Why is social media right for sports teams? As with anyone using a social media channel, it is another opportunity to connect with people inside and outside of your network. You can keep the loyalists connected, and connect with disengaged fans.

Locally, there are teams using social media better than others. The Minnesota Timberwolves, for example, are using social media closer to its full potential than our other local teams.

On Twitter, the @MNTimberwolves provide injury updates, in game updates, and behind the scenes insight for the casual fan. For the serious fan, the Timberwolves are good at responding to followers, and following back fans as shown with their 7,574 followers and by following 3,357 back (as of the time of this post).

The Timberwolves also integrate social media with their traditional and other online marketing tactics by promoting their social media channels as part of Wolves Nation prominently on their website and with in-game promotions.

One team that is not using social media to its fullest potential is the Minnesota Twins. Their job should be one of the easier Twitter campaigns to manage, as they have a brand new stadium, a great product, and of course, Joe Mauer.

However, the @MinnesotaTwins have chosen to establish their channels, especially Twitter, as an elite club. Despite more than 9,000 followers, the Twins have chosen to only follow back 20 users comprised of Major League Baseball accounts, other local sports teams, Twins player accounts, and Andrew Zimmern.

The Twins have largely pushed their own content on Twitter, and they have handed out tickets to users who follow them, but by not engaging or following their fans back, they are essentially shutting the doors on them. Are Target Field’s stands only full of MLB representatives, Twins players, and celebrities?

On the Minnesota Twins’ Facebook page, it is more of the same. While their reach is significantly larger with more than 280,000 fans, the same behavior is taking place. On their wall, it is just the Twins pushing out their own content, and not responding to the numerous likes and comments on each status update.

Now this may not hurt a brand like the Minnesota Twins now, as they are enjoying great success. But, what happens if – or when – the Twins experience a long term losing streak like the Minnesota Timberwolves? It is very possible that the fans they chose to ostracize may not be there in tough times.

It is critical that any brand using social media take advantage of the connectivity that each channel allows. For some, this may be the closest one comes to connecting with the brand. If that person reaches out to them, and receives no response, it will most likely leave a bitter taste in their mouth.

What are your expectations when engaging with a brand? Do you want a response? Do you want to be followed?

What makes you feel connected to a brand?

NBC has made it easier to follow the pulse of the Olympics by developing the Olympic Twitter Tracker, which categorizes tweets for each sport in an interactive, visual interface.

The tool works by indexing tweets related to each Olympic sport every minute, and showcasing the most popular sports in a given time period by the size of that sport’s image.

A similar zeitgeist (a tool used to capture the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time) was created during the 2009 SXSW event, through which users could keep tabs on all the happenings of the event, from what people were saying about particular restaurants in the area, to using location based devices to help people find each other.

The coolest feature – in my opinion – about the NBC Olympic Twitter Tracker is the ability to change the time frame, and see the change in popular trending sports, minute-by-minute.

What do you think of the NBC Olympic Twitter Tracker? With the pervasiveness of social media, are these zeitgeists becoming a necessity for coordinators and hosts of major events to develop?

Jason Douglas
Spyder Trap Online Marketing

Recently, Echofon came out with an update to their iPhone app. As the only iPhone user at Spyder Trap, I am the lucky person who gets to test out everything iPhone related.

I have used Echofon as my main Twitter application since it was called Twitterfon. The latest update only enhances the application and in my opinion, if Echofon was not at the top before, officially puts itself at the top out of all Twitter applications.

I tweet for numerous accounts, both personal and professional. Before, you could only have one account registered for the application. If I wanted to tweet from another account, I had to download another app. Now, you are able to hold multiple Twitter accounts on Echofon. Switching accounts is easy to do. Go to your ‘Accounts’ page and tap on the profile you want to tweet from, and it will instantly switch.

Another nice feature is the multiple re-tweet option. This allows the user to re-tweet with or without adding a message and editing the original tweet. This is a significant upgrade compared to the web version of Twitter, where re-tweeting functionality is far behind the capabilities of this application.

Arguably, the most impressive new feature is the ‘Nearby Tweets, Map or List View’. By using the iPhone’s built-in GPS, it’s able to locate your near-exact location and load tweets either by using Google Maps and placing pins from where the tweet happened, or in the traditional list view.  This brings in some of the functionality possessed in Foursquare, where you can view who is also at a place you checked in to, but minus the checking in feature.

