The Sports Info Business

I have always written in this sports management blog that it takes compelling content to keep visitors engaged.

It does not matter if we are talking about a web site or a blog.  If you have something interesting to say or show, people will read about it and/or watch it.

This weekend, I came across a brief video of former Kansas State Women’s Basketball and WNBA player Laurie Koehn shooting three pointers in the K-State gym.

Big deal you might have thought as you read the previous sentence.

Now consider this.

The long range shooter was captured on a school video (see below) hitting 132 three pointers our of 135 tries in five minutes.  For anyone that has played the game of basketball, this is no easy task for just about everyone.  Koehn didn’t miss until her 40th attempt and even when she did, she didn’t blink much.  Watch the video below for yourself.

As I watched it, I was more amazed with each shot how consistent this sharp shooter was.

I actually felt bad for the person shagging basketballs.  Koehn had an amazing rythm and I am sure the person feeding her the basketballs wanted to keep the assists coming as the buckets kept adding up at a record pace.

What I liked about this video is that the posting was not related to a game highlight.  It was a about a passionate basketball player in the gym and converting on the task at hand by hitting 97.8 percent of the three pointers she launched into the air.

The school received great publicity and visibility in the video, the player boosted her image as an amazing shooter and I, for one, could not look look away.

If anyone thought the one person that congratulated Koehn was the only other witness, think again.  This video was uploaded on May 8th and had registered nearly 400,000 in four days.  Because this was compelling content, I have a feeling many more folks will discover the shooting talents of Laurie Koehn.

If you thought that you are seeing every post from your friend’s list on Facebook,  think again.  Facebook uses an algorithm called EdgeRank to determine what is seen and what gets lost in translation when it comes to your news feed.

I knew this was happening a long time ago, but was reminded of it last weekend when a friend of mine casually mentioned to me, that she did not know about my passion for photography.

“I post samples of my photographs with links to my photo website in Facebook all the time,” I told her.  You must not be getting my feed within your Facebook homepage.

Apparently, she does not see my feed since she has not commented or liked past photographs.  I had to send this friend a direct link to my photography web site for her to see my work.

Stat of the day.  On average, only 16% of your fans will see your posts.  That means, if my 745 friends, nearly 525 folks will miss my latest blog or landscape photo.

Apparently, EdgeRank uses three variables to determine what you see and what you don’t. They are:  Affinity, Weight and time decay.  Once you understand these three items, you will understand your Facebook feed much better.

The following Infographic helps to illustrate how this works.

Hello friends of sportsinfo101.com.    If you look at the time between the last post and this one, it has been a few months since I have posted to this blog.  It was the longest period of time I have gone between posts and with good reason.

I have not abandoned the idea of sharing insights, ideas and personalities, but took time out to channel my spare energies to completing a book I have co-authors with three other talented folks.  Our book, titled Social Media in Sport Marketing, has just been published by Arizona based Holcomb Hathaway Publishers.

I must tip my cap to the other co-authors that made this project possible.  First is Tim Newman.  Tim and I first crossed paths over Twitter, eventually met at a sports management educational conference and came up with the idea for this book.  Tim has been the team leader and quarterback.  I thank you, if you are reading this for your perseverance.  Two other men joined the effort and added valuable writing and knight that made the book a reality.  They are Jason Peck and Brendan Wilhide.

We have spoken countless times as a group over the phone as well as via email and Twitter, brainstorm, sharing and counseling each other to help finish this reference book.

When we started writing this book, the sport industry lacked practical resources to apply many of the developing technologies to their marketing plans and goals.  Today, the landscape is more educated.  However,  many senior management leaders are still learning what the shift means.

To understand what we wrote abut, I simply list the chapter titles:

Chapter One:  Introduction to Social Media

Chapter Two: Introduction to Principles of Sport Communication, Marketing and Social Media

Chapter Three: Social Networks and Real Time Platforms

Chapter Four: Blogging

Chapter Five: Photos, Video and Podcasting

Chapter Six:  Search Marketing

Chapter Seven: Mobile Marketing

Chapter Eight: Email Marketing

Chapter Nine:  Planning and Measuring A Successful Social Media Program

Writing a book, even with partners is not easy.  I learned a lot about myself, the publishing industry and finished a project I am proud to have seen through.

