Monitoring Brand Trends: ‘Tebowing’ Your Image
Posted on Jan 14, 2012 by valeriemorini
Recently, widespread refocusing of brand strategies and social media policies have been rooted in the fear of negative press and potential brand crises. Too often brands and industries adopt defensive campaigns too late, waiting for a crisis to roll out before beginning to monitor their digital legacies. As brands grow their social media presence, and more agents of the brand become active users, it becomes harder and harder to control the digital footprint that is being created. The main danger for sports teams in the growing social media world is how vulnerable the reputations of the teams and brands become when factoring in the growing numbers of players, coaches, and departments actively sharing on social media platforms. Conversely, greater numbers of brand representatives on social media can increase the opportunities to generate positive buzz, and take it viral.
Monitoring social media is of course critical during a crisis to know what is being said about your brand, and to identify and engage active influencers of your market, but it ‘s equally as important and possibly even more powerful to do both in times of good brand standing. Knowing what your audience is saying, and how your brand’s digital shadow is being shaped is vital, as is knowing how your brand is being represented by all those affiliated with it.
Infamous examples of social media disasters are fueling the defensive stances of many brands, but tracking your full digital legacy and identifying which of your representatives are positively representing the brand, engaging with your audience, and ranking high in influence is perhaps more important for your brand’s reputation management overall. Being proactive allows you to leverage the online reputation to benefit the whole. Last year CNBC released a list of athletes names and twitter handles, ranking as top influencers in the industry on social media. The article highlights the top influencer, Chad Ochocinco (Cincinnati Bengals Wide Receiver and former DWTS contestant), and the very strategic move by the NFL commissioner in reaching out to him during the labor battle. By reaching out to one of the league’s top influencers, the commissioner was guaranteeing publicity for himself and the League during a sensitive time for both.
Recently the social media world has seen an explosion of positive trending in sports, gaining unbelievable momentum for the league, and the image of one team’s quarterback. For once, neither Tom Brady nor Brett Favre are the quarterbacks in the spotlight. Tim Tebow is a household name. The tag of #Tebow has been trending through twitter just as ‘Tebowing’ has become one of the most frequently mimicked gestures in the country.
While technically Tim Tebow represents the National Football League, and the Denver Bronco’s, he has developed a brand image of his own, transcending many previous boundaries among fans, teams, and the public. This trend is developing positive images and buzz for all that he represents, and undoubtedly raising him to the top of current influencers. During ESPN’s SportsCenter this past Thursday, ‘Tebow’ was said over 88 times during the hour segment, and was mockingly renamed ‘TebowCenter’ by Deadspin.
So, what are we learning from this example? While social media can be an added risk for a brand if the operators and implementers do not have a clear strategy, it can have power to benefit and build up a brand when executed well. Developing an offensive approach to social media strategy by auditing web conversations, involving the brand and select topics, goes beyond crisis prevention. By knowing what the strengths and gaps are in your social media strategy, and identifying what is being said about your brand, and by whom, you are creating a valuable opportunity. Proactively highlighting positive buzz and engaging with brand influencers is another major benefit of having an offensive monitoring strategy, cultivating the power to more positively shape and exponentially increase your buzz. One thing is for certain, when your brand has positive buzz it’s important to be aware of it, and more important to make your audience aware. You can’t amplify what you don’t know about.
Don’t wait for a crisis to hit or a campaign to flop to find out what’s being said about your brand. Actively create and track your digital legacy with BuzzMgr’s brand audits and monitoring. Tebow it by creating your own offensive line and the chance to score some points for your brand. For a free demo of the BuzzMgr monitoring tool and services, email info@buzzmgr.com or call 1.704-541-5942
Social Media and Sports: How 2011 Set the Foundation for Social Sports
Posted on Dec 31, 2011 by valeriemorini
The social media landscape has transformed significantly over the last year, expanding across platforms old and new. Twitter and Facebook have not only experienced wide user expansion in consumer markets, but have also grown deep through brand enrollment and campaigns to engage their markets. BuzzMgr client the Big Ten Network for instance grew it’s social media mentions by 400% in Sept 2011 over Sept 2010 in part to organic social media growth and the network’s aggressive social media strategy. Television networks, broadcasters and shows are among the groups increasingly incorporating social media into their marketing strategy to enhance brand messaging and launch campaigns.
Another client and global digital golf network startup, the Back9 Network is building a culture of social at its foundation before ever broadcasting a single program and launch a #Back9Christmas Giveaway of cool gifts introducing its new talent and exciting developments while engaging fans at the network’s Facebook page and official Twitter account. Television personalities actively use social media networks to increase their fan engagement, extending conversations past the shows air time and parameters. Ellen Degeneres and Anderson Cooper are among those who actively use their accounts to interact with fans, share news, and bring awareness to causes they’re invested in.
Twitter is especially appealing to public figures who want to share more of their lives with fans, having the ability to share their own images. Talk show hosts and newscasters are among some of the top social media users, finally having a forum to develop and actively engage their community of followers in two-way dialogue. Real time updates of news allow for greater control over personal information sharing and reputation management. This has also triggered a raging debate over who owns their social media followers- the network or the talent and this one has already landed in court with the outcome not yet clear.
