Every Facebook Page has a button where you can display posts from the Page or the posts from the fans as a default. Very few teams prioritize their fans’ post over their own – this makes no sense to me…

Social marketing should be… SOCIAL.

Teams would counter that their content gets lost in the stream of fan posts quickly.  Social marketing isn’t just about dropping links to the team site. Maybe I’m wrong, but last time I checked, Facebook was all about the fans.

Yes – I’ve preached about corporate sales presence in social media (a lot). And yes, a post with corporate content could get lost very quickly – but who says a single post had any real value to a corporate partner in the first place? Corporate sales needs to be more of a consistent presence/partnership – ideally, well integrated with the brand and fans alike.

If teams find it a problem that their fans are so talkative and engaged with their brand, then I think perhaps its time to return to the basics…

• Up to 2/3rds of tweets should be @replys to fans
• Leverage fan content by RT’ing it
• Comment on Facebook photos
• Thank fans for their comments
• Customer service
• Engaging corporate partnerships
• Featuring content from fans
• Providing exclusive content
• 3-4 FB posts per day (few more on game days)
• 1 tweet per hour on average
• Interact with fans regularly
• Ask for opinions, ideas

Social marketing is a dynamic place – not a static stream of team posts. These are your fans – treat them well. There are other digital assets like your website that are strictly focused on your content. Use social media for what it does best – being social. Build and reinforce those fan relationships and they will be more apt to consume/share your content, buy your product and be advocates of your brand. We call them fans – but they are your customers.

With millions of fans worldwide and a total of 17 Championships, the Celtics also command a huge presence online.  I caught up with Peter Stringer, Director of all things Digital with the Celtics for a brief interview focused on their massive Facebook following…

1. You are one of the most famous brands in sports – is this an asset or a challenge in your social marketing efforts?

This is clearly an asset in terms of amassing an audience in the social media realm. It’s much more natural for people to want to “Like” a sports property, and follow us for updates. There’s a natural affinity built into our brand, and being 17-Time World Champions, that rich team legacy adds to our appeal.

2. How does your current population compare vs. daily users? How many or what percentage of those users are interacting with your Page daily?

Few fans ever re-visit your Facebook page after they “Like” you. In fact, I’d argue most never even see it. They like you by seeing it on their friends’ profiles. So I’m not too concerned about daily interactions with our page. I’m more interested in things like clickthroughs on links and RTs on Twitter. Facebook comments and “likes’ on posts are overvalued as well, I’d say. Most comments are unrelated to the posts, and don’t really represent true interaction or engagement. It may help your EdgeRank score and hence broaden your audience, but I don’t get caught up counting Likes and comments on posts unless a post drastically over or under-performs.

3. The Celtics Facebook population continues to grow rapidly at several thousand per day. Many teams would envy just a day’s growth at those rates – are there any “be careful what you wish for” aspects of this for you?

Well, you have to be very careful with an audience of 5.3 million. Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, there’s no going back. So you have to be extremely thoughtful about what you post to this type of an audience.

4. The Celtics Facebook Page features a team store integrated right into the page itself – do your fans purchase from there more than from your website? Does one of those stores have priority over the other?

Celtics.com’s store wildly outperforms our Facebook commerce, mostly because fans don’t end up on your Facebook page unless you direct them there. I think  average social media users are still wary of transacting on Facebook, much like people were reluctant to buy online in the early days of e-commerce. But again, if people aren’t going to your actual Facebook page organically the way they visit your website, you’re not going to sell much there. And the tests we’ve done on in-post shopping have failed to produce sales as well. I think there’s a long way to go before “f-commerce” becomes a reality.

5. The “3 Point Play” tab on Facebook – How well does this work to provide email addresses? Is email a primary focus of your communication with fans or is this a way of gaining some user data from the Facebook platform?

3-Point Play helps us gather data on our Facebook fan base, while offering fans the chance to win tickets to games. I wouldn’t say it’s a communication platform by itself, but by gathering that data, it allows us to identify our Facebook fans, get them into our database, and then continue the dialogue with them via email and special offers, and hopefully turn them into customers down the road.

6. How does your organization handle the duties for social media? Do you have dedicated resources, or do certain people “platoon” these efforts?

There’s a few of us here who handle different aspects of social media at times. But we’ve integrated it into all of our marketing efforts and work closely with various departments across the organization to get their messages out.  It’s a critical part of our marketing efforts.

7. How do sponsors fit into your social media marketing and activation?

The NBA is very restrictive on how we can use social media for partner activation, but you’re going to see more and more team partners across sports being a part of social media. Every partner who comes to the table these days wants to know how they can activate with us across these channels. It’s just a matter of time and the league loosening restrictions, something we’ve pushed for pretty aggressively.

8. What’s in your social media tool kit (mobile device, apps, sites, networks you participate in, etc… )?

I’m a Mac guy, so for me, it’s Twitter on the Mac and my iPhone, and Facebook.com on the web. I still don’t completely trust third party tools, and when you have a massive audience like we do, you just can’t risk getting hacked.

I have to admit, 18 months ago, I was dismissive. I didn’t feel that location media would catch on and some would say that it hasn’t really. But, over this time, check-in technology has advanced, user bases have grown and times have changed.

