When pressure builds, what do you tweet?
Running through my various lists of San Diego Sports Tweeps today, I came across this tweet from Bill Johnston, the PR Director for the San Diego Chargers.
Saying there's pressure on team to have great draft seems ridiculous considering we won't know results until year(s) down the road.
— Bill Johnston (@ChargersPRguy) April 25, 2012
I was a little surprised to see the PR Director tweet something so negative. Ridiculous? How is pressure for a great draft ridiculous? Or is it the fans who are ridiculous for putting the pressure on the team? I felt compelled to point this out to him. You can see here my response and his “save.”
@ChargersPRguy Ridiculous or just fanatical enthusiasm for a great @Chargers team/season in 2012? Fans can hope for a great draft. No?
— Shanna Bright (@shannabright) April 25, 2012
@shannabright Agree. Love it when people care. Just wanna WIN.
— Bill Johnston (@ChargersPRguy) April 25, 2012
This is a really great example of someone not taking that one extra moment to re-read a tweet before hitting the send button. With 6281+ followers, I suspect there are a few Chargers fans in the mix. Would Bill’s tweet have made a more positive impact had he posed a question?
“Who are you hoping the Chargers pick up in the NFL draft?”
Or could he have shed some light on the secret wishes of the players?
“The buzz in the locker room is that so-and-so is high on the wish list.”
To keep the communications in the positive zone, I responded with:
@ChargersPRguy We wanna WIN too! Do we know who fans are hoping for the most? What about the players? Very excited for the draft!
— Shanna Bright (@shannabright) April 25, 2012
Main point being, there was a good chance to engage fans and let them have a say, take a moment to interact. The comment/opinion from the PR Director only sets a stage for negative replies, as some might interpret him calling the fans ridiculous.
I’m all for being human and authentic, and certainly feel that even frustrations can be creatively vented online with a dash of humor and an open invite to comment. When you are a public figure, or sit in a position like the PR Director for a professional sports team, you really must remember that every time you post to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest or elsewhere, you really have to give second thought to how your post will resonate with your audience. For someone in Bill’s position, he should be able to turn what seems like a personal frustration into a positive interaction with Chargers fans. Furthermore, and no less significant, when the PR Director for a sports team sends tweets out a bit haphazardly, what kind of example does that set for the players and FO staff?
How do you think Bill should have tweeted his pressure-filled comment? What examples have you seen where a negative sentiment or frustrating situation is turned into a positive moment where fans feel included? Thanks for sharing your links in the comments!
Redskins Need a Lesson in Branding
If you follow the #smsports feed on Twitter, you may have caught the discussions about Tim Tebow’s move from the Denver Broncos to the NY Jets during the NFL trades. You may also have caught some buzz about a particular tweet that appeared on the @Redskins feed today. The tweet that started the discussions began with a comment about Tebow’s move:
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/Redskins/status/182526346185015296″]
Was that the view of the team? Everyone who works for the Redskins agreed that it was an awkward fit? Collective opinion? Most of us could see that it was not the Redskins organization that held that opinion, but the person in charge of the Twitter account, Gary Fitzgerald. So when @dcsportsblog called him out on the comment, the Redskins feed posted:
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/Redskins/status/182531179784847360″]
And that was exactly the point. Just an opinion. On a corporate, team or business Twitter account, personal opinions of the tweeter have no place in the feed. This echoes the GM scandal awhile back when an employee made a nasty comment about the driving capabilities of his fellow citizens, a tweet which appeared to be from GM itself. Major hiccup which led to the firing of the employee who tweeted the statement.
Those of us who were chatting about the Redskins comments agreed that the team had not only misstepped by tweeting a personal opinion as representation of the view of the organization, but also really missed an opportunity to bring their 93k fans into the conversation. Instead of letting Gary tweet his personal opinions (which weren’t even positive), why not stimulate conversation with a simple question, “What do you think about Tim Tebow’s move to the Jets?” Redskins fans react, discuss and grow affinity for their own team and the Redskins positively impact engagement. Win.