This is only half of the reason, however, why I have not published more often here.

The second reason is that I have devoted a lot of time to becoming a better photographer.

Landscape photography has become truly a passion and with it, I developed a site where I can feature my favorite landscape photographs.

©Charles Harris Photography

The website address is charlesharrisphotography.smugmug.com and I feature categories for the photographs including Sports, City Scapes, Black & White,   and the area with the most and best work, Outdoors.  I encourage you to visit the site and let me know what you think of my work.  With it of course, I started a blog there to share my photography experiences.

The site design needs some work, but for now, it is a great place to showcase what I do with my Canon camera.

From book, to photography and back to blogs, it is good to be back writing in this space.

©Charles Harris Photography

Like many other professionals, I have invested a lot of time and energy into LinkedIn.  There are many tools we can use to help us in our jobs.

In today’s lean marketplace, everyone is in sales.  Now, while I provide training classes for employees where I work, I thought I knew most of what LinkedIn had to offer, both on the free and paid subscription side.  Just last week, the company celebrated its 200 millionth member.

Over the weekend though, I stumbled across a new function, at least for me, which I did not know existed.  I checked with a few other active users of this platform, showed them what I found and it surprised them as well.

Let me make one assumption before I play show and tell.  Like many other executives, I am always looking outward when it comes to cultivating my network.  Just last week, I spoke on a CMO panel at the 2013 Argyle Leadership Forum in Los Angeles.  The one-day event was an excellent way to learn from peers while also sharing my relevant work experience.  Naturally, I wanted to connect with people I interacted with during the conference.  I was either invited or reached out to some of these folks and connected on LinkedIn.  This is what many of us do when we meet new business people.

Now, there is apparently a new resource for connecting with people that are closer than you think on LinkedIn ~ via your educational background.

I stumbled into this new feature (for me at least) over the weekend.  Maybe it will be new for you too.  I was looking at my profile and, for some reason clicked on my University, UC Irvine.  Yes, I am an Anteater but that is a topic for another day. (See below).

To my surprise, here is what was displayed within my college link (See Below).

This new data showed me much more details about the Alums that attended UC Irvine.  As you can see from the photo above, it shows where more than 10,000 alumni live, where they work and what kinds of work they do to make a living.

But wait, there’s more.

If you highlight a section, as I did for this example by pushing the New York button in the first column, (its in bold), the list drilled down even further to show me that in New York, there are Anteater alums working for Siemens, Merck, Deutsche Bank, Citi Bank and more (see screen shot below).

I can only image this information might put a damper on Alumni offices around the country as their paid memberships provide access to these same alums.   However, from a sales, networking or business development perspective, this option is extremely valuable for all users.

Important note to this, you can customize the year for search.  Return to the middle photo I posted.  Look to the left of the black bar near the top and it shows the years students attended the University.  This can be customized to when you attended the school.

By the way, you can also perform the search if people entered their high school as well.  I added my high school, tried this out and the search process came up with positive results as well.

To connect with me, you can always comment here, locate me on LinkedIn, or become a Facebook Fan of sportsinfo101.com

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If you found value in this article, please consider sharing it with your own network.

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Photo of the Day

©Charles Harris Photography

With a new year often comes new goals.  I did not say resolutions, but goals.  I hear people making new years resolutions but always seem to break them.  You will see the typical ones on the television, radio and Internet for the next month.  You know the ones I am speaking about.  Special offers from corporate gyms to lose weight, maybe some health organizations encouraging you to stop smoking and there is even reminders to improve your financial standing.

God knows gyms will be overcrowded this week and maybe even this month.  It will decline come February.

While all those are important, it is the messages we have come to expect when December turns into January.  So, as most of us enjoy a day filled, with friends, family and football, I put together these top 10 achievable business goals for 2013.

