General Marketing – Page 5 – Digital and Social Media Sports

Analytics and Data, Content Marketing, Digital, Fan Development, General Marketing, General Sports Business, Social Media, Social Media ROI, Sponsorships, Sports Media, Sports Technology, Uncategorized

4 Years of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast: Key Lessons from the SMSports Pros, Part 7

As I’ve looked back on over four years and 100 episodes of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, I am blown away, myself, shaking my head in amazement as I revisit all the great insights and lessons I have been lucky enough to draw out of these generous pros. My quest to help distill it all continues with part 7.

See part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, part 5 here, part 6 here, and stay tuned for more!

Overprepare and be ready for some content to go unused
A story I’ve heard often, and have lived myself many times, is of the tons of content, carefully crafted, thoughtfully produced, and at the ready, can often end up on the cutting room floor, a folder of tears, if you will. But the best are always ready, knowing this is a necessary reality of being prepared. Social media moves so quickly and real-time is so important to truly capitalize, and therefore it is paramount to have content and a plan for any outcome. Ask any social media pro about their folder of tears, and you’ll no doubt get a story about a sweet graphic, campaign, post, or video that never saw the light of day.
Resources follow revenue
The next social media and sports pro that says they have ample resources and wants of nothing will be the first. (Insert sarcastic joke about the Clemson Athletics department here). There are so many platforms to serve, so much content you want to produce, and so much analytics and analysis to do. And it’s all accelerating faster than organizations can keep up with, and certainly faster than revenue paradigms typically evolve, as well. But just about any request for more – budget, staff, equipment – is going to be met with a demand to show how it’ll lead to more revenue (even if there are multiple steps along the way). The monetization of social media question doesn’t have a single right answer, but the best are taking the time to analyze and model how it can lead to social media, justifying the question of resources. The answer, at the end of the day, is always revenue.
If it doesn’t match your brand, you shouldn’t be doing it
The old saying goes (to paraphrase) that brand is what people say about you when you’re not around. Well, many brands in sports have largely been built over decades, long before Twitter was even a gleam in Jack Dorsey’s and Ev Williams’s eyes. Yet, Twitter has become a place where brands in sports are established, where voices, look, and feel are being cultivated. And many social media and sports pros I’ve spoken to over the years not only recognize this reality, but take the responsibility to be caretakers of that brand quite seriously. More than dropping a tweet to fish for numbers, at the expense of a brand value that is priceless and perpetual.
Make an effort to integrate sponsors organically
The holy grail for social media and sports sponsorship is authenticity, content that both involves sponsors, but doesn’t feel forced. It’s not easy. It takes effort. But while we all recognize the desire to do this, not everybody makes the effort and sticks to it. Many of the top social media and sports pros have developed a sixth sense for it, though, understanding how to identify and how to create organic opportunities for partners to play. There are a lot of opportunities for exposure, for engagement, for content and sponsored content or integration need not be an idea with questionable connotations. Do better.
Celebrate the little victories when the big victories aren’t coming
If there’s one thing every social media and sports pro can agree on, it’s the inability to control what happens in the game or match or race. There will be wins and there will be losses. There will be highs and lows. But it doesn’t change the charge to continue to drive engagement and emotion on social media among the fans. It has been instructive to speak to several sage social media specialists over the years who have helmed teams that have gone through periods of losing. I have learned a ton from them and it starts with still finding ways to celebrate what fans love, to make the smaller victories feel a little bigger (carefully), and to foster fans that care and can still enjoy the team. It’s not always easy, and not recommended, to be the eternal optimist. But it’s paramount to continue to find reasons and ways to celebrate all those moments and reasons every game, every day that fans have to stand and cheer.
Align athletics with the greater mission and goals of the university
I’ve had the opportunity to pick the minds of several sports pros in the college athletics space, from big brands to small schools and many in-between. Athletics is, for many, the front porch for the university to many, so it’s imperative that messaging and brand is aligned. When sports can draw the attention of many potential students and donors all around the world, it’s an opportunity to further promote not just awareness of the school, but more about what it stands for and what they can offer beyond the sports. There is a grand mission for every university to get their values conveyed, and the savvy social media and sports pros in college appreciate it, and communicate with the university to represent it on that front porch.
How can you look big-time?
Everybody wants to be in the cool kid group when it comes to the competitive world of social media and sports. It’s where many fans form their perceptions, so it can be important to stand out from the crowd. And to find a way to stand out. It can be darn near impossible to be on every platform and to do it well, especially at the smaller level, but focusing on what you can do well, and on what will ultimately lead to accomplishing the primary goals – that can be the game changer. On the level playing field of digital and social, anyone can stand out for doing something special.
Consistency of quality content is a challenge for social media and sports pros
This can be tough in the pros, with varying degrees of time to put together content, but even more so in college, with so many handles, so much content, and such disparity in resources across sports and across schools. Conference content conglomerates can suffer if the stream from one school, for example, is far superior to another’s. And while the football team may have sick, graphics and video, the tennis team may not have the resources to create such quality, let alone doing so while maintaining a consistent brand. One of the things many social media and sports pros in college hold dear is that consistency in look, feel, and messaging across all its accounts and every sport. Every team comprises the whole of the university’s athletics, and that institution should have a consistent, powerful message.
Your platforms can and should be a dynamic space
Every day brings something new in sports. That’s the beauty of it. And yet, too often, the presentation remains the same. That is not to say something for consistency, but different scenarios can call for different content, emphases, and visuals. While this emanated from a conversation with West Virginia Athletics’s Grant Dovey about the dynamic nature of the Mountaineers website, the idea can apply across social media and sports. While templates can help and can hold value, sometimes the special situations give cause to deviate from the norm, to surprise and delight.
Building trust and buy-in by recognizing goals
Dovey also brought up the importance of realizing that the goals of some of the most important people when it comes to creating content – the coaches – is paramount. For the coaches, it was about reaching recruits, and reaching recruits, and then reaching recruits. This same principle applies across the board – how do you win trust? By understanding exactly what the goals are of others – driving donations, collecting leads, selling groups, creating sponsor assets, getting sign-ups, and, well you get the picture. It can be easy to get stuck in the KPIs of social media, but every day, it’s important to take stock, talk to others, and think about how you can show there’s something in it for them and it’s worth the time and attention.
Focus on building a community, not just a fan base
Of the stories I’ve heard or lived in social media and sports, some of the best and most heartwarming are when there is such a community, that fans become friends. When Facebook or Twitter or Instagram can lead to meetups at a game or an event, or relationships form from seeing the same faces at each game. Social media should create a community that feels together, that wants to physically and digitally high-five each other when something exciting happens. A community with stronger ties is a more engaged invested fan base, the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Analytics and Data, Content Marketing, Digital, Fan Development, General Marketing, Social Media, Social Media ROI, Sponsorships, Sports Media, Sports Technology

