Dollars & Sense - Kobe's Twitter is a Fan's Dream

When it comes to sports and their superstar athletes, Twitter is the perfect invention.  Twitter offers real-time, unfiltered, and genuine access into the minds of our favorite sports personalities.  However, Twitter only offers those things.  The latter two - unfiltered and genuine - are all too often cleansed by the heavy duty sponge of public relations.  Every once in a while fans may get a rogue genuine thought that shines through the encrypted public relations branding and obligatory endorsement tweets.

YAHOO! SPORTS

Kobe Bryant is different, though.  He always has been.  One of the best players to ever play in the National Basketball Association, Kobe exploded on the Twitter scene.  As if he could have done it any other way, right?  Of course, this is largely due to his immense super stardom, but it also has to do with his personality.  He is (or at least used to be) antisocial, guarded, and arrogant.  He has gone through a high profile rape trial.  He has dropped the homophobic slur caught on the mic during a game.

The other night after the Los Angeles Lakers' season-long collapse was finally put to its miserable end thanks to the San Antonio Spurs, Kobe said something that I think is fascinating, especially coming from him.  It was along the lines of if you are going to call some a d**k, at least let them be a d**k first.  It was great in equal parts that it is mind-numbingly true about the way we judge people these days and that the world let Kobe be a d**k and now the world is letting him redeem himself.

(Listen to Kobe's comments on Jason Collins and being yourself beginning at the 19:20 mark.)

His Twitter has been at the forefront of Kobe's recent coming-out and redeeming.  You are refreshed by looking at Kobe's timeline, not a whiff of public relations marking and spinning.  There are a few Nike related tweets, but even those look natural from the Mamba himself.  Before he launched his Twitter account, it was anybody's best guest at how connected Kobe really was with the world.  Maybe he lived in his own, superstar world.  Then again, maybe not.

When browsing through his account, you see the superstar connect.  The initial people that he chose to follow were Alex Morgan (USWNT), Usain Bolt, and Serena Williams.  You can also see a bit of a business side too, following Darren Rovell (ESPN), Forbes, and The Economist in his initial wave.  Browse a little further and you will see that he followed Louisville basketball player Kevin Ware after Ware suffered a gruesome broken leg in the NCAA Tournament.

This is all well before Kobe took to in-game tweeting about his Lakers' performance in game one of the Western Conference playoffs against the Spurs.  Although the insight was maybe not exactly what Lakers' management would want to see coming from Kobe's feed, it was brutally honest.  And that is what the fans want.  It added value to the broadcast and to the media coverage (before some media outlets blew Kobe's in-game tweets a bit, um, out of proportion).

(Want to hear more about Kobe Bryant's Twitter usage and branding?  Listen to Kevin Rossi interview social media expert Caleb Mezzy in The Sports Biz Report podcast from the Drexel SMTSU.)

The most recent person that he has followed (as of 2 p.m. on Wednesday) may be the most telling to what Kobe has learned through the years.  The person also has to do with a Monday tweet from Kobe that has well over 41-thousand retweets.

The person: Jason Collins

The Tweet:

Proud of @jasoncollins34. Don't suffocate who u r because of the ignorance of others #courage #support #mambaarmystandup #BYOU
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) April 29, 2013

Kobe's tweet is in support of Jason Collins, the 34-year-old free agent center that on Monday came out publicly as the first active openly gay athlete in the major four North American sports.  And it is not the first time that Kobe has tweeted in support of the LGBT or against LGBT discrimination.  A few months back, Kobe went back and forth with a few followers telling them not to use homophobic slurs.

It is obvious that Kobe has learned from his past, and is that not the only thing that we can ask from people when they mess up?  There is a realness to his Twitter account that we rarely see, especially among the superstar athletes.  In an age where we are hypersensitive to our brand, we often times become robots - slaves to the corporate message.  But with open honesty and intelligence, Kobe is building a brand that is as strong, if not stronger, than it has ever been.  This type of honest branding is not for everybody, in fact, only a select few really have it.