1. Invest in Your Current Network

There are many people around us who we come in contact with, but often do not speak to for long periods of time.  Drop them a note, an email, or text.  Let someone know you are thinking about them.  I take my own advice, so as I was writing this blog, I saw an old friend, a journalist online and have not spoken to him in a while.  We are started talking on Facebook and I came to learn that he is moving to Guatemala.  Now that I know this, I can add a new destination to take my camera and see a friend.

2. Clean Up Your email Inbox(es) and keep them clean

I do not know about you, but my inbox is often like a messy room.  Between work and home, it seems I get more email than ever.  I do keep all of my emails so at this time of year, I work hard to reduce the number in my inbox, answer everything I can in a given day and then file those which I want to save for future reference.

3. Learn (at least) three new things

Being an early adapter of technology, this is not a problem for me.  If you are not learning, then you are getting rusty.  Make it a point to always be learning.  It will make you more valuable person in the office and more interesting out of it,

4. Step out of your comfort zone

Easy to say, harder to do.  Over time I have done this in small ways (learning to be a better speaker) and much larger ones (quitting my job with the Dodgers and moving half way around the world).  Both have improved my business skills — from giving presentations, teaching, to learning new experiences and understanding different cultures.  Pick your own jump off point.

5. Invest in LinkedIn

I cannot say enough of this networking platform.  Its Facebook for business so you lose much of the irrelevant content people post on other platforms.  I also now train people at work to use it and I myself recently learned how to better use the functionality of LinkedIn.  Until about a month ago, I had yet to import my personal contacts from email into my LinkedIn account.  These were already business contacts in my database but I added them on LinkedIn as well.  Those folks were not doing much good sitting passively in my computer database.  Now when I post blogs like this on LinkedIn, chances are they will see it and possibly interact with me based on the content I produce.

6. Be persistent

It’s a tougher world than it was five years ago.  When you want something, never give up going for it.  No matter what people put in front of you.  Enough said.

7. Look for mentors or become one

I have been lucky enough to have a few good mentors, who have been there to listen when I needed it and to provide feedback.  We need more mentors like we need more good leaders today.  Look for someone willing to listen and advise you or, better yet, be one to someone who can use your guidance.

8. Build or refine your portfolio

Having a god resume is not enough today.  You also need to build a visual portfolio.  This is part of what I teach at Long Beach State in the graduate program in sports management, but I also adhere to it personally.  Each quarter during the year, I produce 10 slides of what I have achieved.  It keeps my work recent and relevant.

9. Expand your business network

Information and business contacts are the name of the game in business.  What are you going to do this year, differently, to expand your business network.  Attend more business releated events?  Approach a speaker after a conference and exchange business cards, ask to meet someone who’ve wanted to approach for a while or maybe go on an informational interview.  All of the above, I say.

10. Write down your 2013 goals

Forcing yourself to actually write down what you want to achieve can help measure where you are going and how to get there.  I did it last night, as an exercise with my kids.  I didn’t tell them to do it.  I did it myself as well.  Some of my goals were business, some personal.  I vow to look at this list once a month during the coming year.

Happy new year.

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Picture of the Day

©Charles Harris Photography

If you recall, last week, I resumed the Question and Answer sports management profiles with Michael Williams, the current Chief Marketing Officer for  the New Jersey Devils.  Once it was published, it got me thinking about the dozens of folks who have been featured in this space since I launched the sportsinfo101 blog. I asked myself, how many of them have changed jobs and how many still remained with the same company? I am sure you may have had similar questions as you got to know these folks.  It seems that no one stays with the same company anymore and I wanted to provide an update to you. These Folks Have Moved On Bill Chapin:  At the time Bill was featured here, was with with the Seattle Seahawks & Sounders.  Today, he is the Senior Vice President of Business Operations for the Kansas City Chiefs. Brad Mayne:  Then, he was the President of the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas.  Now, Brad is the President and CEO of MetLife Stadium. Tyler Johnson:  Then, was with the Denver Nuggets.  Now, is the Development Manager of Colorado, Positive Coaching Alliance. Josh Rawitch:  Then, he was a Vice President of Communications with the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Today, Josh is a senior Vice President with the Arizona Diamondbacks, working along side Derek Hall (see below).   These folks Are Still With the Same Company Derrick Hall continues to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks front office. Tim Mead has been with the Angeles organization since 1980.  It is no surprise, he is still with the same company, doing the same things and having an impact on many people’s lives.   One of the best in our business. Bill Shumard:  Still making things happen for Special Olympics of Southern California John Drum:  Then and now, he remains a Vice President with the Phoenix Cardinals Jeff Idelson:  The President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, has not changed jobs.  He is still the corporate face of the Hall.

