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:

I’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
   

StampsConnect: Sports Social Media Aggregator

What is the hotest new social media site in the world of sports marketing?

The site is www.stampsconnect.com and you should check it out.

It’s the new social media aggregator site from the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL. The site was launched today to coincide with the 2009 season kicking off tomorrow (July 1).

What Makes StampsConnect.com Different?

You might have seen PlanetOrange.net, the social network hub of the Phoenix Suns – widely regarded as leaders in this kind of thing. It is great to see that other teams and leagues are now stepping up and doing some engaging work – especially from a (relatively) smaller market team like the Stampeders.

StampsConnect is 100% user generated content – it pulls content from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr and brings it into a single hub – this is most often called an aggregator. The site employs a “pull” strategy – StampsConnect pulls in content from other sources into a single place. As more and more teams look to 3rd party social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, I think it makes increasing sense to build some structure around that in order to centralize and manage it. In addition – it provides another opportunity for advertising and sponsorship activation.

If you are interested in StampsConnect and want to learn more – please use my Contact page. I will be happy to connect you with the development company.

Lastly – a question…

What do you think about teams using an aggregator such as this? Does it provide a useful layer of media? Will fans use it or simply access each social network site individually?

Why Math is Like Sales (And Why it’s Not)

Sales is a numbers game – how many times have you heard that?

Managing sales by numbers is part of it, but these metrics are more applicable to early sales process functions like business development activities.

X number of calls – Y number of appointments – Z number of meetings

It makes a lot of sense to track these ratios as they will indicate strengths, gaps and required efforts to keep a sales funnel on track. Later sales process management by numbers is focused on average sale value, closing ratio and funnel management.

Here is where I am going with this… Sellers have a direct impact on their numbers early in the sales process, and their ability to control and affect the sale decreases as it moves along… Sellers have direct control over their own production, but buyers have control over the dollars (by and large). Too many sellers try to take back that control far too late in the process – at the close.

The Math Analogy

Closing is simply like the “=” in sales. It is a function – a result. Mathematics does not happen at the point of “=”, it is a process that results in a value and the same goes for sales. In order to achieve the correct value in math, the process needs to be completed by following the rules and doing them in the right order. The calculations are similar to qualifying in sales – I have said many times that in order to be a better closer, you need to be a better qualifier – either way – if you rush through the calculations or the qualifications, you will get a result, but likely not the correct one. Sellers who focus too much attention on the “=” are missing the point of sales as  it has already happened; the “work” of sales is complete, closing is simply the result of a competent sales process.

This math process analogy can help sellers envision what closing is all about. Math is like sales in a vacuum – a repeatable process. In the real world, sellers are using psychology, presentation skills and benefiting from good timing.

The NHL Draft and Twitter vs. ROI

While 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 Jays, 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.

The Offseason: 6 Ways to Stay Plugged In

The NBA and NHL championships have come and gone.

It’s a bit too early to start talking about the NFL, and MLB is not the most social media focused league in town.

So one might think that there is very little to discuss regarding social media and sports right now – but that would be a mistake. Now is a very important time for teams and leagues to keep fans engaged.

Why? Because, if you follow my path to social media then you know that sponsorship is not far behind. Through social media, there are still opportunities to keep fans active, and to keep sponsors activated.

Consider the following… How can you leverage:

• Ticket Sales – Do you have a social media angle for marketing tickets?
• Contests/Give Aways – Are you giving your market a reason to keep plugged in?
• Off Season Drafts/Trades/Personnel Changes – Can you provide perspectives and insight from the source?
• Discussion – Can you generate discussion and debate?
• Access – Can you provide visibility on team insiders?
• Announcements – Can you release info via social networks prior to a press release?

If you give your market good reasons to stay plugged in – then they will. Staying plugged in is what your sponsors want and need to see.

Moving Back to Vancouver

Vancouver, BC

I rarely post about personal events here, but this one is different.

After 10 years years in Toronto I am relocating back to Vancouver, my home town. It is a welcome change and I am really looking forward to being with both my immediate and extended family in BC. In addition to fantastic natural beauty, Vancouver is now Canada’s 2nd largest city and has a great deal to offer.

One of the great things about social media and technology is how is can help people stay connected – somthing that is important to me through this blog and the other sites that I participate on.

So here’s to keeping in touch – I may be posting a bit more infrequently in the coming days, but stick with me…

Thank you.