He is certainly one of them as the window into Kobe Bryant's mind has proved to be an NBA fan's dream.

---

Regarding Jason Collins' announcement, the NBA was spot on in its handling on Twitter.  In addition to retweeting various NBA superstars (guys like Steve Nash, LeBron James, Shaq, Kobe,etc.) coming out in support of Collins, here are some of the best of how they handled it.

NBA Commissioner David Stern statement re: Washington Wizards center Jason Collins announcement today: (1/4)
— NBA (@NBA) April 29, 2013

“As Adam Silver and I said to Jason, we have known the Collins family since Jason and Jarron joined the NBA in 2001 (2/4)
— NBA (@NBA) April 29, 2013

and they have been exemplary members of the NBA family. Jason has been a widely respected player and teammate throughout (3/4)
— NBA (@NBA) April 29, 2013

his career and we are proud he has assumed the leadership mantle on this very important issue.” #NBAFamily (4/4)
— NBA (@NBA) April 29, 2013

#NBAFamily RT @billclinton: I'm proud to call Jason Collins a friend. wjcf.co/154piCi
— NBA (@NBA) April 29, 2013

This was not the first time the NBA has used the #NBAFamily, but in my opinion, this is the time that it stood out the most.  I thought it was a great way to aggregate support of Jason Collins.  Also, I thought that retweeting Jason Collins' thank you tweet was a great cap off of the news as the they started with their statement and ended with Collins' thank you.


Follow Kevin Rossi on Twitter @kevin_rossi.

Because You Miss Baseball

 

It's the MLB offseason and YOU miss baseball!

 

The Dodgers shocked (but didn't shock) you by signing Zack Greinke, you followed the RA Dickey saga until he got deported and you have stayed up nights hoping Michael Bourn will roam the (insert your team's stadium here) outfield in 2013 and beyond.

If you are a Pirates fan, you grimace at the thought of Joel Hanrahan being shipped off for questionable return. If you are a Phillies fan, you (for some reason) see Michael Young as a top of the order savior. If you are an Angels fan, God bless you and God bless Mike Trout.

Jon Heyman, Ken Rosenthal, Jon Morosi, Danny Knobler and the rest of the breaking news guys feed your need to have every single rumor spewed on your timeline. Whether it is a potential signing, trade or roster move, these writers want to report everything that tickles their ears; AND YOU LOVE IT! At this point, you know SOURCE better than you know yourself.

You hear rumors that don't come to fruition. You hear reports from 100 different people once a transaction is completed. You hear things that ruin the element of surprise. But you don't unfollow these guys because you miss the game too much. It's mid December and there are still five major holidays between you and Spring Training.

The game you love isn't happening every night. Your (insert your beloved NHL team's name here) is locked out, you can't find yourself to watch the NBA under any circumstance and there are just too many days between Sundays. You long for more fulfilling times, when turning on the TV at 7:05 meant something other than missing the first five minutes of a Seinfeld rerun.

Once March comes around, you'll welcome the annual return of America's Pastime. But until then, you NEED the scoop on every single roster move, because you sure as hell aren't getting scoops from your local ice cream place (run by jerks) that closed in October.

You hear things and get worked up, but you can't live and die on every single rumor. Thoughts like "Is (insert your team's General Manager here) gonna sign any free agents?" and "Will (insert your team's beloved player here) gonna get traded today?" get you on pins and needles all day and night.

You should absolutely appreciate the offseason news, because it's a way to stay connected to your team during the four dark months. But, in all seriousness, cool your jets. Unless your NFL team is the Jets. Which sucks. In that case, you probably like the Mets. Which also sucks. Quite honestly, your time might better be served ringing the bell for the Salvation Army or something. Get to that.

Dollars & Sense - Twitter and its Trolls

Look at the events from this past weekend.  Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Javon Belcher murdered his girlfriend and later took his own life in front of Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli and head coach Romeo Crennel.  Saint Louis University head men’s basketball coach Rick Majerus passed away due to ongoing heart problems at the age of 64.

