Live: Blogs With Balls 3, Chicago, IL

Today, I’m at Blogs WIth Balls, a sports blogging conference taking place in Chicago, IL. Below, I’ve included the streaming video from Justin.TV as well as a live blogging/Twitter stream that will be updated throughout the day.

To WomenTalkSports members/fans – please note that Dr. Nicole Lavoi from the Tucker Center (One Sport Voice) will be speaking on a very interesting panel from 2:40-3:40 CST: You’ve Gotta Fight For Your Right…to Blog?: A Legal and Ethical Primer to Sports Media. Should be interesting. Make sure you participate in the conversation and be sure to use the #bwb3 hashtag.

Watch live video from blogswithballs on Justin.tv

President Obama: Draws up women’s basketball bracket

President Obama acknowledged the female basketball community today by actually FILLING OUT A BRACKET!

Step in the right direction, and certainly sets an example for the rest of the country. There are TWO championships going on people!

Hat-tip to Christine Brennan at USA Today for writing about the story.

To get involved in a bracket challenge, join us at WomenTalkSports.com (there will be giveaways!)

Brittney Griner throws controversial punch

Baylor’s star freshman (yes, the one that dunks), Brittney Griner, made headlines today – but not due to her talent on the basketball court.

During a game on Wednesday (that was being filmed on ESPN), Griner threw a punch at Texas Tech’s Jordan Barncastle. Right in the face. (ouch!)

Brave move as a freshman. Mechelle Voepel wrote a really good piece on this on ESPN.com. I highly suggest you check it out if you’re interested in a full digestion of what this means for Griner’s future career.

WomenTalkSports Xbox Nadal Preview

Nadal is a very cool (new) game about to be released by Xbox. I was invited to go to a party in NYC this past week and check it out along with other WomenTalkSports.com writer Lesley Higgins. We both loved it.

You might ask about what this has to do with women and sports. As you can see in the preview of the game below, there will be sports games on the system. Although we didn’t get to try any of them, they look pretty cool! This is a good, creative way to get young girls physically active at home, as well as engaged and excited about sports.

Excited for Nadal to come out! I might have to buy an Xbox for this…

2010 Olympics: The influence of advertising on quality broadcast journalism

Imagine yourself as Linsey Vonn yesterday – a native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, who has been working her whole life, since she was 2 years old, to bring home an Olympic gold in women’s downhill skiing.

She finally does it, gives hugs to her family in the stands, and picks up a cell phone to call some close friends from home.

Only one thing – nobody wants to answer the phone. Not because they’re not interested, but because nobody has seen it yet. NBC wouldn’t be airing her performance until later that night, on primetime television, when more people were watching.

This post is about power.

We all know – money is a big driver of power. Unfortunately for all of us, nowhere is this more apparent than NBC’s broadcast coverage of the 2010 Olympics.

What do I mean? Well, advertising money, more-so than monumental athletic performances, are influencing NBC’s broadcast decisions during the 2010 Olympics.

NBC is infuriating millions of fans by tape-delaying important events. People online are freaking out, and media publications are picking up on it. Need examples? Read this article by Henry Blodget of Business Insider or today’s piece by Sports Illustrated, or yesterday’s piece in the New York Times.

NBC infuriated millions of “people like me” when they tape-delayed one of America’s treasures – quite possibly the most-discussed performance about a female athlete (ever) – the women’s downhill (i.e., “The Lindsay Vonn Show”).

Crazy, right?

Yesterday, when Vonn performed, I sent around the NYTimes alert saying Vonn had won the gold with the message “yay!” One of my WomenTalkSports friends was a little annoyed that I had ruined the surprise. She apparently was waiting in anticipation to watch in on TV later that night.

While I understand where she’s coming from, that’s not the world that I live in. I don’t “wait” for things anymore. I demand access to real-time updates and breaking news stories because that’s what I deserve as a consumer. And that’s exactly what NBC should be broadcasting.

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Hannah Kearney brings home USA’s first Olympic Gold in moguls

If you didn’t see it last night, you missed a great performance.

