Drill Down: Social Media Solution Selling
October 28, 2010 at 2:39 pm | Posted in Business Development, Facebook, Sales Methodologies, Sports Marketing, Twitter | 2 CommentsTags: Facebook, Social Media, Solutions Selling, Twitter
I’m all for short, sharp, blog posts. I touched on some big issues in my last post, and some of the bullets need to be drilled down.
Probably the most important aspect of social sales is determining what the goals of the sponsor/partner are. There are several variables involved and a number of factors to consider. For example…
Does the sponsor have an existing social presence?
What is their strategy? Do they even have one? Is the existing focus on customer service, or loyalty, or engagement? Something else? Do you they look to you for thought leadership? Are they in social because they feel they need to be or because it’s part of their marketing mix? What is the size of their current social population? What platforms do they use (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc…)? What kinds of resources are responsible for running/administering their social media activities? How does social fit into the rest of the organization?
What are the goals of the social sponsorship?
What will make the promotion successful for the sponsor? To grow their friends/followers? Drive traffic to their website? Awareness of new products/services? Launch a social media campaign? Brand/team alignment? Track the promotion via key words or coupons? Is the social component tied to existing activations? How long should it run for? What sorts of initiatives have they done in the social space before and what were the outcomes?
These are all important considerations and “must ask” questions required to build successful deals. Again, these aren’t rate card/commodity sales – they are solutions.
Hello, New Twitter! Goodbye, Background Image…
September 23, 2010 at 10:37 am | Posted in Sports Marketing, Twitter | Leave a commentTags: Background Images, New Twitter, Twitter
Timing is everything.
Right on the heels of my last post about the importance of maintaining digital consistency between Twitter, Facebook and your team website; then along comes the news that the upgraded Twitter platform or #newtwitter will pretty much wipe out any customized background image in place.
A good article on it here.
There is little doubt that the upgrade will be bringing with it a slew of very useful features (analytics, multi-media, redesigned interface…) but it looks as though one thing that will be lost is the ability to upload a customized background. Many, many marketers have leveraged this opportunity in the past and I have frequently driven home the message myself that teams need to use this space to extend their marketing reach here…
So – you are going to lose your custom background sometime soon. It’s a rolling/random upgrade so you never know when exactly, but it will be sometime between tomorrow and the next few weeks. Better get prepared…
- Do nothing… wait and see what it looks like
- Some background will remain, but not very much
- Prepare an interim background
- Use at least team colors
- Try some designs that utilize the border
This is going to happen soon – so don’t get caught off guard. This is a constantly changing space… it is important to quickly seize opportunities but also, perhaps even more importantly, to react swiftly and respond to changes.
If you have some new solutions in place – please let me know!
UPDATE (September 24, 2010):
I was just upgraded to the new Twitter. Here’s a screen shot. The black background is the space you will have to work with…
Social Marketing Consistency
September 16, 2010 at 10:27 am | Posted in Branding, Digital Strategies, Facebook, Twitter | Leave a commentTags: Branding, Social Media, Sports Marketing
When I start a social media project with a team, one of the first and easiest things that sports teams should do with their social media sites is focus on digital and social consistency.
Your social spaces should have as much of the same look and feel as your website. This is a lot easier to do with Twitter, but there are ways to make your Facebook page fall into line with your website.
Just like the rest of your marketing efforts, your social spaces should reflect the same level of consistency in appearance. Here’s an example:
Check out Minnesota Wild‘s website and compare that to the Wild’s Twitter profile and the Wild’s Facebook page.
If they don’t look the same – the first question should be “why”? In most cases, there hasn’t been enough attention placed on integrating the look and feel of these platforms. Social media has moved from an after-thought or value add space to a front/center position. So by now, if a teams’ social spaces do not share a consistent look it reads as sloppy or second class. The only reason that a teams’ social spaces do not share any consistency is because that is a part of a larger strategy at work.
Beyond the Team: Social Media and Sports Management
July 20, 2010 at 1:07 pm | Posted in Branding, Content Management, Facebook, Marketing, Personal Brand, Social Media, Sports Marketing, Twitter | 1 CommentTags: Athlete Representation, Online Branding, Online Identity, Social Media, Sports Management, Sports Marketing
The list of benefits for sports teams to be active in social media is clear:
- Marketing
- Fan engagement
- Sponsorship activation
- Monetization/ROI
Who else in the industry can benefit and how?
The past few years have seen the athletes/players themselves participate in social media on their own accord. Shaq being one of the first and most infamous on Twitter. Dozens of pro athletes have followed and built huge followings along the way.
