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Today is the eighth in a series of posts (a new post each day) with thoughts from some pretty smart folks to try to answer the question of why people should care about the intersection of sports and social media. You can see the first seven posts below:

• why should fans care?
• why should teams care?
• why should athletes care?
• why should agents care?
• why should coaches care?
• why should colleges care?
• why should agencies care?

Even if you already know why this is important, I hope you enjoy getting a variety of perspectives on this subject. If you have bosses, colleagues or friends that still don’t get it, maybe they’ll find some value in this series if you share it with them.

Today’s topic is properties. Properties can use social media in a variety of ways:

• drive awareness and get more butts in seats (sell more tickets to events)
• improve the fan experience before, during and after the event
• improve the experience for fans who are not able to experience the event in person (new content/monetization opportunities)
• increase the reach and effectiveness of sponsor activations to drive more sponsorship revenue

See below for a few thoughts from other smart folks about why properties should care about sports and social media.

Anthony De Rosa – Properties need it to brand themselves. Social media allows them the opportunity to connect with people in a organic way, if done properly.

Brian Gainor – Sports properties that assess social media primarily as a fan engagement tool and secondarily as a revenue-driver (direct/indirect) will experience the best results. Those who invest necessary time and resources to provide users with unique content (videos, pictures, stories), behind-the-scenes access, promotional offers, and insights will attract a multitude of avid fans online. This is in turn will help formulate new fan databases, deliver new promotional inventory for sponsors, serve as a means to drive traffic to merchandise/ticket/suite sales, and help maintain brand relevancy 365 days per year. Twitter and Facebook also help teams monitor real-time fan feedback, promote individual players’ brands and charities, demonstrate a tech-savvy corporate culture, and interact directly with both avid and casual fans all across the world. The opportunities are endless with social media!

Ash Read – Social media can generate more exposure for sponsors. In my social media interview with Real Madrid I learned that some club partners now prefer exposure on the clubs social media profiles (mainly Facebook and Twitter) to the official Real Madrid website. When putting together a sponsorship proposal or package properties should put a focus on digital rights and opportunities – this is something which is often overlooked. However, before properties can build social media into proposals they first need to build up their social media profiles and following; sponsors want eyeballs and being put in front of 20 Twitter followers probably won’t make them stand up and take note. If properties can allow sponsors to become part of a vibrant and large community then this becomes a great opportunity for sponsors.

Brian Reich – The people who build ballparks and design arenas are looking to create the ultimate fan experiences, and maybe to provide a team with home field advantage as well. The game unfolding on the field will always be the primary attraction, but in the digital age, and a socially enabled world, the experiences that fans have is not limited to what they can see from their seats. We are always connected, have access to more information than what is available on the scoreboard, and welcome the observations from those who are attending or watching the same game, at the same time. Just as social media creates the possibility of building a community around any event, properties should recognize the experience they must now create should be socially-enabled also. Give fans a way to interact with the building. Make connections between those inside an arena and those participating from afar. Capture and share the total experience that the gathering of fans makes possible, and use it as a way of enhancing the product (sports) as well.

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Now it’s your turn – why do you think properties should care?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post (the last in this series), which will examine why sponsors should care about social media/sports.

Today is the seventh in a series of posts (a new post each day) with thoughts from some pretty smart folks to try to answer the question of why people should care about the intersection of sports and social media. You can see the first six posts below:

• why should fans care?
• why should teams care?
• why should athletes care?
• why should agents care?
• why should coaches care?
• why should colleges care?

Even if you already know why this is important, I hope you enjoy getting a variety of perspectives on this subject. If you have bosses, colleagues or friends that still don’t get it, maybe they’ll find some value in this series if you share it with them.

Today’s topic is agencies. It’s agencies’ jobs to understand clients’ business goals and bring new, innovative ideas for marketing, promotions and partnerships to their clients to help them achieve these goals. They need to understand how social media can be leveraged to support overall marketing and business objectives.

With all the social media platforms available, fans are creating and consuming content in a variety of ways, and agencies need to understand this. Agencies need to bring ideas for sponsorships and promotions that enable fans to interact with the companies running them and the content that exists as a part of them. Most importantly, they need to understand how to measure the results. Old metrics such as reach and frequency are outdated. Actions and engagement are what really matter. Agencies need to be able to navigate the sports/social media waters, so they can lead their clients in the right direction.

