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Since it’s the end of the year, it’s time to start looking ahead (if you haven’t been already) to see what’s in store for next year. The last few months we’ve definitely seen an increase in discussions about how teams, leagues, athletes and agencies can take advantage of social media tools and communities to reach their audiences and increase engagement. I believe social media is only going to become more important in reaching fans in 2009. But before I start with my predictions I want to share a few articles I wrote this year about sports and social media:

• Five Questions Teams Should Ask About Social Media
• Transparency and Blogging in the Business of Sports
• Social Networks Need to Provide Value Beyond Connecting
• Why Teams Should Get Involved With Social Media

On to the good stuff. Here are a few predictions I have about what’s going to happen in this space in 2009. Keep in mind these are just my own predictions. I’m sure I’ve left out a few things and haven’t covered everything in depth, so feel free to agree, disagree and/or discuss as you’d like, either on your own blog or by leaving a comment here. I’d love to hear what you think.

More Athletes Will Get Involved

As we’ve seen with Gilbert Arenas, who was pretty much the first sports superstar to have a very popular blog, and now with Shaquille O’Neal, who is on Twitter and has over 21,000 followers, social media tools can be effective at connecting athletes with fans, generating buzz and helping fans really get to know athletes.  The funny thing is, I bet a lot of Shaq’s followers on Twitter aren’t even die-hard Shaq or NBA fans. But it’s just really cool to be able to see quotes and updates from a celebrity, and some people who probably didn’t care much about him before, now have a reason to keep up with him because they see he’s a genuine, caring person (and he’s got some hilarious quotes, too). YardBarker also does a good job with its pro athlete blogs. I enjoy reading what Donovan McNabb and Rajon Rondo have to say there. Overall, I think more athletes will start blogging (note: it has to be the actual athlete for it to be authentic) and using social media tools like Twitter in 2009.

Pro Teams Will Get More Involved

Many pro teams have already gotten involved with social media and blogging, as there are many benefits to be had (increase fan engagement, drive ticket sales, learn about your fans, increase reach of sponsor promotions, etc). If you don’t believe that social media tools such as Twitter can help you, think about this: Dell has said that Twitter has helped them generate over $1 million in revenue over the past year and a half. In 2009, even more teams will start Twitter accounts and become active on Facebook and fan communities. More teams may hire bloggers and people who will reach out to fans online for them. The key here is to actually interact with fans–don’t just promote your own content. You wouldn’t go to a party where you don’t know anyone and start shouting, would you? I’m a little worried that social media will become such a buzz word that people will think it is a quick fix for everything. That’s not true, and it definitely takes time and resources to utilize these tools the right way.

Sports Agencies Will Start Being More Transparent and Blogging

This may be more of a wish than a prediction. Sports agencies haven’t caught up to agencies in the advertising and media world in sharing their ideas and being open/honest on their websites. Many agency websites are currently static and boring–not something that people want to come back to. Sports agencies seem to be more protective of their ideas than ad agenices. To those who are worried about giving away ideas, I offer this quote from Neil Patel: “Sooner or later others are going to know what you know, so you might as well be the one to tell them.” I think that with the rise of information-sharing communities such as Sports Marketing 2.0 and LinkedIn Groups for people in the sports industry, agencies will realize that blogging and being open can be extremely valuable in helping position themselves as experts.

A great case study here is Darren Heitner’s Sports Agent Blog, which does a great job at highlighting issues in the athlete representation business and  discussing news relating to his agency, Dynasty Reps. Earlier this year, Darren left a comment here, saying, “If it were not for the creation of SportsAgentBlog.com, Dynasty Athlete Representation would probably not yet exist today.” That shows just how effective blogging can be in helping a business build a reputation, gain influence and get new clients.

