standpoint, contains the Lakers and their massive social presence. How does this influence your own approach to social with the Kings?

Well the Lakers have earned the privilege of being a worldwide brand, and we have great respect for them and the other franchises in this market. It’s no secret that there are plenty of things to grab your attention in Los Angeles as it relates to sports and even more outside of the sports world, however, we don’t seem any of them as competition.

In fact, quite the opposite, since joining to the Kings, I’ve made it a priority to work with other teams in the market and we’ve had some great results in doing so. Because of our great results with the NHL’s first-ever hashtag battle with Colorado back in late October (which saw #gokings as the No. 1 worldwide trending topic), we took that idea to the Anaheim Ducks and both teams saw great returns in terms of gaining followers.

More recently, to promote our Dodgers Pride Night on January 13, we worked with the Dodgers to create a unique VIP fan experience sweepstakes for that night, which includes team-signed memorabilia from both teams and a meet and greet with Dodgers prospects and our President and former hockey great Luc Robitaille. Running this contest through our LA Kings Facebook page, we promoted this to our followers and the Dodgers promoted to theirs, and we saw great increases in our numbers (capitalizing on their huge fanbase), while they were able to expose their fans to a chance to win a unique and exciting fan experience.

We realize we’re a niche team in this market right now, but we embrace that. The team is poised for sustained success for the next decade with the core of players we have and as long as we’re staying on the cutting edge of the social spaces, we’ll be able to leverage that as the spotlight starts to shine on the Kings.

2. You recently set a target to reach 50K fans on Facebook and made fairly rapid progress towards that goal – how did you do that and what other social goals do you have?

I have to say, even I was surprised by how quickly we reached that goal, especially when you consider we had less than 20,000 when the season started. Upon joining the Kings, I made the 50K Strong contest one of my main initiatives because there was one thing I noticed right away about Kings fans when listening them into the social space: they have an absolutely relentless pride for this team. Seeing that they could be real ambassadors for us because of this, we came up with this idea to award a member of our fanbase upon reaching the 50,000 mark as an incentive to tell their friends about our Facebook page. Since launching the contest, Kings fans have worked tirelessly to spread the word to help us get to that number. I believe we’ll continue doing things like this in the future because it’s a great reward for the fans and the organization.

Ironically though, we aren’t all that concerned about numbers of followers or fans. We take a hard look at activation and conversation. Because social media is best as a two-way communication tool, we do our best work when we respond to each and every tweet and Facebook question. Some of our most successful social media campaigns aren’t even done on Facebook or Twitter but on Cover It Live, where the fans get to engage real-time with members of our team. We’ve had great success doing this with our team beat writer Rich Hammond.

3. What’s in your social media tool kit? What sort of sites, apps, gadgets etc.. do you use to create and measure your reach?

I hate to divulge my secrets, but I’m happy to share because these companies do such great work. HootSuite is hands down the best social media monitoring tool that I have used. It’s a great application and they provide phenomenal customer service. HootSuite allows you to have that two-way conversation on Twitter better than any application that I have used. As I previously mentioned, Cover It Live is a great platform for real-time live chats. As far as analyzing our social media results, we get some great data from Digital Royalty – our social media advisers.

Most importantly, as someone wise once told me – and I believe he runs this site – the social space does not belong to you (the team), it belongs to the fans. The minute we try to interfere or disrupt the conversation rather than accentuate it, we will lose them. These are two-way communication tools and we have to listen much more frequently than we post, tweet, etc. I have ingrained that philosophy into everything I do in the social space. It’s how the really great brands are built.

4. The social space is dominated by Facebook and Twitter. What are your thoughts on location based media like foursquare or Facebook places? Should location be a part of the social mix?

We are seeing the most bang for our buck with Facebook and Twitter right now. In terms of referring people back to our site, activation and corporate interest, these are the main ones for sure. With that said, there’s a definite bonus in getting in on something like a foursquare early. The Kings are dealing with now as we were definitely late to the party as it relates to Facebook.

With that said, we haven’t jumped into foursquare yet but I think foursquare might be – by far – the best social app as it relates to corporate partnerships. The ability to drive traffic to store locations, leave tips about sponsor locations and work together to create specials is an endless sandbox. And with the added bonus of being a wing of AEG, the Kings have endless inventory in house to work with. I think you’ll see us there real soon because I think foursquare is here for good and it’s only a matter of time before people embrace the idea of “checking-in” when they’re out on the town.

5. How does the Guardian Project fit into your marketing for social?

We were privileged to have our Guardian unveiled second out of the 30 teams after a fierce matchup with Anaheim. It’s creator, Stan Lee came to the game on January 3 and we utilized his appearance here to “give away” the opportunity to hang out with him in the Hyde Lounge (a club on the suite level at STAPLES Center). I think the Guardian Project is a great vehicle to grow the game and we certainly saw that in our social spaces as many folks, who, maybe weren’t Kings fans first, were excited by the prospect of meeting Stan and seeing our Guardian unveiled.