See below for a variety of thoughts from other smart folks about why agencies should care about sports and social media.

Jackie Adkins – If all of these other interested parties care, then you need to care, too. You need to go beyond simply using it and knowing about it, but be able to educate your clients on how to use it effectively.

Dennis Allen – Lots of today’s branding does not go through traditional media. They need to know where the fans are going to get their content. How to talk to them through the various mediums. They also need to know what is hot and what is not. What is everyone talking about? So they do not miss the mark with their branding and corporate messaging.

Anthony De Rosa – Agencies care more and understand social media second only to the generation that grew up on it. They have to because it’s the future of marketing. If you can reach 500 million people on Facebook, why waste money advertising on more traditional formats where you reach far less and in a passive way?

Ash Read – Social media gives agencies the opportunity to position themselves as field experts, drive sales, network and stay up-to-date with the latest trends – in short, social media can have big benefits for agencies. In my opinion one of the key benefits for agencies is the ability to position themselves as field experts, this can be done through blogs, Linkedin, Twitter, to name a few. The key is to share good content and build conversation with people within the industry and potential clients.

Brian Gainor – Agencies should invest time and resources in social media because it is clearly an X-factor that can have an impact on their clients’ business, winning new business, and creating holistic business solutions. Social media serves as a cost-effective channel to drive conversation and brand relevancy, promotional/web traffic, and direct/indirect revenue streams. Agencies can pad their experiential/digital/PR competencies with social media solutions that drive results and help brands make an immediate splash in the marketplace. Consumers now expect companies to have Facebook pages, LinkedIn profiles, YouTube Channels, and Twitter handles – so if you are not playing in this space, you are under delivering.

Brian Reich – Agencies should care about social media because utilizing it well on behalf of their clients is the only hope for their survival. In the past, agencies were hired to help market products and athletes to consumers on behalf of leagues and teams. They were put in the middle to help create a connection and translate an important message. But in the digital age, with the tools widely for all to use, we don’t need help to make connections. Teams, leagues, athletes and fans can connect directly — and there is no need to translate anything when there is an open, trusted, genuine relationship being developed. Of course, there is a lot of work left to do to help the leagues and teams and athletes understand what fans want, and how to support their interests… so agencies can help to educate their clients about the changing nature of communications and the potential power that social media provides. And in some cases, ,there will still be a need for agencies to help manage the efforts as well. For now.

Russell Scibetti – Agencies should care because social media needs to be a part of any company’s marketing mix, and this includes the events and properties that they represent. Their corporate clients are ultimately looking to increase revenue and improve their brand value, and actively engaging the fans through their sponsorships is an important part of that process. Outside of the actual game day experience, social media is the most “active” and engaging communication option they can leverage.

Trevor Turnbull – Agencies have two choices. Stick with the old traditional agency model and slowly become obsolete. Or, incorporate social media into their campaigns and thrive. Traditional media is not going anywhere, but, not including social media into client campaigns means missing out on a massive opportunity to drive offline traffic to online platforms that allow for further communication and relationship building between agency clients and their target audience.

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Now it’s your turn – why do you think agencies should care?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, which will examine why properties should care about social media/sports.

Today is the sixth in a series of posts (a new post each day) with thoughts from some pretty smart folks to try to answer the question of why people should care about the intersection of sports and social media. You can see the first five posts below:

• why should fans care?
• why should teams care?
• why should athletes care?
• why should agents care?
• why should coaches care?

Even if you already know why this is important, I hope you enjoy getting a variety of perspectives on this subject. If you have bosses, colleagues or friends that still don’t get it, maybe they’ll find some value in this series if you share it with them.

Today’s topic is colleges. One major reason colleges need to care about social media is because they need to educate their athletes on what to say/what not to say. Like it or not, athletes’ actions reflect the colleges they play for. If they say something on Twitter, it is the same thing as saying it at a press conference. Athletes need to be reminded of this.

If you haven’t heard, UNC (my alma mater) had some terrible news Thursday re: football players being investigated for academic violations. This tweet from one of our running backs could not have come at a worse time – “Is it bad that I hardly ever know the name of my classes or the professors name??” I seriously hope the allegations aren’t true and that this player was joking, but come on dude! I really hope UNC gets all athletes in a training session soon about how to manage their online identities. PLEASE.

