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Posts Tagged ‘shaq’

29 Jul 2010

Facebook & Athletes – understanding the problem

Daily Telegraph ran with reports from the NRL Media Manager’s meetings with NRL and Facebook is social suicide and Penrith Panthers ban players from Facebook, Twitter after Australian Federal Police raise security issues.

Should Athletes be on Facebook?

YES, why shouldn’t they be able to stay in touch with family & friends like the rest of us?  That is the key, family & friends, people they know.  Facebook is a personal social network, you should connect with people you know IRL, In Real Life.

Should Athletes connected with fans on Facebook?

NO, not using their personal account as they lose their privacy and the privacy of the people they are connected with.

YES, they can connect using the correct platform in Facebook’s case the Fan Page.  The Fan Page allows fans to get updates from an athlete but provides the athlete with the separation from the fans.

Examples of athlete Fan Pages include – AFL’s Harry O’Brien & NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal or for a company like Sports Geek.

How can clubs & leagues help?

Want to know more about how athletes can effectively use social media platforms?  Then please check out our Social Media Athlete Training program.

Other articles that may be of interest include:

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Posted in Social Media | 2 Comments »
22 Nov 2009

Sports Geek US Study Trip

Sports Geek is heading to the USA in January to study great sports & great technology.

Why leave the world’s best sporting city, Melbourne, to study sports, you might ask?

The US sports market in the biggest in the world and they lead the way in the use of technology to connect with fans.  The NBA has shown themselves to be a market leader in the use of social media in sports.  The NFL is a world leader in producing a premium sports television product.  The NHL is embracing Twitter to connect hockey fans and help build buzz around the NHL.

I’ve been lucky enough to study US sports when I was in the touring party with the Western Bulldogs after developing Bulldogs TV.  That trip saw us visit in 2 just two weeks the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (CFL), NFL franchises Indianapolis Colts, Seattle Seahawks and NCAA football operations at Mountain West Conference schools Airforce Academy & Colorado State University.  It was an awesome trip, it was great to see how much the Australian sports market can learn from US sports.  However it was terrific to see how the Australian sporting culture presents solutions that are applicable to US sports.

Sports Geek US Study Trip Goals

  • Find great tech products that work in sports market
  • Connect with passionate sports professionals and fans
  • Discover what sports promotions are hitting the mark
  • Investigate how franchises are adapting the changing media landscape
  • What can the Australian sports market learn from the US sports market (and vice versa)

Along the way I’ll be keeping the trip fun by setting some challenges to achieve during the trip.

Here’s the Sports Geek Bucket List, please feel free to suggest more via the comments or @ reply on Twitter (@seancallanan).  If you can help me with these tasks please get in touch.

  • Twitpic with a championship trophy
  • Meet a commissioner – NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL
  • Get a twitter shoutout from @The_Real_Shaq
  • Tour of a new or unfinished stadium
  • Organize a #sportsgeektweetup
  • Have a beer with Bill Simmons AKA “The Sports Guy”
  • Tweet from a College Tailgate party
  • Appear in a YouTube clip with a champion (NBA, NFL, MLB, or NHL)
  • Be interviewed on a US sports radio station
  • Shake hands with Chevy Chase (see my twitter avatar for why)

Where am I going? I’m going study sports in 2 of the biggest sports markets in the world Los Angeles and New York.  Keep an eye on this blog as you’ll know where I’ll be and who I see.

Operation Cuban

In between I am going to stop over in Dallas.  I am a huge fan of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban as he is also an unabashed “Sports Geek”.  If you don’t know Mark Cuban you should his Wikipedia gives an overview but his blog (Blog Maverick) tells you much more about him.  My goal is to shoot some pre-game hoops with Mark and talk sports & tech.  Stay tuned to see how I go.

Keep an eye out for the #sportsgeektrip hashtag on Twitter for updates.

[UPDATE - Sports Geek Travel Schedule]

Jan 5 2010 12:00pm – Leave Melbourne, Australia

Jan 5 2010 10:00am (Groundhog day) – Arrive in Los Angeles, California

Jan 12 2010 12:30pm – Leave Los Angeles

Jan 12 2010 5:40pm – Arrive Dallas, Texas

Jan 17 2010 1:00pm – Leave Dallas

Jan 17 2010 7:30pm – Arrive New York City, New York

Jan 25 2010 6:00pm – Leave New York

Jan 27 2010 11:30am – Arrive Melbourne

If you work in sports please join the Sports Geek LinkedIn Group

Contact Sports Geek to be profiled on Sports Geek Study Trip.

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Posted in News | 4 Comments »
09 Nov 2009

NBA leading the way again – Virtual Jerseys

NBA Virtual Jerseys

Check out the latest post from the NBA Facebook Fan page (1.6M fans and counting), they are now offering Virtual NBA Jerseys as Facebook Gifts!

Awesome idea from the NBA as it allows Facebook users to send a digital NBA Jersey to a friend using Facebook credits.  To purchase simply go to the Facebook gift shop and search for NBA, there is a selection of team and player jerseys available.

We’d like to see the NBA release sales results on digital jerseys like they do for actual jerseys.   Could Facebook stars like Shaq, Bosh & Nash outshine big names like Kobe & LeBron who have shied away from the social media spotlight?

Want to learn more about leveraging your sporting organization or league using Facebook?
Contact Sports Geek for our Sports Geek Facebook guide.

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Posted in Social Media, Sports Marketing | No Comments »
15 Oct 2009

Fake sports stars can damage a personal brand

As the adoption of social media grows so to will be the prevalence of people abusing the system for fun or profit.  One of these trends is faking twitter account for athletes as per this Wall Street Journal article.

Twitter is trying to protect “high-profile” accounts by offering the Verified Account service.  The process can verify accounts of celebrities and athletes but it does not automatically remove fake accounts, that is a separate process.

What can be done to stop this? The best method is to take control of your personal brand by being active on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, then fans can easily follow the real deal and ignore/block the fakes.  That is the story of Shaquille O’Neal AKA @The_Real_Shaq who was kick started on Twitter thanks to Kathleen Hessert (@kathleenhessert) as there were several fake Shaqs on Twitter.  Another way for sports fans to verify accounts is through their club much like Harry O’Brien has done with @Harry_O and his articles on the Collingwood web site.

Not every athlete will gain a Shaq like following (2.4M) but it does show how an athlete can take control of their personal brand via social media.  The traditional media is slowly adapting and the tweet comment is becoming more common method in sports reporting.

The Sports Geek rules for athletes on Twitter are simple:

  • Be yourself & be genuine
  • Engage your fans – Thanks, Shout outs.  You don’t have to reply to every mention but definitely don’t ignore them all
  • Remember who you represent and stay true to that
  • Things posted on the Internet live forever (a guide of what not to do is another post)

Here’s a report from ESPN on Athletes on Twitter for more thought as well as a report from Sports Illustrated.

What do you think about Athletes on social media?

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Posted in Public Relations, Social Media | No Comments »

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