In addition to TV personalities and broadcasters, professional sports teams are also adopting social media into their daily routines. By becoming more visible and engaged with fans, athletes and teams contribute more effectively to brand promotion, ticket sales, and sponsorship draw. The NFL is a great example of this with a number of standout players and campaigns leading the way. BuzzManager and SportsMedia Challenge CEO, Kathleen Hessert (@kathleenhessert on Twitter, Google+, GetGlue, Facebook & LinkedIn) will be speaking along with the sports journalists from ESPN, & the NYT, at South By SouthWest in March about how social media is changing the way sports events are covered.
Pro Bowl running back, and Philadelphia Eagle, LeSean McCoy has gone above and beyond the standard social media practices, to really engage fans through a number of social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook. In addition to LeSean’s active presence on his social media accounts, he has also developed an app for android and iOS phones that shares and consolidates his tweets, Facebook posts, and other interactive features onto one dashboard.
The New York Giants have established a hotline and Twitter hashtag (#GiantsChat) encouraging fans to join the conversation about matchups and game coverage, before during and following games to extend the buzz throughout the week.
In support of social media efforts, organizations are adding ‘follow us’ buttons or badges to websites and promotional items to encourage fan engagement and support on social media platforms.
The Eagles and Redskins are hosting a ‘Social Showdown’ on January 1st, using social media to engage fans and create buzz for each team during the match up. The official showdown campaign announcement asks fans of the two teams to ‘battle it out off the field’ during the game by engaging in two fan competitions.
On Sunday fans are encouraged to ‘Like’ their team logo on the ‘Showdown’ site to determine which team ‘wins’ with the most number of Likes, while also keeping up with the live conversation on Twitter by adding #BeatPhilly or #BeatRedskins to their tweets and following along with other fans.
In addition to league-wide implementation of social media campaigns and engagement, the NFL pays close attention to social media and web conversations surrounding major match ups, decisions, and changes. Recently BuzzMgr monitored web content and conversations for NFL Canada for the third season surrounding its Bills in Canada series providing full analysis on the trends, topics and sentiment being discussed in Canada compared with the US. The analysis included all conversations on the web with specific breakdowns of reactions from fans, bloggers, journalists and forums. BuzzMgr analyzed and rated the buzz for the event, designating a Buzz score from 1-10 that represents the volume of conversations and the traffic and engagement that determine overall influence. The analysis shared buzz and statistics for selected time periods, included graphs and breakdown comparisons for previous years, months, and specific past dates. Again, the social media growth regarding the NFL series over the past three years has been phenomenal which clearly isn’t lost on corporate brands wanting to tap the Canadian market.
In addition to post content and sentiment, BuzzMgr was able to share the location, geographically, that many of the posts originated from. By breaking down the media coverage sources, overall buzz trends, and platforms used, BuzzMgr was able to provide specific examples for each breakdown category using very specific data and figures, assisting the NFL in bettering overall strategy and campaign development. While measurement and analysis are critical for any organization or brand, especially those implementing social media, it is absolutely critical for organizations with as many components and operators as the NFL and is the best way to fully understand current strengths and areas for improvement. Comparative audits and analyses are often even more beneficial for corporate brands to understand how their efforts and brand image is stacking up compared to competitors.
As your brand heads into 2012, and the new quarter, it’s a great time to audit and analyze what is being said about your brand, and by whom. Smart monitoring is not just important during a crisis, but is the best way to avoid major crises by catching any negative media or conversations before it has time to impact your brand. Take action, analyze buzz, identify influencers and reach out to better engage advocates to better affect your messaging and engage your audience. Contact BuzzMgr for a live demo: email info@buzzmgr.com or call 1.704-541-5942
Listening to Social Media Crucial in Conference Realignment
Posted on Oct 12, 2011 by Kathleen Hessert
No matter what industry or profession you’re in, listening is anything but a luxury. Whether in sports, retail or even humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), listening is the foundation of success. It’s the source of vital business intelligence through what is essentially a near real-time unaided focus group. Who doesn’t want and NEED their customers and prospects to volunteer just what it is they want and need from a provider? Who doesn’t want to know if they’re considered trustworthy to do business with? Who doesn’t want and need to know if their brand is one that people will want to share their lives with and build their passions around? Read More…
How Will Social Media Effect the NFL Labor Dispute
Posted on Apr 14, 2011 by Linda
By Kathleen Hessert, President, Buzz Manager, Inc.
At least one NFL Team Player Relations person will recommend downgrading any possible draftee if he is active on Twitter or Facebook. He even said he wouldn’t be surprised if teams banned players from using social media entirely. His thinking: the player would be more interested in his personal brand than the team’s brand and he should be consumed with making it in the NFL. I was amazed at the shortsightedness at a time when the NFL needs to up its fan affinity and players are the best root to making that happen. After all, most fans don’t know the “suits.” I know coaches at all levels prefer players not to tweet about team related matters. Very few coaches (see @petecarroll) or team owners (see @jimirsay) tweet themselves and most admit that they “just don’t get it”. What an understatement! Read More…
Free Super Bowl XLV Ads Report
Posted on Feb 16, 2011 by Jackie Adkins
10 days and hours upon hours of analysis later, we’ve finally hit publish on our Super Bowl XLV report that features in depth analysis of the web-based brands (GoDaddy, Groupon, Cars.com, Career Builder, Teleflora, Career Builder, Salesforce, and E*Trade) who advertised during Super Bowl XLV. With all sorts of brand bowls, buzz bowls, and other companies out there doing similar type of studies, it’s important for us to explain why we chose to perform the study the way we did, and why we think that has produced more valuable results.
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