Ok, enough about the UNC stuff. All colleges need to get a handle on sports and social media. The impact it can have on their athletic programs for recruiting, marketing, ticket sales, fan engagement, etc. is huge (for good and for bad). See below for a variety of thoughts from other smart folks about why colleges should care about sports and social media.

Jackie Adkins – Kids will be kids, which means student-athletes are going to slip up somewhere along the way. Facebook, Twitter, and all of these tools make it even easier to slip up, which can get the player in legal trouble or, at the very least, reflect negatively upon your athletic department and academic institution.

Dennis Allen – Colleges are driven by financial stability in their sports programs. Bad image means declining revenues and less recruiting power. Their administrative staff, coaches and players all need to be aware of the demands being put on them by the additional exposure in today’s world of satellite TV. More games being broadcasted means more scrutiny. Awareness is again tantamount to success.

Anthony De Rosa – Colleges are using it to recruit. It’s a killer recruiting tool. Their audience is the biggest user and consumer of social media. They HAVE to be here.

Lewis Howes – Social media can be a great tool for small colleges and universities that don’t have the big marketing dollars to spend. I don’t like saying social media is free because you do have to give your time, but it’s still a great option in comparison to wasted advertising efforts. Many of their target audience members (college students) are already using social media. It would be wise of them to connect and take advantage of that setup.

Brian Reich – The challenge that a school must address in finding ways to market its athletic program, its hopes of selling merchandise or promoting game telecasts. and their likelihood of maintaining the interest of fans over time has totally changed. We are living in a connected society. A college can reach its alumni, build a fan base, or even scout a prospective student athlete halfway across the globe in more direct, compelling, and personal ways than ever before. Regardless of size or resources, the opportunities are now available to everyone. And since the generation that is entering college now has never lived in an age without computers, cell phones — and of course their internet — they are more likely to attend, play for, and continue to support a school that they have built a trusted relationship with over time. Social media makes is possible for any school to put itself on the map.

Russell Scibetti – College should care for the same reasons as teams, with the added focus that one of their key audiences, their students, are some of the most active and ultimately influential social media users out there. Even if they don’t currently represent the same monetary value of alumni and donors, the student of today become the donors of tomorrow, so social media can help build an even deeper loyalty and affinity now while they are in school.

Trevor Turnbull – There are plenty of restrictive rules around NCAA recruitment that makes engaging in social media very controversial for colleges. However, there are not many levels of sports that can rival the passion that college sports fans have for their favourite teams. Therefor, not actively engaging in social media is a missed opportunity to showcase the character, tradition and culture of a college athletic program. Social media can be used as a recruitment tool without actually communicating directly with young recruits.

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Now it’s your turn – why do you think colleges should care?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, which will examine why agencies should care about social media/sports.

Today is the fifth in a series of posts (a new post each day) with thoughts from some pretty smart folks to try to answer the question of why people should care about the intersection of sports and social media. You can see the first three posts below:

• why should fans care?
• why should teams care?
• why should athletes care?
• why should agents care?

Even if you already know why this is important, I hope you enjoy getting a variety of perspectives on this subject. If you have bosses, colleagues or friends that still don’t get it, maybe they’ll find some value in this series if you share it with them.

Today’s topic is coaches. Social media can bring coaches closer to fans, ticket holders, donors, sponsors and even athletes they’re trying to bring to the programs they run. Social media gives coaches a direct line of communication to fans, which can help strengthen fans’ loyalty to the coaches and teams they love. Similar to athletes, coaches can use social media to build a following and open up new job and/or sponsorship opportunities. Social media has also led to recruiting 2.0–enabling coaches at schools with smaller budgets to identify talented athletes (or athletes they want to stay away from) based on the content about these athletes that exist online.

Also, some people have said that coaches need to make sure their players understand the RIGHT way to utilize social media–in a manner that reflects positively on the teams they play for. While this may not be coaches’ primary responsibility (I think this should fall to the same people that educate athletes on how to speak to the press), coaches are the perceived leaders of their teams. When a player does something negative, this reflects poorly on the coach, too. A coach needs to make sure athletes are given proper training so they aren’t using social media in ways that could hurt people’s perceptions of the coach or team.

