WomenTalkSports.com welcomes you to the “Twitter Lounge”

As many of you know, I am one of the co-founders of WomenTalkSports.com, so I am a bit biased when I write this post. However, our site has grown tremendously, and our new Twitter Lounge resource is so good that I felt the need to write about it in an effort to spread the word.

If you’re not already aware, WomenTalkSports.com is a female sports blog network that was created in early February of this year by myself (chief marketer), Ann Gaffigan at Steeplechics (chief tech director, who literally built the site from scratch) and Jane Schonberger of Pretty Tough (chief editor).

We created WomenTalkSports.com because we knew that there was not much discussion of female athletes online or offline, and we wanted to come together with other advocates and provide that voice. Each day, we acquire new members to our community (we’re now over 30 blogs), and together, we represent  a variety of sports, professions and interests in the women’s athletic industry. Read more

Vote today! 13 ways you can change the world through sports

… as if you needed ideas.

Today is the last day you can vote for your favorites in the Sport for Change contest finalists run by Nike and Ashoka. This post contains links to the finalists, as well as some social media they’ve shared with the world.

To recap – The title of the contest: “GameChangers: Change the Game for Women in Sport”.

Ashoka’s Changemakers and Nike continue their partnership to identify, inspire and bring together the next wave of innovators eager to change the game for women in sport. Between November 12, 2008 and February 25, 2009, individuals from around the world came together to propose a ways to leverage sport for positive social change in the lives of girls and women. Read more

Women’s pro sports: Facebook awaits you

I just read an excellent post on Mashable titled “5 Elements of  a Successful Facebook Page.” I LOVED this post, and I think they are spot on with their recommendations.

In the hopes that the women’s sports industry is reading this, I empower you to take these steps in enhancing your presence on Facebook.

The biggest opportunity is “network with other platforms” – with the consumer industry for females being as huge as it is, and with official sponsors in the mix, professional organizations like the WNBA or Women’s Pro Soccer can strategically get this done, effectively, providing mutually beneficial contracts with all parties involved

The only thing I’d add is to make it personal. Because female athletes are real people (and likely have personal Facebook accounts – if they don’t, they should), I challenge the players to become “fans” of their own leagues and teams, and contribute to it frequently by posting discussions and interacting with fans.

Now that more female athletes are on Twitter, their updates should automatically feed into their Facebook status, enhancing that “personal feel” that people want to see/hear.  Using Twitpic to show what it’s like in their locker rooms, overseas, or even in their own homes would help, too.

From Mashable…

1. Networking with other platforms

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Building a large following requires a network of other platforms, working in conjunction to drive visitors to your fan page. One brand that does that well is Victoria’s Secret with their PINK line.

As you can see, on their PINK landing page they have a link to their Facebook fan page and their MySpace () profile. Victoria’s Secret leverages the traffic their home page gets and pushes them to their Facebook fan page.

Many companies lack this level of dedication, expecting their consumers on Facebook to find them automatically. However, that’s not usually the case.

When is the last time you went looking for a brand’s Facebook fan page? More often than not, a consumer will stumble upon the page, either through a friend or from a hub, similar to Victoria’s Secret’s PINK page.

Understandably, the fact that the demographic targeted by Victoria’s Secret PINK, aligns exactly with the demographic that is most active on Facebook, has helped grow the group as well.

Key Takeaway: Connecting multiple social platforms and a hub from the brand website, can help funnel consumers throughout the network.

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2. Creating a resource

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Some pages are used as connection hubs, but others offer information pertinent to their consumers. They use the information as added value to have consumers create a connection with the brand.

Dell has done a great job with their social media resource for small businesses. Understanding that small business owners buy computers, by offering them this resource, small business owners interested in social media keep Dell top of mind.

Although, Dell can’t explicitly gauge the success of this program in ROI, it is a branding exercise. Also, since they offer deals and updates on new products on the page – the page does have a chance to convert small business owners into Dell consumers.

Key Takeaway: Offering a resource page allows a brand to target a new demographic, outside of those that already know and love the business.

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3. Creating contests that include participation

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For brands that want fan pages to have added value (a reason for users to join the page, aside from brand loyalty), but don’t want to become a resource portal; offering contests and coupons specifically to Facebook users can entice consumers to join.