The key here is “on their own accord”. Athlete as celebrity status provides these players with the opportunity to comment on news and events, or anything else the rest of the Twitterverse chooses to tweet about. In fact, the recent experience surrounding Twitter and NBA free agency really proved the medium had arrived and mattered as traditional media took a back seat to the goings on.
The Next Wave: Sports Management Companies and Player Associations
Now that teams have incorporated the social space as an important part of their marketing mix, sports management companies and player associations would be wise to do the same on behalf of their clients. Online identity and brand are of huge and increasing importance, and there are opportunities for sponsorship, promotion and PR that are largely un-managed and underdeveloped.
I realize that every player out there may not wish to be updating their Facebook profile or tweeting about their pre-game preparations – and this is not really required, but it is savvy, smart and time to develop an online identity and brand strategy… now.
This should be a priority for sports management companies and player associations alike.
2 Quick Thoughts
July 1, 2010 at 1:54 am | Posted in Facebook, NHL, Social Media, Twitter | 1 CommentTags: Facebook, NHL, Twitter
1. A follow up on my NHL Draft on Twitter post
There was a ton of info and images pushed out from teams at the draft – at least on the first round. I believe that all in all there was a great deal of good content that gave followers a sense of what was happening on the floor and around the arena.
Highlight of the event: Sponsored tweets from @NHL and Enterprise Rent-a-Car for each of the 30 draft announcements. An innovative activation in this space, and a few promo codes were provided for followers as well.
2. Facebook and Twitter Integration
You have always been able to coordinate your Facebook status update with your Twitter feed – which in my opinion is not a good idea. They are two separate platforms with different capabilities and benefits. Making them redundant is not a good idea – why would someone follow your team on Twitter if the Facebook status update was the same? But that’s not the point here…
The point is – Facebook now lets you see which of your Friends have a Twitter profile as well. This is a big step and should help to increase team Twitter populations and the overall Twittersphere in general. Unfortunately, we have seen more of the FailWhale as well.
This integration deserves a longer separate post – stay tuned for ideas on that.
NBA Finals Sets Twitter Record, But Is It Impressive?
June 21, 2010 at 12:38 pm | Posted in Social Media, Sports Marketing, Twitter | 3 CommentsTags: Celtics, Lakers, NBA, Twitter
No.
Here’s why…
Check out this article from Mashable about how 3085 Tweets per second were created during last week’s NBA Finals between the Lakers and Celtics.
Considering the average tweets per second is just over 700 and this record even outpaces a more global current event with the World Cup – something in the range of 2,800+ tweets per second.
3085 tweets per sec is about 185,000 tweets per minute… now that is a lot of content. All user generated, all free.
This seems like an impressive number, but consider:
- @NBA on Twitter: 1.9M+ followers
- @Lakers on Twitter: 1.5M+ followers
- @Celtics on Twitter: 60,000+ followers
That’s a fair amount of fans plugged into a 7th game, so I think these numbers really make sense. In fact, @NBA and @Lakers represent the top 2 sports accounts on Twitter.
These numbers make sense. Too bad they didn’t make any dollars…
The clincher – and those know me or are regular readers know it’s coming… Where was the sponsor? This was a massive – and missed – opportunity.
Maybe next year…
New Twitter Features Make it More Relevant
June 15, 2010 at 4:44 pm | Posted in How To..., Twitter | Leave a commentTags: Face Tagging, Geo Location, Sports Marketing, Twitpic, Twitter
Useful Twitter photo sharing tool, Twitpic recently announced that it was rolling out a face tagging feature – one very similar to Facebook’s in which users can identify themselves in photos posted on the platform (the story on Mashable here).
This, along with other pic organizing tools brings Twitpic up a few notches in its usefulness for marketing and promotions. The contesting limitations imposed by Facebook last year forced social media marketers (who were not inclined to spend $10,000 on ads) to look elsewhere for engagement opportunities and Twitter/Twitpic has filled the void nicely.
Here’s a few ideas on how to use it for contests, promotions or community building:
- Encourage your followers to twitpic themselves with @replys and #’s
- Use face tagging for contests – have users upload pics of them in their jerseys/team apparel/merchandise
- Have users upload pics of them near/outside your sponsors’ locations using @replys
- Twitpic members of your front office/players with Twitter profiles
- Use in combination with geo-location features
Face tagging brings with it a personal level of engagement to Twitter making it more visual. Personally, I believe that Twitter is an excellent mobile tool and the addition of face tagging and geo-location give it a greater sense of relevance.
How can you use these new features in your next Twitter campaign?
