What’s The Deal with Facebook Deals?
November 4, 2010 at 4:44 pm | Posted in Facebook, Foursquare, Marketing, Mobile | 1 CommentTags: Facebook Deals, Foursquare, Location, Sports Marketing
Yesterday, Facebook announced the launch of Deals. So what is this and why does it matter?
Facebook Deals is focused on mobile and location based social media. You will recall a while back when Facebook announced it’s Places feature – now Deals layers on the ability for Places users to see what kinds of offers are around them as they check in on their mobile device. So for example – on your next trip downtown, you check in at a Starbucks and can see that there is a deal nearby you right now – perhaps a sale on team jerseys at the team store. In you go, and pick a couple jerseys up for holiday gifts.
The value is clear – but consider that a mere 1% of mobile users use any kind of check-in technology right now. So, what’s the big deal?
- Potential – Facebook has over 200 million active mobile users right now. Even 1% of that number is significant and it will likely grow.
- Risk – There is an apprehension for a lot of users surrounding the security/privacy issue of check-ins. Will it be widely adopted just as Tweets and Facebook status updates were? Time will tell…
- Behaviour – In a previous post, I shared the fact that mobile internet use will outpace desktop use by 2015. The mobile battle is underway, and the race to “own” the location services/market is on.
Current location players such as Foursquare, representing a respectable 7M+ users, offer more of a game element with badges and mayorships in addition to the feature of deals and special offers. It remains to be seen how they will respond to Facebook Deals (apparently, new features will arrive at years’ end/Q1 2011).
Lastly, what should you do about this now? My whole position on location has been a wait and see policy. In the last few months, I’ve been a heavy Foursquare user as the announcement of Places and the growth of the Foursquare platform merritted attention. I cautioned sports marketers to include location opportunities in promotions and social projects, but not to focus on them – and for good reason. This is a constantly evolving space (BTW – if your team still has a myspace page, you can take it down now), and investing too much time, energy and (hopefully) sponsor activation dollars may not add up.
The take away – claim your venue or location properties now – here’s how. Keep watching this space and your physical neighbors for what happens and evolves here. This matters.
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 commentTags: 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.
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.
Checking In on Facebook Places
September 2, 2010 at 1:27 pm | Posted in Facebook, Foursquare, Sports Marketing | Leave a commentTags: Facebook, Foursquare, Goelocation, Sports Marketing
Pun intended, for sure.
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.
Authenticity Matters in Social Marketing
August 24, 2010 at 10:51 am | Posted in Branding, Marketing, Social Media, Sports Marketing | Leave a commentTags: Social Media, Sports Marketing
One of the most important aspects of social media is authenticity.
Over the course of the 80′s and 90′s, pro athletes became increasingly inaccessible to fans. Skyrocketing salaries, the proliferation of endorsements and merchandise and the high cost of tickets to games worked to separate fans from their teams and players.
In the social space, fans can benefit from a direct connection to players. There is the ability to interact and see players in a different light. Social media is about humanizing a brand – the past 20 years saw the development of athletes into brands… social media can help close that gap.
As there are currently an ever-increasing number of players getting involved in the social space – one thing is clear. Authenticity really matters.
It was a topic I was considering – was the authenticity factor of short-term significance? We are all accustomed to seeing athletes on TV in advertisements and are aware of the construction at hand. Would people come to expect and decode the same construction of social media?
Who knows what the future will bring – but in the present, it is very clear that authenticity does matter. Remember, the social space belongs to the fans. And that is the primary difference between social media and other media (including digital) – it’s not yours. And that’s ok.
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.
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?
Content Management Strategies and Why You Should Care
June 2, 2010 at 10:24 am | Posted in Blogging, Branding, Content Management, Marketing, Social Media, Sports Marketing | Leave a commentTags: Branding, Content Management, Sports Marketing
A couple of things you might be thinking…
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.
Twitter Trending and Hashtag Tips
April 27, 2010 at 1:13 pm | Posted in Branding, Hashtags, How To..., Social Media, Twitter | Leave a commentTags: Hashtags, Sports Marketing, Trending Topics, Twitter
Every team out there has a Twitter account now so I wanted to focus on a Twitter tool that you might not be aware of: Trending.
If you look at the bottom of the right side rail, you’ll see a list of Trending topics. These are the words/terms/phrases that are being mentioned the most on Twitter right now. Many of them are probably hashtags (#) at any given time. You can customize your trending location – although the geographic choices are a bit weak right now, by clicking “Change” and selecting new geographic criteria.
Now you can monitor your mentions on Twitter.
# Hashtags
So now that you have the visibility of trending topics, you need to be in the mix. This brings about an important point and marketing use of Twitter… # (hashtags).
You can simply wait for users/fans to create their own (and they will) or you can start to position them into the Twitter stream yourself. Most often, you will see a #”yourteam” mention, for example:
“I can’t wait for the #yourteam game tonight!”
But consider the following examples and ideas for #’s (for things in quotes, insert your own brand):
- #nfldraftday
- #stanleycup
- #tradedeadline
- #shutout
- #”team”contest
- #”player”
- #distinctkickingmotion
- #nohitter
- #firstpickoverall
- #justaboutanythingtocreateabuzz
Using hashtags gives your fans something to focus on and makes things easily identifiable. Start inserting them into your tweets and build some trending topics. When provided with the opportunity, run with it as a hashtag on Twitter to make the most of the event.
Follow me on Twitter by clicking here.
Got some other ideas for #’s? Let me know…
Facebook… Like It
April 22, 2010 at 4:42 pm | Posted in Branding, Facebook, Marketing, NHL, Social Media, Sports Marketing | Leave a commentTags: Alex Ovechkin, Facebook, Fan Page, NHL, Social Plugins, Sponsorship, Sports Marketing
Facebook launched some potent new tools yesterday and I will start to break down what it means for sports marketers…
You may have heard/seen that recently Facebook changed the term “Fans” from its Pages to simply, “Like”. So now, your Page doesn’t have fans, but people who like it (too bad – “Fans” was a perfect fit for sports teams). Now, the idea of “Like”ing something gets a whole lot more engaged.
Social Plugins
If you are familiar with Facebook, the ability to “Like” something is not new. But through the use of social plugins - check them out here – the “Like” button can show up anywhere, on any website – even your own.
Here’s an example from NHL.com with Alex Ovechkin.
What this means is that now, Facebook can be pretty much anywhere. The web is increasingly semantic and social. Furthermore, “Like”s can dynamically alter a Facebook users profile, and the act of “Like”ing something can create a long-term communication between the user and NHL.com. Whenever there is an update on Ovechkin from NHL.com, the “Like” will update the user on the Facebook platform. Pretty neat stuff.
Ok – Now What?
So now that you have an idea of what technology is in place – here’s what to start doing with it.
- Every team site has a roster page – get some Like buttons up there for the players (like the NHL.com model) and tell your fans to get clicking
- The viral nature of all this “Like”ing should help grow your Page population as well, be ready to track this
- NHL.com integration increased the NHL Facebook Page by 3.2% (>9000 Fans) overnight after this launch
- Consider partner/sponsor brand synergy – what kinds of sponsors would be a good fit for social plugins?
I will be thinking/blogging more about the last bullet – in the meantime, more to come on Facebook’s new tools and how to best put them to use.
If you have some ideas or some other great examples/models to look at, please leave a comment and let us all know…
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Carson McKee,
Digital wing man and social media consultant. -
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