Many other Echofon upgrades were introduced, such as:

• Attaching photos using TwitPic or Flickr
• Attaching videos (for 3GS only)
• Landscape keyboard
• Dedicated lists tab
• In-App web, maps, mail, YouTube, and full screen photo viewing
• User authenticated bit.ly
• Shake to reload (exactly like Urbanspoon)

For anyone with an iPhone and using Twitter, this is the application to go with. The free version, which is what I have always used, is great. The ads are never in the way of your tweet stream and never annoying in any other way. For clients, especially with companies who are focused in one area, with the ‘Nearby Tweets, Map or List View’, this can help you interact with your following, or anyone talking about your brand/product.

Example: if you’re a restaurant in the Uptown area, and you can see people within a certain radius of your location talking about lunch plans, you can connect with these people directly and try to get new people to your restaurant.

The next step of Echofon is to be able to search for specific terms within the ‘Nearby Tweets’ to weed out non-relevant conversation.

Now that I have shared my favorite Twitter app, what’s your favorite Twitter application for the iPhone? What features do you want to see from your iPhone app?

Today I saw an article in the Minneapolis Star/Tribune titled:  “Med-tech is shy on social media use.”

Among other things it praises a  medical device start-up for its innovative and viral use of  YouTube.  However, it goes on to explain that big medical device and other health care related companies are hesitant to use social media.  The writer points to legal concerns, especially retribution from the FDA as reasons for this.

Indeed, it would be foolish for Medtronic, St. Judes and other medical device companies to rush into the social media wave pool. But guess what?  It’s not foolish at all, providing they take the right approach.

With millions of people tweeting, posting to blogs, commenting on or posting videos to YouTube, chances are excellent that each of these channels are ripe with conversation about medical devices.  Just monitoring and amplifying these conversations hold huge value for an entire organization.  I know; I do this for several health care companies.

From the marketing manager to the CEO, the ability to listen to the unbiased conversation between your company’s staunchest supporters and most stalwart detractors provides insight and direction that no focus group or traditional market research investment ever could.

One need not chime into the conversation.  Remember the old adage: “You become wiser by listening than you do by talking.”   And guess what, no one will even know you’re in the room – not even your lawyers.

Am I off base here?  Is engagement the only real goal for a company with regard to social media?  Or does listening provide enough value on its own? What do you think?

Jason Douglas

Spyder Trap Online Marketing

Yesterday, Ric Bucher of ESPN sent a tweet from his personal account stating: ‘The hammer just came down, tweeps: ESPN memo prohibiting tweeting info unless it serves ESPN. Kinda figured this was coming. Not sure what this means but’. On Monday, the Marines issued an order banning social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace within its network. Each is an example of censorship, but for two very different reasons.

ESPN, like many companies, have employees that are visible not only on television, but in the social media world. These employees are an extension of the brand that ESPN has built over the last 30 years. With that comes a large responsibility to represent your company as best as possible. There is a fear that within this ‘new’ method of communicating called social media and with information available instantly, if something improper is said, it will spread like wildfire and may have a negative impact on the individual and the company they represent.

There are two approaches to take here: you an either set guidelines for how to approach social media (in this case: Twitter); or you can choose to trust your employees, and allow them to interact with fans, readers, and other athletes who are using Twitter or social media as their platform to announce newsworthy happenings about themselves. We know which approach ESPN went with.

ESPN

Within ESPN’s memo full of guidelines, included were the following points:
• The first and only priority is to serve ESPN sanctioned efforts, including sports news, information and content
• Assume at all times you are representing ESPN

Maybe I am about to react because the above statements are hitting me differently than others. When you are hired by a company, does that mean you are, in a sense, owned by that company? Are you always on call for that company? Are you ever ‘off the clock’?

If this is the way that ESPN wants to treat social media, they are about to miss the point of social media: two-way communication. One thing about us here at Spyder Trap is that we tell clients that social media is all about communication, engaging with fans, followers, etc. Anyone that just pumps out their own content and does not try to engage with people will not be successful or respected in the social media world.

Giving fans of ESPN the opportunity to communicate and converse with their favorite personality increases the brand perception of ESPN. You are humanizing the personalities, and at the same time, gaining more fans of ESPN. This is now no longer possible due to ESPN’s restrictions.

