I began working with Mike Petrie (Calgary Stampeders – Director of Community and Media Relations) while working with a Saskatoon based company (http://zu.com) that was contracted to work with the Calgary Stampeders on their online initiatives. This relationship led to me consulting with the Stampeders on social media (and the eventual development of StampsConnect – http://stampsconnect.com) and really fueled my interest in expanding my network in the sports world.  Through this relationship, I was able to get in touch with the BC Lions media relations department to line up an experience that, I’m sure, my Dad will never forget!

A BC Lions Fan from Saskatchewan?

To truly understand the unusual circumstances of this story, I have to take you back a number of years to when I was just a little kid.  Growing up in Saskatchewan, it is pretty much assumed that you will be a Saskatchewan Roughrider fan for life.  After all, they are our only professional sports team and for nearly 100 years, they have been the face of a vast province that has always been deemed an underdog competing against the “big cities” of Canada.

For as long as I can remember, my Dad has always been a BC Lions fan.  As you can imagine, he has taken years of grief from family and friends for having loyalties that differ from everyone else in the province. And for a guy that has spent his whole life in Saskatchewan, and who had never been to Vancouver prior to this weekend, it is somewhat odd that he chose the Lions as his favorite team.    But, regardless, the Lions are “his team” and when I saw that the Stampeders were going to be playing the Lions while I was in Vancouver, I made a point to see if I could make his experience one that he’d never forget.

Meeting the BC Lions

The day before the game, we ventured over to the BC Lions practice facility in Surrey, BC. I lined it up for my Dad to watch the practice and meet with some of his favorite players (Geroy Simon, Casey Printers, Paris Jackson).

Big thanks goes out to the following people for making all this happen:

Mike Petrie (Calgary Stampeders – Director of Community and Media Relations)
Jacqueline Blackwell (BC Lions – Communications Coordinator)
Jeff Armstead (InTheTunnel.com – Athlete websites & online marketing)

And, I have to give a big thanks to all of the players as well.  For as long as I can remember, CFL players have always been very approachable and accommodating with their fans, and these guys were no exception. As you can see in a recent interview I did with Geroy Simon, many athletes are now starting to use social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and uStream) to connect directly with their fans.  So, for anyone else that wants to have a conversation with or possibly meet their favorite players, they are now only a click away online!

Stay tuned for the Part 2 video – “BC Lions Experience – Game Day”

Geroy has been very active lately in using his online accounts to help him communicate directly with his fans.  And, in this video, he shares some insight on why he got started, where he sees things going in the future and talks about his plans to use social media to promote the different charities he supports in the Vancouver area.

Geroy’s website was built by Jeff Armstead (http://inthetunnel.com).  Jeff also helped Geroy get started with his social media accounts and continues to consult with Geroy and a number of other players in the CFL.

You can follow Geroy online here:

Website: http://geroysimon.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/geroysimon
Twitter: http://twitter.com/geroysimon

We had the pleasure of sitting down recently with Whitney McClintock and Marc-Steve Cerniglia at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL. Whitney is a World Champion waterskier from Canada. She currently attends the University of Central Florida as she trains in Orlando, FL. Marc-Steve is an Agent Advisor with Sports Management Worldwide and is currently working with Whitney to help build her personal brand through the use of social media.

I think you’ll see in this video that Whitney is not only a great athlete, she also has an infectious personality and is a great representative as the face of waterskiing worldwide.

Whitney McClintock & Social Media

In this second video, Whitney chats with Sport-Fan Connect’s Trevor Turnbull about her experience with social networking including Facebook, Twitter and her personal website. She also gives a shout out to some of her favorite bands on Twitter – Safety Suit @SafetySuitNews and Miley Syrus (who ironically recently quit Twitter….check out the article on MTV here: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1624354/20091021/cyrus__miley.jhtml.

Athletes & Social Media

As with many athletes in lesser known sports. they have to be creative in the way they promote themselves, and social media can be a powerful way to implement creative marketing.

Ryan Stephens (Author at SportsNetworker.com and Media Analyst at Sports Media Challenge) recently wrote an article titled “2 Ways to Enhance Marketing for Unpopular Sports“. In this article he makes two recommendations:

1. Educate People About the Game/Sport
2. Provide Access to the Personalities

Ryan makes some great points here that could easily be implemented by athletes like Whitney.

First, she should try to help her fans understand her sport better so they can relate to how difficult it is for her to compete at such a high level.  Growing up in Canada, I basically grew up on the lake (well….for the 3 months of summer we normally get! ha).  So, I can totally relate to how difficult her sport is and how gifted she must be to be a World Champion!