Sports Communities Online – Many Will Fail, A Few Will Be Very Successful

I don’t like ending on a negative note but I think this should be said. Some people think that starting a sports community or social network is easy because there are X millions of sports fans out there who are passionate about their favorite sports, teams and players. The market is huge, right? This is much easier said than done. The bottom line is that there are already tons and tons of places for fans to interact online–message boards, team sites, fan blogs, and existing communties…plus sites like Facebook and MySpace, where there are tons of sports groups for fans to debate and interact. To be successful, a community must offer something besides the benefit of connecting–that can be exclusive content, videos, access to star players, etc. And then you still need to have partners who can drive traffic to your site. If you want a great example of how to build a community the right way, look no further than BallisLife.com, which is developing into a great community for basketball fans and players. I’ll write something up about them soon, but the bottom line is that when I want to talk about basketball, that’s where I go now. I don’t go to ESPN, or Sports Illustrated or Yahoo.

Those are a few of my predictions for this space in 2009. I’d love to hear what you think. If there are enough people interested, I’ll write a separate article with some of YOUR predictions. If you’d like to be included, leave a comment here or write a response on your own blog and I’ll try to include it in the article.

I just read a very interesting article from Adweek about leagues and live streaming. As more and more people are getting content from devices other than their TVs (computers, cellphones, etc), live streaming provides an interesting opportunity and challenge for leagues. Many questions have come up about live streaming such as, how to decide what to/not to stream, how to monetize this, does live streaming steal viewers from TV, etc, etc.

We’re still very early in the game with live streaming so I just wanted to provide a few highlights from Adweek’s article and see what you think about this topic. This is all very interesting to me.

What Leagues Are Doing.

• NFL – Live streaming Sunday Night Football Extra on NBC.com and NFL.com
• MLS – live streams games on MLSlive.tv – subscription model and no games from tv partners are shown. MLS hopes to make this service free/ad-supported next season
• NHL – streams out-of-market games (honors local broadcast agreements) via subscription service
• NBA – plans to stream live-games in local markets on team sites in 2008-09 season, but this will infringe on local TV partners’ broadcast rights. Pricing model is TBD
• MLB – became first league to stream a whole season of games in 2003 via MLB.tv (subscription required).

Other Live Streaming Examples

• CBSSports.com and NCAA Basketball Tournament. Entire tournament streamed free this year, and ad revenue was $23 million this year, up from $4 million in 2006. Advertising is sold separately from the TV broadcast.
• ESPN 360 – streamed 3,000 events in the past year (for a variety of sports), with 60% of that content exclusively shown on the site.

Major Questions

• Does live streaming increase or decrease number of TV viewers?
• Should leagues hold onto these rights or include them in packages to networks?

What do you think about live streaming games and these questions?

According to Mashable, Yahoo is testing a lifecasting service called Yahoo Live with its employees. According to Wikipedia, lifecasting is “is a continual broadcast of events in a person’s life through digital media.” As we’ve seen with blogs, social networking and YouTube, people love sharing their lives. Whether it’s for fame, fortune or just to be noticed, people are more and more willing to let others into their lives. With the rise of online video (and the number of laptops that are shipping with webcams), lifecasting should continue to become more popular with the younger crowd.

Lifecasting seems to have a few potential applications in the sports world. It’s really just an unfiltered blog (with video). What if teams provided an outlet for passionate fans to post videos of how dedicated they are. Offer an inside look at the life of a superfan, from what they do each day to keep up with their team, to how crazy they are on game days. This could be turned into a video series or show and teams could tie-in sponsors to generate more revenue.

A brand could sponsor a season-long lifecasting contest to identify the best superfan.

Teams could get players involved in lifecasting to offer an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to be a professional athlete. This could be tested around a player’s All-Star game appearance and could be continued depending on the interest it generates.

These are just a few ideas. What do you think about lifecasting opportunities in sports?

Our attention spans are getting shorter. We’re multitasking more. And we’re trying to keep up with a bazillion things at once.

Enter Twitter–Twitter is a bit-sized (think Mighty Mouse) version of Instant Messaging + Facebook. It lets you instantly see/give updates (messages, links, etc) friends in your network. You can post from AIM, the web, desktop (via widget), or cell phone.

People may update their Facebook status once a day or week or month, but with Twitter I can get instant updates delivered to my desktop, personal Twitter page, phone or IM program. Back in May of this year I wrote a very rambling post calling Twitter a new tool for stalkers. I tried it out for awhile but ultimately quit because none of my friends were using it.