Sears offered fans a $10 coupon to use in stores, giving consumers a reason to join. Clicking on the coupon takes you to a page where Sears collects your information and sends you information about the coupon, deals, and offers. There’s no way to make sure the coupon is given to only Facebook fans, however like Sears, brands can require an email before receiving the coupon.

Key Takeaway: Offering something to consumers to join can help build a large community. Some examples of things to offer: Coupons, free shipping, weekly deals.

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4. Empowering pre-existing pages

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One of my favorite stories about social media involves the Coca Cola Facebook page. The fan page was created by two users who liked Coke. What started as a fan page for fun, turned out to be the largest product fan page on Facebook.

Coca Cola, instead of taking over the page and making it their own, rewarded the fans by bringing them to Atlanta and giving them a tour of the Coke facility. The fan page remains theirs, but now they have the blessing and help of Coca Cola.

By empowering the fans to keep their fan page, Coke ensures a passionate page owner.

The Coca Cola marketing team was also smart enough to realize that letting others know what happened here would work in their favor. The fan page creators were told to make a video of the history behind the fan page, and how Coke had reached out to them and rewarded them for this.

The video shows future ‘brand enthusiasts’ that creating successful groups around Coca Cola can result in rewards and recognition.

Key Takeaway: Taking over unsanctioned Facebook fan pages isn’t always the best idea. Instead, rewarding dedication can inspire others to do the same.

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5. Targeting the proper demographic

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Sometimes no matter what you do, your Facebook page won’t grow. This can simply be a side effect of Facebook’s demographic. There are just some brands that will not have a strong presence on Facebook.

Understanding the demographic present can help you decide if Facebook is worth it for your business.

From Quantcast estimates, we can tell that Facebook skews towards female youths. Interestingly, 53% of users have kids and a majority make over $60k a year salary. Obviously, over 50% are college kids. The demographics that make up Facebook are changing quickly, as more moms have begun to join and the college market has become saturated.

Armed with this knowledge, Seventeen Magazine jumped on to the Facebook fan page bandwagon. Their brand targets the demographic most prominent on Facebook, meaning a fairly quick and organic growth.

For companies whose brand does not target the optimal demographic, finding a specific line that does, works.

Consider the brand mentioned earlier in this article, Victoria’s Secret. Instead of putting the entire brand on Facebook, they targeted the PINK line, a line for college students.

Key Takeaway: Some brands cannot expect huge followings on Facebook. Brands or product lines targeting the demographic most prominent on Facebook tend to see the quickest growth.

I purposely did not talk about using advertising to increase the size of a fan page, because although it can be useful to jump start a fan page, organic growth can help build a more engaged group.

Creating a Facebook fan page is simple, but getting it to work well takes time, dedication, and some planning. Don’t expect to create a page and then have a huge following instantaneously. Build good content, make it easy to share, and let people know about it, and over-time the community will grow.

Do you have a successful fan page? What did you do to get the word out? What elements did you add to make it easier to pass along? How do you engage your consumers?

Former NCAA athletes killed in NY plane crash

This is awful…

Just read via an NCAA update e-mail that two former NCAA Division III athletes were killed in the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 last night in Buffalo, NY.

As a former Division III athlete who competed in basketball against Rowan University, this kind-of hits home for me. Also, I went to The College of New Jersey, which is right down the road from Princeton.

Even though I didn’t know either these ladies personally, my heart goes out to them, their families and their teammates. This is truly a tragedy, one that nobody likes to hear about.

From the NCAA…

Lorin Maurer, manager of the Athletic Friends program at Princeton and a former Rowan swimmer who served as an NCAA promotions and events intern during 2003-04.

Madeline “Maddy” Loftus, a former ice hockey student-athlete at Buffalo State and St. Mary’s (Minnesota), were reported as being among 50 victims of the Continental Airlines crash in Clarence Center, New York.

Maurer, 30, was an all-New Jersey Athletic Conference swimmer and team captain at Rowan. After that, she was a graduate student in sport management and a women’s administration intern at Florida before joining the NCAA branding and communications group as a promotions and events intern.