4 Years of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast: Key Lessons from the SMSports Pros, Part 5

I continue to be amazed at the insight and foresight offered through conversations on the podcast over the years. It has been a privilege and pleasure to connect with smart, seasoned pros, and my attempt at summarizing at all keeps going. It is my best attempt to distilling down four years and 100 episodes of the podcast.

See part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here part 4 here, and stay tuned for more! Here is part 5:

Find opportunities to increase engagement and consistency
One of my favorite podcast interviews was with Tom Halls, then with British Tennis and now with esports conglomerate Gfinity. He has helped multiple organizations mature digitally and part of the strategy was around creating engagement for fans, which informed future content and engagement. Fans of any avidity level are interacting with teams in innumerable ways on countless platforms – this represents tons of opportunities to drive engagement. Even better is to create consistent relationships, which can transform of a casual fan to a superfan.
What can we provide that others can’t? What unique value can we offer?
Information used to be the currency, but the speed of social media and the democratization of, well, everything, has meant it’s harder to attract fans to your channels. So the question becomes what you can offer that does stand out from others. This can come up with a team late to the party after finally being able to announce a trade, an official entity competing with so many others. But there’s gotta be a unique value proposition, find that and you’ll win fan attention over time.
Different ‘conversions’ for different fans
It’s hard, often overwhelming work managing tons of different fan journeys and fan demographics. The challenge and the important truth is that these journeys are diverse and divergent – not every fan engaging on social or visiting a website or opening an email is the same. It’s vital to study, understand, and map out these journeys, to optimize them ending in goals – moving fans up the spectrum, one mini goal at a time. With the increasing ability to personalize through digital, optimizing the journey is easier than ever for those that practice it.
You support us, we support you
It’s an interesting time for the dwindling sports industry media (though far from dead) because advertising is not as tolerated and ‘free’ content is easier to come by. But the ability of fans to recognize and appreciate quality content remains strong and growing. And fans are willing and wanting to support those producing content they enjoy ‘for free.’ This theme stood out in my conversation with Ross Tucker, an ex-NFL player, who, among other endeavors, has built a sizable, engaged fan community through his writing and podcasts. And he has built such loyalty in the community that they want to buy things through his partners and some even make a straight donation to Amazon. In exchange, Tucker keeps churning out content and constantly converses with his fans, a two-way street in so many ways.
Know who you’re talking to on each platform
We’ve come a long way over the years and for, for many, this idea is now a given. But especially for those that use a social media management platform, it’s just so easy to check off the box and send the same content to several platforms. It’s naïve and borderline disrespectful, however, to think your fans are homogenous across platforms. The best are studying, and can articulate, the differences of their fan bases on each platform, and know the voice, presentation, content, and promotions that will work best on each. Can you do this?
What can this new platform allow us to do that we couldn’t do before?
As platforms emerge, and as others come and go, one of the interesting topics I’ve discussed is how social media and sports pros treat the shiny new toys. How they know when it’s worth the investment of time, content, and resources. A great piece of advice that consistently came out is the idea of what unique value or opportunity it presents. Many practice, not quite as many preach, about wanting to be good at every platform they serve, not mediocre on all (but at least on all). Whether it’s a unique way to present or create content, a new audience, a new way to engage – there has to be a reason to jump on what you think may be the next big thing.
Plan your stories and events
Over the last several months, stories have become ubiquitous – starting with Snapchat, then Instagram, and then WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, and even Skype. And the social media and sports pros I’ve been lucky to learn from are all master storytellers. The trick is, well, creating a story. It means building a narrative, even storyboarding, in advance of the event. The shots you’ll want, how you’ll get it, the graphics you may need, the copy you want to have ready to paste. That doesn’t mean you’re not ready to react and create in the moment, but the best stories are thoughtful and thought-out.
Know your social media game plan and priorities
I always swoon when I hear a pro clearly lay out their priorities for each platform and fan touch point, and know how they want to use each. It’s a simple, but powerful exercise to actually write it down. What does each social platform mean to you and mean to your fans? Which is most important and why? If you could invest more in one, how and why? Because, when amazing happens or big news breaks, you have to be ready to go, and it could cause one’s head to explode if they don’t which platform to hit first and how.
Be the go-to source for fans
There are so many places a fan can go for their news, content, opinions, and insight. It’s something that not just writers and bloggers face, but teams and leagues, too. A great theme that has emerged in many conversations was the need to be the place fans go when something is happening or has happened – they want your stats or commentary during games, they know you’ll have an informed column after a big transaction, they simply enjoy getting the news delivered from your voice more than others – make the fans want to come to you, over all others. This also applies to teams almost never being able to break big stories – when you finally can announce a deal, what additional content or insight, in your special seat and view, can you deliver that fans can’t get elsewhere?
Social media following and engagement is the new Q-Rating
Going back to Babe Ruth, athletes have always held a certain sway over society. But social media has empowered athletes more than ever before, and follower count and engagement rate is the new social capital. Athletes are seizing opportunities more and more, chiming in on conversations on the platforms, and working with their teams to maximize their social game. There is a related market growing of agencies and platforms to connect athletes to endorsers and the way teams and media and league are utilizing their athletes and alumni are becoming more creative and strategic nowadays.
Timelines are as constrained as ever
If there is one element that has become even more important over the last four years in social media and sports, it’s speed and real-time. It’s not just in sports, but for all social media marketers. But it doesn’t mean you just react in the moment and rely on instinct. The best teams are using tools to streamline their content creation and preparation, brands are preparing campaigns on timelines that are a fraction of what they once were, and real-time video, GIFs, and clever graphics and one-liner are ruling the day. It’s an awesome opportunity, but it’s not easy.
Translating stories effectively to social is essential
Sports creates stories every day, by nature. There are also tons of athletes with incredible stories that transcend what they do in competition. The trick for a social media and sports pro, and the content team, is to effectively take a great story and turn into something powerful and digestible and engaging on social media. This is an acquired, practiced skill that must be honed over time, and it’s why social media and sports pros need to have storytelling skills (writing helps), creative skills (watching YouTube tutorials help if you’re a one-person team), PR skills (know how to spread the story and the desired messaging), and curiosity (to go and uncover the best stories). This theme comes up especially in college – with so many great stories of student athletes and the importance of the message of the university.
Building a portfolio is easier than ever
It used to be much harder to build a portfolio of work. But the platforms on digital and social now allows anyone to publish their content – images, videos, written work, quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis – and to prove you got some chops. Many folks I’ve talked on the podcast got started with self-publishing or blogging. And NHL hockey photography legend told me he’ll gladly check out the flickr or Instagram account (no filters preferred) of an aspiring photojournalist. There is nothing stopping anyone from building an online portfolio and get their own experience and work to show off.
There’s a difference between Vicodin and vitamins
The last four years have seen the sports business progress with incredible speed. There are so many innovative companies coming up in this space, and it can be a whirlwind to make sense of it all. I had an interesting conversation in which my guest, Anthony Vassallo, used this analogy. Vassallo played a big role with Dodgers Accelerator, a collaboration between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the firm R/GA, and their work was a study in identifying companies worth investing in and paying attention to in sports. The analogy Anthony invoked was meant to illuminate the difference between solutions that alleviate pain points (Vicodin) and those that just make you a little better off than you were (vitamins). It’s an important consideration as you think about where to invest that innovation budget – is a Vicodin solution only going to be temporary? Is the vitamin go to pay off in the long-term enough? Important questions to ask as we all seek to innovate so rapidly.

