Teams

John Elway, Executive Vice President of Football Operations of the Denver Broncos, has adopted a policy of transparency that is unprecedented in sports.  Throughout the process of the team hiring a new head coach he gave constant updates by providing a schedule of interviews, who they were hiring and virtually live updates about each of the candidates.  During this process John Elway gained over 40,000 followers on Twitter in just a week, becoming the second most popular NFL executive, only behind Commissioner Roger Goodell.  Mr. Elway was able to gain these numbers by breaking, clarifying, and confirming news directly through his account.  By being the one to do these things it also meant that outsiders couldn’t provide misleading information about the process since Mr. Elway was being so open about his hiring process.  With the Denver Bronco’s situation of having lost a lot their fans’ trust, they have been able to improve their relationship with this tactic.  Since information about these decisions is going to inevitably leaked by someone, it might as well come from the organization so that they can put their own spin on the information while keeping their fans satisfied. 

The Miami Marlins have taken a similar approach during their current free agency blitz and have been constantly updating their Facebook site.  They have not only announced their official signings, but have been addressing rumors about different players they are trying to sign.  Most notably, the Marlins are in the process of trying to sign the most prized free agent of this class (and the best player in baseball), Albert Pujols.  Currently on their Facebook page the Marlins are stating that they are going to throw a great celebration, similar to what the Heat did for the Big 3 if Pujols does in fact wind up signing with the team.  With the rebranding of the team as the Miami Marlins, they have decided not only to spend money freely, but also create a social media strategy that encourages fan interaction.

The New Jersey Devils have a social media project called “Mission Control,” which has “three or four fans among a group of 25 volunteers…monitor social media sites and hockey-related sites for news and other information related to the Devils, then pass the items along through Twitter and Facebook, according to Dave Caldwell of the N.Y. Times.”  This allows the fans to have a voice in the Devils.  Utilizing social media is intended to create more enthusiasm about the team.  Implementing a strategy similar to this would also allow for more transparency within the organization if they are reporting rumors that are in the news.  Interest year-round could also be maintained for the social media sites, allowing the team to have more engagement with the fans.

                                                                                                       

All strategies seem to be very good opportunities, which are interrelated, that the team will be able to capitalize on.  A common theme with both strategies is that they want to both be more transparent about their organization.  The Denver Broncos have done this by being very open about new acquisitions they are making.  Meanwhile, the Devils have put fans in charge of the content that goes on their social media sites.  This is extremely similar to how politicians now have to both have conversations over social media and disseminate relevant information to their constituents.  It is important that both teams and politicians keep careful control over what they do and say on these sites.  When used effectively, there can be a lot of positive results that come out of using social media.

Athletes

Kevin Durant has utilized social media extremely well throughout the NBA lockout to maintain relevance.  Durant is known to be an active tweeter and was especially active during the lockout, including playing in a intermural fraternity football game.  He put out a tweet saying he was bored and asked if anyone wanted to play football.  A group of Oklahoma State students responded and asked him to play for their fraternity’s team and that night he showed up to play.  There has always been a lot said in the media about Kevin Durant being and extremely humble guy and this was a perfect example of just how humble he is.  Just because he was bored, with no external motivation he decided to ask his followers who wanted to play football.  Very few athletes of KD’s stature would ever do something like this and it has helped to set himself apart by truly making social media a two-way street instead of a one-way flow of information.  So many athletes are only concerned about telling people what they are doing or promoting their products on Twitter, but Durant is using it just as the Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, intended it to be used.

Nick Swisher, although not the best player in baseball, has managed to build a massive Twitter following by being able to translate his fun, happy disposition from the Yankees clubhouse to his Twitter account. Swisher is known for being a kid at heart and truly loves playing baseball, which shows in the Yankee's Clubhouse. In fact, he was credited by many players and coaches for having a big impact on them being able to win the World Series in 2009. This excitement and ability to always make people smile is what he brings to his Twitter account. People really appreciate his ability to take baseball so seriously, but be able to joke around and have fun as well. His fan base would not be as large if he didn't use Twitter to show the fun side of himself. While he is a successful player, he doesn't have the great numbers that is usually a prerequisite for building a fan base. Swisher is perhaps the best example of an athlete who has actually gained more fans through social media and his personality than he ever could have through his play on the field.

The way that these two players are interacting with Twitter is just like how any “normal” person would use their Twitter.  They are engaging in conversations and making the followers feel as if they are involved with the player’s life in some way.  Fans always want to have as much access to their favorite athletes as possible.  While the fans are becoming really engaged, the players are able to increase their social capital with their followers.  Social capital is what allows the player to bridge the gap between being someone that they follow and someone who they are more emotionally invested in.  Having this social capital is crucial for players to make themselves marketable and in touch with their fan bases.

Sports Writers

Chris Broussard made his career during the NBA's 2010 free agency period. During that time he was the go-to guy about which free agents would sign where. A combination of having arguably the most talented and interesting free agency class and Twitter being mainstream made this the perfect storm. This stellar free agent class included LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudamire and Carlos Boozer just to name a few. With a large number of superstars potentially going to different teams, the whole world was watching wanting to know who would end up where. Chris Broussard was able to capitalize on this by being the one who got most of the information that everyone was after. He was extremely efficient at getting the information out and Twitter was the tool that allowed him to disseminate the news to everyone. This launched Broussard's career and cemented himself as the premier NBA insider.