And they still aren’t. But tons of people are. David Armano at Logic + Emotion has a great post about Twitter exploding in popularity because it is a conversation ecosystem. I recommend reading his whole post, but see below for one of his diagrams that aims to explain Twitter’s multiple touchpoints.

I still don’t know what to think about Twitter, but it sure does seem like a growing connection platform. Stay tuned for a post that will attempt to explain how sports teams and sponsors can get involved with Twitter to connect with fans and customers and keep them updated on what’s going on.

Apparently, I’m a Media Snacker. I got tagged by Ben over at Blogging Experiment in the latest meme (a sort of online chain letter where someone tags 5 people and each of them tag 5 people, etc), which discusses Media Snackers–what they are and if you respect them or not. What is a Media Snacker, you say? The short version is that they are people who keep up with the latest trends and consume and media, news and entertainment when they want, how they want, where they want, and how often they want–which is basically all the time. Check out the video to see more about what a Media Snacker is (I’m not a video expert and I can’t get this thing to embed properly)

So, yeah I’m a Media Snacker. Online, I consume enough media to feed a small country, and I always have about 10 tabs open at once because I’m a super multi-tasker/have a super-short attention span. I keep up with all the sports marketing/business blogs I know of as well as a bunch of advertising and social networking blogs. But I actually am not as media savvy when it comes to cell phones. I don’t use my phone for blogging or video or music, though I do use it for pictures sometimes. If I lived in a big city, this would be different, as I’d probably be taking the train to work and have lots of time to kill. But as it is now, I drive everywhere so that doesn’t leave much time for sitting around and doing things with the phone.

On to the main question–Do you respect Media Snackers? I’d have to say yes, because I think we have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and always want to do more in less time. You’ve got to admire people who are curious and always creating and consuming and not just sitting around and doing nothing.

But being a Media Snacker is often tough. Most of my friends don’t see the point of reading 50 blogs a day or keeping up with every piece of news I find interesting. And to some extent, they have a point. I’ve actually tried to cut down on my snacking, so I actually can focus on getting things done, instead of just consuming new information. Sometimes you have to limit the amount of information you take in, since more information does not always lead to better work and better decisions. You have to focus your snacking, so you’re getting the right stuff and not a bunch of junk.

Now I have to tag 5 people to keep the meme going (not like it depends on just me though) I’ll go with:

• Pat Coyle
• Darren Heitner
• David Armano
• Darren Herman
• Leland Maschmeyer

Don’t forget that the 4th edition of the Sports Business Carnival will be up here on Monday. You can submit an article here. Come back and check it out! (more…)

If you look at the sidebar on your right under “Subscribe to this” you will see a new addition–a button that lets you add my blog as a widget to many different services, such as Facebook, MySpace, Google, your own blog, and/or others. So, if you’re already using Facebook all the time, why not go ahead and add my blog as a widget there. That way, you don’t have to even leave Facebook to get updates. (If you do this, it shows up under “Posted Items”).

Widgets are poised to revolutionize the web experience (and eventually they will be popular on cell phones, too. Alltel’s LG AX8600 comes with Celltop, an application that utilizes widgets and won CTIA’s Best in Show Award.) Essentially, widgets are any third party application that can be embedded in a webpage, or downloaded and kept on someone’s desktop. There are so many possibilities here it’s hard to just describe a few. But I’ll try anyways.

A bar or restaurant could offer people widgets that let them keep up with the nightly drink and food specials. Instead of having to call or visit the restaurant’s website, people would get automatic updates through widgets. You might say people who won’t even visit a website to get a special are extremely lazy, but why shouldn’t a business make it easier for people to find out about them?

Grocery stores can advertise their specials and discounts by taking advantage widgets (They could even save money on printing costs and reduce the amount of hard copies of coupons). Media companies can offer video snippets as samples to get people interested in their shows. Individuals can use widgets to expand their spheres of influence and reach more people. To echo, my last post about Twitter opportunities, the possibilities are endless.

This blog was widgetized using Widgetbox.