It’s essential to maximize your space

One of the less talked about, but still interesting and evolving space are the stadiums and arenas themselves. Setting up your venue for a valuable, social, versatile experience I all the rage. It’s multi-purpose buildings, community areas, social media photo opps, areas for sponsor activations or kids activities, and table tops to a rest a drink while charging your phone. The building itself is an avenue for fan engagement.

More to come…See all podcast episodes here.

Analytics and Data, Content Marketing, Fan Development, General Marketing, Social Media, Social Media ROI, Sponsorships, Sports Media

4 Years of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast: Key Lessons from the SMSports Pros, Part 3

I am really enjoying looking back on four years and 100 episodes of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, and am trying to share some of the insights that stuck with me from the sharp minds with whom I’ve been lucky enough to connect . See part 1 here, part 2 here, and stay tuned for more! Here is part 3:

Fans want to know you feel it with them
Multiple conversations over the years have centered around emotion, namely that it’s ok for team social media accounts to express and convey emotion. In good times and bad. In many ways, the official account can be the voice of the fans and fans won’t trust an account that treats everything as honky-dory when it’s not, nor will they appreciate when an epic moment sounds like a matter-of-fact report from the social voice. While it’s a given these days that team accounts need not sound like formal press release robots (the additional arguments around omnipresent snark, notwithstanding), there are still teams that don’t experience the highs and lows with their fans. This is a lost opportunity to make genuine connections.
Good partnerships involve KPI’s and effort on both sides
Successful sports corporate partnerships aren’t easy. They’re not supposed to be. If the goal is to come out of a partnership feeling like both sides have won, it takes a little work from both sides. Make sure each side knows what success look like, and establish the goals and KPI’s. And determine what each side needs to do to assure that success. When both sides pull their weight, it’s obvious. It’s so much better for the organization, the sponsor, and the fans.

Sponsorships must not operate in a silo; it’s gotta be across channels

When there are innumerable ways to reach fans, it’s not just naïve, but perhaps irresponsible to restrict a partnership to a single channel. Brands are demanding it now and sponsorship teams are becoming better equipped to package, activate, and sell that way. A partnership can be built around KPIs and a goal, and each channel can be effectively tapped to further those objectives. It’s an omni-channel world now!

