Posts Tagged 'Twitter'

2 Quick Thoughts

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.

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NHL Draft: 3 Teams to Watch on Twitter

Last year’s NHL Draft saw some activity from teams on Twitter and I would expect there to be a lot more content this time out.

Here’s 3 teams to keep a close eye from a social media perspective:

Edmonton Oilers: @NHL_Oilers

Not to be obvious, but apart from the fact that Edmonton holds the #1 pick, the Oilers did a fantastic job of using the draft lottery as a successful Tweet-Up back in April, so you can be sure that they will look to build on the social aspect of their Draft. Not only is this an important pick for the organization but represents a key social marketing opportunity.

Los Angeles Kings: @LAKingsHockey

The Kings are the host team/arena, and they were quite active during last years’ draft. I hope to see some “behind the scenes” approach to what they push out. The Kings hold the #19 pick.

Toronto Maple Leafs: @MapleLeafs

The Leafs social population has been growing steadily this past year and the team does not have a pick until the 3rd round. Toronto previously traded away it’s 1 first round pick – which turned out to be the second pick over all in this year’s draft now held by Boston. In a year with two very strong prospects, the fallout from that trade has been a PR issue for the Leafs. @MapleLeafs will be one to watch for a couple of reasons: 1) To see how other teams address the Leafs during the draft, and, 2) Leafs GM Burke has been known for draft day deals, and the team may look to move up and be more active.

I am certain that teams will also be active on Facebook, but Twitter represents a unique opportunity for events. Hopefully we will see a number of Twitpic photos, Twitvid videos as well as engaging updates from teams.

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NBA Finals Sets Twitter Record, But Is It Impressive?

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…

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New Twitter Features Make it More Relevant

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?

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Interview with the NHL’s Director of Social Media, Mike DiLorenzo

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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Twitter Trending and Hashtag Tips

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…

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7 Tips for Social Media ROI

Where is the ROI from social media? From a sports marketing perspective – here is where you find the money:

  1. Grow your Fan and Follower populations – more eyeballs, more traffic to drive back to your website
    • Bigger pops allows you to sell the social space itself too (see #2)
  2. Custom tabs on Facebook: You can build and sell these spaces to sponsors
  3. Sponsored contests for engagement
    • Don’t just drop sponsored links, give fans a reason to click
  4. Sell your Twitter background space
  5. Get a sponsor for your Facebook page
  6. Engage with sponsors on Facebook and Twitter
    • As part of a marketing strategy, brand synergy is important
  7. Sponsored player Twitter account

7 tips to get your social media strategy integrated into your marketing mix and draw an ROI as well.

Have you tried any of these?

Where Do Sponsors Fit Into Social Media?

Which is better? Ads or Links?

Links – hands down. But there is a differing of opinion on a few factors. I’m going to focus on Twitter for this post as it is great at link sharing.

Here’s an article based on the idea that more followers = higher CTRs (Clickthrough Rates).

And here is one that goes against that idea.

Now these ideas in social media marketing are still kinda new and in the world of sports marketing, Twitter followers are generally over 10K. But what seems quite clear is that in social media spaces, providing information via links that your market cares about is a solid way to go.

Keep in mind – we are in the social media space here – when looking at sponsors, we need to position them as partners. Dropping any old corporate link into your Twitter stream may not sit well with your followers so you need to consider who or what your corporate partners offer that will best suit your base. These people can “unfollow” you very quickly, and will do so if they feel that what they are receiving is not of interest to them. They are there to follow your team – your product – so you need to build social media sponsorships in collaboration with your sponsors that will give them – and your followers, something they value.

3 Tips on Twitter Events

This post is long overdue – it’s been a busy week for me but I wanted to get these ideas out…

I learned of Michael Jackson’s death via Twitter – I was going about setting up mobile alerts for @lakingshockey, @vancanucks and @darrendreger to follow the NHL Draft strictly via Twitter as opposed to traditional media. It was some time later until CNN reported that Jackson was dead – perhaps up to an hour later. Real time has a great deal to do with what social media is all about – and a massive entertainment news event like this proved it.

I had to turn off updates from @lakingshockey as they kept inundating me with messages during the day with links that I was never going to visit. By the time the draft had rolled around, I had heard enough from them and switched them off – a powerful lesson there… For events like the draft, all I wanted was to be kept informed via mobile. I was not interested in scouting videos or interviews – I just wanted to be kept in the loop. @vancanucks kept it short and to the point – no too much info until the draft began.

@darrendreger (from TSN.ca) provided some great insight during the draft, such as:

tsn-twitterI’m just outside the Bell Centre, a Habs fan just paid a scalper $100 for a ticket to the draft.3:30 PM Jun 26th from mobile web
hilarious. Bell Centre chanting… 67…as the Leafs go up to make their pick.8:09 PM Jun 26th from mobile web

There was plenty of “factual tweets” such as Tavares selected first overall, or breaking the news of the Pronger trade, but Dreger’s comments added some colour to the event and brought some of the immediacy and authenticity that Twitter can convey.

So here are some take-aways:

  1. Social media is faster than traditional media: Your market will be expecting “real time” now, and you can provide it to them
  2. Keep event based tweets short: This is not a time for tons of links
  3. Make it personal: Add to the experience; give something unique/real

The NHL Draft and Twitter vs. ROI

LA KingsWhile NHL Tweetups are nothing new, the LA Kings are making a bit of a splash as they will have front office personnel tweeting from the floor of the draft.

More on that at the Sportsin140 blog .

And you can follow the LA Kings on Twitter here.

Another Twitter first for an NHL club – it will be interesting to see how this plays out from a fan engagement perspective. Here again – some significant attention is being paid to the Kings Twitter feed and there is no apparent sponsorship. Some people will criticize me for my attempts  to  monetize social media – and some people will hire me for it. I believe  it’s naive to think that ROI just doesn’t need to apply – “adding value” doesn’t add up at the end of the day (as this article attempts to counter).

My point here – and a big part of the reason I am interested in sports marketing and social media – is that sponsorship is 100% plain as day, in your face, front and centre ROI. I recall some radio broadcasts of games in Toronto with the “Home Hardware out-of-town scoreboard” (Blue twitter birdJays, I think). There weren’t too many people complaining that sponsorship was ruining the free medium of radio. Social Media is still just media.

Tweeting from the draft floor is an innovative move on the part of the Kings – but now it’s time to take that innovation a step further into revenue.

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Carson McKee
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