Minnesota Wild Corporate Partner Summit
May 21, 2010 at 2:48 pm | Posted in Branding, Facebook, Getting Started, Linkedin, Marketing, Social Media, Sponsorship, Sports Marketing, Twitter | 1 CommentTags: Minnesota Wild, Social Media, Sponsorship, Xcel Energy
I was invited to speak at the Wild‘s Corporate Partner Summit this week on the topic of social media. The event was held in the Xcel Energy Center and used the scoreboard as the presentation screen – which was a cool idea.
My topics ranged from:
- Getting started and setting objectives
- Customizing platforms for differentiation
- Monetization and e-commerce integration
- Trends and forecasts
The attendees were the Wild’s corporate sponsors – which is a great value add that the team provides it’s partners. Other presenters included Tom Reutter of Scarborough Research who presented some great data on Wild fans and social media, and Dewayne Hankins / Michael Brinkman of the Wild’s internal DIG group (Digital Interactive Group) who presented on the Wild’s social presence, successful promotions and future direction.
Thanks also to Anna Johnson and Kathleen Borschke of the Wild’s Corporate Services team for all their work in preparing for the event.
True to social media form – some attendees were tweeting during my presentation – which I think is an effective way to measure engagement:
A corporate partner summit is a good way to offer value for any team – and it’s great to have the opportunity to see what your audience is picking up on. As I have mentioned many times, along with many other voices in the social space – one of social media’s key benefits is the opportunity to listen.
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.
Interview with the NHL’s Director of Social Media, Mike DiLorenzo
April 29, 2010 at 10:44 am | Posted in Business Tips, Facebook, Marketing, NHL, Social Media, Tools, Twitter | Leave a commentTags: Facebook, NHL, Social Media, Twitter
I first “met” Mike via Twitter during last year’s Penguins and Capitals playoff series. Since then, we’ve had a great dialogue about social media and the NHL.
Mike manages the NHL Fan Page on Facebook as well as the NHL on Twitter… and you can find him on LinkedIn as well.
I recently asked Mike some questions and will share those along with his answers below:
1. What’s in your social media tool kit (desktop clients or Bberry/iPhone apps)?
I am a social media simpleton. I use CoTweet and OpenBeak for Twitter, and Facebook for Blackberry. On the analytics side, I subscribe to a service called ViralHeat.
2. How did you get here/how did this job come about from the NHL?
This is my third season at the NHL, and I started as director of corporate communications. Our senior VP of digital media, Perry Cooper, appointed me to lead a newly formed social media department at the start of the 2009-10 season. I had been running point on social media stuff prior to that, so it was a natural transition to doing it full time.
3. Most rewarding moment you had over the past season from your perspective?
I was interviewed on behalf of the NHL by Josh Bernoff, who is writing a sequel to Groundswell. I may wallpaper my bathroom with the pages from the new book that mention the NHL.
4. Where is the NHL going with social media? What are your/the NHL’s long term goals/ideas?
We are building windows into the NHL on 3rd-party sites, so we can expose fans to the game and capture a share of their minds when their not necessarily on NHL.com or watching a game. Our long term goal is to become more pervasive in the hearts and minds of fans in North America and beyond, and to give them many more reasons to spend time, energy and emotion with us.
5. Your blog, “From the blue seats“… where is this for you now?
I need to water it and put it in the sun before it shrivels up and dies! I am hopeful that I will have more time to dedicate to it this summer and all of next season. What I’d like to focus on is social trends in sports, and occasionally some opinion pieces on the game itself. I am all ears if people have ideas.
6. Are you currently incorporating any league sponsors into your social media spaces, if so – how?
We promote all of our partner activations on our social media. It’s an area that we’re becoming smarter and more sophisticated with, and are developing business models around. Currently, we’re really excited about the Bud Light Canada Facebook app that’s out there right now.
7. The NHL has more followers on Twitter than Facebook fans – why is this?
When we were named to the “recommended user” list by Twitter, we were seeing very strong weekly growth rates. Once Twitter changed the mechanics of the recommended list, our growth rate slowed. Now, with the integration of the Like button on NHL.com, we’re seeing hypergrowth on our Facebook page. I don’t think it’s a referendum on the technographics of our fans, or our success/failures on one platform or another. To me, it’s circumstantial.
8. How do you stay current on new tools and trends? What are you reading (online or otherwise) or who do you listen to?
I love to read Fast Company, and Lauren Goode’s stuff in the Wall Street Journal. She is a terrific reporter. Of course, MediaPost, Mashable and TechCrunch are must-reads, and I also try to stay current on industry analyst reports. I also learn a fair amount from Gary Vaynerchuk, who has been an adviser to the NHL this season. My favorite bloggers are Shannon Paul and Guy Kawasaki. Truly, I wish I had more time to dedicate to reading up on Trends.
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