Yesterday, Facebook announced a repositioning of location/check-ins on their platform. This is similar to what we see from Twitter as well and seems to represent “where” location is at relative to social networking. Location is not so much a front and center type of activity, but a layer of social information relative to content. When Facebook launched “Places” last year, many felt this was the end of start-ups like Foursquare or Gowalla. And here we are a year later – Places is no more, and Foursquare has reached the 15M user mark and a fresh round of $600M in funding.

So now the landscape of Check-ins positions location as relevant background with social content, apart from Foursquare, where Check-ins are the focus of the content.

The kicker here as I see it is not really a location “issue”, but the growing and established importance of mobile. The very concept of mobile goes hand in hand with location. With mobile internet use due to outpace desk-top use by 2015 – what was once seen as “the battle for location” is really all about mobile.

User value in Check-ins remains in 2 primary places:

• Deals -”What can I get for checking in?”
• Status – “Look where I am (sports event, concert, etc…)!”

Keep those two values top of mind and have them guide you when looking to leverage location and Check-ins for sports marketing purposes.

There have been a lot of changes regarding what you can and cannot do on Facebook. Likewise, a  lot of people have a lot of questions about the rules to holding a contest on Facebook – so here it goes:

Rule #1: First and Most Important

You cannot leverage the Facebook platform as a method of entry. No status updates, no comments on status updates, no “Liking” something, no photo uploads. None.

Yes, this is frustrating. These interactive elements are what Facebook does best (!). They were fun and engaging methods of entry that had real strong benefits for fans and brands alike. This is all about liability and privacy issues – somewhat of a sensitive area for Facebook. So, yes – this kind of sucks and this is why many contests out there now are “illegal” – so let’s get over it.

Rule #2: Keep it off Facebook

You may promote your contest or promotion on Facebook but it must be hosted on a 3rd party site (like your website or an app).

There a number of 3rd party apps that comply with Facebook’s rules – the most commonly used being Wildfire. There are several more 3rd party apps available as well. You can of course, host the contest on your own website – this is a good idea if you are looking to increase referral traffic to your site.

Rule #3: Follow the Rules

If you do not adhere to these rules, Facebook may freeze or shut down your page.

Take my word for it – it’s happened to me, this is how I found out about these rules 2 years ago. If you are not following Facebook’s guidelines, you run the risk of having your page shut down. Simple as that. Beyond that, not adhering to the rules makes you look out of the loop and amateurish. Lastly – this is your FAN PAGE. It belongs to the fans – don’t risk it.

Got a specific question? Contact me.

The first impact falls on your sports brand as fans can now tag your Page in their photos. Consider fans’ photos wearing team jerseys/apparel, or photos in your arena… the ability to tag your team Page layers a new level of visibility and engagement.

The second impact falls on your sponsors. Activations can now involve your Page tagging a sponsor’s Page in a photo – situations like this provide:

• A passive social marketing opportunity
• An increase in using images of/with sponsors
• A greater focus on product placement
• Cross page promotions – Sponsors tagging your Page on their photos

Up to now, most sponsored activity on Facebook has been located in status updates or tabs. Photo tagging presents a new opportunity to include images as an important asset to include in your social media kit.

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

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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.

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…

It’s been a couple of weeks since Facebook launched its Places feature – a geolocation function that let’s users identify their location within their social networks. I’ve seen a number of posts and articles by sports marketers about integrating Facebook Places/FourSquare into their promotional mix.

Here’s my 2 cents…

While I will agree that Places/FourSquare presents some interesting and engaging opportunities, my own experience has shown that it’s still the early days for these tools.

FourSquare does have a growing user base, but I’ve found that it still requires a fair amount of education to enable fans to use it effectively in promotions. I’m not suggesting to drop the idea of using it, but right now, my opinion is that the time required to educate and inform is greater than the benefits or rewards.

Moving forward, I would look to include a geolocation feature to a promotion, but would probably hold back on building a promo that only focused solely on that platform. Start small, and look to enhance social projects with a check-in element. For example, if you were building a promo that supported a multi-location sponsor in your market, you could offer a tiered prizing/award structure that offered something for check-ins as well as for entries for less savvy,yet still socially aware/active fans.

Ultimately, the last thing you want to do is create a digital divide. Don’t forget, there are a number of privacy concerns that were raised with this launch. So start small, measure and assess your results and continue to plan from there. Be prepared to teach your fans along the way.

So, about 1 in 13 earthlings have a Facebook profile. You get a pretty clear picture that Facebook is quite simply, A BIG DEAL – whether you like it or not.

All this rapid growth has got to stop somewhere, right? Correct. In fact, probably pretty soon. The number of Facebook users will continually grow, but likely not at the same rate. It will begin to level off – then what?

What comes next has already arrived. Recent announcements at the F8 conference back in April showed us that the web was becoming more social in its very nature. You might remember my blog post from a year ago regarding the rise of Web 3.0 – the semantic web.

What Facebook brings across the web now is “meaning”… how the content of the web is presented to the user along with its specific impact to the user’s own experience. We see this in the form of “Like” buttons. When a user reads a story on CNN.com or NHL.com, they can see how many of their Facebook friends liked it. This is what I mean by meaning… its how the web content relates to the user now in a specific and personal way. And there will be more of it… new layers of meaning, and in deeper ways.

Facebook is also changing how people use the web – it is moving from search engine as starting point to social network as starting point. You’ll also notice that Facebook now has “Community Pages” – Facebook is slowly, but surely becoming an online repository of everyone and everything. Like an immense encyclopedia, not only presented with facts – but with what those facts mean to people.

Now, that is a big deal.