No, I’m not talking about Apolo Ohno, who (luckily) snagged a silver in the men’s speedskating short track competition.

I’m talking about Hannah Kearney, the Olympic mogul skier from Hanover, New Hampshire, who beat the pants off of her competitors and brought home the United States’ first gold medal at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. (NBC coverage is located here in case you missed it)

Kearney entered the 2010 Olympics with the lead qualifying score, 25.96. Kearney skied what NBC commentators called “textbook skiing,” or a very clean run, earning a score of 26.63 and winning the gold medal. The run pushed Canadian opponent Jennifer Heil to silver, and USA teammate Shannon Bahrke to bronze.

If you aren’t familiar with moguls skiing (don’t worry, I’m not either), here’s a little background:

- moguls are are a series of bumps on a trail formed when skiers push the snow into mounds or piles as they execute short-radius turns.

- competitors are scored in three different ways: turns score, air score, and speed score. The combined score is based upon all three areas – whoever has the highest score wins.

- During a competition run, contestants must navigate around the moguls and execute tricks. Some common tricks include: 360 X, twister, spread, Daffy, cork-720, and backflip.

Watch this video to see a little background on Heather:

How YouTube Direct could change sports broadcasting

Some recent, exciting news – YouTube Direct launched. This post discusses why it’s important for those in the sports world to pay attention to it.

Essentially, YouTube Direct is a platform which allows media sites to permit users to upload videos to YouTube without leaving the media site (see picture to the right). So far, those to take advantage of this new (free) API are mostly traditional news sites – The Huffington Post, NPR, Politico and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Why should people in the sports world care? It all has to do with broadcast media and the diversification of sporting event content.

(First, if you haven’t done so already, read my recent post on NCAA and social media: Friends?.)

Here’s my thinking…

One of my key criticisms of (some, not all) NCAA athletic departments was the fact that many of them aren’t open to the idea of sharing. In particular, I think they don’t broadcast their video content online nearly as much as they should. By limiting themselves to their local markets, they’re limiting their reach to a small, geographic area.

On the national level, let’s face it – not all sports are broadcast on TV. First, there’s just not enough space and licenses. Primary spots are given to “primary” sporting events. Meanwhile, all the others stay within the reach of their local media (which can be quite limiting).

But in both of these situations, there are a few constants – the fans and the athletes.

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Happy National Girls and Women in Sports Day!

National Girls and Women in Sports day is today; a time when female athletes are honored. Check out this totally awesome slideshow compiled by the WomenTalkSports.com contributors! To see events and conversations going on throughout the country today, visit this page on WomenTalkSports.com.

In New York City? Check out Girls, Inc. on Thursday to see womens sports leaders

For those of you who may not know this, Wednesday (Feb. 3) is National Girls and Women in Sports Day. To celebrate, women’s sports bloggers throughout the WomenTalkSports.com network will be posting about local events and activities.  This is an awesome example of how online communities can  support a social movement for female empowerment (through sports).

If you’re like me and you live in the New York City market, there’s a great being event held the day after (Thursday) with Girls, Inc., which might be worth checking out (or at least promoting). Below is the press release.  Some cool sports chicks will be there!

Girls Incorporated of New York City to host National Girls and Women in Sports Day

New York, New York

Based on research conducted by the Women’s Sports Foundation showing that females who participate in high school sports are more likely to attend college than those who did not participate in sports, Girls Incorporated of New York City will hold their 2^nd Annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day event on February 4, 2010 in partnership with The Urban Assembly.

Seven outstanding women leaders including Phaidra Knight, a USA National Rugby Team member, Amanda Kraus, founder and Executive Director of Row New York, Kristina Marchitto, founder of the Yoga Project, Erika Mehalick, head softball coach at The Stevens Institute of Technology, Crissy Van Meter, Associate Editor for ESPN Action Sports, Kim Puntillo, the first woman to run a marathon on every continent, and Agatha Wasilewska, action sports writer for Transworld. The speakers will share their experiences, promote careers in athletics, and encourage a healthy lifestyle with the girls.

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NCAA and social media: Friends?

