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Social media is having a huge impact on all aspects of business- marketing, customer service, product management, and employee hiring to name a few.

As I’ve been saying for the past few years, sports and social media are a perfect match. Why? People are passionate about sports, and social media enables them to express their passion for sports and connect with others who share their passion.

Over the next month, I’m going to do a series on social media, sports and why we should care. While it may be obvious to many of you why people in sports should care, it’s still not obvious to everyone.

The “Why Should We Care” Series will look at social media and sports from a variety of perspectives and stakeholders. I’d like to cover:

• why fans should care
• why teams should care
• why athletes should care
• why agents should care
• why coaches should care
• why colleges should care
• why agencies should care
• why properties should care
• why sponsors should care
• and any other suggestions/ideas you have on who should care

I’d really like to involve anyone who wants to be a part of this series. Drop me a line here or send me a message (jpeck at hwy24 dot com) if you’d like to offer your perspective or would like to contribute your thoughts to any part of this series. Or, if you have any ideas on what you’d like to learn or see covered in this series, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Recently, I wrote about tactics for social media strikeouts, or things brands, teams and athletes should avoid doing.

Now, let’s talk about some tactics for social media home runs, or what you should be doing if you want to be successful with your social media efforts.

Understand your audience – As we know, people are out there on blogs, forums, and social networking sites talking about you. They’re also talking about themselves—what they’re doing, what they like and what they dislike. If you’re not listening to what your audience says about, you can’t possible know how to best engage them. There are many, many ways to find out what your audience cares about. You can utilize simple tools like Surveymonkey to poll your audience and get feedback. You can track mentions of your main keywords to see what people are saying. Or you can just start asking questions on Twitter (but please don’t start using Twitter until you have a strategy for what your goals are and how you’re going to utilize it). Understanding your audience should be an ongoing thing—not something that you do research on once then forget about.

Establish goals – Figure out what your business goals are and see how social media can plug in with them. When you’re talking about getting funding for specific social programs, initiatives and resources, you better have some goals to drive towards to determine what success means. Maybe your goal is to get 123 new ideas for fan promotions. Maybe it’s to provide better customer service and reduce complaints. Maybe it’s to fill some of those cheap seats you’re not selling. Maybe it’s to get 500 people talking about your charity program. Your goals
(and how you define how much they’re worth) should dictate how you approach things.

Participate don’t promote – Don’t act like you own the joint. Even if it is your own community, the community wouldn’t exist without the people who make it. Treat your community members like partners in the community.

Stay positive – At some point in time, you’ll encounter someone who is negative or critical of what you’re doing. If the person is offering criticism, thank them for taking the time to provide feedback. Don’t get into name-calling matches online or stoop to a troll’s level by engaging them. If you must engage a troll, consider doing it on the phone or in person. In some cases, it’s easier to have a real discussion when you can hear someone’s voice and understand their tone. Establish criteria to determine what comments receive a response and what don’t. When you do respond, stay positive.

Negative feedback is often one of the things brands are scared of. In many cases, the act of simply listening and showing people that you have a real human who is paying attention to what people are saying can lead to people leaving more positive criticism. If people feel like they know/can build a relationship with a real person, they’re often less likely to cry foul or leave nasty comments.

Give to get – Give people a reason to interact with you. This means you will probably have to dedicate some resources/time to producing interesting, valuable and entertaining content and you’ll have to spend some time actually talking to people, answering questions and helping them. As cool as your company’s widget may be, no one cares. They care about being helped, learning new things, getting their problems solved, being entertained and feeling appreciated. The more you give, the more you’ll receive. If you do this enough, you’ll build up a solid base of evangelists who will bring you followers, fans, community members and leads/sales.

Be honest – If you say your product can make people fly, and it really can’t, people will find out sooner or later. If you create fictional people and try to pass them off as real (Walmart did this a few years ago), this won’t fly. If you make a mistake, own up to it…quickly. People appreciate honesty and are willing to forgive companies that acknowledge their mistakes, instead of pretending they didn’t happen. Mistakes will happen. The sooner you apologize and fix things, the better people will feel about you and the sooner you can move on.

Commit adequate resources – In sports, success is often attributed to a coach, player or team. However, there are a lot of people behind the scenes (assistants, trainers, scouts, doctors, front office staff, etc) that play important roles in a team’s success. Don’t make the mistake of trying to launch a social media program or initiative and not committing the proper resources. Social media isn’t free. In many cases, one person can’t do everything. If you can’t dedicate proper resources to an initiative, it’s not going to be successful. Before starting something, it’s important to look at the resources you actually have and be realistic about what you can or can’t do.

Don’t fall in love with shiny objects – Think long term. Decide what you want to accomplish and how you want to accomplish it, then pick the tools and platforms you may need. Don’t just use Facebook or Twitter because someone told you to. For example, if you have three customers, you may want to spend your time with them, instead of trying to get people to join a Facebook page.

