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Permalink Reply by rob harris on May 12, 2008 at 2:06pm

I would say you need to deliver content that is not available through the traditional media. We are working on doing that very thing on our social network and while it does seem to be slow going our social network gets more traffic than dalejr.com (at least according to the alexa rankings)

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Permalink Reply by Gil Zino on May 16, 2008 at 3:55pm

@Stewart - if you meant one "winner" then it will never happen - too many micro-communities with very different needs.

@Jason - agreed, and would add tools to content. too much chocolate out there, winners need to provide aspirin.

@David - great case studies for many of us. roughly speaking, what is your ratio of editorial/content/facilitation type hours to hours of user-fueled discussion/content? have you seen these ratios change as your site go from launch to maturity?

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Permalink Reply by Stewart Whicker on May 17, 2008 at 3:48am

What an exciting time to be in the online sports social media business.

Every day I jump out of bed with the excitement of knowing that anything is possible.

The comments posted in reply to my question "Sports social networks have to be the next big thing in social media, why is it not all ready?" have been honest and amazing.

The industry professionals that have joined this group and posted their thoughts I believe have short tracked the next big thing in Sports social media, because success is all about learning from mistakes and listening to the people that have been there and tried that.

Google’s aim was to take all the worlds information and add structure; the same has to occur with sports social media.

The comments posted in this group clearly defines the type of information that is needed, now the race is on to see which company can build a business online that makes it easier for the consumer to participate online and off. (See previous comments from this group for what we should be offering the consumers).

I know that saying ‘just organise and structure the information efficiently’ is an easy thing to say, but it is truly a daunting task.

The platform must be carefully planned, taking in many considerations highlighted in previous comments; this is going to take time.

There will always be niche sporting websites, but combinations of the sports consumer’s interests are numerous. So niche is not going to be the next big thing.

To understand there are hundreds of sports and that sports consumers have multiple sports interests (granted some more passionate than others) then there are millions of combinations, structure these combinations in a community then you will have the next big thing.

There is no one sports social media company that is in the market place today that has achieved this because there is no one company that has fully grasped the sports consumer’s life experiences.

From the early childhood experiences of being dragged along to a sport by their parents for the first time, to the peer influences of their friends, to finding their true passions within and finally the real sense of community that comes along with following your favourite team or individual athlete as a fan.

Sports consumers are complex but the beauty of the internet is that we as sports social media visionaries can capture this complexity, organise it and make it easy for them to use.

Keep up the great posts and I look forward to hearing from the other member’s and what they think.


Cheers,
Stewart Whicker

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Permalink Reply by Phil Zalewski on May 19, 2008 at 2:33pm

Strategy, Technology, which is first?

I've read a bit on this thread and others about what technologies to deploy. Some folks are looking to do a blog or create a page on a social network or create communities. I came across a very effective acronym, POST. It might be helpful to those who are looking to incorporate social networking within their respective sports organizations.

When we launch other strategic initiatives we start by figuring out what we want to accomplish. Social technologies are not magic. They accomplish things, too. Although social media is cool it can also be very effective if implemented thoughtfully.

Here it is:

P is People. Don't start a social strategy until you know the capabilities of your audience. A high school or college student will interact differently than middle aged fan, who will interact differently than a senior citizen.

O is objectives. Pick one. Are you starting an application to listen to your team's fans, or to talk with them? To support them, or to energize the most passionate fans to evangelize others? Or are you trying to collaborate with them? Decide on your objective before you decide on a technology. Then figure out how you will measure it.

S is Strategy. Strategy is figuring out what will be different after you're finished. Do you want a closer, two-way relationship with your fans? Do you want to get people talking about your teams and players? Do you want a permanent focus group for testing promotional ideas and generating new ones? Imagine this succeeds. How will things be different afterwards? Imagine the endpoint and you'll know where to begin.

T is Technology. A community. A wiki. A blog or a hundred blogs. Twitter. Once you know your people, objectives, and strategy, then you can determine which technology works best.