See below for a variety of thoughts from other smart folks about why coaches should care about sports and social media.

Jackie Adkins – If you are like Pete Carroll, you can use social media to make your fans fall in love with you even more. If you’re like Roy Williams, you need to educate your players about how to act appropriately in social media. If you’re like Joe Paterno, well, leave the Tweeting up to your son.

Dennis Allen -Coaches need to know what the general perceptions are regarding their team and players. Also regarding their strategies. Coaches longevity is in decline. Demands to win are heightened. They need to please a lot of different audiences and as such need to heighten their awareness of what is being said. Social media allows them to stay “in the know.”

Anthony De Rosa – For amateur coaches, its a great tool to broadcast information to their players, like when their next practice is, etc. For major league coaches, again, it’s a way to talk to fans, but coaches aren’t really buying into social media in that way just yet. They prefer the traditional press conference, but that could change.

Brian Gainor - Social media serves as an effective means for coaches to connect with players/recruits, fans, and donors, and their local community. In the coaching space, Pete Carroll has differentiated himself through social media in both the collegiate and professional ranks. While at USC, Carroll used his Twitter profile to post viral videos of team meetings and off-field activities, engaging Twitpics, and unique moments where celebrities like Will Ferrell visited practice. With the Seahawks, Carroll has used social media to connect with the local Seattle DMA, provide real-time updates detailing team progress, promote his book tour, and thank fans for their support. If anything, coaches need to understand the social media space to stay one leg up in recruiting battles and understand how members of their organization (coaches, personnel, players) may be violating rules and/or missing out on engagement opportunities.

Lewis Howes – Coaches should care for similar reasons to athletes in career building. They also should be using social networks to monitor what’s happening with their own players.

Ash Read - Athletes will soon start arriving at new teams with social media profiles and fan bases, coaches will need to understand the ins and outs of social media and also keep on top what players can and can’t share through social media. Some coaches may be very open, however, others may not want to share behind the scenes images or info from the locker room as well as injury news and updates. Social media also holds massive opportunity coaches themselves to build their personal brands, just as it does for athletes.

Brian Reich – One of the wonderful extensions of the rise of social media has been the explosion of information that is available, and the addition credible voices to almost every conversation imaginable. With the controls on who can create and promote information lifted, new experts emerge, new perspectives begin to flow, and new insights can be gathered and processed. For coaches, this means there are more eyes to analyze game tape and countless different perspectives from which data and insight might be offered. The coaches that embrace social media can present their ideas for how to lead a team in more compelling ways — but also can embrace the opportunity to expand the size of their virtual staff.

Trevor Turnbull – Coaches need to be especially aware of the impact that social media is having on their role as the leader of their team. We have seen examples in the past where coaches have come down hard on players that act inappropriately online. Alternatively, by providing guidelines on acceptable conduct for players on social media platforms, a mutual trust and respect can be established between a coach and his players that is critical to the success of their team.

Brendan Wilhide – Coaches, especially college coaches, have the unique opportunity of fielding fan questions about their team or program on social media sites. Coaches can be brand ambassadors in social media.

Joseph Yi - With teams, athletes, and agents adopting social media, coaches can benefit from social media by giving themselves a voice. One great example of this is John Calipari, coach of the University of Kentucky. Calipari, who has over a million Twitter followers, uses social media as a way to interact with UK fans and the community. Just how athletes often like to voice their opinion on topics, social media gives coaches an outlet to the community rather than having to go through the media.

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Now it’s your turn – why do you think coaches should care?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, which will examine why colleges should care about social media/sports.

Today is the fourth in a series of posts (a new post each day) with thoughts from some pretty smart folks to try to answer the question of why people should care about the intersection of sports and social media. You can see the first three posts below:

• why should fans care?
• why should teams care?
• why should athletes care?

Even if you already know why this is important, I hope you enjoy getting a variety of perspectives on this subject. If you have bosses, colleagues or friends that still don’t get it, maybe they’ll find some value in this series if you share it with them.