Secondly, providing access to her life is something that Whitney has control over through the use of social media.  Uploading photos and videos of her training and competing at events would give her fan base a real behind the scenes look at what it’s like in her world and would help them relate to how hard she trains……..and how much fun she has doing it!  Both of these things are easily done through the use of popular social tools like Flickr, YouTube and TwitPics.

By implementing a proper social media strategy, athletes like Whitney McClintock can control and build their personal brand online. Social media, as with anything else, doesn’t just happen.  You have to work at it and Whitney is doing a great job of diving in and will undoubtedly see success from her efforts!

Follow Whitney and Marc-Steve here:

Whitney’s website: http://whitneymcclintock.com
Whitney on Twitter: http://twitter.com/whitmcclintock
Whitney on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=whitney+mcclintock&init=quick#/whitneymcclintock?ref=search&sid=766800363.2957897093..1 (Facebook Fan Page coming soon!)

Marc-Steve’s website: http://marcsteve.com
Marc-Steve on Twitter: http://twitter.com/marcstevec

By far, one of the highlights of our Sport Fan Connection Tour was the September 27th NFL game between the NY Jets and Tennessee Titans. The day began early as we made our way to the wet parking lot to partake in some pre-game tailgaiting.  We ran into a great group of guys from New Jersey that welcomed us under their canopy for some good eats and drinks.

NY Jets – Post-Game Tailgaiting

As per NFL rules, we were unable to take video footage within the stadium, but we did capture manage to capture some great footage in the parking lot after the game.  NY Jets fans are a passionate group and I am always overwhelmed with how friendly and inviting New Yorkers are.  In this video footage, we captured the thoughts of some NY Jets fans on Mobile applications (Blackberry, iPhone and Web Apps), online streaming video and Fireman Ed stopped by for some of New Jersey’s finest sausage and bread!

NY Jets & Social Media

We chatted with the Marketing and Communication department prior to our trip and had an overwhelming response to our project.  The NY Jets organization is really leading the charge among NFL teams when it comes to embracing social media. They have prominently displayed links on www.newyorkjets.com that help drive their fans to their Facebook Fan Page and Twitter Page.

Here are some examples of how the NY Jets are using social media:

Facebook Fan Page

The official New York Jets Facebook Fan page is a great example of how teams can use popular social networks to engage in a two way conversation with fans.  The Jets have created a “Welcome” page that helps inform fans of all the ways to connect with the team.  There is a quick opening video where current players Kerry Rhodes, Dustin Keller and D’Brickashaw Ferguson welcome fans to the Facebook Page. There are also quick links included that help direct fans to the videos and photo sections and an open invite to “write on the wall”.

The official NY Jets Facebook Fan page has just over 32,000 fans and it is evident that a number of them are quite active on the site contributing to the “Wall” conversations, participation in polls, uploading fan generated videos and photos.

The Jets also use their Facebook Fan page as a means to promote their team schedule, tickets sales, the “Jets Flight Crew” cheerleaders and upcoming events.

NY Jets Players on Twitter

One of the things that really stood out to me on the Facebook Fan Page was that they have a section promoting their players on Twitter.  This is a very proactive approach to embracing social media as a number of teams, leagues and conferences have outright banned their players from using Twitter.  The Jets are doing the exact opposite by embracing the fact that their players are an extension of their brand and are a major contributing factor to the overall success of the team – both on and off the field.  The NY Jets players profiled on Twitter include:

• Mark Sanchez
• Kerry Rhodes
• Nick Mangold
• Derrelle Reves
• Dustin Keller
• Bart Scott
• Braylon Edwards
• Jeff Feely
• James Ihedigbo
• D’Brickashaw Ferguson
• Damien Woody

NY Jets on Twitter

Official NY Jets Twitter Page

The Jets organization does a great job of using Twitter in a very open and engaging way.  They understand that the fans are not always going to be happy with the team.  After all, it’s pro-sports…..and you can’t win every game.

One thing that really stand out for me is the fact that the Jets do an exceptional job of responding to fan comments and questions. I constantly hear the question of whether or not a person/team with a large number of followers should follow all of those people back.  The NY Jets currently have almost 14000 followers and are following back 1600 of them.  I’m assuming they have chosen to engage with those fans that are providing quality comments and feedback as I don’t believe it is feasible to converse with 14000 fans.