Marines:

Their restriction of social media sites boils down to one simple word: security. This is an easy out for them. Within their memo, the following is stated:

“THESE INTERNET SITES IN GENERAL ARE A PROVEN HAVEN FOR MALICIOUS ACTORS AND CONTENT AND ARE PARTICULARLY HIGH RISK DUE TO INFORMATION EXPOSURE, USER GENERATED CONTENT AND TARGETING BY ADVERSARIES. THE VERY NATURE OF SNS CREATES A LARGER ATTACK AND EXPLOITATION WINDOW, EXPOSES UNNECESSARY INFORMATION TO ADVERSARIES AND PROVIDES AN EASY CONDUIT FOR INFORMATION LEAKAGE THAT PUTS OPSEC, COMSEC, PERSONNEL AND THE MCEN AT AN ELEVATED RISK OF COMPROMISE. EXAMPLES OF INTERNET SNS SITES INCLUDE FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, AND TWITTER.”

Really? In all caps?

This is an example how having certain restrictions can help solve security fears. Instead of banning social networking sites (SNS), implementing some form of privacy requirements, having an approval process for who’s following you, who’s your friend, what groups you are a part of, etc; would be a better solution.

I have a close friend who is in Iraq with the U.S. Army. Usually, we converse by writing letters and sending care packages, etc. Instead, I know he will be on Facebook at the same time nearly every day, which is how we are able to connect, via Facebook chat. I know that since he is able to communicate with myself and his family most every day in real time, his time over in Iraq has been easier to deal with. If that was taken away from him and the rest of the Army, it could be a demoralizing blow to each member.

Does your workplace have any rules regarding social media? If so, I would like to hear about your company’s policy. If your company instituted a policy restricting your use and presence in social media, would that change your perception of your workplace? Would you look elsewhere for employment?

Jason Douglas

Spyder Trap Online Marketing

Last night, I got home around 10:30pm and logged on to Twitter. I immediately noticed there was a fair amount of conversation about how everyone had lost followers, with many not knowing why. I looked at my followers list, and it had decreased from 786 to 724. To lose 62 people in one day is pretty significant for someone that has the number of followers I have. However, I was very happy about this, as I knew instantly that Twitter was cracking down on spam and deleting any accounts they deem as spam.

This was not the first time Twitter has done this. I thought they did this on a daily basis, as I get between 5-10 new followers every day. Of those, maybe one is a real person that I am interested in following back. The rest are bots, or other types of spam that do not interest me at all.

I’m not too concerned with the number of followers I have. I suppose the more I have, the larger my reach is, which can be a good thing. I am more focused with engaging with as many people, whether they are following or not, as possible. That is why Twitter is great: it’s another medium that encourages communication.

Knowing that Twitter is taking a proactive stance against spam, does this make you feel more strongly about Twitter? It should. Just think if MySpace was better at finding spam accounts a year or two ago; would so many people have jumped off the MySpace bandwagon and deleted their accounts while making sites like Facebook and Twitter their main social media sites to use?

How many followers did you lose last night?

Perhaps one of the best tools I have found to enable multiple people in an organization to tweet through a single branded Twitter account is CoTweet.

We were fortunate enough to kick the tires on CoTweet, and although it is still in private beta form, it seems to be a pretty solid platform for internal collaboration and brand management. We have found that it is a breeze to schedule posts, track conversations, assign, delegate and create follow-up tasks.

One question that came to my mind initially was, “Why should I use CoTweet when I can simply just share my Twitter login information with multiple people within my organization?”

Well, you certainly can do that, if you want each of those individuals to have unrestricted access to all your Twitter account settings. By using CoTweet, you can enable multiple people to contribute to the voice of your Twitter account, but restrict their ability to make changes to it, including the ability to delete the it.

One of the nifty features CoTweet offers is the ability to assign someone as “OnDuty.” This provides you with notifications when new direct messages and @replies are received. The benefit of this is so you can have one person at a time monitoring the Twitter stream and replying to comments, while subsequently avoiding multiple people within your organization responding to the same message. Conversely, this is beneficial because it helps prevent having nobody respond to a message because it was overlooked, or because ‘Person A’ thought ‘Person B’ already responded to a message, when in fact they hadn’t.