Both of those events ranged somewhere in the spectrum of tremendously sad to horrendously tragic.  Both also required an inherent element of care and soul.  Social media, however, shows that many people don’t see stories in that light.  People see these stories as a way to take a cowardly and ignorant shot at an undeserved target behind the protection of a computer screen and an identity unknown to 99.99% of the world.

The positive uses of social media are always in the spotlight. The way that social media can connect people anywhere in the world is unparalleled.  The versatility for business and personal use is being further discovered every single day.  But the negatives can sometimes be forgotten in all of the positives.  And even though social media has done countless good for news stories such as the aforementioned, social media also shows a side of people that would best be never seen.

Twitter in particular is an interesting tool.  In 140 characters or less, people can get a glimpse into the soul of any user.  Sometimes it can be quite pleasant.  Other times it can be downright horrifying. 

All it takes is a simple search on a topic to see the reaction. Take Rick Majerus’ death for example.  He was considered one of the great guys in the college basketball game, but some people still find it alright to comment on his weight (see below).

Rick Majerus just died?!? Good basketball coach. Morbidly obese. I guess that's what happens.
— Will Mullen (@Mullenaire) December 2, 2012

Should we even take the time to acknowledge this sort of comment?  Maybe not.  But it should serve as a moment to learn about mankind. It should serve as a reminder this is the way some people think.  These are the types of people that are in this crazy world of ours.

In times like this, Twitter can also keep the trolls honest.  CBS Sports, a fine news outlet in many respects, had the gall to post about the fantasy impact of Jovan Belcher’s murder/suicide as details were still being discovered.  As George Okuhara points out below, there should not be a place for this in the world (and we all know that CBS handled the situation poorly during their coverage on Sunday as well).

Absolutely disgusting decision by @cbssports to post the "fantasy impact" of Jovan Belcher's death. twitter.com/gregokuhara/st…
— Greg Okuhara (@gregokuhara) December 1, 2012

Of course these are some of the most emotional of situations, but it can be seen even in what is a much more trivial situation.  We know that the Philadelphia Eagles are in the midst of a less than stellar situation to say the least. Leading up to the season, tragic news came out of Eagles training camp at Lehigh that head coach Andy Reid’s son had died in what was later confirmed as a drug overdose.

In two events that are not relatable, fans still take their hatred of Andy Reid to new heights.  Fans constantly attack Reid on the basis of his weight, which is so incredibly superficial it almost pains me to admit that I share the same favorite team as some of these people.  His weight and poor win/loss record this season has prompted an internet movement, “Trim the fat, #FireAndy.”

If that isn’t bad enough, fans have found a way to take this to a new level.  Though the exact tweet in my mind could not be located, I specifically recall one saying in summary that Reid should go die and join his son in hell.  I’ll let that sink in for a moment.

The statement is horrifyingly eloquent in a way of insensitivity and ignorance.  A better explanation of Twitter trolling could not be thought up by the best of us.

What it truly shows though is that the lines of fanhood have been blurred.  Love and hate for a team and its players has gone well beyond the boundaries of the playing field.  It has spilled over into life itself and Twitter gives us a window into how ugly it can truly be. 

I’m not necessarily talking about how these trolls affect the business of sport (although in the case of CBS Sports’ miscues we can see how the business of sport can corrupt some minds).  What I’m talking about here is one of the unintended consequences of the business of sport.  Shedding more and more light on the business has increased fan need for information, and the past examples of Twitter reactions shows the blurring of fanhood and ignorance.

There’s no way to control the trolls. The trolls will always be there. There’s no way to shut the trolls out.  But what we can do is use the trolls as a reminder.  It’s a reminder that we can all be better, and if we’re all trying to better ourselves, then we can make a difference in this world. 

Follow Kevin Rossi on Twitter @kevin_rossi.

Chipper Jones and Twittagate

Welcome to the Route 30 Detour! US Route 30 intersects at I-95 in Philadelphia and goes from coast to coast, including passing through Pittsburgh and the home of Drexel University SMT student and blog contributor, Bryan Fyalkowski (@fyalkowski)...