The Jets also use their Twitter account to keep fans updated on game highlights with regular posting during Jets games.  Each contributor to their Twitter page uses their initials to keep fans informed on who is broadcasting the message.

Washington Capitals vs Chicago Blackhawks

As with all of the games we are attending, our objective is to observe and analyze the In-Game experience and make note of how teams are using social media in their Marketing mix to engage with their fans.  Being that this was a pre-season game, the Capitals are saving most of their new initiatives for the regular season, so we do not have alot to share regarding the In-Game experience.  (We will definitely have alot more to share following the Washington Capitals home opener vs the Toronto MapleLeafs on CBC Hockey Night in Canada next Saturday).

I’d just like to start by saying that the Capitals were very accomodating to our project by allowing us access to a number of team executives that were more than willing chat.  And, of course, considering the recent news article about the Washington Capitals players fake Twitter accounts (written by Tarik El Bashir – Washington Post), it was an logical topic to chat about this with their key communications people. (As a side note, while we were up in the Press Box, we noticed that a number of the sports reporters had their computers open to their Twitter accounts during the game…..including Tarik)

Washington Capitals & Twitter accounts

For those of you that are not familiar with the recent news story, a number of the Washington Capitals players had fake Twitter accounts registered in their names that they were completely unaware of including Jeff Shultz, Brooks Laich, José Theodore and Alexander Semin.  Most of the tweet were harmless, funny and candid and therefor something that the players and Media Relations staff were not too concerned with.  However, one of the tweets from Brooks Laich’s (the Capitals NHL Players Association rep) account caught their attention and made them take action.  The tweet read as follows:

“Yes I fired [NHLPA executive director] Paul Kelly and yes I’m voting for a lockout.”

Brooks comment to the fake tweet was “I hope those people who are following it know it’s not me.”.  I think the biggest thing to take away from this is that prior to the Capitals and Brooks addressing the fake account, it was likely that his Twitter followers did believe they were hearing from the real Brooks Laich.  The account has since been taken down, but it did make the Capitals staff and players take note of the power of social media.

Washington Capitals – Fake Twitter Accounts

We had a great chat with Nate while hanging in the Press Box at the game about his take on Twitter and social media in general.  Nate and the Capitals are not strangers to Twitter as he currently manages his own account (@nateewell) the Washington Capitals official Twitter account (@WashCaps) and Nate made the headlines back in February when he worked with Alexander Ovechkin to setup and tweet from his own personal Twitter account (@ovi8).  Ovi told him what to write and Nate made it happen. The account is still active, but has not been contributed to for a number of months now.

I asked Nate what he thought about the fake player Twitter accounts.  He responded by saying that it was a bit of an eye opener, but it was something that they didn’t want to take lightly. In fact, they are going to make a point of speaking with the players over the coming weeks about social media with regards to what they can’t say on Twitter and what they would like them to say. This is a great first step towards understanding and using social media as a means to engage with their fans. Without a doubt, it will lead to the Capitals implementing a social media strategy for their team and players.

Washington Capitals – Real Twitter Accounts

The team account (@WashCaps) is currently managed by members of the Capitals Media Relations staff, Nate and Paul Rovnak (@paulrovnak).  They are using the account to both broadcast messages (videos, blogs, news articles on www.washingtoncapitals.com) as well as to engage with fans and run promotions.  Paul recently ran a very cool contest through his own personal account where he offered up 2 tickets to the game that night to the a fan that could come up with the best nickname for a new Capitals forward line (Gordon – Gordon – Laing).  Here’s what he tweeted:

paulrovnak: Most creative name for Laing-Gordon-Gordon line gets my tickets for Wed vs CHI. 1st row upper deck. Have at it Tweeple. Be creative and RT.

And here were some of the responses he received:

Hooks_Orpik: Double G-Q
ahwahoo2006: Obviously LG-squared or Ladies Choice line
ahwahoo2006: How about 3 guys, 2 spleens?
itallfallsdwn: Gordos Never Quint
inch_gladdy: The Newhart Line. My name is Laing, this is my brother Gordon and my other brother Gordon. (WINNER)
lindseydc: LGG is always going to make me think “Lego Line” for some reason. Insert witty comment about team building blocks here.
sweetestofdekes: Obviously, Laing-Gordon-Gordon is the Highland Line.

This is a great example of how the team is using social media to engage with their fan base in unique and creative ways.  And, of course, this was done from Paul’s personal account, however, the point is they are at least experimenting and open to the idea that there is much to learn in how social media can become an integral part of their future communications plan.