The Internet has created a 24 hour news cycle where consumers demand to receive breaking news the instant that a journalist receives it. Such a cycle, especially in sports has rewarded the person who not only has the strongest connections with teams, agents and players, but who can also utilize social media to broadcast the news out the fastest.  Twitter has become the tool for breaking news because of the ease of use and short, succinct messages. When a free agent makes a decision of where to play all a fan cares about is what team, how much money and how many years.  This information can easily be written in 140 characters and posted on Twitter for everyone to see.  Twitter has become a tool for not only breaking news, but establishing reporters as the most knowledgeable, credible and fastest.  Having this dominance allows Chris Broussard to stand out of the pack and really influence people.  Having such a strong reputation has earned him a following that will instantly share his information with their followers and maintain his status as a reporter

Bill Simmons is perhaps the best example of a journalist who used social media to make his own career.  After having been relatively unsuccessful starting his career in journalism and being forced to bartend to make ends meet, Simmons created a website called the bostonsportsguy.com and started doing his own writing.  He stared very grass roots, emailing all of his friends and telling them to read the columns that he was writing.  From there more and more people started reading his column and he tried to distribute the link to as many people as possible through both his email and his friend’s.  This went on for some time and right before he was going to throw in the towel for good, ESPN saw his columns and decided to hire him to write a few columns.  As they say, the rest was history, Simmons’ columns were very well received and quickly became one of ESPN’s most popular columnists.  He has gone on to write for many different portions of ESPN’s website and was given his own website, Grantland.com, this year to be editor-in-chief of.  In addition to being an extremely successful writer, he also has an extremely large Twitter following with well over a million followers.  

Bill Simmons is a master of spreadable media, which is a concept conceived by Henry Jenkins in which he said that media is continued by the public.  With his first website, Simmons ensured that his columns spread by emailing the columns that he wrote and encouraging his friends to forward the link onto all of their other friends.  This resulted in him being discovered by ESPN and going from a being broke bartender with a dream of being a sports journalist to becoming one of the most successful sports writers in the world.  Furthermore, Simmons also took advantage of this ability to make every column that wrote to become extremely successful and currently leverages his massive Twitter following to assist in spreading his media to as many people as possible.  This is one of the great stories of spreadable media that exists and without Bill Simmons’ persistence and desire to spread his content, the sports world would be deprived of a great writer. 

Social Media and Sports

In the next three blog posts I will be examining the use of social media in sports and how different teams, players and reporter have leveraged it to their advantage. Social media is a great tool that everyone should be using and through this series I will demonstrate through examples how it has been used successfully. There is no one correct way to use social media, but there are certainly wrong ways to use it. As you will see in this series, strategies are dependent on personality, end goal and platforms being utilized. I evaluated how different teams, players and journalists have used social media to their advantage to enhance their brands and expand their reach. Social media can help establish oneself and to keep them relevant. Although there are countless way to use social media, it has become increasingly important and an essential part of managing one's brand no matter what section of sports someone is in.

Social Media and Sports

In the next three blog posts I will be examining the use of social media in sports and how different teams, players and reporter have leveraged it to their advantage. Social media is a great tool that everyone should be using and through this series I will demonstrate through examples how it has been used successfully. There is no one correct way to use social media, but there are certainly wrong ways to use it. As you will see in this series, strategies are dependent on personality, end goal and platforms being utilized. I evaluated how different teams, players and journalists have used social media to their advantage to enhance their brands and expand their reach. Social media can help establish oneself and to keep them relevant. Although there are countless way to use social media, it has become increasingly important and an essential part of managing one's brand no matter what section of sports someone is in.

What was he thinking?

This Thanksgiving instead of talking about all of the great football that was played, all anyone could talk about was Ndamukong Suh’s personal foul and subsequent ejection.  Suh has been the subject of a lot of controversy due to his bad temper on the field, which resulted in nearly $50,000 in fines this season before his latest outbreak this week.  Ndomakung even met with Commissioner Roger Goodell regarding the fines he was receiving to presumably clarify the rules. 

The latest act by Suh is completely despicable and deserves at least the two-game suspension that was handed down by the league today.  Suh was seen obviously driving Green BayPackers lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith’s head into the ground.  Then as he was being pulled away from him, Suh decided to stomp on the defenseless lineman lying on the ground.  A flag was thrown and he was immediately ejected from the game.  So far fines have not worked to deter Suh from such flagrant acts and maybe the suspension and time away from football will give Suh time to think about his anger issues.  He is not only costing himself, but his team, the Lions as well.  They are going into a crucial stretch in the season to make the playoffs and will be forced to do it without one of their best players because he lost his temper.

Keep on Rolling

The Dolphins have now won three games straight by not only beating, but demolishing a division rival.  The Bills managed to score only 8 points all game and the Dolphins put 35 points up on the board.  This offensive effort was led by Matt Moore who was very efficient passing, going 14 for 20 with 160 yards passing and 3 touchdowns.   Matt Moore has been a very key aspect to the win streak as he has been able to do what is asked of him and not turn the ball over.  This has allowed the defense to play as well as they can and leave Moore in situations where he can win the game.  The Dolphins have not put the pressure on Moore to win, but have put him in a position where if he performs well the team will win.  If Moore continues playing this well for the rest of the season he may see an increase in pass attempts and also may secure his job as the starter of the Dolphins for next season as well. 

Next week the Dolphins are in the national spotlight when they travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.  The 6-4 Cowboys currently sit atop the NFC East and the Dolphins can make a statement in front of the whole nation if they can defeat the Cowboys.  Dallas is coming of a close win over the Redskins and will be looking to bring their win streak to 4 games just like the Dolphins.  This should be an interesting game and show how the new Dolphins can play against a very solid Cowboys team.