The Grand Hyatt New York is a four-star hotel in a prime location right next to Grand Central Station and just minutes away from Times Square. Most reviews are positive, but about one out of every five is not, such as this brief, yet telling, account from online hotel reviewer MPavlov on TripAdvisor.com:

No offense to MPavlov, but when I want hotel recommendations, I go right to Chipper Jones. That's right, as of Friday night, this 40-year-old switch-hitting third baseman is a qualified, trustworthy hotel connoisseur. First of all, let me explain how Chipper has emerged as a Twitter sensation.

Using the handle @RealCJ10, Chipper has burst on the "twitta" scene with his funny Southern charm and his nightly announcements of who went "yicketty," "jimmyjack," "mammo" or "yaya." He has become as entertaining as any ballplayer in 140 characters or fewer in just a matter of days.

Feeling pretty confident from the positive feedback of his first 27 tweets, Chipper felt as if he could share anything with over 100,000 of his closest fans. The Grand Hyatt New York would serve as the Atlanta Braves' hotel during the team's weekend series against the Mets, but the future Hall-of-Famer was not impressed.

In a series of three tweets, Chipper alienated himself from the chic hotel community while sounding like a grumpy old online reviewer. His first was to complain about the heat setting in the room: "If anyone was thinkin about stayin at the Grand Hyatt in NY,dont! My AC is set on 65 and its north of 80 in here. Like a freaken sauna!"

On a hot summer day, an air conditioned hotel room should be the least of your worries, so it is easy to understand Chipper's beef. His next complaint explained a bit of the back story: "The movie channels dont work and the beds make my back spasm up! Am i complaining too much? Im sorry, gotta vent to someone. Love yall!!!"

Oh, so now we have figured out these are issues that have arisen more than once. Remember his back spasm issue, because that will come up later. Last but not least, Chipper weighs in on the ramifications of his previous comments: "Ahh the power of social media. TV guy just showed up at my door. Didnt even have to call the front desk. See what happens when u vent a tad?"

The next day, David O'Brien, Braves beat writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, tweeted the starting lineup from @ajcbraves and Chipper was starting at third base and batting fourth against the New York Mets. Just hours later, O'Brien announced that Chipper was scratched from the lineup due to back tightness because of the hotel accommodations.

O'Brien elaborated: "Not the first time the beds in this NYC hotel have left #Braves Chipper Jones with sore back or spasms. Seems almost annual thing."

Then O'Brien continued where Chipper left off the night before: "#Braves Chipper hopes to play tomorrow. By the way, he said he didn't let hotel employee in his room who came up after he tweeted yesterday."

Finally, O'Brien provided a solution to any future Grand Hyatt back problems, and other issues that had arisen in the past 24 hours: "#Braves Chipper said might be time for him to stay someplace else in NYC, saying he couldn't order room service here now anyway after tweets."

From the AJC Blog, Chipper has missed several other games against the Mets over the years due to back tightness or spasms, but he could only remember it happening after he slept on beds at the Grand Hyatt New York.

Chipper has had many back problems towards the tail end of his career, but this is too common of a circumstance to be a coincidence. During this recent Twitter complaint, not only have we found out the reasoning for some of Chipper's missed games, but the Grand Hyatt New York got negative publicity that is arguably more detrimental than a bad review on a travel magazine.

Although a large number of Chipper's followers on Twitter are probably from the south, many national outlets such as the The Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News have covered "Twittagate." With nearly 500 properties all over the world, Hyatt should be able to survive, but Thursday was definitely a day that will negatively affect the Grand Hyatt New York to some degree.

Do you recall any instances of an athlete or celebrity using social media to express their negative feelings about something? We would love to hear them! Please share it below in the comments section.

Enjoy your trip back to I-95 and I'll see you next week!

BREAKING: Twitter Sucks Sometimes

Welcome to the Route 30 Detour! US Route 30 intersects at I-95 in Philadelphia and goes from coast to coast, including passing through Pittsburgh and the home of Drexel University SMT student and blog contributor, Bryan Fyalkowski (@fyalkowski)...