A recent feature story on 60 Minutes showcased the power of college football.  When it comes to sports management, budgets and moving college athletic programs forward, the news magazine asked a basic and essential question:  How essential is College Football?

I’d like to ask a few other questions.  How much does a college/university need college football?  Does the pigskin help drive donations?  What about Pride, prestige and the level of national exposure for the school?  In the sad case of Penn State University, what’s the cost of a scandal and its long term impact from one assistant coach,  Jerry Sandusky?

I have embedded the segment from 60 minutes for you to see, which I found interesting, entertaining and educational.

Consider some of these stats which I noted from the feature:

* The Michigan Athletics Department annual budget is $133 million dollars and according to Michigan AD Dave Brandon, football is responsible for about 75% of revenues or about $90 Million dollars.

* Also, according to the Michigan AD, there are 22 football programs (I am guessing here Division I programs) that are either cash flow even or cash flow positive.

* The Cal Athletics Football stadium is currently going through a $321 million dollar renovation.

Don’t forget, you can always follow the sportsinfo101.com posts on facebook at www.facebook.com/sportsinfo101

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Photo of the Day

©Charles Harris Photography

At home as well as at work, I am always in a battle with my email in box.  While technology continues to evolve with smart phones and tablets, email continues to flow in like never before and I often feel as if I am drowning.

I consider it a good day when I am able to reduce the total number of emails listed in that inbox.  I will admit that I do not always succeed.  While some of the correspondence comes from friends and family, often it is e-newsletters, promotional offers and other forms of communication I spend too much sifting through and deleting.

Years ago, I created a fake email in box when sighing up for these opt-in sites, meaning, a fake email account that would collect the majority of spam types of email.

However, some of it continues to seep through.

According to econsultantcy’s web site, A new report has found that marketing emails account for more than two-thirds (70%) of spam email complaints.

Let’s tackle business communications.  Businesses need to reach out to their current and prospective customers to stay in touch.  Email is still one of the most common tools we use to communicate.

Other than engaging an email provider to help direct your business communications, do you know the best time to send business communications?  Are you measuring email open rates by time after they have been delivered to the targeted inbox?

Hopefully, this infographic below will help set the record straight.  The sample size was collected in Q1 of this year and totaled some 21 million emails.  The stats break down email marketing’s best times to send, read, open and more.

It has been a while since a Question and Answer Session has been posted in this space and I thought it was about time to get back to basics.  People have enjoyed these since I started posting them so I am happy to return with a Q&A session with NHL executive Michael Williams.

Michael has enjoyed success working in executive positions with the Anaheim Ducks, the San Francisco 49ers and now with the New Jersey Devils.  Below, he provides insight into his sports management career.

Questions

 1. Tell us about your company, your position and your responsibilities:

I currently serve as Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Ticket Sales and Marketing for the New Jersey Devils and Prudential Center. The Devils are considered one of the most iconic brands throughout the National Hockey League. Recognized for its winning tradition and 3 Stanley Cup Championships, the Devils are also known for our aggressive and strategic approach to our off ice business initiatives. The Prudential Center is a new state of the art 18,000 person seat arena located in New Jersey. I am responsible for the overall brand of the team and the arena, overseeing all marketing and advertising platforms as well all general market and premium sales and servicing efforts. Additionally, I am responsible for game day entertainment, events, research, digital and social media programs.

