Lessons Learned in Digital Sports Marketing for Non-Sports Brands
February 15, 2012 at 6:48 pm | Posted in Blogging, Business Tips, Networking, Social Media, Sports Marketing | 1 CommentTags: Brand, Entrepreneurs, Networking, Sports Marketing
The other night, I presented to a group of Vancouver entrepreneurs on the topic of social media – specifically on how non-sports brands can leverage the passion of sports marketing for their own brands.
It’s a topic that had been on my mind recently and I was happy to take advantage of the opportunity to speak at the event. I used to do presentations to entrepreneurs back when I lived in Toronto. When I started my business in 2005, I benefited from a great program that supported entrepreneurs so I’ve always been happy to give back.
The carry over to my blog is this – give back. The sports business is a niche to say the least. It’s tough to break into, and there are a lot of challenges despite its high-profile perception. I’ve always gone out of my way to support people I’ve worked with and recommend individuals for positions with teams. Like any business, sports is about people and networking is critical.
In addition, I always admire entrepreneurs and those people who go about building their own business. Building a career in sports or building a business requires tireless efforts, bouncing back from mistakes/rejection, adapting and growing. It’s about people and networking – so thank you for being a reader and let me know how I can help you.
My Social Media Tool Kit
September 27, 2010 at 8:50 pm | Posted in Networking, Social Media | Leave a commentTags: Blackberry, Bolt, Facebook, Foursquare, HootSuite, Linkedin, Raportive, Social Media, Twitter
Here are a few resources that I use and recommend:
Mobile
I’m a Blackberry user. Not that I prefer it to iPhone as there are advantages to both. I still drive a lot of email. Here’s some of the social apps that I use:
- Twitter for Blackberry – I’m a reformed UberTwitter user
- Facebook app – pretty basic
- Foursqaure – self-explanatory
- Google Maps – ditto
- ScoreMobile – best sports scores/news app there is
- Bolt – a decent (free) browser
Desk Top
- New Twitter – great upgrade, still getting used to it
- Twitter Counter – nice way to benchmark growth (or lack there of…)
- Sports Fan Graph – essential sports/social media ranking tool
- HootSuite – my favorite social media dashboard
- Facebook – my dummy account to track teams/brands & test things
- Linkedin – a must… my social CRM
- Raportive – social profiles integrated into Gmail
If you use/like/don’t like any of these? Use something not mentioned here? Let me know…
Profile and Network Management Tips
May 5, 2010 at 10:50 am | Posted in Facebook, How To..., Linkedin, Networking, Personal Brand, Social Media, Twitter | Leave a commentTags: Networking, profile, Social Media
So you have a Facebook profile, a Twitter profile, a Linkedin profile… perhaps some profiles on other social networks as well.
Here’s my list of do’s and don’ts for your social media profile(s):
- Don’t use 3rd person language – things like, “Carson is a…”. The social space is all about promoting uniqueness and individuality. Your own personal profile shouldn’t read like someone else wrote it.
- Use a picture of yourself. Not having a picture reads as absent rather than private. Unless your profile is actually a brand, don’t use a logo. Show yourself, not your child(ren), or your pet.
- Keep it short and to the point. If you want to share your life story, use each platform for what it does best: Linkedin for work experience, Facebook for things you like – don’t be redundant.
- You don’t need to connect with the same people on each network. I frequently receive (and ignore) requests from Linkedin contacts to join them on another space. No need for that…
- Lots of followers, friends and connections doesn’t mean anything for the sake of network size alone. Small, powerful networks are the way to operate in the business world unless you intend to spam (don’t).
- Everyone is not a lead. Networking is about connecting people. Opportunities will come to you in turn. Provide value in the form of information and connections. Social media is not a hammer – it’s a nail.
Google Wave: 1 Invite To Give Away
November 24, 2009 at 12:34 pm | Posted in Google, Networking, Social Media, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Google Wave
Screen Shot
What is Google Wave? Click here to find out or here to watch a video.
What does Wave mean for social media, sponsorship and sports? I’m not sure yet – I need some more time to play with it. It is currently in a limited preview release, so I am looking forward to understanding it better and then posting an update.
