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

What can Twitter’s geotagging do for sports?

This week, Twitter launched their Geolocation API, giving users the option to have their messages contain their exact locations.

Now, I have to admit, I my first impression was that this feature is a bit creepy, and I do think it may be one of those tools to makes us all a little “too close for comfort.” But there are also lots of useful things that can be done now, too.

Think about the type of power it can give sports fans. Think of yourself having scored tickets to the 2004 World Series championship when the Red Sox beat the Yankees. Or, maybe you witnessed the ever-so-famous 1999 World Cup penalty shot by Brandi Chastain in Pasadena, CA. As a fan, you could break the news quicker than anyone else in the world using your cell phone, right from the stadium, and everyone would know exactly where you were sitting and when. Archived for eternity. Priceless.

Here are some more ideas:

If the stadiums themselves got creative, they might just be able to build some type of API to allow people to communicate and know each other’s geographic seat location. (Maybe we’re not there yet, I don’t know).

Maybe a biker could tweat his specific location on the Tour de France. You can see how he’s doing, what he’s thinking, and where he is. All in real time. Cool.

Or how about something for recreational athletes. Maybe they tweet out their location and receive a message back that tells them where local leagues are. (Similar to a “responsive version” of the WomenTalkSports map of camps, leagues and clinics for women).

Think about sports news – maybe you sent out a tweet to an application that responds with the local scores of games or tweets within 5-10 miles of you. Very cool.

Think about how fans can track their favorite players as they travel around the country and world. For example, geotagging can tell a cool story for those WNBA players overseas right now.

More ideas can be found using your own imagination and reading this ReadWriteWeb post.

5 reasons female athletes should engage online

If you’re a female athlete (or you represent female athletes), I have provided five key reasons you should get online and start talking about your life, your sport, and maybe even your brand.

1) You’re creating and controlling your own voice. Today, athletes can no longer rely on traditional media to cover their stories and extend their brands. Instead, I’m afraid you have to do it on your  own, ladies. Some of you are doing it really, really well. Even when you  get cut.

Take for instance Chantelle Anderson who tried out for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream and got cut. She, prior to getting cut, not only created a name for herself by blogging on Yardbarker, but also continues to voice her opinions about the situation  to a huge audience of followers. Personally (and I know this is not right) but I think the Dream should have kept her, in addition to her talent, she has a following that (maybe) could have transitioned into ticket sales and increased attention, something the struggling league desparately needs.

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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

2009 WNBA Draft: A journey back to my love for women’s basketball

I’ve played basketball my entire life.

Ever since I was little, l knew that I loved the game. From eighth grade all the way through graduation from my NCAA Division III college, I pretty much obsessed over rankings, new prospects and players of the week, desperately trying to mold my role somewhere in the middle of it.

I remember when the WNBA started in 1997. I was 12 years old. It was a really exciting time for women’s sports. I read books written by big names like Pat Summit and Nancy Lieberman, attended basketball camps regularly, and was a subscribed reader to Sports Illustrated for Women. I knew deep down that I wanted to be a part of the future of the game. So I worked very, very hard as a player. Read more

Stringer rightfully complains about Rutgers’ failure to market her program

Rutgers women’s basketball team have done it again – they’re on their fourth trip to the elite eight in five years. That’s pretty amazing.

But in an article released on NJ.com today, head women’s basketball coach Vivian Stringer was not happy.

In fact, she was just the opposite (and rightfully so). She was quoted as complaining about the athletics department’s inability to effectively market a program that has been incredibly successful in recent years.

I have to say, I agree with her.

And speaking out was a great way to put some pressure on their new athletic director, Tim Pernetti.

But the answer is more than just installing a  flashy scoreboard or having smoke come out when the girls run on the floor.

It has to do with engaging directly with your audience, creating fans.

For example, get your athletes online. Have them blog. Get them on Twitter, have them respond to their fans. Hold contests through Facebook. Partner with third party sites like womentalksports.com (disclosure, I am co-founder of this site) to get these ideas out there.

These ideas aren’t new.The fans will come if you earn their respect, I assure you. In fact, if you’re looking for a good role model, check out what women’s pro soccer is doing – they’re leading the way for other women’s sports teams to follow.

In the mean time, keep winning. Keep speaking out about what’s unfair. Your fans will come.

Check out the rest of this article (it’s an interesting one), here: NJ.com on Rutgers Women’s Basketball.

Tennessee Lady Vols squeak past George Washington, great showing of fans

I was fortunate last night to attend a matchup between the University of Tennessee and George Washington University in Washington, DC. The gym was almost full, and within the last five minutes of the game, everyone was on their feet.

Prior to the game, I had received a Facebook invite from a friend for an event titled, “Tennessee is coming…” started by some faithful GWU women’s basketball fans. The message read,

“Hey guys, The lady Vols have been spotted, along with over 1,000 fans. It’s time to remind them that this is our house! Doors open early tonight @ 6:15pm for student only!! This way we can get the best seats in the house.

