Mar

22

Job Opening: Cleveland Browns Staff Writer

Filed Under Career, Interviews, Job Openings, Social Media | Leave a Comment

The Cleveland Browns are looking to hire a staff writer for their New Media department. If you are interested and meet the qualifications listed below, please follow this link to apply. Good luck!

Summary Description
The Staff Writer is responsible for the creation of written content; Staff Writer will also assist other members of the New Media staff in creation of video and audio content.

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Oct

26

Twitter’s impact on college athletics

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Sports Media Challenge teamed up with CoSIDA to present five secrets of unlocking Twitter for college sports. You can watch the video presentation presented to university athletic departments across the country on YouTube below or by clicking on this link.

The Daily Northwestern, the student paper at Northwestern University, examines how colleges are taking advantage of social networking websites. The difference with college athletics is that Twitter and Facebook can be used to help the program’s recruiting efforts according to the article. It’s not just using these social media platforms to directly reach out to recruits, but also that Twitter and Facebook updates can highlight the positives of the school.

In the ongoing battle to lock up top recruits, Twitter and Facebook have become invaluable weapons, allowing coaches to connect with high schoolers on a new level.

“The key with social media is creating value in what you talk about and listening to what people are saying,” Hessert said. “If a coach is monitoring key recruits and what they’re saying and doing on social media, they can respond to things of interest to (the recruit) without responding directly.”

According to sophomore defensive end Kevin Watt, social media will benefit recruits as well as coaches.

“You definitely get to see a little more of a personal side of a coach and see what they’re about,” Watt said. “That’s important in choosing a college, figuring out what kind of person your coach is.”

Please make sure to look into the recruiting guidelines regarding social networking before using social media to ensure you are abiding by the rules.

Sep

29

Texas Tech bans its players from Twitter

Filed Under Social Media | 2 Comments

Texas Tech has a Twitter account, but the football team’s head coach Mike Leach has banned its players from using the social networking website.

Leach said players don’t need Twitter or Facebook. He called them “stupid” distractions.

“I think that a guy who plays college football gets enough attention,” he said. It’s “a bunch of narcissists that want to sit and type stuff about themselves all the time. We’ll put mirrors in some of their lockers if that’s necessary but they don’t have to Twitter.”

Leach said players’ Facebook pages will be monitored. He joked about who would be watching.

“That’s a committee that’s very secret and the names of those people are in a vault deep in the bowels of our training center, which even the entrance to that is highly classified,” he said.

The blog Dr. Saturday has a video of coach Leach talking about technology if you want to see him talking about all of this. With Texas Tech sporting a 2-2 record, Leach does not want technology to be a distraction as the team attempts to get back on track.

Leach fired back at the disgruntled players Monday on the Big 12’s weekly coaches’ teleconference.

“Anyone who is a malcontent doesn’t stay around here long,” Leach said. “We’ve got a full group of players who are ready to take (his) place. And interestingly enough, he doesn’t have a Twitter page anymore.”

The sniping across Cyberspace is the last thing the Red Raiders needed after the disappointing losses to Texas and Houston — their first back-to-back losses since midway through the 2007 season.

A couple of incidents from two players led to the ban according to Mashable.

Under his former Twitter name, @kos39, Marlon Williams tweeted, “Wondering why I’m still in this meeting room when the head coach can’t even be on time to his on meeting.” …

Meanwhile, after a team loss, Brandon Carter, who was @BCSLAM on Twitter, openly expressed his malcontent saying, “This is not how I saw our season. I just cried like am idiot. I want us to be so good.my last year and I feel like I’m letting everyone down.”

While those comments are not the worst ones to be posted by an athlete, it’s still in the realm of things that should be avoided when tweeting whether you’re an athlete or not. Saying something negative about your boss or coach and how you feel your job/scholarship/team (that isn’t positive) is not a good idea whether you play for a professional sports team or you are a college student.

Sep

25

Twitter and Sports News

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A few interesting tidbits have come out over the past week with regards to Twitter and social media. I wanted to make sure I pointed them out to you:

The Washington Post took a look at the Washington Capitals’ players and whether they had a Twitter account or not. Some of the players didn’t even know what it was and/or had no interest in the social networking website. Others had an account or planned to get one just to ensure that fans knew it was the legit account.

Twitter did not respond to two e-mails seeking further comment on the policy, but the fact that most of Washington’s players’ accounts are parodies is not obvious to everyone. Last week, one member of the team’s front office called Ewell to ask if Alzner’s alleged account was legit.

“If that can happen to a staff member . . .” Ewell said.