2. Tell us what your average week is like, both in season and the off-season:

First off….there is no such thing as an average week. Work load and priorities depend on timing. Out of season demands a lot of planning and big picture strategic discussions with the review of results and revenue projections. In season requires the execution against our business plan and objectives along with the need to evaluate and evolve plan elements accordingly. The opportunity to advance our business is always a driving force, looking for new ways to improve revenue streams and enhance the overall experience for our fans, business and community partners.

 3. Can you talk about your career path, starting from your first job in sports until you arrived to your current position today:

At my core, I’m a marketer. I truly believe that you can accomplish more by using traditional marketing and brand practices in conjunction with a sound approach to business. My early training was in the agency world, where I was taught the value of understanding strategy against goals. I was fortunate enough to work my way up to become a partner with the Global advertising agency J. Walter Thompson where I managed Ford Motor Co. regional $50mm account. I have also worked for The Walt Disney Co. as a Director of Sales and Marketing when they owned the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and served as Vice President of Marketing for the San Francisco 49ers with the National Football League.

 4. What is the best advice you have ever received?

The best advice I ever got was a quote from my Grandfather…“Common sense is not that common”. It reminds me to think fully through a situation before responding. Although people tend to try and over complicate things, sometimes you need to approach life with a sense of common sense to garner the results you are looking for.

 5. What Are the your top sports memories you are most fond of telling others:

1-1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY - I was fortunate enough to be at the historic “Miracle” game against Russia as a child with my family. The game and the setting was something that I will never forget. There was a sense of patriotism that I had never experienced before…the whole game was surreal.

2- Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans after the September 11^th attacks. I will never forget being in the crowd and witnessing the whole stadium standing, crying and singing the National Anthem. I was living in Boston at the time and being there and taking part in the game with the Patriots winning the whole thing as the underdog was beyond powerful.

3-MLB 1999 All Star game in Boston at Fenway – I admit that I’m not a huge baseball fan but I remember the feeling as they brought out Ted Williams. The history, the stadium and the child like reaction of the players as they introduced themselves to Ted was amazing. It was refreshing to see that even the most stoic of professionals could still be fans of the game.

4- 2002-03 and 2011-12 Stanley Cup Finals – Working for two different organizations where I was fortunate enough to part in one of the most revered, exciting and emotionally draining experiences in all of sports. While with the Mighty Ducks, I was encouraged by Al Coates our team President to take a few minutes to sit out in the arena and soak it all in…I’m glad that he had me do that because it was a memory that I will always have. You are so wrapped up in everything you have to do that you don’t think to stop and enjoy it.

6. What do you tell people you meet who want a career working in the sports management business?  Practical tips?

My first question is “Why do you want to work in sports”? Being a fan is not the answer. You work in a field where you are required to market and sell a product that you don’t have any say in the finished outcome. On the team side you don’t have the luxury of depending on wins and losses…you have a job to do regardless.

Practical tips would be to make sure that you are truly passionate about what you want to do…if you are, then you won’t mind the sacrifices that you will make along the way…and yes, you will make sacrifices. Second, be willing to do the jobs and projects that other people don’t want to. This will help you determine what path you really want to take through actual experience not from passing comments or gut instinct. Nothing replaces real life working knowledge.

7. Name a few mentors in your life and why they’ve had an impact.

Al Coates for teaching me the importance of “Patience”

Andy Dolich for teaching me the value of “Vision”

Bob McClowry for teaching the power of “Observation”

Most importantly my Father (Dr. J.E. Williams) for teaching me how to have a “Bed Side Manner”…always take the time to really speak AND listen to people.

8. How is Social Media changing the landscape of sports ?

Social media is changing everything…the sports world is just a byproduct of the movement. Never before has the voice and power of the consumer and in the case of sports, “the fan” had more influence than it does today. The issue is that there is an ongoing battle between traditional thinking of how to best use this new platform and the individuals who are charged with managing it. The reason why is that the old way of thinking was to talk “TO’ people, where social media is more about talking “WITH” people. The idea of trying to push and communicate your personal agenda with a sales message can be completely tuned out or in some cases detrimental to you and your brand if not done in the right manner. Just because you have a critical mass with your different social outlets doesn’t mean that you have to bombard them with messages all the time. The first step in understanding social media is to recognize the need to listen.