I have very particular expectations of the sports accounts I follow on Twitter; accurate and quick information. Above other sports, I want to know about everything that is happening in the MLB. I also follow handful of other accounts to cover the basics of the other sports, but since it is offseason for all the other major sports, MLB is the most prudent information for me at this time. I only follow approximately 120 accounts in total and they usually get me the information I want.

In the past two days, there have been occurrences of false breaking news on my Twitter feed, which is very upsetting. It is not only upsetting that I got the wrong information at the time, because I obviously was able to find the correct story later on. What is most upsetting is in the hunt for being the first to report a story, these reporters had no regard for the ethics of Twitter journalism.

In the afternoon of July 23, Mark Bowman, MLB.com beat writer for the Atlanta Braves, announced Chicago Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster was headed to Atlanta for pitcher Randall Delgado. This was not some kind of misunderstanding. In the tweet, Bowman "Confirmed Ryan Dempster is coming to the Braves..."

Apparently "confirmed" is an awfully loose word. Less than 100 minutes later, Dempster tweeted from his foundation's official account that "THERE IS NO TRADE..." Well, it seems like something was lost in translation.

The issue with the potential deal was that Dempster is a 10/5 player. For non-MLB bylaw know-it-alls out there, it means Dempster has been in the MLB for at least ten years and with the same team for at least the last five years. Therefore, he has the right to veto any trade. Since, Dempster has exercised his right to veto and the trade to the Braves is no more.

For Bowman, his tweet was RT over 700 times, although some of those could have been due to it being a laughable report. In addition, the MLB's official account tweeted the news with Bowman as the original source. @MLB has over 2.3 million followers and this specific tweet was RT over 1,200 times. It is astonishing how many people got the wrong information with just one tweet, but that is the way breaking news works nowadays.

In an article titled "Braves reach agreement to acquire Dempster," which was posted 40 minutes after his original tweet, Bowman mentions the 10/5 rule and Dempster having the option to veto the deal. That is all Bowman needed to say in his original tweet. If he just posted "Deal in place for Braves to acquire Dempster..." or something along those lines, he would have been able to confirm later while still getting credit for being the first to report the trade.

In this instance, Bowman did not think clearly before he tweeted and made a huge mistake to MLB fans in general, more specifically Braves and Cubs fan bases, while offending Dempster in the process. Meanwhile, Bowman has not apologized about this on Twitter, just updated a post, saying "Braves close to deal for Cubs' Dempster..." Please.

The second instance involved Jon Morosi, a second-tier baseball reporter (behind Ken Rosenthal, Jon Heyman, etc.) for FoxSports.com and the Pittsburgh Pirates on the evening of July 24. A trade for Houston Astros pitcher Wandy Rodriguez, was first reported by Tom Singer, MLB.com beat writer for Pittsburgh, and later confirmed by Heyman, with initial credit given to Singer.

However, Heyman did not name any players going from the Pirates to the Astros, which frustrated me at the time while I was updating my Twitter feed every 30 seconds trying to evaluate the trade. The first reporter to name names was Morosi, who said that AA-level outfielder Robbie Grossman was headed to Houston, about 25 minutes after Heyman originally confirmed the deal.

Pirates fans rejoiced on my feed because they thought he was the only one involved. Grossman is a solid prospect, but a 22-year old with a sub-.800 OPS at the AA-level does not necessarily translate to a great Major League player. Five minutes later, Morosi tweeted that 19-year old A-level shortstop Alen Hanson, one of the Pirates prospects with major upside, was also included.

Morosi then got his story mixed up by claiming there was "contradicting information on Hanson's inclusion." Wow, would you not want to sort out this "contradicting information" before you sent breaking news out to 53,500 of your trusting followers? A few minutes later, the Pirates official account trounced all rumors by tweeting the actual players involved in the deal: Robbie Grossman, AAA-level pitcher Rudy Owens and A-level pitcher Colton Cain.