Loftus attended Buffalo State during her freshman and sophomore years, then transferred in 2004 to St. Mary’s, where she played her junior and senior seasons. She served as a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s student-athlete advisory committee in 2005-06, and was instrumental in starting the Cardinal Athletic Council, a student-athlete group at St. Mary’s.

On behalf of the entire women’s sports population who was raised and competed for the NCAA in New Jersey, I’d like to thank these women for their contribution to their sports.

Athletes creating “sites to behold”: new technologies, gender disparities

I came across an interesting blog post by Marie Hardin from Sports, Media and Society last week. In this post, Marie points to an article in the San Diego Tribune which discusses how athletes are using the Internet to take control over their brands.

In this article, the author (Tod Leonard) excellently wrote about how high-profile athletes have embraced the Web as a way to connect with fans and raise their profiles.

Key takeaways: It’s up to the athletes themselves to 1) make the investment and 2) decide how they want to be branded. Subversively, it’s evident that men and women are portrayed differently.

Leonard said,

“In this age when millions of facts are literally available in the palm of our hands, when baseball games can be followed pitch-by-pitch on a computer and football highlights are enjoyed on your phone, top-level athletes and coaches are only beginning to scratch the surface of the Internet’s potential for their career and their lives.”

He’s completely and totally right. As long as that comment is kept to male sports.

Unfortunately, there’s a discrepancy on how male and female athletes are portrayed on the Web, and this article by Leonard is proof that it’s happening.

In the up-front of this article, Leonard mentioned how Tiger Woods – upon learning he had to undergo knee surgery – decided to break the news on his Web site, where bloggers (not surprisingly) picked upon the information and began spreading it faster than the speed of light.

He mentioned his love for Adrian Gonzalez (who blogs regularly) and golfer Pat Perez (whose site “rocks”), and criticized stars like quarterback Philip Rivers for “being quiet” and golfer Phil Mickelson, whose site “just lays there.”

Leonard said there are athletes “who get it” and athletes “who don’t.”

But where it really gets interesting – and credit needs to go to Marie Hardin for pointing this out – is the difference between the sites of male and female athletes. Unfortunately, the sites of females are tending to reinforce some traditional stereotypes about women.

Women’s sites are emphasizing a certain superfluous material and sex appeal – two items that are absent on sites of men (shocker).

In an age where digital communication is on the brink of taking over print media, the athletic industries need to decide how to brand female athletes so that they’re taken seriously.

And at a time when the athletes themselves have control over how their branded, it is their responsibility to demand to be taken seriously.

Women who are leading this movement – individuals like Maria Sharapova and Danica Patrick – are taking the opposite approach, and it’s not leading to a good online presence.

Here’s what Leonard said about race car driver Danica Patrick’s site:

“Take a look at the opening page of the site of IRL driver Danica Patrick (danicapatrick.com), and the racing helmet on her hip is barely noticeable because she’s wearing a sexy, light blue dress with a plunging neckline. There’s a reason for that.”

“The new site is based more on fashion and real life,” said Patrick’s father, T.J., who runs her business affairs. “People know about her racing now. They need to see her as a fashion person. She’s very up on fashion, and we like to promote the regular Danica. Eventually, she won’t be racing and we still have to keep going.”

But why does she need to see her as a fashion person? Is that really the only way they can draw fans? Doesn’t that emphasis demean her achievements as an athlete who has broken gender barriers in a masculine sport?

I mean, yes, she’s beautiful, and she knows how to dress well, but that’s not why she’s famous. She’s famous because she kicks ass at race car driving.

Right now, Patrick’s site gets 1 million visits per year and features the music of up-and-coming female artists and as many red-carpet glamour shots as racing photos.

I think she can do much, much better.

Another example is that of Michellie Jones, “a personable Aussie triathlete” who is “all about the whimsy of the blog.” Leonard mentions that she compulsively takes photos from her iPhone and posts them on her site (gomichellie.com), “no matter how wacky.”

“If I giggle at them, maybe other people will too,” Jones said.

The blogs read like letters to her dearest friends, complete with run-on sentences and bad punctuation.

“Blogs have made it more personal,” Jones said. “People feel like they can connect with you. Some of my blogs are better than others, but if it makes somebody laugh, and if they can relate to you in some way, then you’ve reached the purpose the site was intended for.”

