This video was put together by one of the players following the 2009-2010 hockey season.  There really is nothing like the bond that is created between teammates…..no matter what sport you play!  This video does a great job of showing the passion behind the Iowa State Cyclone hockey program and really exemplifies the experience of playing college athletics.

Great job guys! If you’d like to check out the Cyclone Hockey program, you can find out more at http://cyclonehockey.com and their new social site http://cyclonehockeyconnect.com

NikeTraining.ca

The link takes you to a landing page promoting Nike’s new marketing campaign titled “We Decide From Here – Force Fate”.  The microsite is clearly being used to capture the attention of fans of the Canadian Olympic hockey teams.  However, also on this site is a link to a dedicated section covering the 2010 World Jr Hockey Championship. (Here is the direct link to that page: http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/niketraining/en_CA/force_fate)

As you’ll see on this page, Nike is leveraging social media to provide Canadian hockey fans with coverage from tournament.

• YouTube – video analysis by YouTube star – Steve Dangle (see more about Steve below)
• Twitter – daily coverage of the WJHC including live score updates and links to YouTube videos
• Facebook – coverage of Team Canada, engaging questions, YouTube videos (Nike commercials)

Prominently displayed on the page is a video section titled “Dangle’s Diary”.  At first glance, I wasn’t sure what Nike’s angle was in choosing their on-location reporter.  However, a little more research and this is what I found about Steve Dangle.

Steve Dangle

As described by Nike: He’s young, smart, opinionated and a walking, talking Wikipedia of hockey.
He’s also got one of the most respected hockey blogs on YouTube.
He’s Steve Dangle. Click here

Steve Dangle is a popular video blogger that covers the Toronto Maple Leafs and has a loyal following on Leafspace.com.  His YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/SteveDangle) has over 260,000 channel views and over 1M video views.  Steve also has an entertaining Twitter account (http://twitter.com/StevE_dangle) where he voices his opinion on his favorite team, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Here are a few of the videos I came across on Steve’s YouTube channel (this kid is hilarious…..love his Don Cherry impressions!)

Hockey Night in Canada Theme Song (Don Cherry impression)

Don Cherry impression – “Canadians Don’t Smile!”

Nike & Steve Dangle

It is apparent that Nike (one of the world biggest brands) has seen the value that social media can add to their marketing strategy.  They put a 21 year old kid with a webcam in charge of covering one of the biggest events in Canadian sports.  One of the key factors that make social media so impactful is the fact that anyone that is providing good content can generate a loyal following.  And, in turn, those social media stars can have influence over the people that tune in to watch their YouTube videos and follow their tweets on Twitter.

Great job by Nike in recognizing that social media is not a fad.  By employing Steve Dangle, they generated an instant, engaged audience.  And, great job by Steve Dangle in establishing this partnership with Nike.  I’m sure it’s a dream come true for him.  It’s amazing what passion will get you nowadays!!!

Juniors2010.ca is an events listing site that was created to inform fans of the 2010 World Junior Championships of events around Saskatoon and Regina (host cities).  The website is also a resource of information for games, tournament information, news and blogs surrounding the tournament.

I will be doing a more in depth interview with Michael Yasieniuk (President of Yastech Developments) regarding how he is using social media to drive traffic to the Juniors2010.ca website, how he is measuring his social media efforts and what his future plans are for the site.

In the meantime, since social media is about SHARING and engaging, I wanted to share with everyone the research I have done over the past few days regarding the impact that social media is having on the 2010 World Jr Hockey Championships.  Being part of the media, I have access to the media list that outlines all of the different media covering the tournament.  So, I did some research to find out how they are using social media in their communication strategy.  One thing that I’ve noticed while conducting this research is that the information is not easy to find!  But, I did manage to round up some info that hopefully helps fans stay better connected to the 2010 World Jr Hockey Championship.

International Media

International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)

• Website - includes news, schedule, standings, statistics, blog, pictures, video and live ticker
• Twitter – Not updated since October 12, 2009
• Facebook – Appears official but not much info provided by the IIHF

National Media

TSN

• Website – Dedicated section on tsn.ca for the WJHC including schedule, scores and articles
• Twitter – TSN hockey analyst Bob McKenzie is covering all hockey through his Twitter account, but good coverage of WJHC
• Facebook – Lots of WJHC coverage. Including custom page and widgets

The Score

• Website – Dedicated page on their website covering the WJHC.  Providing decent coverage of the games including articles
• Twitter – Dedicated Twitter account for the WJHC. Providing decent coverage of the games and links to their website

Rogers Sportsnet

• Website – Some WJHC coverage

Canadian Hockey League

• Website – Some WJHC coverage.  Mostly stories about CHL players

CBC Sports

• Website – Provides score updates

Globe & Mail

• Website – Provides score updates

New Media (Online)

FastHockey.com

• Website – provides live streaming of games not televised by TSN.