Athletes have the platform to transcend sports
One of the salient and interesting trends of the last several years has been the rise of the athlete as a cultural icon. It led me to a conversation with Heather Zeller, who is part of the burgeoning intersection of pro sports and fashion. Sports Illustrated just came out with its most fashionable athletes list, the post-game NBA podium is now must-see TV for fans of basketball and fashion alike, and many sports stars on looking at apparel lines and more beyond the field or the court. With social media giving a direct line for athletes to share their lifestyles and the clout to move and mold many minds, the opportunity, too, is incredible now for athletes to further just about anything.
Social is an overall marketing message, and sales can happen when done right

This sentiment summarizes a big part of the social media ROI conversation so well. Social media – the ability to reach fans every day with news, content, messaging, and conversation – IS marketing, even if not a single click to buy is ever made from the platform. We used to have pay for attention (save your nostalgia or the old-days of easy massive organic Facebook reach), to budget for any opportunity to reach fans. While this is still an aspect of sports biz, simply being part of the conversation and thoughts of fans every day is a hugely invaluable win for marketing. The trick is to use the ad platforms on those channels, where fans expect to see more direct sales messages, to then turn that love into transaction. There is no marketing:content ratio, it’s 100% always an indirect form of marketing, of making fans love you more.

Learn from content performance on social and apply it across channels
Social media is a treasure trove of important insights. And, when applied well, such insights about the content that is moving and affecting fans, can improve every department of the organization and every fan touch point. Did a graphic really take off on Twitter, a video go viral on Facebook, a player who’s consistently driving big reach – don’t just use it for social media strategy, use and share that knowledge for all aspects of the team. For emails, for posters, for radio ads, for TV ads, for sponsor campaigns, and, well you get it. Social media is a free focus group where fans tell you what they like and want to see. Use it.
The importance of a unified voice
There are so many message being disseminated in so many places in so many ways when it comes to social media and sports. Whether it’s one of several teams at a university or one of many accounts for a pro team or even a website, in-game, and social media presence as a combination. The organizations that have that consistent look, feel, sound, tone, and brand reinforce how well a fan can connect with and appreciate and understand it. Years ago, it may have been common to not even have consistent social handles, let alone everything else. But the value of a unified voice is now unquestioned and spreading.
Data and analytics are only as good how well the insights are communicated
Whether it’s deeper stats to augment fans’ understanding of the game or a dive into content performance and sales efforts, data and analytics can penetrate, and in many ways have, all parts of sports organization, on and off the playing surface. But it’s no secret what the key is to an effective analytics presence – communicating it to inform and inspire action based off of it. This has been a common refrain over the years and why a data analyst who can also write, speak, and present is essential. And that anyone acting based on a data-infused insight can understand why.
Anticipate what fans are looking for

When it comes to social media as a second screen, this idea remains on the minds of pros in the space as they seek to supplement, not regurgitate, what fans are watching. This is a combination of preparation and reaction – whether it’s lending context to a play, augmenting the story behind a player, or giving fans something share-able in the moment – it’s the job of the social media person to listen, react, and come prepared to help make the experience of being a fan more fun.
Make it easy for fans to find you
You want to get your content in front of fans? Don’t make them come to you, go to them and earn their attention. There’s something to be said for having fans want to come to you, but it’s far better to know where your fans are spending their time, to know how to create content on those platforms to engage on it, and to understand where your fans o tomorrow may be. It’s why teams are embracing mediums like mobile and OTT, and they’re innovating with more convenient, more effective ways to get their content to ans.
Learn from and collaborate with others
This is simply a way of life for the social media and sports community, and it was one that has been reinforced again and again. There may be healthy competition to outdo each other on social in the sports community, but the collaboration is unlike any other industry. Innovation is applauded and it’s best practice to, well, learn about practices. It’s why this podcast has been so valuable and has been key to those with whom I’ve spoken. Be the person that reaches out in your industry; to learn and to share.
Be prepared for success
We always talk about how it’s impossible to control what happens in the games. The wins and losses may affect social media metrics and strategy, but it’s simply another factor to account for. But good times full of wins or titles do happen. The best know how to maximize the pot when they’re dealing a winning hand, they’re ready for it. This piece of advice has stuck with me and rings as true now as it did then. How will you be ready for your moment in the sun?
Getting your fans more engaged through transparency
Picture the superfan. The one that wakes up thinking about that night’s game, who wears the team’s apparel a few times per week or more, and the one anxious to see whatever video or picture you post next. The question, then, is: are you serving the superfan and cultivating the next one? This intriguing topic came up in a conversation over transparency with fans with Jesse Agler of the San Diego Padres. They shared the (reputable) publications putting out reports on them, even if the official Padres media wasn’t reporting it. Fans that care the most are thirsty for the rumors, the stuff the team can’t or won’t spread, and if the team isn’t serving it, fans will go elsewhere. It’s a slippery slope, but if fans come to trust your channels as being the only destination they need to worry about, more fans will come and more superfans will develop. It’s not so black and white, of course, but it’s an idea worth considering.
The fan experience on game day is a series of (connected) moments
We used to think about making every aspect of fan experience the best it can possibly be. And while that of course remains the goal, the difference nowadays is we think about the journey that comprises the fan experience. Game operations and venue designers are now thinking about how one part connects to the next, and increasingly using data to tie it all together and make it progressively more precise, and even personalized. So don’t just prioritize optimizing ingress, set fans up for the next step in their journey, about what they will want and will need next.
The stadium is a social epicenter, full of peripheral activity
I remember going to the Detroit Tigers new Comerica Park back in the early 2000s, and being awestruck by the mini carnival, complete with a Ferris wheel and merry-go-round that was inside the stadium. Now going to a game is even more about having a unique experience worth talking about and sharing – other activities, unique food and drinks, opportunities to mix and mingle. There’s so much more going on while fans are watching the game now, and this will only continue.
Know who your promotion is trying to reach
When a promotion is conceived, it’s sometimes tied to a sponsor, sometimes to a celebrity appearance, a holiday, and sometimes just out of a brainstorm meeting. Promotional nights are a key way to drive attendance, especially for games on weekdays or against lesser opponents. But the secret behind effective promotions is to know who you’re trying to reach with each promotion. Then, tailor the message and even the audience and the platform. In other words, if you’re promoting a Social Media Night or a Star Wars Night, know who your target audience is.
ABC – Always Be Creatin’
A recurring theme among some of the best social media pros I’ve talked to is that they’re constantly creating. Whether it’s a new media form or celebratory GIF, personalized visuals for players, or capitalizing on a meme (or creating a meme). Content and currency and if you make a commitment to it, it pays off in spades. And if a piece of content works well – see how you can iterate it, extend the idea to other players or part of the game day coverage and experience. Keep creating and you’ll build up some valuable folders that’ll keep fans loving your [fire] all year long.