It was clear that Gary picked up our tweets, as we all made sure to include the @Redskins handle in most of our conversations. A few hours later, this comment appeared:
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/Redskins/status/182569952820211713″]
Again, a misguided employee tweets something inappropriate for the brand. The Redskins need to yank that computer away from Gary Fitzgerald and let him understand that he needs to stop injecting Redskins communication with his own personality. The above tweets were not edgy, informative nor entertaining. The Redskins allowed the person in charge of Twitter to share his personal opinions as though they were the opinions of the team and everyone within the Redskins organization.
What is clear, then is that the Redskins have lost their grip on their brand’s core values. They do not have a clear brand message and certainly, they have no social media guidelines for employees to follow. It looks like Gary runs redskins.com, which also makes me question who they’ve assigned to communicate their brand messaging. Is the webmaster the right person to manage the Twitter feed? What value does the Redskins organization place on social media if they just toss the duties to the web department? Why not hire a branding, marketing or communications professional?
More important than the lack of internal organization and training, the Redskins simply don’t understand that Twitter provides more than a forum for information and entertainment. They could have used the Tebow news to their advantage to spark dialogue with fans, and shed some positive light on their brand. Sure, they would have been talking about Tim Tebow and the Jets and possibly even Denver and Manning, but they would have engaged their fans on the topic of football during a crucial time in the off-season. There were so many opportunities missed here, mistakes made, and that’s why their comments came into focus – for all the wrong reasons.
My course of action for the Redskins?
1. Do an organization-wide branding exercise so all employees are aware of the brand’s identity and messge
2. With all employees, players and coaches, provide social media education and training
3. Consult with the marketing and communications staff to integrate social media throughout their marketing and business plans.
4. Reassign the Twitter responsibilities to someone who understands that they speak for the brand, and that every letter they type needs to be in-line with brand messaging. “Just an opinion” is never something we should see from a brand like the Redskins.
Who Moved My News Feed?
Do we all remember the revolutionary and #1 Best Seller Who Moved My Cheese?
Who Moved My Cheese? is the story of four characters living in a “Maze” who face unexpected change when they discover their “Cheese” has disappeared. Sniff and Scurry, who are mice, and Hem and Haw, little people the size of mice, each adapt to change in their “Maze” differently. In fact, one doesn’t adapt at all…
Soon after the book was released, I was working as the Member Relations Director at the City Club on Bunker Hill in Los Angeles, a ClubCorp private club. We all got a copy of this book. And we all read with enthusiasm how to adapt, monitor and even anticipate change. Or should I say, “Enjoy change!” Yes, it was a little, um, cheesy, but it worked for the corporate environment I lived in.
In 1998, we barely had regular e-mail communication with members, much less an interactive website or social platform to cultivate our membership community. We were constantly looking for creative ways to retain members, maintain ongoing communication (remember committee meetings?) and increase involvement through events at the City Club. We craved change.
Now we are all navigating unchartered digital waters, much of which is exciting, revolutionary and completely life changing. When one company improves its product and implements new features which changes the look of the profile page we are used to seeing, we scream and whine and moan and complain that we don’t like it. Blog posts have been written left and sideways picking apart what is great, what may be scary and what we are just bound to dislike.
May I ask a favor? Can we grab on the spirit of 1998 and remember how to embrace change? Can we appreciate the ever-evolving landscape happening online and celebrate a launch, an update, a design change, a new way of doing things? For if there were none, we would be blogging our brains out about how nothing is new or exciting or fresh. We would demand upgrades and increased user-friendliness and cooler graphics and quicker loading times.
Change is the only constant when it comes to the digital world. The cheese will always be on the move. And we must remain expectant.
Make that list!
Just as I was preparing this blog post about list functions available on social networks, Facebook announced that it is improving Friend Lists. Great timing! I was actually a bit surprised to read that, according to Mashable, less than 5% of users take advantage of Facebook Lists. I’m a huge advocate of organizing your contacts, and hope that these upgrades will encourage Facebook fanatics to better manage their friends.