Now, take a look at how the two female athletes were portrayed in this article and then compare it to how Tiger Woods and others were discussed.

Female athletes = sex objects who are superficial and not serious.

Male athletes = cutting edge sports stars who “get it” when it comes to technological advances.

It’s important that this is addressed early in the game before it’s too late.

Exclusive Interview – Jane Schonberger from Pretty Tough

I recently had the unique opportunity to interview a pioneer who has dedicated her career to bringing a voice to women’s sports, Jane Schonberger. Jane is the founder and “Chief Trailblazer” for Pretty Tough, a #1 site for female athletes and fans of women’s sports.

Geared toward young girls and their growing desire to play sports, Jane established the Pretty Tough (PT) brand to demonstrate that a woman’s femininity and desire to play hard can be strong and can co-exit. Not only does PT do an excellent job of conveying this message to an audience who needs to hear it the most, but the site also has some of the best comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of women’s sports available.

I am a strong supporter of this site and this company, and I wish Jane the best of luck in her future endeavors. (You might see me guest blogging for PT in the future).

Check out the below interview. I hope you enjoy her words as much as I have. Thank you, Jane, for your inspiration and taking the time to speak with me.

(MH) Tell me a little bit about yourself, your background and your role at Pretty Tough.

(JS) After a successful career as content developer and entertainment/brand marketing executive, I wanted to focus my attention on something I really cared about. I have two teenage daughters – both athletes – who are my role models.  I wanted to create a brand that spoke to them – and other girls of their generation – demonstrating that a woman’s femininity and desire to play hard and be strong can co-exist.

I teamed up with friends and colleagues that I’d worked with at Disney, Fox and other studios to develop and market the brand. I serve as the Chief Trailblazer but I have help from a talented group of writers, designers, consumer product gurus, licensing professionals, athletes and coaches.

(MH) Have you ever played sports? If so, which sports and how have they had an impact upon your current career and involvement with Pretty Tough?

(JS) As a kid I mostly played sports on a recreational level. I played tennis and swam competitively for a couple years but wasn’t a super serious athlete. The impact on my adult life comes primarily from lessons learned about goal-setting, perseverance and mental toughness.

Today I still play tennis and swim – I also love to hike and bike – and I play basketball on a Moms League at our local park.

I’m also an avid spectator – one of my daughters is an elite level soccer player, the other is a fencer – and I love going to youth sports competitions as well as college and professional sports events.

(MH) Tell me a little bit about the background of Pretty Tough (the book) and how the Web site and sports blog evolved from there. Does Liz Tigelaar have any continued impact on the site?

(JS) One of our early goals when we established Pretty Tough was to publish a series of books that featured young female athletes. We wanted stories about pushing limits and busting stereotypes – e.g. the popular jock can just as easily be a girl as a guy.

Razorbill, a division of Penguin Young Readers, shared our vision and bought the series. Pretty Tough was the first book. Playing with the Boys was the second in the series and we’re working on the third and fourth books now.

Pretty Tough novels illustrate the life of female athletes in a way that’s never been done before. We wanted to show the grittiness and sweat that athletes must endure to be the best they can be. The books also delve into the lives of the athletes—their friendships and romances—stuff that appeals to girl readers.

We created the Pretty Tough book series because we love to read, and as teens, we could never find good books with a female athletic main character. We hope readers can identify with our characters and see how they deal with a lot of the same issues teens face today.

Author/screenwriter Liz Tigelaar was brought on board because she supports girls in their quest to be both strong and tough athletes without losing their sense of girlie-ness and femininity.  She loved the idea of writing books about teenagers for teenagers that sends a positive message and she’s done a terrific job capturing the voice of our characters.

(MH) I noticed there is a PT Team. I’m curious, how did this group of people come together? How did you find so many voices to represent so many different sports?

(JS) We developed a sponsorship/ambassador program last year to recognize girls in diverse sports. We have an application process and girls on our team benefit on a variety of levels.  PT Team members get exposure on our site and via our marketing campaigns; they receive a free cap and shirt, stickers, and other promotional material. They also earn discounts on products purchased through our online store and commissions on sales generated by their efforts.