Align with a cause – People on social media sites like to share things and get involved in cool projects. They especially like to share and get involved in things that benefit the world. I love what Dawn has done with their Everyday Wildlife Champions Facebook page. The page highlights interesting things people are doing to help wildlife and the environment and gives people some ways they can get involved. Would you rather join a page to talk about dish soap or join a higher cause that helps improve our world? Companies should align with a higher cause or mission and promote this through social media. It’s good for the world, and it’s good business.

Those are some thoughts and tactics for social media home runs. I’d love to hear what you’d add – in terms of tactics and if you have an examples of companies doing this well.

Life update – I recently spoke about Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn with Jeff Yaniga at the Florida Direct Marketing Association’s annual event. I really enjoyed meeting some smart folks and having some great discussions. If you’d like to see the slides we used, you can check them out on Slideshare.

Yesterday I was in New York for the 140 Conference, which brought together some amazing, smart people to talk the effects of the real-time web on people and businesses. Like some of the other conferences I’ve been to lately (such as Social Fresh), the content was stellar. But what I really enjoy about these types of conference is meeting new people and hanging out with other people I’ve met before.

Ok, on to the sports stuff. Here are my notes from a panel titled “How Social Media is Changing the Face of Golf.” Panelists included:

• Dennis Allen (@dennis_allen) – Golf Industry Veteran
• Kathleen Hessert (@kathleenhessert) – President, Sports Media Challenge
• Ryan Ballengee (@waggleroom) – Blogger
• Scott Gutterman (@PGATOUR_EP) – Executive Producer, PGATOUR.com

As you might be able to guess from the title, the panel focused on the intersection on how social media is changing golf. This topic is very interesting to me because I play golf  and watch the tournaments occasionally, but don’t really think of myself as an avid fan. I always root for Phil, since us left-handers have to stick together, but I don’t feel a strong connection with any one golfer.  Like baseball, golf is tough for me to watch live on TV, because it’s pretty slow. I think the more golf can utilize social media to help make the sport and golfers more accessible and interesting to casual fans, the more the game will grow.

Please see below for some of my notes and thoughts on the panel.

Why does social media matter?

Kathleen kicked off the panel by asking why social media matters in golf. A big plus is that information moves so quickly through social media compared to golf, in which things typically move slower. Kathleen highlighted an Arnold Palmer quote: “Watching golf on TV is like watching paint dry.”

Scott mentioned that social media is enabling an interesting thing to happen; fans who aren’t able to attend the tournaments in person are acting like an online gallery. They’re talking about the tournament and players as the action unfolds. And some moments (ex: Brian Davis calling a penalty on himself to give up a shot at his first TOUR win) generate a considerable amount of conversation on Twitter.

Kathleen revealed that she had posed a question on Twitter asking for people’s thoughts on the future of golf in a social media world. She shared on of the more interesting answers she received, which predicted the formation of virtual clubhouses. This is a very interesting concept. On one hand I really like the concept of exclusive communities; on the other hand, the exclusive/off-limits notion of golf that people have is a detriment to the game.

Here’s a half-example of a virtual clubhouse. American Express has its Members Clubhouse, a microsite which highlights the company’s golf-related sponsorships and gives cardmembers access to exclusive golf deals and discounts. The site is very well-done, but all good things can be improved, right? If I were them, I might take it a step further and integrate more social elements to turn it into more of a community where golfers/cardmembers can connect with each other, share travel and course reviews, talk about golf, and also learn more about how American Express can help people live the golf lifestyle to the fullest. American Express has done a great job with its OPEN FORUM, a resource/community for small business owners. Maybe they can do this with golf. What do you think?

Back to the panel. Dennis Allen shared the news that he’s starting a golf entertainment network called “The Back 9.” The network aims to make golf more accessible and interesting to average people. Golf by the fans, for the fans. If they can figure this out, I think it definitely has potential to shake up the golf world.

What will change about golf?

Kathleen wrapped up the panel by asking participants what will change about golf in the future. Ryan said that social media will enable fans to get to know golfers more and see more of their personalities. News will continue to spread faster, he added.

Scott said there will be more focus on getting people to interact with golf and the tournaments no matter where they are. I’m excited for this. One of the social media’s strengths is being able to compliment real-life events and extend their reach and interactivity.This should bring more fans to golf and more revenue opportunities for brands involved in the sport.

Dennis offered the final thought of the panel – that in the near future, more focus will be around developing golf programming based on fan feedback. From the  short chat I had with Dennis, it sounds like this is the approach they’ll be taking with “The Back 9.” I’m looking forward to seeing how this unfolds.

Thanks for reading my thoughts about the panel. What do you think about how social media will change golf?

On a side note, I was recently nominated for a Business of Sports Award (best Twitter account). There are a lot of other smart folks who have been nominated for awards there, too. If you’d like to support me, drop a comment on the  site. Either way, I’d encourage you to check out The Business of Sports. It’s a great resource!

I said it today on Twitter, but I’ll say it again.

Social Media is not magic.

You can’t assume it will work wonders for you. Being on Twitter will not automatically increase your sales. Starting a Facebook page is not a strategy. Just being involved is not enough; it’s about what you do with it and why you’re doing it.