In the end, even though Heyman frustrated me by not initially reporting who the Pirates included in the deal, it was the right thing to do because not all the information was 100% trustworthy. Morosi fell into the first to report trap and looked like a moron because of it. Since then, there have been no apologies on his feed and he faces no public repercussions other than the disappointment of the people who trusted him for solid information, myself included.

One thing I can say about Morosi and Bowman in these instances is that they did not go back and delete the incorrect tweets. Even though neither has come forward and apologized to this point, it says something that they will face the music and take some kind of public backlash for their mistakes. However, these situations go to show that journalism is first and foremost about accurate information, which is clearly much more important than having it be quick and false.

Enjoy your trip back to I-95 and I'll see you next week!

A Midsummer Night's Nightmare

Welcome to the Route 30 Detour! US Route 30 intersects at I-95 in Philadelphia and goes from coast to coast, including passing through Pittsburgh and the home of Drexel University SMT student and blog contributor, Bryan Fyalkowski (@fyalkowski)...




Three weeks from today, an exhibition game between two teams (that are not actual teams) will decide who gets home-field advantage in the World Series. Obviously, I am talking about the 83rd MLB All-Star Game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. This will be the tenth time that the Midsummer Classic will decide home-field advantage in the World Series, a rule that was instituted after the 2002 All-Star Game tie/debacle in Milwaukee right under the nose of MLB Commissioner Bus Selig.

And what a big nose it is.

Since the rule's institution in 2003, the team with the worse record has been appointed home-field advantage in the World Series, via the All-Star Game, in just two of the nine seasons. However, in both of those instances (Boston Red Sox in 2004 and St. Louis Cardinals in 2011) the teams won the World Series. There are obvious benefits, seeing that in the past nine years, the team with home-field advantage in the World Series is 6-3.

If the MLB is to keep this ridiculous rule, there must be changes made to the current format.

Listen up, PAL!

With the emergence of social media, especially Twitter, the MLB wants to integrate its Midsummer Classic as much as possible. During last year's State Farm Home Run Derby, players who tweeted during the event had a 17% increase in Twitter followers by the next day. On June 5, the MLB announced that players who are not involved with, or have already been removed from, the game will be able to tweet from computer stations within the clubhouse.

This news was exciting for a lot of people, but for many it was very head-scratching. While the MLB promotes the All-Star game as a vital part of the season, it allows players to tweet during the game, has appointed a retiree to manage the game and still allows fans to vote for the players involved. These are all things that make the All-Star game seem more like a "go out and have fun" game rather than a "this is serious stuff" game.

Come on...

Today I saw a tweet from @MLB_PR that Rafael Furcal has overtaken Troy Tulowitzki for NL All-Star voting at shortstop. That makes sense because Furcal is having a solid season, while Tulowitzki has been injured (as usual) for the past two months. However, if the Rockies shortstop were to get healthy before July 10, would it not give the NL a better chance to win the game and claim home-field advantage for its World Series representative?

And lose to the Red Sox anyway.

As it stands now, the fans vote for the starters in the field, including designated hitter (which is one of the stupidest rules in baseball, will save for another day). Then, the MLB players of each league vote for the backups at each position and eight pitchers. And to round out the 34-man rosters, the managers and their coaches choose the rest of the players as they see fit, including the starting pitcher.

In order to fix the All-Star game and remove the cloud of confusion about its purpose, the MLB must make up its mind. Should it be purely an exhibition game or be involved in possibly deciding the champion of the entire league?

Honestly, the tweeting thing does not bother me nearly as much as much as the fan voting and newly-retired Tony La Russa managing the NL squad. Tweeting does not affect the performance on the field and even though there is the argument that the players must focus, they are not in the game at that point, so it does not seem like it could cause much of an issue.

Well it worked alright in the NFL.

But for 1/3 of the game to be played by the players who won a popularity contest seems a bit odd. Before home-field advantage was given to the winning league, it made sense because the fans got to see their favorite players in the All-Star Game. But now, it should not matter who the fans want to see, but to have the players on the roster who give the team the best chance to win. Period.

What are your thoughts about the MLB All-Star Game? What changes to the Midsummer Classic, if any, would you like to see?