6. As social is increasingly mobile – what elements do you think make for a great app?

A question we get all the time is “Why don’t you guys have a mobile app yet?” I think there are a couple of reasons for that. First, we want to create something that is meaningful and not redundant with what you can already find on your phone’s browser or through the NHL’s GameCenter app, which is phenomenal. We certainly don’t want to create an app just to say we have one. Second, we want to create something that will appeal to Kings fans both locally and worldwide. That said, we are certainly looking at all possibilities on that front so stay tuned.

As for what makes a good app, we know that fans are looking for as much as content as they can get their hands on, so any good app has to start there. As a hook, you need to create content that can be exclusive to the app or at least delivered to app users first via push notifications.

Utilizing the augmented reality features that these mobile devices come equipped with (including the new iPad, which will likely come equipped with a camera), is a way to stand out. There are several great apps out there already that utilize this and I think you’ll see it start to trickle into the sports world even more.

Third, and most importantly, you need a way for fans to generate their own content with the app. I loved the way foursquare added functionality for taking photos with their latest update. This gets back to that basic idea that social media is a two-way conversation. You need to create as many unique ways for fans to talk to you as much as you’re talking to them. If we go down the road of creating an app, this will be its most important feature.

Follow Dewayne on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dhankins

LA Kings on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LAKings

LA Kings on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LAKings

Populations, Engagement and Monetization

January 7, 2011 at 5:23 pm | Posted in Branding, Digital Strategies, Monetization, Social Media, Sports Marketing | 1 Comment
Tags: Engagement, Monetization, Social Media

I’ve seen a bunch of articles and tweets recently talking about “the direction” of social in 2011. One of the key themes has been that there will/should be a greater focus on engagement as opposed to sheer number of fans or followers in the social space.

As I see it, this has been the point all along. Having large numbers of fans/followers is quite meaningless unless they are engaged with what your team is doing. I’ve often said that I’d rather have 1000 fans that were really plugged into what I was doing, than 10,000 fans who paid little or no attention. Having said that, when looking to integrate corporate sponsorship activations, you need to demonstrate some worthwhile populations as well. It’s a balance that needs to be achieved. Engagement and populations are both important in combination.

Beyond the obvious benefits of fan loyalty, and the fact that the social space provides an opportunity for fans to interact with each other as well as the brand, there is a key reason why engagement matters from a monetization perspective:

Engaged Fans Will Participate

When holding a contest or promotion, you want your fans to really grab on to your idea – especially if these promotions are sponsored activations. Beyond the opportunity to simply win something, ongoing engagement with fans simply helps to foster their participation and buy in when you ask them to.

Engagement is about the day-to-day interaction with fans. This is why you benefit from dedicated resources working in this space – commenting on photos that are uploaded, answering questions, thanking fans… that stuff matters and helps build/strengthen relationships. This needs to happen on a continual basis.

Selling in the social space can be tricky – you can easily pollute your Facebook Wall or Twitter stream with too much sponsored content. Fans will be more accepting of this content if the engagement levels are high and the “what’s in it for me?” factor is clear.

Too often, teams simply throw up content that is readily available elsewhere, like the team website. Social is all about engagement and fan content – so use the social space for what it does best. That takes time and resources, but the cost/time justification can be offset by appropriate monetization strategies.

Social Media is a Solution Sell

October 13, 2010 at 2:14 am | Posted in Business Development, Digital Strategies, Sales Methodologies, Sales Tips, Social Media | Leave a comment
Tags: Sales Skills, Social Media, Solution Selling, Sports Marketing

Does that title make any sense?

Most sports marketing inventory is sole via a transactional sales model. There is a cost for space – be it in arena, advertising, or website… it’s based on size/time and availability/frequency. That’s not to say there are not sales skills required – there are, but the buying process is transactional – it is largely a commodity; there are rate cards.

Selling the social space is different. It’s a solution sales model – a consultative process. Ideally, effective social media campaigns are a collaborative endeavor including the team (sales person, digital resources and perhaps others) and the sponsor. It’s not a rate card-quote-and-negotiate strategy. Here are some key elements to keep in mind when selling the social space:

Does the sponsor have a social presence or strategy?
What are the goals of the campaign for the sponsor?
Will it increase social populations?
Duration – how long will the campaign run? Why?
Will be in featured on the team page/sponsor page/both?
How is pricing structured and justified?

Sellers need to know what they are talking about. This sales model is called “solution consulting” for a reason. Lack of knowledge often comes off the wrong way, and sellers often try to “sell around it” and end up coming off like snake oil salesmen.

The Triple Win

A “successful” social campaign addresses 3 elements:

For the team ($, partnership)
For the sponsor (brand leverage and association)
For the fan (to win, or get “closer” to the team)

Each of these parties needs to have a “what’s in it for me” factor. The social space belongs to the fan – so their need is paramount. Reckless selling in this space won’t be tolerated. The team’s need is clear – this is a premium buy with a lot of upside and room for innovation, fun and excitement. It’s the aspects of the sponsor that need careful considering and planning… Sellers need to develop consultative sales skills in order to uncover and develop these opportunities. That might require some training and planning to achieve.

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How To Buy, How to Sell: Advice for Teams and Vendors

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