More to come…See all podcast episodes here.

Analytics and Data, College, Content Marketing, Digital, Fan Development, General Marketing, Social Media, Social Media ROI, Sponsorships, Sports Media, Uncategorized

4 Years of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast: Key Lessons from the SMSports Pros, Part 2

I continue to look back on four years and 100 episodes of gleaning knowledge from some of the best and most thoughtful social media and sports pros,, doing my best to sum up key points. It is an attempt to give back to the community that continues to give so much to me. See part 1 here and stay tuned for parts 3 and 4!

Brand perception can start on social media and then go beyond; articulate your personaIn many ways, social media is the front porch of the organization. Where fans most frequently and consistently encounter the team and engage with it. It is, therefore, the place where a personality is perpetuated, a brand is built, and a look and feel is fostered. The power of the platform must be acknowledged and utilized. The best guests I talked to could clearly and thoughtfully describe the voice and the brand behind who they wanted to be on social media. Can you?
Make content easy to consume and digestTake the time. Take the time to eliminate any effort or friction for your fans, when it comes to content consumption. (Well, everything, really) That may mean using the proper specs for images, not squeezing in text that necessitates a pinch and zoom, not making a 5-minute video that would be better as a 45-second video. Those that take the time to consider this with their content are making it easier for fans to engage.
Your players are your brand ambassadors – issuing mini press releases dailyThis came from my conversation with Kevin DeShazo, who is thankfully leading the crusade against social media fear tactics, while espousing the need for us all to realize the power of the platforms, for good and bad. Whether it’s the 10-year veteran in the pros or the freshman hotshot in college, everyday players are representing their team, issuing mini press releases, as DeShazo put it in one response on our podcast. This is not something to fear, but to be harnessed.
Focus and foster the good on social, don’t use fear and focus on the badThe above very much relates to this concept, as well – the perils of the platforms are vastly outweighed by the good and the value. This idea, in many forms, has come up in my conversations over the years, and oftentimes, like in social media, it comes back to stories and FOMO. Convey to those uneasy about the power of social and win them over with examples – stories of how others are using it (and how you can) and instilling a little FOMO can move the needle in the office, too.
Focus on use cases and the path to winsIf there’s one piece of actionable advice for any social/digital and sports pro to take from many of my podcasts, it’s this one. You want to prove social media is worth caring about and investing in? Show it. Because not everybody ‘gets it,’ and not everybody can believe in metrics and reports that are new to them. Celebrate the small wins, showcase the success stories, and boast and brag when something blows up in a good way.
Teams are providing content fans seekThis seems so simple now. But it wasn’t that long ago that teams were still mostly glorified PR houses. Then the content improved, but in many ways still remained ‘close to the vest’ [and still does in a lot of places]. But a fascinating trend from teams has been them becoming the primary content destinations for fans. Many realized they were losing engaged eyeballs to other sites that were willing to entertain reports and rumors, and content that wouldn’t typically come from a team. Some hired insiders, others aggregated links. It’s one thing to produce awesome content, another to be a resource for fans, too.
Novelty doesn’t last longRemember when Snapchat revolutionized social media with ‘Stories?’ Or when Meerkat made it so easy to go live on mobile? Ever wonder why it feels like nary a month goes by without a new feature being introduced to your favorite platform or app? Fans expect incremental improvements and newness now. They expect ‘updates’ all the time. It’s no longer good enough to bank on a singular innovation, a culture of progress and improvements and breaking things quickly prevails now more than ever.
Capture data to provide valuePerhaps no field has grown more in social and digital in sports than data and analytics over the last handful of years. All of a sudden it became feasible to collect all sorts of fan data. But the theme that prevails among the best in the business is that data is not just a source for measurement and quarterly charts – it leads to adding value for the fans and for the organization. It’s important to diagram it out and design the path from data to action to value, and not just ‘doing big data’ just to say you are.
Start with objectives and reverse-engineer; empowerIt’s always easier to define social media ROI when you ask the question about the factors that comprise the ‘R.’ A major reason a lot of the pros I spoke with have success in their roles – they talk to their colleagues. They determine the objectives of every department in the organization, they learn what others value, so they can use the social and digital tools at their disposal to help and create and drive that value. Particularly in the college space, where there are several teams and hands in the social media cookie jar, along with coaches that each their idea of objectives, it’s just as important to empower others, teaching them to use the tools.
Value the deep connections and engagementEngagement as a catch-all terms has always given me pause. There are so many varying degrees of engagement that it all can’t be captured with just a single word. But it’s easy to recognize a deeper connection with a fan when it happens. Something you know will stick with them and become a part of their identity. Chasing the deep engagements can be just as valuable, if not more so, than trying to maximize that nebulous engagement rate. Cultivate super fans with deep engagements.
Social has led to more thirst for content and information, led to 365 nature of sportsI’ve had the chance to speak with folks in the media about how social media crept up on them and then vastly changed and amplified the way media and content producers live and work. When it became easy to get the score, fans wanted stats and play by play and audio. Then headlines came with a click, so fans wanted to know the rumors and the instant reactions and analysis. Then that came about, so fans wanted video and even more details into the dealings of the day and the lives of athletes. If it feels like pro sports are all relevant 365 days/year, that’s because they are. The content firehose of social media has made it such, because fans always want more.
Not every team has the same goalAsk three social media managers for sports teams for the list of goals on social media and there’s a good chance each will be different. It should be. The teams that turn the lights on and fill out a stadium or arena have far different needs than the team constantly under pressure to put more butts in seats. It’s so important to realize that, and to operate and learn and emulate appropriately. The key is to appreciate and understand the objectives and to realize that, as one’s career or the team’s status quo grows, the goals will change, too.
It’s hard to get an increase from ‘free’ when it comes to sponsored socialIt’s really not that long ago when social media sponsorship meant deals that included ‘x’ number of Facebook posts (yes, that generic) over the course of the contract. Social media was, and for some still is, a throw-in. The icing on the cake for a partner already paying plenty for more traditional inventory. Well, a common theme and lesson is that it’s easy to dilute the value of social media when one treats it as more a bonus than an asset.
Leverage social and UGC to amplify the team’s own brandCreating a brand is not just coming up with a catchy slogan and hashtag. It all doesn’t amount to much unless the fans get it and if the fans propagate it. That’s a big reason why user-generated content is so integral. Fans trust real fans, and are affected by them, so much more than brands and the official team account (though that is evolving, too). When you can drive a fan to participate, to proselytize, and to perpetuate, that’s a brand being built.
Twitter is a snapshot, not the entire universeWhile it’s so cool to be able to hear from fans, it’s important to realize that the social media sentiment on each and every platform is a subset and a small sample. That doesn’t make it insignificant or not insightful, it just means, you have to remind yourself, that is only a fraction of the whole. Small things can seem like a big deal, generalizations can be made from a couple tweets. It’s important to find the balance of following what active fans are saying and doing on social media, and studying the fan base as a whole on all platforms with which they connect, engage with, and encounter the team or the story or the brand.
Social media gives everyone their own distribution channel
This thought has obviously come to the forefront over the last few years, in which players and teams and bloggers and personalities have been able to disseminate their content and messages seamlessly, to a worldwide audience. It means there is a lot of incredible content being produced, it also means there is a lot of “absolute shit” content (as Richard Deitsch put it in our chat) being produced, as well. While the crowd is bigger, the best still stand out. Standing out with quality content is a necessity, even as it becomes more difficult every day.

