Fan Engagement: Sports Social Media Done Right

Social Media 101 Leveraging Social Media for Sports MarketingAn Introduction
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24704473@N07
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zacheverson/2259577982/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hectoralejandro/3499429624
http://www.flickr.com/photos/localandbitter/sets/72157601501234353/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jancyclops/4302613514

Social
Media is…

But…
not really.

You Can’t Leverage Social Media!
Until “Fan Loyalty” is defined as you being loyal to your fans – your organization will not use social media in it’s most impactful way.

Social Media really is a large, emerging conversation that is…

powered by…

“Your fans are the message”
-Marshall McLuhan(sort of)
“The medium is the message” guy

Building Fan Loyalty
Front offices being loyal to their fans!
Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.
The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.
These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge.
http://images12.fotki.com/v212/photos/1/134799/3424959/superfan-vi.jpg?1173438754
The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual: Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger; Perseus Books ©2000

Building Fan Loyalty
Front offices being loyal to their fans!
The front office must talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships.
To speak with a human voice, front offices must share the concerns of their communities.
“If you want us to talk to you, tell us something. Make it something interesting for a change.”
“We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules to slow us down. We are waking up and linking to each other.”
http://img.stern.de/_content/52/90/529061/Fan_Eisschnellauf400_400.jpg

spectators
one-way
creatives
critics
joiners
http://www.swimwatch.net/uploaded_images/coach-yelling-at-athlete-716268.jpg
Broadcast Media
Social Media
http://www.fitzroyjuniorfc.com.au/2008/Images/Week%206%20-%20U10%20Green/GroupHuddle_Coach.jpg
People have had a taste of two-way conversations around your brand. They won’t wait for you.

In social media, you might be the topic of conversation without being the center of it
SOCIAL
MEDIA
BROADCAST
MEDIA
You will have to give up some control of your message in order to gain more influence.

Differences in Tactics
BROADCAST
Front Office in Control
One Way / Delivering a Message
Repeating the Message
Focused on the Brand
Educating
Front Office Creates Content
SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans in Control
Two way / Being Part of a Conversation
Adapting the Message
Focused on the Fans / Adding Value
Influencing, Involving
User Created Content / Co-creation
Source: Slide 10 from "What's Next In Media?" by Neil Perkin

A Helpful Metaphor
Approach #1
annoying, impersonal,
forces permission
Approach #2
natural, human,
authentic, requests permission
http://images.dailyradar.com/media/uploads/ballhype/story_large/2009/03/12/nfl_logo.jpg
The world’s largest outdoor cocktail party

Resist AutomationOnce a communication system becomes automated…- efficiency is built into delivery- more communication can be done for less- messages are crafted for demographic groups- the communications sounds less human - the communication channel becomes less effective and more ignored
Yeah!
Yipee!
Good.
Oops!
Uh-oh!

Consider What is Happening to Email
How many email addresses have you had?
Why do you have multiple, how is each used?
If your organization asked you for your email address,
which one would you give them?

Thinking Things Through
Objectives
Audience
Constraints
Strategy
Tactics

Audience
Who are they?
Where will I find them online?
How do they use the social web?
What are they talking about?
What are they wanting?
Source: Beth Kanter, from 10/08 Share Our Strength presentation
Image: http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/archives/sports-fans.jpg

Who is your audience?
Source: Forrester, Groundswell

Who is your audience?
Source: Forrester, Groundswell
http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html

Objectives
Ticket Sales?
Brand Equity?
Fan Experience?
Customer Service?
Other?
PICK ONE OBJECTIVE TO START WITH
Notice that “press release outlet” is not on the list

Constraints
Personnel?
Personnel experience?
Personnel time capacity?
Budget?
Communication policies?
What is non-negotiable?

StrategyRemember this is all based on building loyalty and trust!
Listening strategies?
Engagement strategies?
Motivation strategies?

Online Listening
Questions in preparing your organization to listen
Who will do the listening and responding?
What is your response policy to criticism/praise/questions?
How much time is allocated?
How will you analyze and share results?
What are the benchmarks to measure usefulness?
Beth Kanter, Listening Literacy

Online Listening
Keyword Search Suggestions
Organizational Name
Peer names in your space
Other peers with similar sounding names
Program/Services/Event Names
Owner, GM or well known associated personalities
Brand or tagline
URLs of your online properties
Industry terms or phrases related to your mission
Your known strengths and weaknesses
Beth Kanter, Listening Literacy

Social Media Listening

Participate
Ask questions
Comment on others blogs posts
Compliment others content
Forward and link to others content
Generate Buzz
Open profiles on social bookmarking and crowd-sourcing sites like digg and stumbleupon
Bookmark content you like and share your profile
Promote others content through services like digg, mixx and newsvine

Share Content
Take time to create content that address any recurring questions your fan base is asking.
Listen for where and when your content can be used to help a conversation or answer a question.
Answer the questions by directing people to the content you have created.
Host contests, quizzes and giveaways directly in these spaces. Draw in non-baseball fans because of your respected use of the tool.
Develop strategy and tactics for mascots, play-by-play, concessions, players, coaches

Tactics
Finally, consider the tools for
Listening
Participating
Sharing Your Story
Spreading Awareness
Generating Buzz
Social Networking For Motivation and Action