To assist in that – I have sent invites out to some friends, family and contacts and have 1 invite remaining to give away.
If you want it – send me a message and let me know who you are and why Google Wave is important to you…
Networking and Sales
September 29, 2009 at 1:32 pm | Posted in Business Development, Networking, Sales Tips | Leave a commentTags: Networking, RSS, Sales Tips, Sales2.0
Your network used to be the people you knew, the people who referred you, the people you had some degree of trust with. Then there was the rest of the world – your customers, your prospects and the people who will or would buy from you. These are the people you “followed up” with.
Communicating with the people you know = networking
Communicating with the people you don’t know = selling
This is old school thinking.
If there is one thing that most sellers are genuinely poor at – it is following up. Most follow up opening statements go something like this:
“Hi, it’s Carson from Direct Contact calling – it’s been a few months since we last spoke so I thought I would give you a call today.”
This kind of follow up has absolutely no value for the buyer. It is simply asking/stating that “It has been at least 3 months since you bought something or last said no to me – are you ready to buy something now?” All this kind of salesy talk does is reinforce stigmas and frustrate buyers.
In the paradigm of Sales2.0, this kind of separation no longer exists. Effective sellers do not follow up with but network with their prospects and customers. Who exactly is in your network today? Everybody is. Your customers, your prospects, your friends, your contacts… etc… Sellers are connecting with business people daily – surely there are referral opportunities between prospects and customers in your pipeline right now.
So how do you do that exactly?
Give people something they value – information.
There are a couple of very easy ways to do this. RSS feeds are a great example.If you don’t know what an RSS feed is – click here – and then come back to this post.
Using RSS (or Google Alerts) to collect information to share with your market is an effective way of staying in touch and providing value at the same time. Include the article link in an email with a brief statement such as:
“I came across this and thought of you today – hope things are going well. Let me know if there is anything I can do for you and keep in touch.”
Pretty simple. To the point, No selling allowed.
Stop following up and start networking.
Information is Free
May 20, 2009 at 12:12 pm | Posted in Blogging, Business Tips, Facebook, Linkedin, Networking, Sales Tips, Social Media, Twitter | 6 CommentsTags: Facebook, Linkedin, Sales Training, Social Media, Twitter
Beware of sales resources that charge for information on social media.
Tools like Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook are free and hardly new. There is a great deal of information about their use and value for sellers available on the Internet. Charging hundreds of dollars for seminars and using terms like…
“By this time next year, the gold rush to social media marketing will be near complete.”
… are misleading and false.
In addition, announcements like this one (eNewsletter focused on sales and social media) use sales techniques that are just plain cheesy and a turn off for many buyers. It just rubs me the wrong way and reinforces the sales stigma that I try to combat in my own training.
My Method
I freely share information to sellers, marketers or interested persons on what social media tools can do for them through this blog. My way is to share information that people may value and continue to follow. I appreciate this and their ideas/comments. Sometimes, those conversations turn into opportunities or projects – things that I do charge for, but only when it is for my direct services – not for information that is free to all.
Charging for such info flies in the face of what social media marketing is all about.
Facebook Apps that Drive Fan Engagement
April 20, 2009 at 8:24 pm | Posted in Facebook, Marketing, Networking, Social Media, Sports Marketing | 2 CommentsTags: Apps, Canucks, Facebook, Maple Leafs, Social Media, Sports Marketing
Here’s a look at 2 Facebook apps for teams I’ve blogged about previously – the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
First off - The Vancouver Canucks Fans App by Watercooler.com
A couple of weeks ago, I connected with Kevin Chou, CEO of Watercooler.com (Pat Coyle had referred him to me – thanks Pat!). While watercooler.com does many interesting things, I am only going to focus on the Canucks app in this post.
While Facebook provides a fan connection opportunity (to both the team and other fans), teams can maximize reasons why their fans would want to join Fan Pages and continue to visit them. The Canucks app provides:
- Contests
- Networking/interactivity
- Share-able content
- Ability to purshace tickets and merchandise
So beyond the value of social media fan engagement, there is a revenue stream opportunity here as well. At the time of writing – the Canucks app has 183K+ fans… a pretty large group to tap into.