Today’s topic is agents. Agents need to stay on top of social media and what their clients are doing to:

• educate them on what to do and what not to do
• research what potential clients are doing well and not so well (you want to identify potential liabilities now, rather than later)
• understand where new monetization opportunities exist for athletes
• understand how to do damage control if necessary
• in some cases, to keep athletes from violating terms of their contracts

See below for a variety of thoughts from other smart folks about why agents should care about sports and social media.

Jackie Adkins – Your athletes will probably use some form of social media, whether it be a personal Facebook page or a fully integrated social media presence. No matter what it is, you have to realize that everything spreads quicker in the social age. This means naked photos, mug shots, un-kosher tweets, and stupid comment sin post game press conferences. Make sure your athletes know what to say and what not to say in these mediums, because they don’t want to end up on Deadspin.

Dennis Allen – Management sees what the fans are saying about teams and players. Agents need to be aware of this to properly position and market their assets before, during and after contract negotiations.

Anthony De Rosa – Agents should care because they have less control over their clients. Agents want to control the message and the story around their client, but it’s harder to do that when they have so many outlets they can speak through at a moment’s notice.

Ash Read - It’s essential that agents understand social media and they need to make sure their clients have adequate social media training to avoid the potential pitfalls. We all talk about the endless opportunities social media provides but someone needs to make sure athletes understand what they’re doing. Agents also need to understand the commercial benefits of social media and how they can make it pay off for their clients. Once an athlete has built up a following on social media there are endless ways they can utilise it and make it a part of endorsement details.

Brian Reich – Agents are in the business of selling athletes — they negotiate large contracts, put together endorsement deals, and manage public relations on behalf of their clients, with the goal of enhancing their value in the eyes of owners and sponsors. For an agent to demonstrate that an athlete is valuable, they need to show the passion of fans, and the prospect of converting interest into revenue. As social media becomes a more embedded part of all aspects of life, it redefines consumer culture — so agents must understand that community and accountability and transparency (values that you see on display across all types of social interaction online) contribute to the ways people get/share information, and what motivates someone to buy a product, and thus should be applied to their work with athletes as well.

Russell Scibetti - Agents should care for the same reason that athletes need to care. If an agent is going to best represent their client’s interests, they need to be just as aware, if not more aware of the impact that social media has on their client’s brand. How their clients interact with fans on social media can affect everything from player contract negotiations to maximizing the athlete’s endorsement and marketing opportunities.

Trevor Turnbull – Athletes turn to their agents for advice on all kinds of topics including contract negotiation, financial planning, legal advice, investments, marketing and promotions. Agents that choose to ignore the power of social media are taking a huge risk. After all, their clients have the ability to positively influence the profitability of an agency. If the agent does not assume the role of guiding their clients with regards to social media best practices, the athletes can say and do whatever they want. Therefore, it is in the best interest of a sports agent to provide guidance to their athletes on how to represent themselves via social media in a manner that is best for their career.

Brendan Wilhide – Social media is a great way to build awareness about your clients and “tell their side of the story.” Agents can use social media to break news about their clients, too, and even scoop the media sometimes.

Joseph Yi - For agents, social media is a great tool for networking. As social media creates a free flow of information, social networks like Twitter act as a business card into some athletes who may be looking for representation. Similarly, professional social networks like LinkedIn give agents a professional presence/resume online.

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Now it’s your turn – why do you think agents should care?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, which will examine why coaches should care about social media/sports.

Today is the third in a series of posts (a new post each day) with thoughts from some pretty smart folks to try to answer the question of why people should care about the intersection of sports and social media. You can see the first two posts below:

• why should fans care?
• why should teams care?

Even if you already know why this is important, I hope you enjoy getting a variety of perspectives on this subject. If you have bosses, colleagues or friends that still don’t get it, maybe they’ll find some value in this series if you share it with them.

Today’s topic is athletes. Athletes are in a great position to benefit from social media tools and platforms. Social media gives athletes a direct line to fans, and fans a direct line to athletes. Instead of having to tell their stories through media outlets, athletes can now tell fans directly. This gives athletes an opportunity to show their human sides (for bad or for good) and shed light on their favorite brands/sponsors, products and charities. Even after athletes’ careers are over, they’re still able to interact with fans and extend their influence via social media.

See below for a variety of thoughts from other smart folks about why athletes should care about sports and social media.