 9. If you were not working in sports today, what would you be doing?

If money was not a problem (ha!)…I would be a dive instructor in Belize. Since I haven’t won the lottery yet, I would probably be working in an senior account director role for a global advertising agency or as a CMO for a large corporate brand.

 10.  Executives talk about being passionate in your job.  What are you passionate about and why?

I am fortunate enough to be one of only 30 people in the world to do what I do. We make memories; we work to create moments that bring people together from all walks of life. Sports are magical in that they truly are the great equalizer crossing religion, genders, socio-economic, ethnicity and age. They can unite a country with a single play.

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For more about Michael Williams, you can follow Michael Williams on Twitter at @MWilliamsDevils

Hello, my name is Charles and I am a recovering Stats-a-Holic.

“Hello Charles”

This problem started a long time ago, when, as a kid, and I learned and loved to keep score during baseball games.

I had my own official score book for the Chicago Cubs.  It did not matter if they were playing on TV or I was listening to the game on the radio.  I always kept score.

Once in a while, I would have my transistor radio on at night and keep track of my beloved Chicago Bulls, some 15 years before a guy name Michael Jordan took over and redefined Chicago and NBA basketball history.

I would chart how many points and rebounds Bob Love and Norm Van Lier would get, keeping the radio on just loud enough to hear, yet soft enough so my parents could not.

But it was baseball, and stats that became a part of me.  That love eventually led to my dream sports job of working in professional baseball with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

When I left the club in 1994 however, I went into stats rehab.  It was years before I would even think of watching a game and not, somehow compile the numbers in my head.

So when I was asked for the first time to play Fantasy Football four years ago, I immediately waved off co-workers and told them

“I used to eat stats for a living.  Thanks, but I think I will pass.”

But there was something deeper that I had an issue with that stopped me from playing Fantasy Football.

Watching these people pore over names, numbers and rosters, I asked myself, “Does Fantasy Football Alter A Fan- Team Relationship?  More plainly said, does it ruin the game for the fan?

I mean, as an owner, you were bound to be rooting for individual players to get “their points” and maybe, god forbid, drafting a hated player n a rival team since he could help you win a game.

How do I know this, you might be asking yourself…..

Well, as long as I am in this fantasy counseling session, I will admit that this year, for the first time, I joined a Fantasy Football league.

Call it Jewish guilt.  By my 14 year old son.

In the past year, he was turned into a walking ESPN recap machine, spitting out every update that comes through his smart phone.  Now, when he gives me the latest score from a professional league I have no interest in, I look at him with a straight face and hum the ESPN theme “dana-na na — dana-na na.”

At first he was amused, now, not so much.

But my point remains.  I grew up, suffered, celebrated and now an suffering again as a lifelong Chicago Bears fan (we have not won the Super Bowl since 1985.

Da Bears!

The kid however, came to me and said this fall he wanted to play in a Fantasy Football League.  Knowing that sports can be an addiction, I thought I better get involved to control this dangerous but enjoyable outlet.

So I rustled up my father and my best friend to put together a four team league.

We held a draft at my place, my father was calling in from his war room, er, retirement home in Arizona and we picked our teams.

After week one, my gut still said the same thing.

“I don’t like what you are eating and drinking on the weekends AND… Fantasy Football ruins the team vs Individual relationship.”

Who was I rooting for, the Bear or my individual players.

I am not going to tell if you if I won or lost (I did not win) but my old addiction krept back into play during the game.  I continuously looked at the latest stats on my smart phone during the day.

Shame on me.

I wanted to swear this FFL thing off forever.

By week three, three of the four of us were taunting each other when someone lost (disclosure, my dad did not figure out how to even substitute players until week six).  So there was pride, a bit of ribbing and it  has become more fun.

Now, heading into week 9, I must leave you now and update my roster before the games start.

Oh yeah, and the Bears are 7-1 and in first place.  Still the best stat I know if.

I am still recovering…..

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