Here’s a few methods for creating effective lists so you may better target your messages.
Who are your friends on Facebook? How do you know them? Are they all your high school buds, or do you have some colleagues mixed in there? Any random people that you accepted and don’t have the heart to unfriend?
The promised improvements aim to make a sweeping division between “Close Friends” and “Acquaintances,” which you will have to update manually. This will affect what information appears in your News Feed, with your “Close Friends” more prominently appearing. There is also the reference to “Smart Lists” which will automatically create lists for you according to work, school, family or city. It’s a good start in helping you manage these connections.
Lists are super effective in Facebook, especially because you can maximize your privacy settings and make sure that the information you post is seen only by the people you want to see it.
In my Facebook account, I have people separated by how I know them. So my high school friends are separate from my UCSB pals, people I’ve met on my world travels all fall under their own group as do former colleagues, friends in LA and now San Diego. I even have a “random” list, for people who I felt obligated to add, but who I really don’t want to see all my information and posts.
Taking the time to manage your privacy settings makes it easier to manage who sees your posts. If you have your lists in order, it’s easy to customize your settings, versus adding people one by one for restricted items. Once the improvements are in place, you will be able to easily select who will view your post before you post your status.
The new list features are set to roll out this week. Whether it’s a play to compete with Google+ (which inherently groups together your contacts in Circles) or just a great new set of services, it’s a tool you should take advantage of for more efficient posting.
While I cannot select certain lists to tweet to (wouldn’t that be awesome), I am still diligent about creating lists in Twitter. In my account, these are more likely divided by category or topic. For example: Global News, Marketing, Sports, Travel, etc. What I love about the list function in Twitter is that I can add any feed to a list, but I don’t have to follow them. So most of the Twitter handles on my Global News list… I’m not actually following, I just make a point to check the list feed once or twice a day to see if there is any news worth sharing, or if anything catches my interest. It’s the same with celebrities. I know I won’t get a follow-back, so I just add them to my celebrity list for quick access to the Tweeps I like and care to share news about. Example:
It’s also a good idea to check lists of those you do enjoy following. You can subscribe to their lists if you don’t want to follow every person on it or work to put together entire list of your own. I’ve attached a screenshot of @DiscoverSD (a great resources to find out anything and everything about San Diego!). You can see the drop down menu of lists Michelle has created. For example, “San Diego Events.”
When I click on this list, I can either view the recent tweets of folks on this list, or see all of the accounts followed. You can see the “Follow this List” button, which you can click and add to your own lists in your account.
I also find that I peruse my lists often looking for new people to follow. I tend to find more relative Tweeps and people who have similar interests or offer great information. This manner is often more on point than the people Twitter suggests.
One more function in the Twitter lists – You can make your list public or keep it private. If you’ve collected leads or hot contacts all in one list, that might be something you don’t want to share with everyone else. But perhaps your favorite charities, news sources or celebrities…that’s something fun to share and can possibly increase your influence online.
HootSuite
The opportunity to create lists on Hootsuite, if this is your chosen dashboard, also exists. You can either create lists from scratch or import from Twitter. Importing from Facebook is not available at this time. Importing your Twitter lists could not be easier. Here’s a link direct from Hootsuite: http://help.hootsuite.com/entries/115076-how-to-import-twitter-lists-to-hootsuite. I love that I can see these feeds right in my dashboard and do not have to leave the application to check out the updates. Super convenient when traveling. I’m sure TweetDeck and other management tools have similar functions.
I hope you use this this quick overview to help kick start the organization of your contacts. Lists can prove to be a powerful tool in managing your social networks. It may take a little effort up front, but once you have it sorted out, it’s easy to maintain and should prove to be helpful as the various platforms release new versions and more methods to engage with your audience.
Twitter Trends
Mashable does a fantastic job up posting infographics, which makes it super simple to keep up with online trends and information. These infographics are also great to use in social media presentations. Here’s the latest on Twtter and what’s trending:
Awesome all the times
02/04/2012 – UPDATE: Thought I would see if Cody Decker had changed his Twitter profile recently. Answer is yes. Slightly. No improvements, though!