More to come…See all podcast episodes here.

Fan Development, General Marketing, Sponsorships

A Sports Biz Tour of the World Surf League Vans US Open

On August 6, 2017, the World Surf League Vans US Open held its final day out at Huntington Beach, CA. The event attracts thousands of visitors and many more viewers online.

There were activities, merchandise, sponsors, and surf out in full swing. Come on a trip with me around the event with a sports biz lens. Check it out!

College, Conferences, Digital, General Marketing, General Sports Business, Sports Technology, Uncategorized

What Stood Out at the NACDA Vendor Showcase

There are only so many things in which a team or athletics program can invest. And the vendor exhibition at the annual NACDA conference is a visual manifestation of just that – from compelling new products to nice-to-haves to innovations, and enough to stretch the budget of even the boldest behemoths.

I love these things. Because, if nothing else, it is a showcase of what college athletics folks, in this case, want and need; and at what those out there think they want and need. (Except free booze; always free booze). It is also an opportunity to identify pain points for college athletics programs, because these businesses should, in theory, help solve a pain point or at least enhance or streamline a strength.

With that in mind, here are eight of the most common solutions and types of vendors I saw pitching their services to the college athletics folks (in digital, in marketing, in development/fundraising, in ticket sales, in operations, in media relations, in external relations…all over) at the 2017 NACDA Conference vendor showcase

Branding companies

Everywhere you turn, there is a new and novel way to propagate your brand. While digital is growing more and more, there is still a lot of faith, and a lot of value, in physical, visual branding. From logos on the carpet to branded accessories to wrapping a bus, and just about anything you can imagine, there is a way to find a branded version for anything, a way to make sure the school’s logo is front and center all over. Colleges are getting more and more savvy and self-sufficient with graphic design, but sometimes you need someone that specializes in pool tables, corn hole boards, or gymnasium floors.

Lockers

You may have heard about the University of Texas football program’s new $10,000 lockers. Not sure there any that ostentatious, but there were plenty of locker companies and displays there that could no doubt make them. Lockers aren’t just a utility anymore, they’re an attraction and a sign of brand and grandeur for a college athletics program looking to impress recruits. It is another cog in the arms race and vendors pitching the latest and greatest and most innovative and visually appealing lockers were not in short supply at NACDA.

Digital / Video

With the proliferation of social, mobile, and digital among fans (and, well, everybody), colleges know they need to have the digital and video capability and output of a colossal conglomerate. Content is key to affect all departments in athletics, and video and digital offers the youngest and largest audience, and the best bang for the literal and figurative buck, in many cases. These companies help hook up complex camera and video / video replay systems, offer streaming solutions across platforms, streamline the transfer of content from phone or camera to social or web, allowing any associate SID to provide amazing content, that gets disseminated, at the drop of a dime. The mind is ahead of the body for some athletics departments – they know what they want to do, but may lack the resources, bandwidth, or knowledge to make it happen. That’s where these guys seek to come in.