 If so, let this guy know about it.

Enjoy your trip back to I-95 and I'll see you next week!

Dollars & Sense - Investing in Social Media

I admittedly am completely obsessed with Twitter.  My girlfriend, who introduced it to me about a year and a half ago now, says I’m addicted and is probably regretting showing it to me in the first place.  I very well may be an addict.  Twitter is how I get most of my sports news; it’s the first site I check each and every morning without fail.  I love it because it goes beyond the box score.  I love it because I get up to the second news.  I love it because it leads me to articles and writers that I never before would have ever found.  If lead into a room with my family and an interventionist surrounding a table, all in tears, I would be that addict who runs out of the room.  There’s no need for an intervention.  There are millions of others out there just like me, a comforting thought.  For some it’s Facebook.  For others it may be Google+ or Pinterest or Instagram.  You could be the last person on Myspace for all I know.

----------

Professional sport teams, though getting better, are dropping the ball.  Since social media is always growing and always evolving, it does not provide the tangible dollars of ROI when teams invest into it.  For that reason, I think teams not only resist social media, they fear it. 

From my experiences in the market research field I can tell you that there is a survey for just about everything an organization offers.  Season ticket holders, single game buyers, club box purchasers, suite goers; and those are all just for ticket sales!  Teams send these surveys out, receive them, and analyze them.  They spend millions of dollars each year to get answers and turn those answers into some tangible, actionable approach to the future.  Many times, the metrics that they use to make the multi-million dollar decisions are grossly unsatisfactory and underdeveloped. 

Surveys are too formal for this day and age of immediate reaction.  By the time somebody even receives a survey, they have already expressed their candid emotions and thoughts to their friends and family.  Is it truly useful to ask a season ticket holder if they would recommend buying season tickets to a friend or family member a month after they have already actually done so?  Even if it can be effective, how do you know if their actions match their answers on the survey?

This all leads exactly to why teams need to invest in social media and the monitoring of their social media accounts.  Social media provides customers the platform to speak their mind usually under the impression that somebody is listening (or at least hoping someone is listening).  Social media can provide organizations the answers to their survey questions without actually having to probe their customers after the fact with their corporate mumbo-jumbo. 

When you read about how teams were run in the past, you will quickly find that there was much more transparency and visibility.  Season ticket holders knew the team president by name and the team president knew the season ticket holders by name.  Somewhere over the course of time, the personal approach was phased out.  It became the fans in the stands and the team executives up in the fancy club boxes.  I don’t know about you, but that seems a little inefficient when it comes to knowing your fans.  I strongly believe that a meet and greet with the team president should not be some special privilege for the fans.  The team executives should want to know who their fans are.  This dynamic is exactly why sports have become too impersonal and perceived as being all about the money. 

Social media brings us back to a simpler time, if you will. A time where team presidents roamed the stadiums and talked to fans as equals, not their deep-pocketed money-giving inferiors.  Social media allows teams to communicate with fans, interact with them, reward the loyal, and fix problems. 
Most importantly, social media provides candid responses and real-time emotions.  That is what teams need to be looking for.  Those are the answers to their questions right there in front of them.

----------

The Dollars

Software for social media monitoring programs can range quite a bit.  Programs range from free to thousands of dollars.  However, with the wide range there is something out there for everybody and every sized company.  There is no excuse having nothing at all.  In my opinion, sport organizations should be spending top dollar on this type of software.  Fans are emotional.  Emotions get posted on social media sites.  Emotions on social media sites give teams valuable insight about their fans.  Emotions on social media sites give teams valuable insight about their fans without the corporate feel of a survey.

----------

The Sense

Investing in social media makes more sense than anything I will ever write about in the future for I-95 SportsBiz.  The reason is that the prices are more or less a la carte.  Organizations pick and choose what they need and what they want.  There is something out there for everybody.  I would venture to guess that most organizations are underutilizing their resources and have an underdeveloped feel of social media.  Social media is the perfect way to get out there, interact with a passionate fan bases, and get the questions answered.  The answers are out there, teams just need to look harder.