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.

What is Content Management?

Or, maybe if you know a bit about what content management is all about – Why should Content Management matter to me if I am a sports team?

First off – What is Content Management?

It’s most easily defined as the non-technical management of website and online content and how it is delivered. It’s the stories on your website, the posts on your blog, the status updates on Facebook, the things you tweet about… anything digital that you push out. A lot of people have been talking about content management as the next “big thing” following the rise of social media. You may have also heard the statement that “Content is King”.

But crowing “Content as King” is leaving a lot to be addressed. What good is content (no matter how good it is) unless there is someone out there to see/read/experience it? So, yes, its true that content is critically important, but do not forget the “how” part of this – how the content is distributed and organized.

I do a lot of work with sports teams so the issue of content might seem obvious at first for sports teams. “Content is not a concern for us”, you might be thinking. At first blush, one might consider “the game” to be your content. Sure – but consider that the game, your product, is primarily disseminated on television and across the internet by programing and websites that are not your own. Think of the different layers of media and experience involved here…

At the core is your product – the live game. Depending on your sport, about 20-50,000 people experience it live.

The next layer is broadcast – again depending on your team, sport and specific game, thousands to millions of people experience your product on television. Those not viewing the game will experience the highlights on TV as well… you can also add radio into this mix.

Now, of course, your website and social media platforms will “cover” the game as well – but it’s important to consider product content as only a portion of your content management strategy. No other business outside of professional sports benefits from such widespread coverage on a day-in-day-out manner (unless it is bad news… BP is a timely example). Non sports companies must rely on their own efforts to get their product out there, so content management strategies may seem more “important” or vital to them.

The point I am trying to make here, is that your sports product is being “covered” and disseminated already for you by NBC, CBS, Fox, CBC, TSN ESPN… Therefore, content management strategies in sports are even more critical.

Why? Because you have the opportunity to layer on much more than the product itself – and sometimes the product may not be the greatest thing in the world either. This is where your brand really matters.

What is your brand all about?

What is your team’s place in the community? What place do you want it to occupy?

What is your history/legacy?

What is your vision?

These are the questions you should be asking in regards to content management. Last night’s box score is the easy stuff – this is much deeper.

The first is a powerpoint from HubSpot. They have some great free resources and webinars regarding social media. Below is a link to a presentation that contains over 50 charts and graphs on marketing data – many related to social media. You might find it useful and also be interested to keep tabs on HubSpot as well…

HubSpot Marketing Data Presentation

The second is an eBook from Don MacLeod called “The Basics of Branding”… it’s a 21 page PDF.

The Basics of Branding

Hope you find some value in these!

We all know what it means, but it can be hard to define. I think it is important to sometimes reframe what we are doing – take a look at it from a higher level and this can help inform our perspective on what we do, how we do it and how we can improve it.

Essentially, “sales” represents the transfer of credibility from the seller to the brand.

A sales person starts with nothing – perhaps a cold call, and they work through the sales process by establishing and reinforcing their credibility to the point when the buyer feels they trust and believe the seller and agree to sign off. At that point – the seller has worked hard individually to the point where credibility has been built and then has been successful in transferring that credibility to the brand they represent – A tall order for sure.

Now, sure – of course marketing can help with building that brand (either in advance or during the sales process), but it really comes down to individuals. People connecting with people. For that very reason, sales people are one of the most important hires that an organization can make. These people are walking and talking your brand every day.

Who says sales and marketing do not understand one another? They are different sides of the same thing.

Here’s why…

Let’s say you have a Pro Sports Team Facebook Fan Page – and a brand – one that is not currently a sponsor of yours – shows up and engages your brand on Facebook. The viral nature of Facebook makes this action visible to many, possibly thousands of other people. Is this kind of brand interaction “fair” to your other (paying) sponsors who are not actively engaging your brand on Facebook?

Perhaps fair is the wrong word, but you get the idea. Social media is a platform – and yes – it is a free one, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that brand interaction in this space does not have a price. In fact, I would counter that it does.

As teams and leagues begin to negotiate the social media space (check out the NHL’s new Fan Page that launched recently) these kinds of questions need to be asked and addressed. These are the kinds of answers and strategies that I build. More on just how to do that in a later post…

What do you think? Can brands be Friends?

In a previous post

As of yet, I am not aware of any existing sponsorships through Twitter. In this post, I’d like to take a look at other ways to leverage Twitter for sponsorship:

• The first and most obvious is to display sponsors on a teams’ Twitter background. Teams have branded their Twitter backgrounds, and the next step is to use parts of that space for sponsorship.
• Teams can provide sponsor’s links in Tweets
• Teams can drive fans to back to their website via tweet links where their sponsors are advertised
• Use hash tags (#) to create sponsor titled contests or events (Ex. #sponsorGameday, #sponsorUpdate, #sponsorContest)
• Crossover – Teams can participate in a sponsor’s own Twitter feed and encourage fans to follow the sponsors

Like any sponsorship – it is truly a partnership. Some brands will be more aligned with teams in terms of compatibility or Twitter crossover. Considerations surrounding frequency of messages, tracking, timing  and visibility will all come into play. Again, these are the very early days – smart sales teams will be moving on these opportunities and laying the path forward one step at a time.

For a complete list of players, teams and leagues on Twitter, click here.

Your feedback…

• Any ideas for more activation?
• Know of any sponsors working like this now?
• Feedback/comments/questions on these ideas?

The idea behind makeitseven.ca is rooted far more in PR than social media, but one can only wonder if the Make It Seven Facebook Page is far behind – or if @makeitseven is already snapped up on Twitter (at the time of writing, neither was).

What makeitseven.ca is essentially doing, is building a brand around the purchase attempt. This is being positioned as something “for” Canada, for hockey fans, for the good of us all. I have “signed up” and am looking forward to seing exactly what will come my way via email from the Balsillie camp.

While I am certain there are countless opinions on whether or not this deal makes sense, or the conditions of the agreement are valid (let alone legal), what I am looking for here is the branding element of this story.

What do you think about the idea of branding this potential sale as it is?

In late 2007, Ad agency JWT posited that blue would replace green as the color of the environmental movement – after all, the sea and the sky are blue… As it turns out, this didn’t happen and green is still green.

I interpret JWT’s  prediction differently – blue is (or can be) the new green, but not in so much as the colour blue standing for all things environmental. This thought is not a prediction for 2009 – but I think that companies and brands should be looking at “blue is the new green” as an opportunity – at least ones that provide a product that involves water (read as blue).

One of the greatest (subjective) marketing ideas of the 90′s was the commodification of water, and the second greatest was the upscaling of coffee. As far as I know, coffee is mostly water – so just where does that water come from anyway?

So I asked Starbucks (via Twitter):

No link, no details – just filtered water, a missed opportunity… As consumers continue to demand more and more environmentally sound and healthy products – will companies begin to focus on the water in their products? Is there a market innovation opportunity for companies like Starbucks to bring the water used in coffee production to the forefront? Would Coca-Cola ever release a “Blue Coke“?