By thinking through your strategy, you will be able to articulate why it's important and thereby explain it to senior management. Thought this was clever and wanted to share with the group.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Cronkhite on May 25, 2008 at 11:24pm

I'm new here and sorry for being so blunt but, many sports properties just DON'T GET IT as do many corporations today. They are too consumed with how to extend the brand and milk money out of fans/customers, serving sponsors and fighting for premium rights (i.e. content, licensing, etc.) that for the most part they blind to the benefits. It's all about inreach not outreach.

Did you know I was born in Austin, TX? Did you know my favorite beer is Young's Double Chocolate Stout?

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Permalink Reply by Mark Heller on June 2, 2008 at 2:39am

Jason Peck you bring up some good points in your last statement. If people want to connect they can just go to Myspace or Facebook or the latest fad of the day. I also agree that for people to want to come to a site where other sports fans are they need content. Currently I have 6 content writers and 8 bloggers and are looking for more bloggers and now sport specific content writers. We will have 5 wrtiers to cover NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL. We will also have a few writers for Nascar, Golf, Tennis and Soccer.

The goal here is to give people what they want which is an article that is going to make them think a bit and something that they enjoy reading. You are correct when you say content is expensive but content is king and I need for my site. That is why we are using the power of a social network to grow the database but utilizing the thought provoking content that we provide to keep people coming back.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Rutter on June 30, 2008 at 7:41am

Probably because there isnt one that does it all, they all seem to focus on a niche. There are many to use the "digg" model, like yardbarker, armchairgm, and ballhype.

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Permalink Reply by Davyeon Ross 1 day ago

What a great thread….. Prior to solidifying our current strategy, AthletixNation was a destination website. During this time, we learned a few important lessons. First of all, users desired incentives. After launching a contest for local high schools to receive an “Athletix MakeOver” won by interacting with peers, uploading creative videos, pitching a “why us” article and most importantly receiving daily votes, the response was overwhelming. However, the highest interaction was tracked the duration of the competition plus some and slowly faded away. This demonstrated, users desired incentives to be active in the community, and that it wasn’t enough to offer them that incentive and not continue validating their activity. The winners won Adidas basketball gear and a summer workout package with professional NFL strength and conditioning coaches. It was awesome.

Jason mentioned wanting to see more athlete involvement which I agree can be beneficial. In my mind, this is the “so what”, the differentiator. People are able to connect on several different social networks, however, sports organizations have an ace in the hole, “The Athlete”, that is, if they so choose to play that card. Imagine the influx of traffic if an athlete such as Lebron James held a 30 min chat online with the first 1000 fans to join (Brought to you by NIKE ). Fans / individuals would be having sleepovers like they did to purchase the iPhone on its launch.

In my discussions with teams and organizations they are fearful of potential negative comments that UGC enables. It’s the first question all organizations ask “Can I monitor this forum if users say something bad about the coach”. You know what, if it’s not happening on your Social Networking site its happening somewhere else. Maybe the living room or the bar, but trust me it’s happening. So WHY not your site, where you can respond to it and potentially influence the discussion. Fans are emotional individuals, a good game leads to admiration and a bad game leads to extremely emotional and critical comments. Its inevitable, I have been called many bad things during my college career after a bad game.

Another challenge I see is the rights issues. We all know that multimedia rights or the ability to utilize athletes comes at a price. NFL teams that have social networking sites can’t (and please correct me if I’m wrong) utilize their game highlights to spur on engagement and discussion because the NFL owns these multimedia assets. Until professional teams figure out the seamless integration of their athletes and their multimedia rights into social networking it’s going to be a tough road ahead. Maybe its individual social media contracts with the athletes requiring involvement in X social media events…. In my blog I briefly talk about the integration of athletes into social media and the impact it can have on its growth. Check it out….Look forward to your thoughts…

Tahnks
Davyeon

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