Nov

20

Talking social media with Dave Wieme

Filed Under Career, Interviews, Social Media, Sports PR 

In our fourth day of Twitter week, I am happy to present another interview with a professional in the sports PR industry. Today, you will get to read comments by Dave Wieme, who is the Director of Strategic Communications for Palace Sports & Entertainment. He has held this position for seven years according to his LinkedIn profile. Before I get to the questions, here is a brief bio courtesy of the Detroit Pistons’ Blog Squad page.

As director of strategic communications for the Detroit Pistons, Dave Wieme is in the perfect position to provide insight on the day-to-day operations around The Palace of Auburn Hills. The job is a hybrid of public relations, communications, promotions, marketing, advertising and brand management. His direct boss is Palace Sports & Entertainment CEO Tom Wilson, however, he works with most everyone at The Palace. His position allows him to touch many projects in the organization and be in contact with many people. He is also afforded a great deal of latitude and is able to be “behind-the-scenes” a lot.

1. What does the team hope to accomplish by using Twitter? How did you decide what topics would be discussed on the Twitter account?

The Detroit Pistons set up a Twitter account in order to have a conversation with fans. Twitter is just one part of the Pistons’ social media strategy, which includes Web video (DetPistonsOfficial on YouTube) and Posting Up ‘ the Detroit Pistons social network, which can be found on www.pistons.com/postingup. The account is used to provide news on the team, previews and recaps of games and news about Piston promotions and videos. We also use Twitter to ask people for feedback on the team’s performance. The updates are more than just links to stories and are written in a way that encourages reader feedback.

2. How do you think Twitter can help the average sports team or league in their fan outreach? How do you think sports PR practitioners can effectively leverage Twitter to promote their team or league?

As social media interaction increases, Twitter can certainly play a role in fan outreach. Fans are always looking for information and interesting content and Twitter can point people in the right direction to find that content and keep them engaged with their favorite team. Then, once a community has been established, the followers can become advocates for the team.

3. Did Weber Shandwick help the Pistons develop their new social networking website, Posting Up? How did you decide the format of the website and what items it would include?

Weber Shandwick did not help us develop Posting Up, however, they were instrumental in testing the site before we launched it and promoting it to our fans upon launch. They also continue to make suggestions, based upon their experience and extensive knowledge of social media, to improve our standing in the social network arena.

Posting Up is a result of some phone calls and emails that were made from 2Dogs.com, a software development company on the West Coast.  2Dogs.com showed us examples of social networking sites that they had developed for different sites. We were intrigued by the fact that the sites gave fans an opportunity to speak to each, as well as the organizations that hosted the sites, and were able to express themselves with video, pictures, blogs, forums, etc. We also liked the feature being able to “listen in” to what fans are talking about.

When we decided to have our own social networking site, 2Dogs.com gave us templates to review and we were able to pick and choose the features that we wanted. We gave them a wire frame (based on their templates) with the various features we wanted. 2Dogs.com was very accommodating and worked quickly on delivering a solid version that we could test for about a week.

We launched on Thursday, November 13th at about 4:00 p.m. EDT. I’m happy to report that in less than a week, Posting Up has nearly 1,600 members (the fastest any social network that 2Dogs.com developed has populated), tens of thousands of page views, has more than 65 individual blogs and hundreds of pictures and videos. To date, the social networking site is doing exactly what we had hoped it would do and has given Pistons fans a new voice on the Internet.

4. What advice would you give to current college students interested in a career in PR, specifically sports PR? What skills should students have to be successful?

The fundamentals of PR are the same — the ability to write well, the ability to speak well, the ability to network and the ability to deal with people — and I believe they will always be the same. Take the writing courses. Take the public speaking courses. Read the books on networking and understand what networking really is — not necessarily viewing it as making friends, but seeing it as gathering “tools” for your PR tool belt that you can use immediately or in the future. Work on your people skills, particularly your listening skills and take courses in these skills (Win Friends and Influence People).  I believe someone with solid fundamentals will be a valuable asset to any PR position — sports or otherwise — and will have an opportunity for jobs immediately out of college.

We are on the edge of a new frontier called the Web and it provides a space for PR people to communicate and get their messaging “out there.” Newspapers, radio and television are still viable communication sources, however, they are slowly being phased out OR restructured based upon technology.  Think about how you get your information today and use yourself as the typical consumer. If you had to reach yourself with a message, how would you do it? You are typical of millions of people out there, so understanding how you gather information is a way to understand how others do too.

I would say that if you are interested in a career in PR, sports or otherwise, you need the fundamentals.  But you also need to understand and work in this new frontier of the Web. You can immediately make an impact on your employer with your ability to implement this new technology and will quickly make yourself a valuable member of the team.

Comments

Leave a Reply