(MH) In my opinion, Pretty Tough covers sports better than many other resources out there. Who is in charge of updating and keeping track of all the latest female sports news? How do they do it?

(JS) Given our limited staff, the task of keeping the site up-to-date is my responsibility. We work with a talented group of girls and women who contribute material specific to their sport and occasionally assign articles we think will be of general interest.

We’re always looking for new writers and experts and want to provide a forum for all female athletes so hit us up if you think you have something to contribute.

(MH) I noticed there is a “Life & Style” section to the site. What is the purpose of this section, and do you think that section is important in order to attain viewers?

(JS) At our heart, we are a lifestyle brand and I think it’s important for girls to understand how sports and leading active lives are core to a healthy lifestyle. By profiling certain personalities and depicting popular culture, we are essentially connecting the dots and demonstrating how sports and sports themes impact our lives positively on a daily basis.

(MH) How does Pretty Tough profit from the site?

(JS) The site was originally established to develop brand awareness for Pretty Tough and serve as an online shopping destination for Pretty Tough products. It has since evolved into a marketing/advertising vehicle for complementary companies as well.

(MH) I was once told by a female sports blogger that a main reason women’s sports publications such as Sports Illustrated for Women have fizzled out over the years is because they can’t compete with the fashion and consumer magazines and publications, and there is limited interest in the sports news alone. What do you think about this?

(JS) I think that print publications in general are finding it difficult to compete with the internet and other content delivery options. Women’s sports magazines just happened to be at the forefront of pubs experiencing financial difficulties. The current trend is in niche content and given the targeted demographic, I think marketers will find women’s sports sites a more cost-effective way to reach their audience.

(MH) I’ve written about this a few times on my blog, but something that really is annoying to me is that male sports bloggers often only cover female sports when the participant is “hot” or attractive. Have you seen this or come across this? What are your thoughts on male sports bloggers?

(JS) Objectifying female athletes is a favorite pastime of many male bloggers. It’s obvious that “hot” or attractive personalities are going to garner more media attention (whether it’s David Beckham or Amanda Beard) but bloggers only interested in T&A are abhorrent. I love to see female athletes in the spotlight but it’s important to recognize their athletic talents and achievements as well as their physical attributes.

(MH) If you look back to the WNBA fight that happened a few months ago, why do you think that was so successful in grabbing so much attention?

(JS) Although it might not have been the kind of attention the WNBA wanted, the mini-brawl did shine the spotlight on the players momentarily. Female athletes are just as competitive as men and when pushed to the edge they are obviously capable of exhibiting the same lack of control.  The bigger question should be: Now that the women have shown they can fight like the NBA players – can they get paid the same as the guys too?:-)

(MH) Since I started covering the Olympics this year, my site traffic jumped. There seems to be a strong interest during the Olympics which fizzles out over the year. Have you seen this as well? What are your thoughts about the Olympics and its ability to generate an interest in female sports?

(JS) With all of the media hype and money spent on the Olympics, it’s no surprise that interest in all sports was heightened during the event. Athletes such as Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson, Allyson Felix, Sanya Richardson, Dara Torres, Kerri Walsh and Misty Misty May-Treanor received well deserved attention. Equally important was a focus on athletes like fencer Mariel Zagunis, pole vaulter Jenn Stuczynski and martial artist Diana Lopez. Hopefully interest in them and other female athletes will continue.

(MH) What do you think about women’s softball being eliminated for the London games? Do you think there’s a chance to bring it back?

(JS) Softball’s elimination from the 2012 Games sucks and since the basis of the IOC’s decision was nebulous at best, I think there’s a good chance they’ll reconsider for the 2016 Games.

(MH) It seems there is a large disconnect between the millions of girls and women (through college) who compete in sports on a daily basis and the few of us who cover and follow women’s sports as adults (after college). What do you think about this? Do you think there is a market out there for adult females who want to learn about and follow women’s sports?

(JS) I’m sure there is a market for adult females who want to follow women’s sports – albeit a small one compared to the male market. At PrettyTough.com we try to focus not only on the sports but also on the lifestyle aspects. Our audience is one that lives a “sports-inspired life” and is also interested in the health, beauty, and entertainment aspects of athletics.

