Social Media

TRUST at the Core of Manti Te’o Debacle

Posted on Jan 18, 2013 by Kathleen Hessert

Let’s talk TRUST… a quality that is highly valued, seriously tarnished, coveted by all. Most of you won’t remember November 8, 2008 but I do. That’s the day @Shaq joined Twitter and took social media out of the hands of nerds and to the masses. How do I know? Because I took him there. But much more important is what prompted the event. There was a very believable impostor of NBA great, Shaquille O’Neal on Twitter. Not someone feigning to be a girlfriend, but someone pretending to be an NBA superstar. The person was so artful in his charade that the team fell for it. Not only did they think Shaq was on Twitter but a member of the Phoenix Suns staff regularly engaged the fake Shaq generating more followers for the Suns and more fun for the local guy who had a complete “playbook” of Shaq-isms for the year. He had studied Shaq’s language and other nuances. Instead of getting lawyers involved I prodded “@The_Real_Shaq” to take to the twittersphere and the rest is history. As of this hour, Shaq has 6,580,540 followers.

Who Can/Should We Trust

I don’t know who’s at fault in the Manti Te’o debacle, but I do know trust is at the crux of it. There’s plenty of doubt to go around and the internet and social media are clearly components. There will be sports teams that use this as an excuse to try to shut down all use of social media by anyone associated with its program. There will be families that put computers behind locked doors and somebody will suggest a new law or two because so many of us were duped.

But it’s important to remember that the issue of trust isn’t just a challenge for the young and impressionable or the less educated or sophisticated. Trust is an issue for all of us. For CEO’s, their employees and stockholders, for brands and their customers, for first responders and those they’re scrambling to rescue. It’s an issue online and offline. We want to trust and at the same time dare not to. Many in the conventional media world would like to rely on old time methods of ferreting out stories and sources on foot and by phone. But studies show that in the media’s scramble to stay alive and relevant, they’ve drifted to often unskilled and untested citizen journalists for story ideas, and sources to ignite their own product even when the digital word-of-mouth is more rumor than fact and often as stale and misshapened as the bread crumbs I add to my homemade turkey dressing.

Verifying Authenticity
There’s a company called Storyful that has built its two year old business around verifying social media conversations for media outlets and major corporations so that they can “get closer to the story, faster.” According to its website, clients include: ABC News, Reuters,The New York Times and other venerable news organizations. “We separate actionable news from the noise of the real-time web, 24/7. We unearth the smartest conversations about world events and raise up the authentic voices on the big stories… discovering and verifying content… to identify new, credible sources close to every story.” Good for them and good for all of us.

A Call to Study Trust in Social Media
For months now I’ve been exploring the issue of trust and social media. It’s critical because social media isn’t going away and it’s way past the tipping point. It would be nice to have a template to verify our facts, and our hearts. Short of that, we need some mechanism to get us at least part way there and yes we need a heaping dose of skepticism.

Through tools like the Internet video platform- Google Hangout it’s easier to verify the face behind the tweet. I use hangouts regularly to connect and get closer with clients, friends and family around the world.

Anyone doing serious study into the issue of trust and social media let’s talk! Contact me @kathleenhessert on Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, Facebook or the old fashion way by emailing me at khessert@buzzmgr.com or call at 1-704-541-5942.

{2 comment}

Say The Word… or Tweet It: How The Catholic Church Benefits from the Pope’s Twitter Launch

Posted on Dec 19, 2012 by Kathleen Hessert

It’s been a week since Pope Benedict XVI posted his first 140 character tweet and today: 2 more tweets. A success? Certainly in number of followers and worldwide attention to the Church and Pope himself. The effort has been lauded for beginning to modernize the church’s brand image & showcasing a wish to connect with a new generation of Church “customers”. But it can’t stop there. A single, though monumental event is not enough.

Social media and Twitter is not intended as a broadcast mechanism. It’s a conversation. And for tangible and sustainable success, the Church needs to build an ecosystem & social culture for itself within and well beyond the Vatican. If it’s to be the genuine person-to-person connection Twitter can be and the church needs; if it’s to be a forum to build trusts & engagement then start building your social media ecosystem. The Queen of England speaks to her subjects via Youtube each year. Prince William and Kate invited the whole world to participate in their wedding via an array of social media platforms and crowdsourcing opportunities. So what can the Church in Rome and around the world learn from the momentous Twitter event? Smart social media monitoring tells us a lot and is a way to take the voluminous data, turn it into knowledge and ultimately valuable insight. Read More…

{no comments}

What can Sports Executives Learn From The Pope On Twitter?

Posted on Dec 13, 2012 by Kathleen Hessert

One of my favorite tweets was penned by journalist Heidi Moore @moorehn “So, we’re back to religious figures handing down statements on tablets.” And apparently lots of others enjoyed it too since it was retweeted 187 times & favorite 49 times in just over 24 hours (which is an impressive amount).

Heidi N. Moore’s Humorous Tweet on the Pope

Which shows that despite my husband’s claim that I have little to no sense of humor, no matter how monumental the event or serious the issue, a little humor can bless our day.

I can’t tell you how much resistance there still is in sports and other markets to the value and strategic use of Twitter. It truly boggles my mind. A prominent Athletic Director was asked at a national forum in December if he would ban student-athletes from Twitter. His response: “as a person- NO. As an Athletic Director- YES.” Thanks to Pope Benedict XVI, I now have one more irrefutable example of leadership in a scary world. It does take courage to be authentic and put yourself and your ideas on essentially a public bulletin board for all to take aim at. But maybe the Vatican believed they had some special help from on high that we mere mortals don’t have access to.

DELIVERING THOUGHT LEADERSHIP VIA SOCIAL MEDIA Read More…

{no comments}

The Power of Social Monitoring

Posted on Jun 21, 2012 by Tory Barron

In my brief time at Sports Media Challenge I’ve been exposed to and am learning the ins and outs of social monitoring and our proprietary tool: BuzzMgr. In today’s world so much of our daily lives involve the use of social media. Whether it be browsing through our friend’s photos on Facebook, tweeting about the NBA finals, putting together outfits via Pinterest, Instagraming the decadent meal we enjoyed last night at a happening new restaurant, or finding job opportunities through LinkedIn, the vast majority of us are involved with social media in some fashion. When Jay-Z and Beyonce gave birth to Blue Ivy Carter, how did I find out? Twitter. When Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in Mets history, how did I find out? Twitter. Realistically many of us seldom put down our smart-phones for an extended period of time during our waking hours (I know my parents and professors aren’t always thrilled about it.) This makes social media an excellent catalyst for businesses, sports organizations, and the like, who are attempting to launch a campaign, spread awareness of an upcoming event, correct costly misconceptions, etc. There is no better way to engage a slew of fans then through a popular social media channel. Read More…

{1 comment}