Here is a link to the Maple Leafs App on Facebook…
The Leafs have built this App internally – it still requires some tweaking, but when fully operational, it will allow fans to build a custom jersey 
online, or create their own hockey card with their own face/name on it.
What I find interesting about the Leafs social media situation is to see how their fan base buys into it. As I wrote about previously, the Maple Leaf brand is very strong and I expect to see their followers and fans soar online – especially as their on-ice rebuild continues.
If you are on Facebook, I suggest that you give these apps a test drive for yourself- when fans use them, the viral nature of Facebook info permits waves of 2nd degree marketing messages, e-commerce opportunities, and can help drive eyeballs back to the team website.
The Impact of Social Media on Sports Marketing
April 15, 2009 at 10:23 am | Posted in Business Development, Linkedin, Marketing, Networking, Sales Methodologies, Sponsorship, Sports Marketing | 7 CommentsTags: Sales Training, Social Media, Social Networks, Sponsorship, Sports Marketing
Social media and sports marketing are a perfect fit.
I was very pleased to read Pat Coyle’s article from the Sports Business Journal about social networking and fans (SBJ is subscription based, so the article link is on Pat’s Sports Marketing 2.0 site).
Over the past several months, I’ve been reading a lot of Pat’s blog and info posted on his Linkedin Group – and it was great to see the similar content and thinking we have in why sports teams/leagues should care about social media and social networks.
Definitely take a minute a read Pat’s article, but here’s the high level take-aways:
- Social media isn’t about technology, it’s about fans
- Build online fan communities to allow them to connect with one another, and in turn – to the team
- Leverage community #’s to make $ via e-commerce
- Sponsorship opportunities present themselves by increasing visits to team sites
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And I’d like to personally add – through social media sites themselves
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This is all relatively new for many teams – and building/managing fan generated content and opening up sponsorship opportunities is the task that many teams are uncertain about how to proceed with…
The other part of the story that I like to bring to this topic is integrating social networks into sales training. When it comes to ticket sales or sponsorships, the consistency of use in social media platforms not only goes a long way from a sales methodology perspective, but the simple fact that social networking tools get results for sellers is key.
Social Bookmarking with Delicious
April 9, 2009 at 12:21 am | Posted in Delicious, Networking, Social Media | 1 CommentTags: Bookmarking, Delicious, Networking, Social Media
I often review my blog stats to see what visitors are clicking on.
While I get frequent views of my linkedin profile, or twitter feed – I’ve noticed that I rarely get any action on my delicious.com bookmarks. This leads me to believe there are 2 possible reasons why:
No one cares about my bookmarks- People are not really aware of what delicious is
Reason #1 is very possible, but I won’t be changing what I bookmark based on popularity (or lack there of). It seems to me that delicious is a pretty interesting and valuable social media tool that is often overlooked compared to Twitter or Facebook. So here is my quick and dirty on delicious…
Delicious is a Simple Concept
It’s a social network and visibility tool focused on sharing your favorite bookmarks. Old school bookmarking used to be a time saving idea – an easy way to remember your favorite websites. Delicous brings a network to bookmarks – when you save a bookmark on delicious, you can also see how many other people have saved that bookmark as well, their profile and who they are, as well as all the other bookmarks they have.
Why You Might Care About Delicious
I view delicious kind of like reading between the lines. By taking time to review my bookmarks, you can get an idea of what influences me and get an idea of resources that I think are worth sharing. There is plenty of information out there to share – while I use my blog to share my own ideas, I like the convenience and sharing of things that I think are interesting via delicious.
Delicious integrates with other platforms like Facebook, so my bookmarks are publicized much like a status update to my Facebook friends in real time. There’s also a handy tool bar you can integrate into your browser that makes bookmarking with delicous very simple to do.
If you haven’t yet, give delicious a try – start by checking out my bookmarks.
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Carson McKee,
Digital wing man and social media consultant. -
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