Information is Free

Beware of sales resources that charge for information on social media.

Tools like Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook are free and hardly new. There is a great deal of information about their use and value for sellers available on the Internet. Charging hundreds of dollars for seminars and using terms like…

“By this time next year, the gold rush to social media marketing will be near complete.”

… are misleading and false.

In addition, announcements like this one (eNewsletter focused on sales and social media) use sales techniques that are just plain cheesy and a turn off for many buyers. It just rubs me the wrong way and reinforces the sales stigma that I try to combat in my own training.

My Method

I freely share information to sellers, marketers or interested persons on what social media tools can do for them through this blog. My way is to share information that people may value and continue to follow. I appreciate this and their ideas/comments. Sometimes, those conversations turn into opportunities or projects – things that I do charge for, but only when it is for my direct services – not for information that is free to all.

Charging for such info flies in the face of what social media marketing is all about.

WolframAlpha and The Sports Industry

There is a new and dynamic search engine on the web now called WolframAlpha. It may sound like a Tom Clancy novel, but WolframAlpha is changing how the internet works.

Here is What You Need to Know About It…

Have a look for yourself by clicking right here; the link is to a search on Sports.

You’ll notice how WolframAlpha presents information. Not links to websites like Google does, but information and context about your query. WolframAlpha can do things that Google can’t – and that means that the rest of the world can access information about you and your brand in ways they haven’t before.

Now, these are the very early days for WolframAlpha – it’s pretty good with some things, like the NFL or MLB teams – but it doesn’t know what to do with “Chicago Bulls” (it displays the distance bewteen Chicago, IL and Bulls -  a location in New Zealand), but it will be getting smarter in the days ahead.

WolframAlpha is a “computational knowledge engine” and represents the shift in focus of the current Internet (web2.0) to the semantic web (web3.0). Exactly how WolframAlpha will impact the business of sports remains to be seen. But now teams and fans alike have a new tool to drill down on information. It can provide statistical info, comparisons, analysis – a new set of tools to open doors.

Whatever WolframAlpha doesn’t know now is just a matter of time until it does. When it does encounter something new, it displays the icon on the right and informs the user “Development of this topic is under investigation…”

Start by searching on your brand or your team now. And keep looking back…

Direct Contact Now Provides Custom Facebook Apps

I am pleased to announce a new partnership with IBT Games.

The skinny: Through Direct Contact, I provide social media consulting services. Working with IBT now gives me the opportunity to work with sports teams to build customized applications for Facebook. This is an exciting development as now teams can:

• Take the fan experience even deeper by redefining the online experience through the custom development of their own applications
• Differentiate their brand from other teams on Facebook and outpace competitive interests
• Include unique sponsorship activation through product placement or advertising
• Improve and enhance their current Facebook presence and social media focus

This helps elevate social media engagement strategies to a direct ROI level with bottom line impact. IBT’s games yield engagement levels 4x greater than that of average top applications on social media – that means more eyeballs spending more time on your team, your brand and your sponsors.

This is a total solution approach. Many teams have adopted social media strategies, but they are unable to differentiate themselves online within their league let alone their own local markets. Direct Contact nad IBT Games now allows them to do just that.

I should be clear that anyone can use IBT’s games on Facebook right now – my partnership with IBT allows sports teams to build similar games or high level engagement apps focused on their own league, team and brand. Teams may have ideas but lack the technical resources to develop such apps, but through my partnership with IBT, we can provide the full solution.

For more information on IBT Games – please visit their website, or contact me with any questions you may have.

MakeItSeven.ca Turns to Social Media

As I thought, it didn’t take long for the MakeInSeven.ca campaign to ratchet up social media engagement.

For those who read my original post and follow up post may recall my analysis was that this was essentially a branding attempt. Some people challenged me on that idea – but the most recent development re-enforces my assessment.

Here’s a breakdown:

• A Store: The brand now has a logo, and there is merchandise available
• A Twitter Account: Now you can follow the brand here too
• A Facebook Fan Page: Not a lot of content yet, but it is early…
• A Social Media Site: MakeItSeven’s own site, “Have a Voice”

What I am most suprised about is that MakeItSeven has corporate sponsors – I think it is a bold move for these brands to align themselves with this undertaking.

If anyone doubted this was a brand in development, it is very clear now that this was the intent from the start. How this will play out in the media, let alone bankruptcy court remains to be seen.

Click here to see what MakeItSeven.ca looks like now…