Ewell said he plans to urge Washington’s players to sign up for accounts in an effort to discredit the fakes.

“That way, they can say: ‘Hey, this is the real Jeff Schultz. I might not post on here, but this is me.’ ” Ewell said.

In other news, a Washington Redskins rookie Robert Henson went too far on his Twitter account and got a fair amount of media attention because of it. He first tweeted “All you fake half hearted Skins fan can .. I won’t go there but I dislike you very strongly, don’t come to Fed Ex to boo dim wits!!” He followed that up by replying to some followers and D.C. Sports Blog rounded up all of his tweet comments. It’s not usually a good idea to call out your fans. Social media is supposed to help bridge the gap between athlete and fan and engage the fans, not get them upset about someone who didn’t even play in the game.

Finally, PR News Online has some tips to help sports organizations effectively use social media and why it’s important for sports PR professionals to understand.

2. Listen and engage

Being successful in the social media space isn’t only setting up Twitter and Facebook accounts.  You have to constantly engage fans in conversation.  A good way to start is by monitoring social media tools to see what fans are saying about your brand and respond to those conversations.  You also should regularly participate in targeted conversations by commenting on blogs, responding to Tweets and adding value to other social networks.  Also, don’t be afraid of negative comments because they’ll be shared with or without you.  Instead, listen to feedback and try to quickly and diplomatically address specific issues.

Aug

31

NJ Devils use social media to promote Martin Brodeur Day

Filed Under Social Media, Sports PR | 1 Comment

PR Week did a brief piece that looked at how the New Jersey Devils used social media and other marketing strategies to promote Martin Brodeur Day (June 18th), which the state legislation had named in honor of the netminder setting the all-time record for wins by a goalie back in March.

As part of the celebration, the New Jersey state legislature declared June 18 Martin Brodeur Day, inviting the goalie to the State House in Trenton to accept the honor. Rather than sending Brodeur alone, the Devils’ in-house PR team, Rock Entertainment Management (which is also the PR team for the Prudential Center, the Devils’ sports arena), gathered New Jersey Devils alums, members of the Devils’ broadcasting team, and 300 fans onto a New Jersey Transit train ride to Trenton to share the experience.

The organization wanted to emphasize its social media so they live-tweeted the ceremony and also updated their official website and Facebook account with video and photos throughout the day. The Devils deemed the event a success with local broadcast stations and newspapers covering it as well as bloggers like In Lou We Trust. Not only was it a fun idea, but the fans and alumni gathered on a train for Marty was a great visual and unique concept to pitch to broadcast media or print media for photos.

Aug

28

Colleges continue to drop print media guides

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The Washington Times took a look at how college athletic programs continue to turn from the traditional media guide in favor of a more multimedia-friendly guide on their website.

Off in a side hallway at the ACC’s Football Kickoff last month sat one of the long-standing fixtures at preseason media events. Stacks of freshly printed media guides – 208 pages of high-stock paper each – were available, a tangible resource for all but one team in the conference.

That school was Maryland, with a stack of notes replacing a shiny book. The school discontinued printing media guides this year, a decision that saves the department $150,000, said Brian Ullmann, Maryland’s senior associate athletic director for external operations.

“We had been wanting to put some more resources into our multimedia stuff online for a while and had a tough time harnessing those resources in terms of finances and personnel,” Ullmann said. “Clearly, the way things are going, in a couple years nobody is going to do a media guide. If they do, they’ll be minor.”

It’s no surprise that Maryland has joined universities like Michigan, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. Once a big college athletic department made the announcement that they were halting their production of print media guides, I expected others (but not all) to quickly follow suit.

There is a challenge trying to appease older fans and media members while trying to help the bottom line. It’s certainly nice to allow reporters and fans to view their guide online with player statistics updated after each game. However, it’s just not the same and doesn’t allow reporters to refer to a hard copy right in front of them without having to print out a page. It will certainly be interesting to see what media guides look like (if they even exist in print) in five years.

In Other College Athletic News:

  • The Buffalo News discusses how athletic departments can use Twitter to manage their message.
  • According to Editor & Publisher, the AP and Gannett have refused to sign SEC’s new credential policy. Dr. BS blogs about how it puts these two sides on a collision course.

Aug

26

Interview with Ramsey Poston – NASCAR Managing Director of Corporate Communications

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For the first time on SPRB, we have an interview with someone who does PR in the auto racing industry. Ramsey Potson is today’s interviewee and as NASCAR’s corporate communications managing director, he has plenty of knowledge and experience regarding the PR industry.

