“Fan & Participant Engagement in the Digital Age”

Star City Hotel, Sydney – July 13 & 14

Follow @SportConference for tweets on the latest from the sports digital marketing world.

Great lineup of speakers for 2 whole days at Sydney’s Star City.

Remember to hashtag it #scau

Next week in Auckland #scnz

Well it was fun to see AFL fans from Collingwood & Essendon join in the foursquare fun at the MCG to get the Swarm badge for #anzacswarm.

#anzacswarm success

A few takeaways from this experience.

1. It’s a new world and it’s shows that social media is a small but developing market.  With 90,070 fans in attendance at the G the goal was to get 50 people checking in represented less than 1% of the crowd using foursquare.  It shows that fans currently using foursquare are early adopters that have embraced the technology, they are needed to create momentum for a social network.  It is also interesting to note that the Geelong Vs Carlton game registered over 30 check-ins on Monday so I expect the swarm badge to be a regular occurrence at many sports events by the end of the year.

2. Sports is a great connector, I’m sure others were keeping a close eye on the numbers as we got closer to the magic number 50. It’s a great way to find sports fans.

3. Great social media publicity for the event as the swarm badge was activated many Melbourne based twitter streams & Facebook news would have been flooded with messages like this.

Here’s a list I created of tweeps who got the #anzacswarm badge. If I missed you send me a @ reply to @seancallanan.



Activating the swarm badge was a small success in showing how social media can enhance the sports experience as well as how it can connect like-minded sports fans.  As I stated in my last post, “Connected & active fans are the most valuable online fans as they give sports team the ability to crowd source your promotions with retweets or likes.”

Not on Foursquare yet? Get on board, here’s how. I’m looking forward to this week’s Row Show looking at the NJ Nets case study with Gowalla & Vanyermedia,

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A look at the AFL pre-season Sports Social Media Index (SSMI) developed by Sports Geek sees a vastly different ladder than most AFL pundits are predicting for the 2010 AFL Season.

Bombers, Dees & Kangas lead

Essendon are front runners in the social media stakes engaging their fans via Twitter & Facebook then backing it up with “The Hangar” developed to bring fans to the club web site.  With an updated website expected soon look for more improvements from the Bombers.

Melbourne is proving itself in social media led by CEO Cameron Schwab (@CamSchwab) tweeting news and presenting Demons strategic plans on YouTube on Whiteboard Wednesday.

North Melbourne have a well rounded approach to social media they even have a Facebook fan page for CEO Eugene Arocca linked from their Facebook fan page.

Hawthorn had success on YouTube with a video poking fun at the new myki system getting 24,000 views even though it may have caused president Jeff Kennett some grief.

Middle of the pack

Some of the clubs in the middle of the SSMI ladder have gone through the steps on setting up on social media platforms such as Facebook & Twitter but are yet to truly engage with their online fan base.  Sports Geek will be keen to see what social media advances these teams make in the 2010 season.

Social Media Cellar Dwellers

Brisbane, Western Bulldogs & Geelong are dragging their feet with little or no social media presence.  They already find themselves behind AFL newcomers Gold Coast & Greater Western Sydney who are both developing fan bases via social media.

About SSMI

Sports Geek has developed the Sports Social Media Index (SSMI) to rate the performance of sports franchise using social media. The SSMI cover the key platforms of sports social media, how each platform is used and how they engage their fan base.

The key to the SSMI is not about comparing Facebook fans or Twitter followers but how teams connect with their fans and increase the value of their brand using social media.  SSMI was developed after meeting with US franchises in the NBA, NFL, MLB & NHL seeing how they are engaging fans using social media. US sports franchises are reaping the rewards from social media efforts securing sponsors for social media driven events as well as high fan satisfaction ratings from fan surveys.

If you want more information on SSMI please contact Sean on 0407047200.

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One of the biggest challenges many teams face is differentiating themselves whilst adhering league brand guidelines.  It was a common theme with the teams I met with on #sportsgeektrip.

Many leagues across the globe follow a similar digital model.  League web sites are developed and team web sites are created under the league umbrella.

MLB.com, NBA.com,  NHL.com, AFL.com.au are some examples of these Leagues that follow this “Umbrella model”.
(*edit thanks for comment: Essendon stand alone as an exception running independently of the AFL very successfully with EssendonFC.com.au)

If you take a look at team websites e.g. LA Dodgers Vs New York Yankees or Collingwood Vs Hawthorn you’ll see some team customization but they are locked into a League framework.  The NBA follows a similar model but teams are using custom landing pages (or splash pages like the Mavs do) to offer fans special deals.

Other leagues like the NFL.com & PremierLeague.com have decoupled the League’s web deal from the teams.

What’s better?

The “Umbrella model” makes administration of League branding much easier and sometimes can lead to a better sponsorship deal as it is league-wide.  However, it can be restrictive both creatively and financially to the teams who want to push the Web 2.0 envelope.  From a technical prospective a league wide CMS (content management system) does reduce the need for in-house web staff for teams but many people who use these systems find them too restrictive.  Leagues that abandon the “Umbrella model” face the problem of a potentially creating a tech gap between the have and have-nots.  Some teams like those run by MSG (Knicks, Rangers, Liberty) help promote their teams outside the standard team’s sites through the stadium (TheGarden.com), then again with so many sports properties MSG is a unique business.

What are your thoughts?

• Does the ability for league’s to secure deals outweigh a team’s desire to innovate?
• Would teams do a better job if they could go it alone?
• Would small-market teams struggle maintaining own website?

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