(MH) What do you think is essential in capturing this market? What is holding it back from taking off right now? Why aren’t advertisers interested and investing (i.e., Sports Illustrated for Women got dropped a few years back)?

(JS) As mentioned before, niche content and a targeted demographic provide marketers with great opportunities. The cost of producing and distributing a magazine is significant but there are a number of alternative methods for delivering content that provide marketers and advertisers with cost-effective solutions. Companies seriously looking at the bottom line recognize that women involved in sports and living a healthy lifestyle are a valuable demographic with enormous spending power and they should be finding efficient ways to reach them.

(MH) What do you think the future of women’s sports will be? Do you think we’ll generate more attention, or do you think it has leveled off?

(JS) I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. Just as college sports has exploded in the past 20 years, women’s sports will be the next huge growth area. College basketball games used to be played in empty arenas  – the first nationally televised game wasn’t until 1968 (UCLA vs. Univ. of Houston). Today there are entire cable networks devoted to college sports and they’re big business for all involved. Women’s sports will follow a similar trajectory.

— I’d like to thank Jane Schonberger again for taking the time to speak to me. Her words and mission at Pretty Tough are critical in our ongoing fight to bring a voice to women’s sports online.

Women Over 30: It’s Not Over

Once an athlete, always an athlete. You never lose it. Your entire life, you have certain values ingrained in you that make you who you are. Teamwork, goal-setting, discipline, competitiveness, leadership, fair play… we all know how it works.

So when a friend of mine sent me a link for a feature by Curve magazine which profiles women over the age of 30 who are becoming amateur athletes, I wasn’t at all surprised.

The piece is entitled “All American Girls,” and profiles women over the age of 30 who are becoming amateur athletes in sports they’re trying for the first time. From surfing and power lifting to flag football and rugby, the stories of these women should inspire all of us to leave our fears and doubts about injuries and time commitments behind and take to the fields of games we’ve been itching to try since we were young. They might not be professionals, but as far as athletic competition is concerned, it’s just the beginning.

One of these profiles really caught my eye, and it’s about Mona Rayside who plays in a rugby club in Washington, DC.

Mona Rayside is 30 years old and has been playing rugby since 1991. Although rugby has been famously dubbed “the barbarian’s sport played by gentlemen,” it started attracting ladies in the mid-1970s and now rivals softball for popularity. Rayside plays for the Maryland Stingers, one of the top women’s club teams in the nation.

Rayside likes the sport because it resembles “female power.” She says, “When I started playing, it was a revelation, because all of a sudden people were excited to see a big ol’ girl come on the field,” she recalls, a smile in her voice. “Rugby … helped me recognize and find my own strength, and to realize that I was physically strong and that that was something to be desired.”

As a basketball player, one of the aspects about Rugby that I am particularly jealous of is the sense of community among its players, or, “ruggers.” First, they’re tough people in general. To go out there and take a hit with no padding on has GOT to hurt. But they encourage each other to get right back up and keep playing.

Second, after the match, they DRINK (party + eat) with their opponents! Often dubbed a “drink up,” this great tradition ingrains sportsmanship and respect for the sport in each of the athletes.

Third, I love the sense of community. I am jealous of the clubs set up for those of us out of college in cities around the world. These serve as “families” of sort (much like my college basketball team was for me). It’s a great way to meet people and have fun. I miss that sense of community, and having moved to a new city, I wish I had it here. Unfortunately, when it comes to basketball, it seems that level of organization seems to dissipate after college.

Although I’d love to try it, I don’t have the time to commit to learning rugby right now. And I don’t think or want to think that I’d enjoy taking a hit that hard.

Plus, my “love” is with basketball. My community is found among basketball players, or “ballers.” I’ve been playing the sport competitively since I was about six years old.

With the overwhelming national popularity of women’s basketball, I really wish there would be more formalized “clubs” that we could join and participate in as adults . I’m not talking about just rec leagues. I’m talking about clubs, membership-oriented communities of adults who fund raise, practice on a regular basis and travel to play in tournaments on the weekends in various cities.

Ballers, where are we? It’s time to get organized. Maybe we can learn a few things from our “rugger” friends.