1) How did you get your current position as NASCAR’s Managing Director of Corporate Communications? What are your day-to-day responsibilities?

In 2001 was working at the public affairs firm of Powell Tate in Washington, DC when we were hired to assist NASCAR with the crisis surrounding the death of Dale Earnhardt. In 2003 I was hired fulltime as the Managing Director of Corporate Communications. My day-to-day role is to manage all aspect of the company’s communications including the on-track competition communications for all 11 NASCAR series; business communications; lifestyle communication and the issue management. The PR department consists of 31 employees that are divided up into five teams: Competition/Print; Broadcast; PR Services (which handles new media); Business; and, strategic writing. Each team is managed by a senior manager or director.

2) You personally have a Twitter account as does NASCAR. What is the upside of using Twitter both on a personal level and a league level? On the other hand, what are some concerns that NASCAR may have about Twitter and how are those issues being addressed?

Social media is the new frontier for the 21st Century – we’re all learning everyday about the impact of online media including Twitter, Facebook and other outlets. The immediate upside is that the traditional media outlets are no longer my only hope of getting out my message. I can now communicate directly with my audience without being filtered. This is an especially great tool for athletes – look at what Shaq and Lance Armstrong are doing; with the push of a single button they can instantaneously reach a million fans each. That’s power. That’s something that the news industry has to compete against.

The concern – like all things – is responsibility. Whether someone is talking to a reporter or tweeting, what is said has to be truthful and factual – we’ll all see examples of rumors and mis-information extended through the social media sites, it’s happening now. However, the other key word in this new media world will be credibility -everyone wants it but those sources that get the facts wrong will lose credibility and won’t have the kind of influence as those who get the stories right.

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Aug

19

Outside the Lines talks Twitter

Filed Under Social Media | 1 Comment

I’m a bit slow in relaying this video to SPRB readers, but OTL took an in-depth look at Twitter and athletes that you will want to check out below.

Aug

10

Twitter makes headlines with ESPN and the NFL

Filed Under Social Media, Sports Business News | 1 Comment

By now, you’ve probably heard about Twitter sometime over this week for one reason or another. Earlier this week, the social networking website made headlines when ESPN announced its social networking policy. On top of that, 12 NFL teams banned the use of Twitter by its media members during practice while most teams banned their players from using it. On Thursday, the website went down for hours due to a denial of server attack. This lengthy post has a rundown of all the Twitter-related sport news from this week with my opinions mixed throughout.

NFL & Twitter

When I started using Twitter last September, I took note of the number of athletes and professional teams using the social networking platform. The NFL had the fewest representatives on Twitter, but there was only a total of about 35 athletes or teams using it at the time. Today almost every pro team has an account, but the level of use varies from organization to organization.

Some people herald Twitter and other social networking websites as the answer to marketing the organization. It’s the end all be all for these people. I disagree. I believe Twitter and Facebook can be great assets for teams and athletes as they look to engage their fans. These websites are great places to hold contests, offer unique content and information, and provide the fans another way to connect with the team. Below are some examples and articles of teams and athletes effectively using Twitter:

  • New York Jets embracing Twitter (SportsBiz with Darren Rovell)
  • Washington Red Skins Trent Shelton is an inspirational tweeter (Eye on Sports Media)
  • Shaquille O’Neal was on Twitter while eating at a diner and met some fans there thanks to Twitter. He also gave away two free tickets to a Phoenix Suns game to the first of his followers to tag him at a local mall.
  • The Phoenix Suns hosted the first ever NBA tweetup where twitterers, who are also Suns fans, got to meet Shaq and the team’s GM after a game.

Until this past week, we haven’t heard many teams address the negative sides of these sites. We finally heard coaches and management express concerns over the use of Twitter and other websites. What are they concerned about?

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Jul

13

Job Opening: Atlanta Hawks Media Relations Internship

Filed Under Career, Job Openings, Social Media, Sports Business News | Leave a Comment

The Atlanta Hawks are looking for a media relations intern for the upcoming season, kicking off this fall. If you would like to apply or want more information, please visit this website.

Hawks Media Relations Intern (Part-time)

Responsibilities and Duties:

· Service the media through e-mails and phone calls

· Compile Hawks clips from various media sources to provide to visiting media members

· Prepare press credentials for visiting media members, and deliver credentials and press packets to area hotels

· Answer fan mail

Qualifications:

· Experience working in a sports media relations department or college sports information department preferred

· Knowledge of the sport of basketball, the NBA and its players

· Strong written communication and people skills

· Must demonstrate a willingness to learn

· Proficient in MS Office

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