Architecture

There’s nothing college athletics loves more than scaffolding. Perpetual construction connotes shiny new facilities or additions, a sign of financial health and progress for their athletics programs. And I was struck by the number of architecture firms specializing in sports facilities seeking to catch the eye of attendees to design their next new buildings funded by the next successful campaigns. There is indeed big business here, and a number of firms were there trying their best to stand out as best-in-class, most trusted, or most creative.

Turf

There were also a handful of artificial turf companies, which seemed fairly indistinguishable. There is still demand for the product and therefore an opportunity to win market share (maybe someone has?) and seek to stand out through innovation, creativity, and/or relationships.

Digital Signage

Screens, screens, and more screens. Society has a surfeit of screens, and there are solutions that want to help fill and organize those screens, and other digital signs of all shapes and sizes. There is opportunity to expose more fans to more content, more marketing, and more sponsors. It’s not easy to serve and organize all the content across those screens, and measure it; let alone come up with the physical signs and screens themselves. Another case of knowing what one can and should be doing, and seeking a solution to make it happen.

Fundraising

Digital has certainly penetrated content, ticketing, marketing, media relations, and operations. But fundraising, a major part of college athletics, have yet, it seems to reach full digital maturation. There weren’t a ton of solutions targeting this space, but there were some. Solutions helping to marry technology, data, and digital with fundraising and donations. This is a unique space that no doubt catches the eye of the development folks there, as these businesses seem to have things streamlined and figured out to make donation via digital both optimized and in compliance with the oh-so-many regulations.

Ticketing

While many can name the major players in ticketing for college athletics, there remains opportunity for a number of smaller players to get a small piece of the pie. Almost every program needs a ticketing solution and there is increasing demand for digital, for mobile, and for data among every one of those programs, of any size.

In the end, industries will evolve by seeking to make things better, easier, more successful. The vendors that win the value prop equation and have feasible, actionable solutions will capture college.

Conferences, Content Marketing, Digital, General Marketing, General Sports Business

2017 SBJ/Intersport Brand Engagement Summit Recap

In Spring 2017, Sports Business Journal and Intersport held the annual Engagement Summit, bringing together leads from the sports business and media world, as well as brands, to discuss the latest trends, tactics, and insights of the day.

What follows is a collection of the best quotes, insights, images, and observations shared via Twitter #SBJEngage from the event. Thanks to all whose tweets helped fuel this recap!

Analytics and Data, Conferences, Fan Development, General Marketing, General Sports Business, Uncategorized

A List of Sports Biz Insights and Stats from the Sloan Conference

The leaders in the sports business world are constantly on a quest to get bigger and better. They’re studying, predicting, measuring, analyzing, evolving. And many of them came together for the 2017 Sloan Sports and Analytics Conference. While the conference is very much about athlete and team performance, there is also a wealth of sports business stats and insights shared.

Here are 29 quick sports biz bytes from the conference, shared via Twitter from #SSAC17:
[See full recaps of Day 1 and Day 2 here. Lots more.]
*Leagues are evolving in their relationships with sponsors. The NFL talked about actively collaborating with corporate partners on all facets of the business of the league and he game. The success with Microsoft Surface was highlighted as a win.

*Fanatics has become such a dominant player in the sports merchandise space because of its robust digital offering that can act upon demand in an instant. An example cited was that after just five games into his breakout career, with his name hotter than ever, Joel Embiid’s jersey was one of the top-selling in the NBA, thanks to the speed of Fanatics.

*While this principle was stated from the NFL and MLB, it was a theme (and has been) for thought leaders for a while – content must be disseminated to reach fans at the places and on the platforms on which fans are consuming their content. Simple enough, right?

*Also from the NFL and MLB [and another recurring lesson] – a major key to the growth of any sport is youth participation. Get them playing, make them a fan while they’re, and there’s a better chance they’ll be fans for life.

*It’s great if you can collect data, but it’s all about what you do with it. Casey Wasserman clearly shared a lot of wisdom to SSAC attendees and this one resonated, as it should.

*Teams and leagues are now seeking to serve every fan, regardless of where or how they’re consuming and engaging. That means focusing during games on digital engagement, on the in-venue experience, and on the TV broadcast. Each offers an opportunity to engage, and treats every fan of the team with care.

*The FOMO acronym seemed to be another common consideration. It’s still about making others want to be there, at the game.

*Lots of talk about personalization. Ticketmaster envisioned reaching a place, soon, where every experience for fans is personalized – discovery, purchase, amenities. Team execs are similarly focused on personalization, particularly with fan messaging and in-venue experiences. The new norm is personalization, and it’s only going to get better.

*A stat that certainly stood out – 50-70% of Fanatics listings on Amazon are counterfeit. Bad news for consumers, perhaps fodder for teams to convince fans to buy from their stores. Or maybe teams should sell directly on Amazon.

*Every league is worried about the waning attention spans, and desire for ‘content snacks,’ of Millennials and Generation Z. The objective is not so much focused on shaving minutes off games, but more so about reducing dead time in games [NFL, MLB, NBA]. Less time between action. The NFL also noted adjusting their commercial ad structure, for something more fan-friendly.