I’d like to extend a huge “welcome!” to NCAA collegiate athletic departments – it seems that this year, you may have finally realized the power of technology in bringing fans into your stadiums. Well, at least some of you have.

What am I talking about? Well, apparently, a panel of [experts?] convened at an NCAA education session and came up with the following finding:

“Programs willing to invest in effective communication can reap far greater support than at any time in their history.”

Couldn’t agree more. I’m just left a little confused as to why it took a panel of experts AND so much time to figure this out. These tools have been around forever. The only thing I can come up with is that there are some weird regulations out there that I don’t know about. Or athletic departments weren’t willing to lose control of their information. But now they don’t have any choice, and control is being relinquished. I guess that’s innovation?

NCAA institutions (especially schools which have strong female programs) should be doing everything they can to get fans, even if that means going online. Free tools exist, starting with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. These are ways to connect with people and keep them engaged, and sports fans are some of the most faithful users. Embrace it.

So I have to ask the question -  sports information directors, where the heck have you been?

You’ve got a lot of work to do. You need to show me why my friends and I should care about you. What makes you different and cool? What makes you indispensable?

The NCAA panel was right – unlike any other time in history, there’s a huge opportunity here. But like the millions of Americans who are out of work or suffering in the economic depression, you’ve got some proving to do. Here are a few things to think about:

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Womens professional soccer engages over 200,000 Twitter followers

While most of us in digital marketing know that corporate use of social media is not, by any means, a popularity contest and the number of “followers” you have is by no means a measure of success, the Women’s Professional Soccer league (WPS) achieved a milestone this week when its Twitter account, @womensprosoccer, reached 200,000 followers. In fact, they’re ranked fifth behind the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL for leagues with the most followers.

The overarching reason WPS achieved the 200,000 fan milestone is because they built social media into their communications program as a fan-engagement mechanism. Not everyone understand this concept. Here are a few ways WPS engaged their fans this year which I believe have contributed to their overwhelming success.

1) They participate.

As you can see from their number of @replies, re-tweets (RT’s), and #hashtags, WPS actively participates with and contributes toward ongoing conversations. This is not something every company, league or brand knows how to do or why they need to do it. Actively participating in conversations with your consumers brings you closer to them. You develop what we call relationships, by actually talking to people. Relationships and conversations, over time, turn into loyalty. Loyalty turns in to word-of-mouth… and, over even more time, word-of-mouth turns into increased sales.

2) They provide value.

Now, look at the content of the league’s tweets. It’s actually valuable. They’re not overtly pushing their own agenda, meaning, they’re not posting links to where consumers can buy tickets and pushing it down their throats everyday. Instead, they’re posting content that soccer advocates would find useful such as newsworthy articles about the league and information about the sports industry.

3) They’re human.

One huge win, in my opinion, is the fact that WPS shows who they really are as people and teams. They also do an excellent job of cross-promotion; the league actively promotes the Twitter accounts of various teams. In fact, sometimes, they use Twitter as a way to communicate between each other.

Couple cross-promotion with the fact that they’ve created Twitter lists for WPS staff, teams and players. These show that WPS respects and trusts its staff and players enough to allow and even encourage them to be online tweeting about the league. Suddenly, the world sees that WPS is a living, breathing institution made up of some funny, personable people. WPS clearly values its consumers and employees enough to talk to them and show their staff’s human personalities.

These tactics all work toward a strategy that was built into the league from the very beginning: engage directly with new fans through the online medium. As we can see from their recent milestone, I’d say they’ve achieved significant success. Congratulations, WPS!

Can’t wait to see you in my Twitter feed…

1/11: Update:  Also, I forgot to add, WNBA has a great Twitter following as well, with 150,000. Stay tuned for a post on their significant efforts online later this week

Lindsey Vonn pre-Olympic workout

Check it out – Olympic hopeful Lindsey Vonn is video-taped during her killer workout. Definitely shows some of the hard work going into trying to win a gold!

Disclosure: Under Armour, Vonn’s sponsor, is a client of mine at Catalyst Public Relations.