YahooCanada.com

• Website – includes scores, articles and videos from Sportnet.ca

Juniors2010.ca

• Website – extensive information about events around Saskatoon and Regina during the 2010 World Jr Hockey Championships including parties, transportation, scores and photos.
• Twitter – live coverage of game scores, stats, trivia, photos and tournament information
• Facebook – live coverage of game scores, stats, trivia, photos and tournament information

2010Juniors.com

• Website – behind the scenes perspective at the WJHC and information regarding WJHC events
• Twitter – behind the scenes perspective at the WJHC and links to 2010juniors.com
• Facebook – behind the scenes perspective at the WJHC and links to 2010juniors.com

Future Considerations

• Website – daily articles covering the WJHC and the up and coming NHL prospects
• Twitter - providing game highlights and entertaining comments throughout the WJHC

The World of Junior Hockey

• Website – a blog with daily articles discussing the WJHC

Teams

USA Hockey

• Website – extensive converage of Team USA during the WJHC
• Live Blog – Live game blogging during Team USA games
• Twitter – updated scores and behind the scenes action surrounding Team USA

Hockey Canada

• Website – extensive coverage of Team Canada and the WJHC
• Twitter – Some coverage of WJHC, but also includes information about all Hockey Canada teams
• Facebook – Some coverage of WJHC, but also includes information about all Hockey Canada teams

Stay tuned for more articles on Sport Fan Connect as the 2010 World Jr Hockey Championship continues!

On November 13th and 14th, the Cyclone Hockey team took on Central Oklahoma. On Saturday the 14th, we held our Military Night which was advertised through our social media. We also had the Ames Minor Hockey Tykes attend our Saturday game. We advertised that the Tykes players get in free and that their parents would receive $1 off admission. The Tykes had the opportunity to play during an intermission. That same night, members of Dance Marathon and their Miracle Children performed their Morale Dance. The children had the opportunity to meet our players and a good time was had by all!

We have been keeping our fans updated through our social media, and have received some useful feedback through our monitoring of these media outlets.

Facebook

Our Facebook fan numbers have been increasing steadily throughout the season and during the two week period of November 4 – November 18, we have increased our fan count from 793 to 912 fans. We are using our Facebook page to advertise games and to make our fans aware of any game promotions.

We have run a few game promotions during the last two weeks that we have advertised on Facebook. On Saturday, November 7, the Cyclone Hockey team took on Robert Morris University, and we decided to have a “Gold Night”. Fans received $1 off of an admission ticket if they wore gold clothing. We also we ran a promotion for fans to bring in their football tickets from the game earlier in the day to receive $1 off of a hockey admission ticket. We ran a weekend series promotion that we entitled “Guaranteed Win Night”. We advertised that the Cyclone Hockey team would win their game on Friday night, and if they were to lose, all the fans in attendance at Friday’s game would get in free to Saturday’s game. (The Cyclones won that series with a sweep!)

The next weekend, the Cyclone Hockey team took on Central Oklahoma. On Friday we held our “Military Night”. We asked that members of the military wear their uniform to receive free admission or to show their military ID to receive $1 off admission. Our promotional posts are receiving great feedback from our fans, as we are noticing an increase in responses to our posts.

We are continuing to provide links to any news source that mentions Cyclone Hockey, such as the university newspaper, Iowa State Daily. We also post any YouTube videos that we upload and provide a link so that our fans can view all of our YouTube videos. Overall, we use our Facebook page as an outlet to notify our fans of games and game promotions, as well as to share videos and Cyclone Hockey news.

Twitter

Our Twitter account has received a few new followers over the last couple of weeks. Between November 3 and November 18, we have seen accumulated 14 new followers. We update our followers during the games by posting the game starters and any points scored. We find that updating our followers through our Twitter page offers a good alternative for fans that are unable to attend the match.

YouTube

We currently have 15 videos posted to our YouTube account. Our videos include game highlights, penalty kill questions, and a fun, quirky Halloween video. Between a two week period spanning from November 4 – November 18, we have seen an increase of 583 video views, which takes our total views from 1,358 to 1,957. The increased amount of videos we have seen shows us that our videos are getting to our fans and that they are being well-received. We hope to continue posting videos and making them readily available to our fans by providing links to YouTube on our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Flickr

During the last two weeks, we have added a new Flickr account specifically for our fans to upload personal Cyclone Hockey photos from games and other activities. We currently have photos of a group from Dance Marathon, as well as photos from the Tykes game and Military night. Our fan Flickr seems to be off to a pretty good start as we have 14 uploaded photos. At the last two weekend series we handed our fans a small card that advertised our social media, including our new Flickr account. We hope to continue advertising our newest Flickr page and hopefully see an increase in the amount of uploads we receive.