Jackie Adkins – In the past, your game was just about all you had to separate yourself from other athletes and capture the hearts of sports fans. That is still important, but social media can both help you win over new fans and make your existing fans even more. This means you are more attractive to sponsors, get more love from the media, and get more cheers during the game.

Dennis Allen – Athletes are needing to become much more brand conscious in this new world of constantly streaming information. Social media is a way for them to engage the fan and their other constituencies directly. To create and broaden their own brand/personality.

Steve Cobb – Social media is a match made in heaven for athletes who want to connect with as many fans as possible, build their brand, attract and activate sponsors, and set themselves up for a career after sport. Sports fans are spending less time watching TV and listening to the radio and more time watching YouTube videos and chatting on Twitter, so what better place to establish a presence and distribution network than the media channels of the future? There is no denying the rising expectation levels of both fans and sponsors for athletes to utilize social media.

Brian Gainor - Social media allows athletes to no longer live at the mercy of the media – they now control their own message. By investing adequate time and resources into developing their own personal social media channels, athletes can manage their brand in an effective, yet cost-efficient manner. Athletes can utilize social media channels to build a loyal fan base, leverage their endorsements, promote national ad campaigns, control messaging around major decisions (free agency, off-the-field deals), communicate directly with fans and fellow celebrities, and promote charitable initiatives.

Anthony De Rosa – Athletes can bypass the middleman of needing a publicist. They can connect directly to fans if and when they want to.

Lewis Howes - Athletes should care about social media because of the opportunities for personal branding. Many athletes’ careers end the day they retire from the court or field. If they are planning ahead for that next career stage they can capitalize on their popularity as an athlete and turn that into a new business venture. Social media builds a network that can be carried from a life as an athlete to the next stage of their career.

Ash Read - Superstar athletes like Lebron James, Payton Manning and Lionel Messi will get the big endorsement deals, sponsorships and publicity without social media because they are the best at what they do. For athletes who aren’t ‘superstars’ getting visibility and building your own fan base can be difficult and this is where social media can help. Social media gives everyone the opportunity to be different and stand out from the crowd. Social media also allows athletes to show fans their real personalities, something which doesn’t always show through on the court/field.

Brian Reich – Social media isn’t a thing, a set of tools or tactics that anyone can use to advance their work. Social media is how people, looking to connect with others who have shared interests or who are hoping to develop a relationship with an organization that is doing something they care deeply about, engage and develop relationships. Though modern-day athletes have become, in essence, brands, the motivation for fans is to connect with them as human beings. Social media makes athletes more accessible and provides an opportunity for athletes, who are willing, to engage in a deeper, more direct, more genuine conversation, build trust, and develop true relationships

Russell Scibetti - In the age of free agency and big contracts, the most important thing that a player has outside of their contract is their brand. They need to care about social media because it gives them a direct-to-consumer communication channel that has more influence over their brand image than any jersey or team logo does. Because of the power that this medium has, players need to have a great balance of being genuine and being self-aware. They should let that fun personality shine through while remembering that once they click “Submit”, there’s no going back. They need to better understand the pros and cons of the instantaneous nature of social media.

Trevor Turnbull – Social media allows athletes to control their own personal brand and messaging. For superstar athletes, this means being able to paint their own picture on how they are perceived by their fan base, rather than giving up that control to the mainstream media. And, of course, for those athletes that are not of “superstar” status, social media can help build a loyal following that can prove to be extremely valuable in contract negotiations. It also allows opportunities for new revenue streams in the form of sponsorship agreements that can present themselves as a result of the direct influence athletes have with their unique fan base.

Brendan Wilhide – Athletes on social media control their own message. They can talk to fans and increase their fanbases and exposure with a strong social media presence. Athletes are joining Twitter and other social media sites at a very fast pace because they recognize the unique opportunity to interact directly with their fans via social media.

Joseph Yi - Social media has been an especially valuable tool to athletes because of its usefulness as a branding tool. Not only is it valuable for well known athletes like Shaquille O’Neal, but also for the lesser known individuals who are trying to make a name for themselves. More and more, we are seeing teams utilizing rookies and unknown athletes as part of their social media campaigns because these individuals are seizing the new opportunities to get their name out there through social media engagement.

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Now it’s your turn – why do you think athletes should care?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, which will examine why agents should care about social media/sports.