The real benefit CoTweet offers is the ability to allow many different people to contribute to the voice of your agency. This offers fresh perspectives, insights, and for multiple people across different facets of your organization to talk about their specialties, which definitely helps showcase different capabilities your organization can provide.

What are your thoughts? If you’re already using CoTweet, what is your reaction to it? If not, is CoTweet something you might want to use for your organization?

The next question is always… Why such growth and how should companies best to take advantage of these amazing statistics? Any thoughts? More to come soon.

Twitter:
- From March 08 – 09 Twitter grew at a rate of 2,565 percent – Nielsen. (Ning was number 2 at 283 percent.)
- Roughly 2.4 billion Tweets… on average about 11 million per day and growing – Giga Tweet

YouTube:
- 300 million users worldwide – YouTube.com
- 14.8 billion video “views” as of January 2009 – Comscore
- 147 million U.S. Internet Users watched on average 101 videos per person in January 2009 – Comscore
- Roughly 43 percent market share of video viewing as of January 2009 – Comscore

Facebook:
- As of February 2009 Facebook has the highest monthly active users of any social media site. – Compete.com
- 200 million active users. (Currently closer to 225 million)
- 100 million users log into Facebook daily

Jason Douglas

Spyder Trap Online Marketing

That’s the slogan twitter could go with, considering everything that has happened within the last couple weeks. It all started on June 12, with the Iran Election debacle with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being declared the winner over Mir-Hossein Mousavi with Mousavi claiming vote fraud. Since then, with many news outlets unable to report from Iran to discuss the current chaos, people have been relying on Twitter to communicate with the rest of the world, and has been at the top of twitter’s ‘trending topics’ section for the last week and a half.

That is, until yesterday happened. Twitter was where I, along with hundreds of thousands of others, found out about Farrah Fawcett’s passing. Though her passing was not a surprise, it was still a newsworthy event that created a lot of discussion. Fans paid tribute to her in their own ways on Twitter the entire morning. This story dominated the conversation and the ‘trending topics’ section until 4:40pm central standard time.

At that time, when I refreshed my twitter page, I noticed that Michael Jackson was #9 on the ‘trending topics’ section. Upon clicking it, I find that Jackson had been rushed to the hospital with cardiac arrest. The source was TMZ. I read the brief article, even refreshed it to make sure I was seeing things correctly. Upon the refresh, they had a new update about his condition. At 4:50, people on twitter were posting links to TMZ reporting Jackson’s passing. I instantly checked @cnnbrk, cnn.com and cnn.com/live, abcnews.com, nytimes.com, latimes.com, bbc.co.uk; a few of the mentioned sites were just breaking that he was sent to a hospital, with no further information. It was around 5:15 locally when some sites were finally reporting his passing. That is a 25 minute gap from when I found the story verifying his passing on twitter to when very reputable news sources reported it. Twitter had an overflow of people talking about is passing, and effectively crashed twitter for a few minutes. Jackson’s passing was 1-4 on the ‘trending topics’ right after, and currently holds six of the top ten topics: 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, and 9.

The above stories are only the most recent examples of how social media, in this case: twitter, kept myself and millions of others in the loop for current events of all types. I found out about former Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad’s passing on twitter an hour before any local news sources reported it. I found out about US Airways Flight 1549 and the crash into the Hudson River from twitter. This image was taken by a person on a ferry, who was able to post it to his twitpic account. Anyone with a cell phone and an internet connection has the ability to be a reporter, and the ability to share their story instantly.

I will use twitter and the people I follow as my number one news source. Since twitter does not censor regulate what people say (freedom of speech), I still check more reputable news sites to get verification. Recently, there were false reports of Patrick Swayze’s passing that spread fast through the social media community. As with any news report, you must consider the source.

My choice source: twitter, the number one news source.

Tuesday, China’s government has blocked Internet users access to Twitter. Though there has been no official statement from the Chinese government, it is likely due to the approaching 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square. The Chinese government may feel that this will curb any negative conversation that may have occurred otherwise.

This is not the first time China has blocked various social media sites, as they had a ban during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in August 2008.

There are other reports that other social media sites have been blocked, including Flickr, Bing.com, Blogspot, and YouTube.

My question: would there ever be an appropriate time for the United States Government to block Internet users access to a site?