Blogs

We have been working on creating a more user-friendly and attractive player blog over the last couple of weeks. We have made more topic categories for easy access and created a more appealing layout. We have also included links to our Cyclone Hockey website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr accounts for our fans to follow.  We still have some work to do with our player blog, and will continue to make changes that make the website more accessible to our fans.

Summary

We have implemented a lot of game promotions throughout the last two weeks and have seen success in getting the word of these promotions to our fans through our social media. Our Facebook fans are responding well to the posts we make to our page and our fan numbers are increasing every day. Facebook has proven to be a very effective tool for getting information to our fans. Our Twitter page is also working well as it gives us the opportunity to post play-by-play updates during our games. We are still making changes to our YouTube, Flickr, and Player Blog, but feel that these outlets will be a good way for us to connect with our fans.

We will continue to advertise and provide information through our social media accounts to create a strong relationship with our fans. We feel that our social media can be a very effective way to reach our fans, and we will continue to monitor our fan response and make changes accordingly.

Facebook

Cyclone Hockey Facebook Fan Page

Our Facebook awareness is growing as our blast promotions are coming each week.  Since we have started tracking our fan base, a little over a month ago, we have increased our Facebook fans by 101 to 819 fans.  We are also motioning any Cyclone Hockey mentions in the news, whether it be our school newspaper to the much more proliferated DesMoines Register, and posting the links on our Facebook page for our fans to enjoy.  We also made sure to share each YouTube upload that we have, including highlights, player interviews, or fun videos that we have made.  Overall, we make sure that our Facebook fans know everything about Cyclone Hockey from our fan page.

YouTube

Cyclone Hockey YouTube Channel

Until recently, our YouTube account has not had many videos; two to be exact.  We have since uploaded 13 additional videos.  As for our original videos, we have a combined view total increase of over 200 views over the period of two weeks. That shows our videos are getting to our fans and our new videos will only grow our fan base. These videos however, are very recent and we have not had time to track the effectiveness of each video but we foresee great utilization of these videos from our fans.  We also have made some fun videos to show that Cyclone Hockey is not all business and to give our fans some laughs.

Flickr

Cyclone Hockey Flickr Photos

Our Flickr account is up and running but unfortunately has not had much traffic yet.  We are changing that with the formation of a second Flickr account to accommodate our fans.  We will still keep our original account for our game photos and more professional pictures, but we are making another account for our fans to upload their own photos of Cyclone Hockey spirit and we will integrate that into our Cyclone Hockey Blog.

Twitter

Cyclone Hockey Twitter Account

Since we began tracking our Twitter account in late October, we have increased our followers from 81 to 94 in a two week period. The Cyclone Hockey Twitter account is basically our pooling source.  We have all of our sites linked up to our Twitter so when something is updated on one of our other sites, it automatically updates on Twitter.  Whether it be from Facebook, Blogs, or Flicker, our Twitter has a post and a link to the site.  We also keep our live score updates during each game on our Twitter account so fans who cannot watch the game can remain connected.

Summary

For the past couple of weeks, we have focused on not only improving our social media (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and our Blogs), but also letting our fans know about our social media.   Not necessarily just letting our fans know online but also letting our fans, who may not have a social media account,  know about our sites our and getting more fans involved with our social media blasts, photo contests, game handouts, and website recognition.

Over the past two weeks we decided to implement a couple of strategies to see how much our fans use our social media resources.  One new strategy that we implemented for our Halloween series was a fun social media blast.  Our blast was a last minute promotion to wear a Halloween costume during the game and receive discounted admission as long as you mentioned our social media promotion.   We found that the blast did make a small impact in our ticket sales but we also found that a number of our season ticket holders arrived in costumes showing that our message did get across.

We also have implemented a photo contest for our fans to show their Cyclone Hockey spirit and submit their photos to our Flickr for a chance to win Cyclone Hockey merchandise.  For the contest we are encouraging fans to submit photos to our Flickr for a chance to win Cyclone Hockey merchandise.  We have just initiated our contest so we are not aware of the effects to our social media sites.

Providing links to our social media outlets on our website (cyclonehockey.com) creates an easy way for fans to access our sites from one location.  It allows the fans that do not have accounts on each social media site to gain access and fully utilize each site. Our game handouts have all of our site addresses on them so every fan that attends our games receives one of the handouts promoting our social media.

As we continue with our blast promotions, contests, game handouts, website recognition and various events, we will track our fan response and adjust our social media strategies accordingly.