Anti-Hero baseball player in the San Diego Padres Organization. Rarely wrong, often a jerk, always adorable… Burning bridges since 1987…….
Note to Cody: Anti-heroes and jerks are never adorable. Ever.
…….
10/30/2011 – UPDATE: I just saw a Cody Decker tweet and was pleased to see his bio had been changed. That turned to confusion though. Here’s the latest version:
Baseball player in the San Diego Padres Organization. Rarely wrong, often a jerk, always adorable… Burning bridges since 1987…….
Not quite the direction you should be going, dear Cody. Now you identify yourself as a Padre and tell your fans that you are a jerk. Good plan! I’m sure the Padres would be pleased. Oh how I would love to consult this guy on his social media strategy.
…….
Recently, a favorite Tweep recommended to all that we follow @Decker6. The Twitter handle belongs to Cody Decker, a Minor League Baseball player for the parent team, San Diego Padres. I looked at the account and read the profile:
I play baseball sometimes….. I’m awesome all the times…… Burning bridges since 1987
My initial reaction was to correct this young man’s grammar and so I tweeted, “I’m awesome all the TIMES?” He needs twitter coaching! RT @friarhood Make sure u r following #Padres hot prospect Cody Decker – @Decker6
I noticed though, as I looked more through his profile and scanned his tweets, that this up and coming athlete really could use social coaching. It is essential that any athlete, personality or celebrity have a polished approach to their social media strategies. Once you gain that notoriety, and especially when it’s through an organization like the Padres or the UCLA Bruins before that, there is a code of ethics and greater responsibility to be appropriate. With a manner like Cody Decker here, he’s more likely to turn potential fans away then gain any decent number of followers with his “I’m so cool and I don’t care what you think” approach (Time of post he’s at a whopping 243 followers). Who wants to follow someone who thinks they are soooo awesome and who admits to burning bridges his whole life? It sets the stage for lack of conversation, lack of engagement, a lack of the foundation that makes social media successful. One could never expect to have a meaningful exchange with @Decker6 because it’s all about him.
Not only is this approach to the Twitterverse bad for him, but it reflects poorly on the Padres that they would employ such a brazen young player who sports a seriously bad attitude. That’s what makes @Decker6 and other sports figures ripe for social coaching. I’d love to provide the Padres a social media seminar to help them understand how best to harness the power of social media for good causes, to raise awareness for their sport, their community and favorite charities. I’d love to teach them how to engage their fans, solidify their following and gain new loyal fans. Sure, personal posts can showcase an individual’s personality, but with a positive spin. I’m amazed that the Padres wouldn’t put a short leash on this guy and tell him to change his Twitter game.
Beaming Bohemian is happy to sit down with you one-on-one and provide social coaching to help you better understand how to maximize your social media accounts. There is more out there than just Twitter and Facebook, plenty of other platforms which are just as handy, mobile-friendly and gaining in popularity. Contact me to set up your social coaching session. In the meantime, I’m knocking on the Padres door to see if we can’t arrange a coaching session of a different kind!
Wow. Impressive numbers.
In the aftermath of the news last night that US Forces killed Osama Bin Laden, Facebook and Twitter nearly caught on fire. Here’s an article that sums it up:
A Twitter Record That Has Nothing to do with Justin Bieber
I watched in amazement as the Facebook page: Osama being Dead climbed to over 10,000 followers in less than an hour. At the time of this post, roughly 24 hours later, over 31,000 fans have liked the page. A humorous Twitter user created an account GhostOsama and just 93 tweets later, has well over 40,000 followers. The ghost happens to follow just three others. An interesting list in order of follow: Charlie Sheen, Bill Maher and Mike Tyson.
If you had any doubts before how may people are online, how many people are logged in to their favorite social media platform, monitoring news, tweeting, posting and sharing…this article and this news event should provide good proof just how integrated these mediums have become. Even the facts stated in the article amazed me – topping 5100 TPS! I thought the Royal Wedding numbers were impressive! Ha!
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