So, Grab 2 friends, and get out to the Smith Center tonight!!!! Our best opponent of the year is at hand and the team needs our support!”

I was so glad to see a Facebook invite to a women’s basketball event -it already generated over 100 members from the Washington, DC area. So, of course, I decided to go (with a few friends).

Also earlier that day, the Lady Vols took a tour around DC. To the left is a picture of Briana Brass in front of the U.S. Capitol – direct from the Lady Vols’ Web site.

Later that night, I was surprised when I walked in a local bar on campus prior to the game and saw orange. Apparently, the Lady Vols have fans everywhere – and 1,000 of them were headed to GWU’s gym.

I entered the gym- which was pretty-much full, and very, very loud. According to the GWU Web site, last night’s crowd (3,459) was the sixth largest women’s basketball crowd in Charles E. Smith Center history. Pat Summit sure knows how to draw attention. (check out her post-game audio here)

The student section for GWU was in rare form, and the sea or orange behind the Tennessee bench was anything but quiet.

Tenesssee maintained about a 7-10 point lead for about the first 3/4 of the game, but with less than five minutes left to play, George Washington come within a possession of taking the lead (they were down two points).

GWU, a team not even mentioned in the top 20 ESPN/USA Today Divisoin 1 poll, came within 2 points of catching the number 9-ranked ladies in orange, one of the premier women’s basketball programs in the country.

I was impressed by two players, in particular, on GWU’s side.  Senior Jazmine Adair and senior Antelia Parrish, two towers over six feet in height, gave the Tennessee forwards some incredible resistance in the paint, on both the offensive and defensive sides of the floor.

Head Coach Mike Bozeman, in his first season with GWU, was animated and heated the entire game. When GW came within a few points of taking the lead from Tennessee, Bozeman could be found in front of his bench with a towel thrown over his shoulder and his arms extended, waiving at the crowd to get on their feet.

Unfortunately, Tennessee used a 15-5 game-ending run in the last few minutes to escape with a 71-59 victory.

The game was a lot of fun, and I’m proud of the GWU players, students as well as the Tennessee fans who came out of the woodwork for this game. That’s the type of attention every game deserves.

The young Tennessee team seems to have a lot of work to do this year.

Celebrate Columbus Day at the Sports Museum

Jennie Finch, Jessica Mendoza and the USA softball team will be at the Sports Museum in New York city this Monday.

They will be meeting sports fans and signing autographs from 11am-1pm. This is a unique opportunity, so if you’re in the area and have off on Columbus day (or even if you don’t) you should go check this out!

Also present will be Kym Hampton and John Starks of the New York Knicks; the duo will be meeting fans, signing autographs and holding a basketball clinic from 1pm-3pm.

I’ve never been to the Sports Museum, and unfortunately, I have to work on Monday.

However, I am definitely planning on making a trip up there because they are home to the first and only Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, built in partnership with Billie Jean King’s Women’s Sports Foundation.

Can’t wait to see it!

If anyone goes to this event, please post how it was. I’m interested in hearing about it.

Torres Qualifies for Beijing

Because my most popular post thus far (recieving over 2,000 hits) is that of Dara Torres, I feel compelled to announce that she has achieved what many have deemed impossible: on Sunday, she qualified for her fifth Olympic games, beating American-record holder, Natalie Coughlin by 0.05 for a spot on the

Apparently, she rose from the pool to the sound of Lenny Kravitz’s American Woman blaring over the loudspeakers in Omaha on Sunday.

In terms of journalism, Olympic fandom and what’s deemed important in female sports, it seems middle-aged moms everywhere are stepping up to the plate in support and congratulations of this swimming heroine.

Karen Crouse of the New York Times could not say it any better,

“Michael Phelps, who lowered his world record in the 200 individual medley Friday, has a fan base supplemented by squealing girls. Torres is a big hit with their mothers. The support she received from the crowd of around 14,000, which rose to applaud her after she finished, made her teary.”

Torres is truly an inspiration to women everywhere; not only living the dream as an athlete overcoming the inevitable challenge of age, but also as a female who has successfully caught the attention of sports journalists, who are overwhelmingly preoccupied with competition among men. I hope Torres continues to draw attention, bring it all the way to Beijing, and then back home again. Lord knows we need it.

Another thing to note about Torres is her journey, which has lived through the age of acceptance of female athleticism.

The New York Times article eloquently puts her journey into words:

“It takes a person of a certain age to remember the days when female swimmers rarely competed after high school because there were no college scholarships for women to entice them to stay in the sport. That was in the early 1970s. Torres, who competed at Florida, and Thompson, who went to Stanford, were in the second wave of women to benefit from the changes brought about by the passage of Title IX.

Biondi, who was on the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympic teams with Torres, said, “When girls become women, when gentlemen graduated from college, it wasn’t explicitly stated, it was just an understanding there that you were to get on with your life.”

Torres, he added, “has blown the roof off that line of thinking.”

And, my friends, that is what will make her a significant part of history. That is, if she ever retires.