*Some interesting findings from stats around Los Angeles Dodgers concessions – alcohol comprises 49% of concessions revenue. Perhaps not surprising, but interesting. Also from the Dodgers – fan cart size increased with self-serve kiosks, and the Dodgers saw concessions revenue and sales decrease when Clayton Kershaw pitch, because his starts were so much shorter. (And fans likely want to be in their seats to see the ace in action)

*Stats to consider from WWE – While we focus on so much on mobile TV viewing, just 15-20% of WWE Network viewing is on mobile devices. Even on the digital-only WWE Network, fans still seek out the big TV for their sports. Another eye-popping stat from WWE – 70% of their content consumption comes from outside the US.

*Wasserman Managing Partner Elizabeth Lindsey noted the need for sports leagues to focus on international growth, despite so much attention at home paid to driving youth, female, and minority viewership growth. The NBA has their eyes on India (looking for India’s version of Yao Ming), while the NFL is hoping to crack China. The NBA, in discussing their success growing the game and the league in China, noted that content was provided for free to a Chinese network to show on TV, building in exposure for the NBA and the game.
*Pretty impressive user and user engagement stats from Twitch. The esports and video game streaming platform boasts 100 million monthly active users, and their users average a mind-blowing 140 minutes per day on Twitch.

MIT-SSAC-1_0

*The aspects of personalization are also of increasing concern when it comes to content and digital marketing. As more data is collected and put into action, greater degrees of custom experiences with content is a goal for the sports business industry, as well.

*Virtual reality and augmented reality were not surprisingly popular topics. A stat that stood out that either means future growth or stuck in the rut for VR is that the Consumer headset market for VR in the US is currently around six to ten million. One definite positive was the news from sports VR company STRVIR, which reported that it has been profitable the last two years.
*NBA Commissioner Adam Silver talked about how lucky they are to have players that market the league themselves, with all their activity on social media and in the media. The league also focuses on social media education and empowerment, which, along with willing and already social media-savvy players, makes for great success there.

*170+ million fans watched March Madness games in 2016. That’s a helluva number, and is certainly happening on an ever more diverse array of platforms now.

*Uninterrupted, the player-driven and video-focused content network co-founded by LeBron James, is not trying to displace journalism outlets like ESPN. Instead, explained Maverick Carter, their competition is more premium content producers, like HBO.

* This stat just stood out to me a bit…Which sport would you guess has the fifth most estimated fans in the world? I’ll give you a second…

It’s volleyball. I wouldn’t have guessed correctly.

*Good gambling stats to heed, as legalization expands in the US –> In Europe, sports gambling via mobile comprises 80% of the market and in-play [during the game/match] gambling makes up over 50% of total handle. Lots of $$ to come in this space for the US. That said, one limiting factor for such real-time gambling, it was noted, is the slowness/lag of data feeds delivering the stats.

*The CTO of Ticketmaster provided some fascinating insights on a panel at the conference. One that stood out to poder was that 68% of all tickets on Ticketmaster are sold after the original on-sale and presale. This could mean a lot of things, but mainly that most tickets are not bought early, which aligns with notion that fans are waiting to buy tickets.
Another ticket sales stat, that ws quite mind-blowing, was that there is an estimated $7 BILLION worth of arbitrage in the ticket sales market. You think teams want some of that/

*Another stat that opens some eyes for teams (via Ticketmaster) is that the names captured to tickets sold ratio is 1:2.8. Yep, nearly 3 of every 4 tickets are sold without teams knowing the identity of the buyer.

*The point was raised that there are two main cohorts of fans attending games. There are those fans that are there because they’re fans of the team and feel invested in them. And there are those who are there for the experience of attending the event, the spectacle (and, yeah, probably the social media fodder).

* A great insight from the San Francisco 49ers VP of Sales & Serivce Jamie Brandt, as he noted that, for Millennial fans, share-able experiences are valued far more than expensive things/items. Something to keep in mind for memorable fan experiences.

*An interesting stat from the panel on gambling was a study estimating that legalization of gambling would result in an average 10% increase in viewership for pro sports. Fans that are invested, literally, are engaged and don’t miss the game.

*In the ever-evolving world of tickets, paper and paperless, the 49es talked about everything from all-mobile ticketing to even a ‘biometric’ solution for fans of the future to gain entry into the game.

*As teams, leagues, and brands continue to try and do social media the right way, a statement that permeated and penetrated was that ‘Social media is for consuming content, not [conducting] transactions.’ (Though, Facebook Ads do work pretty well). Don’t forget why fans are there in their Feeds in the first place.

*There was a fascinating panel on sports journalism with Adrian Wojnarowski, Adam Schefter, and Ken Rosenthal that was full of good nuggets, some of which you can see in the SSAC recap. The powerhouse reporters talked about the nature of breaking news and how it’s not always so simple when you want to balance confirming vs. getting beat, and throwing in promises to sources to hold info until a certain time. They also spoke about the importance of building relationships and getting to know a lot of people in the industry, as well as getting to know the athletes as people. Other tips included a warning against burning bridges (because word spreads quickly) and when reporting news answer and bring out the why and the how, not just the what.

*It’s a dialogue, not a monologue on social media. This is paraphrased from VP of Wasserman Mike Bernstein, which succinctly reinforces the need to remember the social in social media. If you’re the only one talking, that’s broadcasting, not relationship building. Creating conversation through content is powerful.

I’m always thirsty to learn more and greatly enjoyed picking up on some insights via #SSAC17. Be sure to check out the recaps.

Category: General Marketing

A Sports Biz Tour of the World Surf League Vans US Open

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What Stood Out at the NACDA Vendor Showcase

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2017 SBJ/Intersport Brand Engagement Summit Recap

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A List of Sports Biz Insights and Stats from the Sloan Conference

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