I’m sure this will be where sports news and athlete news specifically is headed as athlete’s take control of their message via social media rather than traditional media.
What do you think? Is this change good for sports fans? How will sports media react to this change?
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This coming week may be the biggest in NBA history as the free agent class of LeBron, Wade & Bosh among others decide where they will continue to ply their trade. Teams & fans are in a frenzy at the possibility of landing one, two are perhaps all three. Chicago Bulls sold 1500 season tickets in 48 hours just on speculation alone.
Sports Geek getting the Southern Footy League up to speed with social media promoting this Saturday’s via a Facebook promotion with half-price entry to anyone who RSVPs on Facebook.
Best On Ground
Wimbledon using Facebook & Livestream to create a mashup to connect the press room to Facebook fans.
Video Clip of the Week
More from Wimbledon since it is reaching the pointy end…
Book your ticket for SRG Conferences
Got your ticket yet? HUGE lineup with speakers from Real Madrid, NBA (Trailblazers & Timberwolves) & Tottenham…
Engaging Fans & Participants in the Digital Age Sydney – Star City – July 13 & 14
The Wests Tigers head the NRL SSMI leaderboard with good use of Facebook events to stay connected with fans. Brisbane Broncos are close behind taking advantage of the Facebook photo galleries to run promotions with fans sharing great snaps at the game. The South Sydney Rabbitohs scored well with a well branded Twitter account that is interacting with fans definitely “joining the conversation.”
Link #fail
Unfortunately it is very hard to determine “official” accounts from fan-run or imposter accounts. The main culprit is the “Connect with the NRL” page on NRL.com which links to several unofficial accounts on Facebook & Twitter. To make matters worse some of the club sites link to the incorrect accounts as well. Some of the clubs with bad links include Melbourne Storm, Newcastle Knights, North Queensland Cowboys, NZ Warriors, Parramatta Eels, Penrith Panthers & Sydney Roosters.
Good moves
Some teams are trying a few initiatives that should be applauded to create a community for fans with Penrith going “old-school” social media providing a fan forum with Panthers Interactive. The NZ Warriors have teamed up with their major sponsor in Vodafone to deliver Vodafone One Tribe. These sites do well to foster community amongst fans and would be improved if integrated with Facebook Open Graph to allow fans to share via Facebook.
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.
SSMI rates teams on execution on social media platforms, are they using best practices exhibited by teams leading the way in digital sport marketing like the Dallas Mavericks, LA Kings & New York Knicks.
If you want more information on SSMI please contact Sean on 0407047200.
While World Cup teams have banned players from using social media, others are using it as a launch platform for endorsement exposure. In Cristiano Ronaldo’s case exposure is exactly the right word with his Armani photo getting 32k likes and 11,780 comments.
Twitter reports the massive spikes in traffic from the #worldcup but it was the Lakers’ win in the NBA Finals that broke records.
NBA Championship between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. The Lakers’ victory generated a record 3,085 TPS as the game ended.
Can’t got past without mentioning the amazing 5 set match between Isner & Mahut that took 3 days to complete and ended with a 70-68 Isnet win in the 5th.
But here is the tweet of the tournament so far from Andy Roddick.
met the queen of england today …. she said she loved me in the american pie moviesThu Jun 24 16:06:49 via webandyroddick
andyroddick
Best On Ground
Toyota Racing have done well offering NASCAR fans the ability to create their very own NASCAR, great sport-sponsor digital promotion with Sponsafier 2.
Video Clip of the Week
NBA using Vimeo to as part of broadcast package of the NBA Finals…
Book your ticket for SRG Conferences
Got your ticket yet? HUGE lineup with speakers from Real Madrid, NBA (Trailblazers & Timberwolves) & Tottenham…
Engaging Fans & Participants in the Digital Age Sydney – Star City – July 13 & 14
Twitter is doing it’s best to bring World Cup fans together with it World Cup 2010 page. You can track tweets from games providing a twitter commentary when you mute the TV for vuvuzela relief.
Video Clip of the Week
Kobe Bryant fan needs to be seen to be believed…
Book your ticket for SRG Conferences
Got your ticket yet? HUGE lineup with speakers from Real Madrid, NBA (Trailblazers & Timberwolves) & Tottenham…
Engaging Fans & Participants in the Digital Age Sydney – Star City – July 13 & 14
Back in March 
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