It takes commitment, creativity,  and strategery. And, as Cody Swann pointed out, it takes patience.

But some brands and people will still get it wrong. Avoid the tactics below or else you’ll also see how it feels to strike out with social media.

Not setting goals – Brands and people need to figure out what they’re trying to achieve by being involved with social media. Not setting or having goals is a sure fire way to strike out.

Not listening – Not listening to what people are saying about you before/during participating in conversations and creating new programs will land you a seat at the end of the bench. Not reading/listening to bloggers before pitching them stories is another great way to fail. Please remember that different communities and websites each have their own culture and jargon. Pay attention to details.

Trying to exert too much control – People will think/say/blog/tweet what they want. Brands can influence the conversation and direct it, but trying to exert too much control will earn you a one-way ticket to the minor leagues. Nestle, unfortunately, gives us a good example of what not to do (trying to cover-up/delete negative comments).

Being Fake – Authenticity is a key fundamental of social media. Pretending to be someone you’re not or hiring someone to act as you is a great way to fail. Dishonesty=disaster. Remember the Walmart FAIL from 2006?

Not balancing participation and promotion – When you’re engaging people, you need to focus on being helpful and participating the right way more than promoting your own products and services. If you’re only there to promote yourself, people will notice right away and you’ll be destined to strikeout in social media until you change your ways.

Not committing adequate resources - Depending on your goals, you’ll need to invest time, employees, education and money into being successful. Not dedicating proper resources will hurt any chance you may have at success.

What other tactics for social media strikeouts would you add to this list?

Next time, I’ll share some tactics for social media home runs. If you want to share a few sentences/tips for this next post, send me an email (jpeck at hwy24 dot com) and I’ll make sure to include your ideas. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

*image credit – artolog on Flickr

On Monday, I attended Social Fresh Tampa, a social media conference that brought marketers together to discuss the business applications of social media. The conference itself was awesome, but just getting to chat with some really smart folks between sessions and at night was probably even more valuable.

If you’d like to see my notes from each panel, you can see them here. While the event and speakers focused on more than just sports, I did get some interesting sports insights. For example, I learned that MLB teams don’t have full control over their Facebook pages. The league can post things they want, which may or may not fit with what the team has in mind for its fans on Facebook. This isn’t good…teams need to have full control over their social media strategy and outreach. There has to be a balance between engagement and promotion. Teams know their fans best, so they should control this.

Enough about that. I want to share a few video interviews that I did at Social Fresh. I asked 4 guys – Marc Meyer (Director of Search and Social at Digital Response Marketing Group), Chris Barger (Director of Social Media at GM), Jeremy Hilton (VP  of Media and Technology at Mindcomet) and Chris Moody (Social Media Marketing Manager at Bandwidth) – to share their thoughts about the future of online metrics and measurement.

Check out the videos below to see what they think:

I found two excellent examples of how companies are using Twitter for specific initiatives to add value to sports fans’ experiences of events. I wanted to share them with you and would love to hear what you think.

Sony Ericcson Twitter Cup

The Sony Ericcson Twitter Cup is a really interesting mashup of Twitter and the World Cup. It’s a well-known fact that sports fans like to show pride for their teams, and like to think that they have more pride/support than fans of other teams. And soccer fans are some of the most passionate fans in the world. Sony Ericcson has created the Twitter Cup interactive website as an interesting way for fans to compete with other fans to see which World Cup team has the most support.

The concept is simple. The more tweets a specific team receives, the farther that team goes in the Twitter Cup.  Fans can score points for their team in two ways.

1) Tweet team name and World Cup together (ex: England World Cup)

2) Tweet team name and World Cup with the Twitter Cup hashtag (ex: Serbia World Cup #twc)

The website includes a cool interactive stadium that automatically fills seats with fans of a given team based on the number of tweets that team receives. This is a nice effort from Sony Ericcson and one that I think fans will definitely be talking about.

Brand Bowl 2010

This one comes from Mullen and Radian6, a reputation monitoring SAAS company. According to The Lost Jacket, Mullen approached Radian6 with an idea- leverage the power of social media for one of the biggest sports events in the world.

Why do many people watch the Super Bowl? The ads.

The Brand Bowl 2010 was born from this. This site will leverage Twitter and the monitoring capabilities of Radian6 to show people what everyone is saying about each ad. In real-time. Fans will be able to see which ads are getting tweeted the most, what people are saying about them, and if it is positive or negative.

Instead of having to wait until Monday morning to see what traditional media outlets say are the “best” ads, you can follow things in real-time. Awesome.

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I’m seeing more and more examples of Twitter+sports=really interesting content and initiatives. What do you think about these mashups? What other interesting mashups have you seen that you liked?

In other news, I wanted to give a quick shoutout to Dan Beeman and his company, Sponsorship Insights Group, which just relaunched their website. Dan is a good guy and has done a great job building his network/company through blogging and using his LinkedIn group to connect sponsorship professionals around the world.

Have a great night and rest of the week!