Tactics and Tools over Time
Community Building & Social Networking
Share
Content
Generate Buzz
Listen
Participate
20hr
5hr
10hr
15hr
Less Time
More Time
Adapted from Beth Kanter

Giving Up Control
How you respond to criticism will say a lot about you and your organization.
Not all content is precisely right, but the majority is generally right.
Not all of your interaction will be positive or favorable.
Pick your battles and be willing to apologize when necessary.
Source:firstgivingpresentation, Using social media to expand your fundraising horizons
Image: http://paultan.org/photo/albums/2009-honda-city-malaysia/Steering%20Wheel.jpg

Suggested Online Bibliography
SportsNetworker - http://www.sportsnetworker.com
Take A Peck-
http://www.jasonfpeck.com/
The Business of Sports - http://www.thebusinessofsports.com/
Sports Marketing 2.0 - an open online community moderated by Pat Coyle of http://www.patcoyle.nethttp://www.sportsmarketing20.com/

Social Media Strategic Planning Strategic Planning for the Sports Front Office
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24704473@N07
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zacheverson/2259577982/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hectoralejandro/3499429624
http://www.flickr.com/photos/localandbitter/sets/72157601501234353/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jancyclops/4302613514

Northwoods League, Social Media
Basic Strategic Engagement Plan
Audience, Objectives,
Constraints and Strategy

General Tactical Notes-
Google Reader
Google Reader-keywords
*org name
*programs and events
*Owner, GM, Coach
*other teams in space
*URLs of site and blog
*industry terms related to local fan interest
*Subscribe to key bloggers in your space
AVOID GENERAL TERMS.
Find New Blogs:
Technorati.com
Alltop.com
Icerocket.com

Twitter
Reveal More in Bio
One sentence dedicated to overall mission
One sentence to explain purpose of twitter presence
One sentence to show authenticity of who is behind it
For instance…
“Great family baseball experience. Using twitter to connect with fans. You may hear several of our voices through this profile. Nice to tweet you!”
*Follow back all real people
*Block spammers and marketers
Find and follow
Individuals who tweet about mission
Like minded organizations /peers Corporate relations/partners
Don’t follow more than 200 than who is following you until you reach about 1000 followers
Place personal Twitter handle in “Name Field”
Best Practices
Background photo should be as fan centric as possible
Actively seek to reply and retweet others
Include home page link in the bio

Twitter
Great Practice
Shows largest following because of fan expectations
Be more engaging with fans
Give then an experience, a twitter autograph just for them

Update Scheduler - Hootsuite
Top Efficiency Tactic
Used to schedule updates to multiple locations
Feedback and Stats
Measure effectiveness through easy reports

Facebook Profile and Pages
In facebook, your personal profile is the way for you to make initial connections and it gives you the chance to invite friends to fan pages. Privacy is customizable, but be willing to be open with most.
(Being aware you are on public display is a good governor when absent a social media policy)
Tutorial to create a custom welcome page for your facebook fan page

Blogs and Comments
Use comment management
service like Disqus.com
Commenting on other blog posts *What did they say well?
*Answer Questions
*Relay what others say
*Ask “what if ?”
*Review history and project future
Top Priority Tactic
Comment early and often on other blog posts that mention your team.

Gmail
Gmail account to administrate should be friendly moniker like "bigteamfan@gmail“
Load email contacts for future friend finding opportunities (gmail has 10k contact limit so be prepared to setup more than one account)
Annually, refresh these contact lists with a new export from your data.
Monthly, rotate these through your profiles to find new friends to follow

YouTube
Incorporate Branding
Bio Should Include…
Fan-friendly welcome
Links to your sites
Full profile of information
Open Comments
Fear of negative comments shouldn’t limit you from positive connections
“Subscribe to” and “Add as Friend” all peer organizations and individual who produce content around your mission.

Schematic Workflow

Tactical Matrix

Daily Tasks and Time

Task Order - Tool Tutorials
gmail.com - may need more than one
- sign up with name equivalent of “NorthwoodsLeaguefan@gmail.com”
- also get NorthwoodsLeaguefan2, NorthwoodsLeaguefan3
- load contact list from csv file (limit to 10,000 contacts per email account)
hootsuite.com- signup with primary gmail account
- connect personal twitter, team twitter, facebook fan pages, facebook personal profile
- feed YouTube RSS to Hootsuite on RSS/Atom tab
http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/username/uploads
-set keyword search columns
- video tutorial – Setting up a hootsuite account
-video tutorial – Hootsuitehas a $1.99 iphone app
Google.com/reader- signup with primary gmail account
- import known blog RSS feeds and keyword alert feeds
- video tutorial – Using Google Reader

Task Order - Tool Tutorials
youtube.com- signup with primary gmail account
-setup teamYouTube channel with matching username
disqus.com- signup with primary gmail account
-setup disqusprofile and replace blog comment system
Discover New Bloggers
alltop.com- become familiar
technorati.com- become familiar
icerocket.com- become familiar
User Names - bring usernames into alignment - http://namechk.com/

Tactical Matrix

Daily Tasks and Time

http://www.slideshare.net	30
http://www.twylah.com	5
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http://paulaphilbrook.blogspot.com	1
https://bbpilot.ohio.edu	1
http://clients.shoutlet.com	1
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Fan Engagement: Sports Social Media Done Right

by Pursuant Sports on Feb 23, 2010

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Fan Engagement: Sports Social Media Done Right — Presentation Transcript