Social Media for Sports: Webcast Q&A

Social Media for Sports
Live Webcast: Thursday August 6, 2009

Read our Q&A transcript summary from the Social Media for Sports Webcast to learn how the strategic use of social media tools in professional sports can boost your brand, expand your marketing reach, engage your fan base and create new sources of online revenue.

Q: Are teams scaling back on social media or are they adding social media to their existing programs and how does social media cost compared to traditional media?

A: Kathleen
The cost of using social media is miniscule and applying user-generated content to marketing programs is growing rapidly. But applying social media to programs should not be a standalone initiative. It needs to be an integrated effort.

A: Mike
I agree. Social media and traditional marketing needs to be put together—it is a joint effort. However, there is a time investment in applying social media to your programs; it takes time to upload your pics into Flickr and videos into YouTube but if you are already engaged you’ll find there is little cost if any. Social media should drive traffic to your existing programs and vice versa.

A: Trevor
If you apply social media to your programs you can extract trackable data from your campaigns, just like traditional media programs. You can monitor traffic to and from your site just like zu has done with StampsConnect. A lot of people ask me about ROI using social media; it is difficult to measure ROI but you can measure ROE [return on engagement].

Q: Aside from the social media tools discussed today, what other technology should teams and executives be aware of?

A: Trevor
Mobile technology, most definitely. Today, smart phones are outselling computers these days. The applications for iPhone and Blackberry phones are becoming more interactive. All the social media tools we have implemented into StampsConnect can be done on iPhones—it’s something we’re currently discussing with the Calgary Stampeders. Mobile technology allows for additional advertising revenue, too.

A: Kathleen
I’d like to add that our Buzz Manager application is another technology that teams and corporate executives can use to monitor your reputation and social media activity online. Widgets are another tool that showcase twitter feeds and customizable data. Our new website will be widgetized in the near future.

Q: I’ve created an animated character called ‘Mike’ and it will appear on jumbotrons in stadiums. Is it ok to ghost twitter as this fictional character ‘Mike’?

A: Kathleen
I will go on record as saying I am against ghost tweeting. At 140 characters anyone can do it. However, if ‘Mike’ is a mascot or sports character it does make a lot of sense for ‘Mike’ to tweet.

Q: What are the revenue opportunities for StampsConnect website and are there any challenges to get sponsorship because your website is powered by user-generated content?

A: Mike
There are lots of opportunities for revenue in StampsConnect. You could sponsor the entire site and gain even more exposure with our other traditional media [including our GameDay marketing]. You can also sell individual elements of the site; source out a camera brand name to sponsor our Flickr feed, for example. There are a lot of possibilities, and user-generated content has never been an objection I’ve had to deal with from sponsors. I would suggest integrating sponsorship opportunities into your online and offline marketing.

Q: Do you have any advice for young sports professionals that want to integrate social media into an organization?

A: Trevor
First of all, a person needs to set up Twitter and LinkedIn accounts and start joining groups and joining the conversation. This is how I initially connected with Sports Media Challenge; I was tweeting with Ryan Stephens, an employee at SMC a few months ago. One word of advice: instead of asking for things of value on Twitter, start giving and you’ll see how easy it is to become recognized and generate value from social media.

A: Kathleen
We are always looking for interns at Sports Media Challenge. Feel free to contact us if you would like more information. One word of advice is that you need to showcase what you know; just because you are on Twitter or Facebook it doesn’t mean you are an expert.

Q: If a sports organization had to choose between Facebook and Twitter, is there one you would recommend over the other?

A: Kathleen
In order to answer that, let me say this: remember who it is you are trying to engage—are you trying to deepen your relationship with fans you already have or are you trying to generate new fans? Facebook = people you already know, although this is a different age group than Twitter [34 years and younger]. Twitter = people you don’t know. At some point, your older fans will eventually drop off so you need to continuously generate new fans and keep getting younger people engaged.

A: Mike
I would add that there is value in teams using Facebook and for players to use Twitter. I find that Twitter is a more intimate exchange of information between players and fans. For example, a player can be on the bus arriving at a game and will tweet spontaneously. With Facebook, by the time you log in to your computer and start sharing your thoughts, that emotion or idea could have already changed. Twitter is immediate and spontaneous and the message can be shared with hundreds or thousands of followers.

A: Kathleen
Remember that using Facebook you have to invite people—this is a one-to-one relationship; with Twitter it could be a one-to-a-million relationship.

Q: What is more important: the number of fans following you or the quality of engagement?

A: Kathleen
In my opinion, quality of engagement is by far most important. This is what zu has built into StampsConnect. When fans share their passion online, their participation is more important than being a team that claims to have tens of thousands of fans that don’t participate in the conversation.