The Sports Info Business

Have you ever wanted a complete cheat sheet when it comes to design and sizing for all of these social media platforms? You know, something that easily spells out the dimensions for your Facebook Cover photo, profile photo or know how many characters are seen in the about section? Look no further because I have very good news for you.  I just discovered a terrific Infographic which was produced by TentSocial, a social marketing strategy service, and it might be one of the most useful graphics you will find on the ‘Net.  Bookmark this post and pass it along to others.

Here is a quick preview of what you will find below:

I mentioned Facebook as an example and the graphic below has just about every size and shape of content and advertising to assist you moving forward.  Want to know the perfect size for your cover photo (851 x 351 pixels), profile photo (160 x 160) or Ad Title in characters (25).  Look no further.

A thorough presentation of specific Twitter sizes for items such as Header Image, visible backgrounds, shared image and shared videos.

A great schematic was created for those of you who use Google+ .  Want to know the exact cover photo size (2120 x 1192), its in there.  The diagram will also tells you that the radio needs to be 16:9.  Want to know the best size of your photo (270 x 270 pixels of course) and your status update within Google + can be up to 10,000 characters.

You might think you do not need to know every detail, but trust me, now or later, you will want to look it up and refresh your memory when you are updating, redesigning or creating these pages for the first time.  It is that helpful.

The graphic also includes every visual you need to know about Pinterest, Instagram, as well as your LinkedIn page as well.

The goal of this blog is to always educate, inform and entertain and I know this is a terrific practical tool.  I am happy to share it with you.  Enjoy.

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.

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.

The news quickly spread this morning regarding sanctions imposed on the Penn State football team.

By the time I publish this blog post, you probably have already heard some of all of the sanctions imposed on the school.

The sanctions include:

* A 60 million dollar fine

* A four year ban on bowl games

* All wins by the football program, from 1998 though 2011, have been vacated.

* The loss of 40 scholarships over the next four years

Current players on Penn State, as a result of the sanctions, are free to immediately transfer to any school.

Media reports say that the school will not appeal what was handed down by the NCAA today.

A few thoughts about this story.  One time.

How can the NCAA impose the death penalty on SMU football while allowing this program to continue playing?  I am at a loss for words.  I do not mean to compare apples to oranges, but can someone please explain to me why the Nittany Lions will kick off its 2012 season on September 1 vs Ohio University?

Second point:  Meant for the new leaders at the Penn State Athletics department.  When something so significant like this comes down, I think you may want to change the home page of your Web Site, as shown below.  Other than the prepared statements posted, everything appears to be business as usual on the site, including the football countdown clock in the upper right hand corner of the screen shot I took.  The department has had enough time to prepare for this day and it should have altered the look and feel out of respect.  This is a small but significant message that nothing has changed.  Games are not being played right now.  A perfect time to send the right message to the world.

Third point:  So many people have been impacted but this.  Current students, alumni, staff and professors, athletics department coaches and staff.  None of these workers get to transfer or vacate anything.  They still must show up each and every day, facing the media circus short term and scrutiny that will attach itself to this school for the next few decades.

Fourth and Most Important point:  The sanctions above do not matter to me.  I could care less about the loss of money, scholarships or bowl games.  Football became bigger than human life to leaders entrusted to run a very profitable educational institution.  As a father, I cannot fathom the horrid nightmares and impact the children/young adults/adults might still be going through each day/night.  Their innocence cannot be bought nor brought back.

You will forgive me but I did not get the name of one of the men, who during today’s press conference, said the following statement:  ”Football will never again be placed ahead of educating nurturing and protecting young people.”

Really?  Check the news.  According to the Sporting News, “The total payout for the new playoff, beginning with the 2014 season, could be as much as $600 million a year.”

I pray that college university presidents, football coaches and athletic directors will show  more integrity and better leadership moving forward.

Amen.

This weekend, the graduate students from the Long Beach State Sports Management Program will be presenting to me, their semester end wrap up.  Before they graduate, and as part of this internship program, I have added a component that requires them to hand in a business portfolio of everything they have accomplished in the past 18 months.

Why demand this from students who are in the midst of finishing up their final classes and a major project, their Capstone presentation?

Well, without it, the internships they have worked at  for the past 18 months otherwise might turn into a blur of a memory, except for a few small lines noted within their respective resumes.  While the goal of the last internship is, of course, is to help set up the student for a job offer, at the very least the internship experience should provide students with valuable business lessons which they can apply to future positions.

In today’s digital world, many of us know one of the most important places to place your resume for visibility is LinkedIn.  That said, i would ask, how many of you have a business portfolio that is up to date?  What would you show a prospective employer in terms of your recent or most applicable business accomplishments?

What I have asked for in this portfolio is for students to provide visual examples of what they have accomplished during their 18 months — a resume listing of where they have worked, but how have they added value to their workplace.  What made them more valuable?  What did they create, develop, sell, and improve in their respective workplaces?

We should all be asking ourselves the same questions.  As I recently learned, two senior level sports executives and long time friends of mine recently lost their jobs for different reasons.  It may have nothing to do with how productive they were or were not.  The question I would ask is, beyond updating their resume, have they built a better business portfolio to show their next employer?

Staying up to date on your accomplishments throughout your career will pay off in the long run.