The Sports Info Business

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released statistics of U.S. Web activity for July based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service.

Here is a quick look at some of the numbers, including how influential the sports scene is on the web in the last 30 days.

Before I get there though, the company also revealed the top 50 properties were reviewed and I have included  a short list of the top five destinations, measured in millions:

Rank       Destination   Visitors

#1  Google Sites       178 million visitors

#2 Yahoo! Sites       174 million visitors

#3 Microsoft Sites  165 million visitors

#4 Facebook.com   145 million visitors

#5 AOL.com            107 million visitors

For the entire rankings, you can click here for additional information.

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As I mentioned above, sports sites were part of the top 50 properties, although no one individual team made the cut.  While Bank of America and Twitter finished 49th and 50th respectively with nearly 50 million visitors, every sports team would be the envy of the business if they could reach this number.  Although I mention three below, only one is truly a sports-only property (ESPN).  The others, Fox interactive media and CBS interactive include non sports traffic, I am sure. Remember, this is U.S. traffic only.  For the last 30 days however, here are the three sports related groups and their ranking.

#9 Fox Interactive Media 82 million visitors

#11 CBS Interactive 75 million visitors

#44 ESPN 27 million visitors

This morning, I read a story on Forbes.com that chronicled the 20 best-ever social media campaigns.

You can click through all 20 companies but to save you time, here are the following top three campaigns.

1. Blair Witch Project

2. Blendtec

3. Old Spice

In a different but related report, two sports-themed videos made the list of  the top 10 viral videos for July 2010 according to video content distributor goviral.

After dominating the top 10 lists for much of the first half of the year in 2010, sports-themed videos only snared three spots on goviral’s top 10 viral video list for June 2010. In July 2010, only two of the top 10 videos could be considered primarily sports-themed. Both videos, a promotion for the Coca-Cola energy drink Burn and a video of a wipeout by the owner of California Skateparks, focused on the sport of skateboarding.

Here’s the catch.  The sports themed videos are been driving by consumer products, not from a specific team or organization.  This is telling in that teams have a lot to learn in this area to drive buzz online.  Popular Twitter chatter has proven that specific sports events drive buzz.  For example, the Super Bowl, World Series or LeBron’s “Decision” have all generated a lot of interest. Specific social media videos for a team or sports organization however, are still missing.

Sounds like an opportunity to me.

According to Goviral, humor was the dominant theme in July. Videos of the “Old Spice guy” performing impossible feats, nerds engaging in a rap battle, a dimwitted redneck hunter, friendship among rival Pepsi and Coke delivery drivers, and a spoof of the “Old Spice Guy” with a studious star all relied on humor to get their message across.

The top 10 picks for July, with links to view on YouTube:

1. Old Spice – Questions (and Responses), agency: Wieden-Kennedy;
2. Levi’s – Walk Across America, agency: Conscious Minds;
3. Dentyne Pure: Epic Rap Battle, agency: Rhett & Link / Platinum Rye / PainePR;
4. Burn (Coca-Cola) – Ride, agency: Publicis Mojo;
5. Samsung – Redneck Hunter Goes to Jail, agency: Cheil Worldwide;
6. Domino’s Pizza – Domino’s Pulling the Cheese; agency: Crispin Porter & Bogusky;
7. PepsiMax – Diner 2PointZero, agency:TBWA/Chiat/Day;
8. California Skateparks – World’s Largest Skateboard Disaster, agency: N/A;
9. Harold B. Lee Library – New Spice/Study Like a Scholar, agency: N/A;
10. HP – Hit Print, agency: N/A

The Major League Baseball season has just about reached the All-Star break and with the top players and executives soon invading my space here in Orange County for the mid-summer classic at Anaheim Stadium, I thought it was time to revisit how teams were faring on the Facebook Fan front.

I have spent time tracking each Major League’s teams Facebook statistics and I compiled it into a data sheet within this blog (see below).  Here are some of the things I compiled:

♦ I totaled number of fans each team has on its official site as of this morning.

♦ The change in fans since I polled each team earlier in the season.

♦ The growth ranking for each team compared to the others in the National and American Leagues.

♦ I then added a column for wins.  Why?  I wanted to see if there was a correlations between total wins this season and the number of Facebook fans for each team.

A few Hits and Misses:

• 8.7 million Facebook users have now become a fan of a Major League team, up from 6.2 million earlier in the season.  The league average for fans is now 290,000+, a jump of nearly 100,000 people from earlier in the season.

The top five baseball teams ranked in order of Facebook fans as of this morning:  1) New York Yankees 2) Boston Red Sox 3) Chicago Cubs 4) Philadelphia Phillies 5) St. Louis Cardinals

• Tope five teams in terms of growth since the last survey earlier this year:  1. Yankees (+405,334 fans) 2. Red Sox (+279,364) 3. Phillies (+212,344) 4. Cubs (+165,386) 5. Minnesota Twins (+116,863)

• I added a column of total team wins.  The Cubs defy the odds by tanking third in total fans but have just 36 wins this year.  The team begins play today in fourth place, 10 games out of first place.  The Milwaukee Brewers (13th) are also in the top half of the 30 teams yet only have 37 wins.  Conversely, the San Diego Padres, first in the NL West with 49 wins, rank 26th, the Blue Jays with 41 wins are 24th on the Facebook Fan list and the Angels with 46 wins rank 23rd.

• The bottom five teams in terms of total Facebook fans are from the National League:  26. San Diego Padres 27. Florida Marlins 28. Pittsburgh Pirates 29. Arizona Diamondbacks 30. Washington Nationals

Here is the chart…. For my conclusions, read below the chart.

Conclusions:

It would be easy to say that winning naturally breeds new Facebook Fans.  The Yankees, with the most wins in baseball this morning, also have the most Facebook Fans with more than 1.5 million while the Orioles rank last in wins and 25th on this fan chart.

However, there is much more to it than fans hopping aboard the bandwagon.  Just look at the Washington Nationals.  The team becently became a hot ticket on select days, specifically when rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg pitches.  However, this enthusiasm at the gate has not translated into more interest about the team on facebook.  The organization ranks last with 48,634 Facebook Fans and grew 9,085 folks since he last polled the teams.

I think you could see spikes by specific teams down the home stretch and into the playoffs,  That’s when the bandwagon theory works.  Until then teams need to do the following:

* Continue to build original traditions at the ball park and make the fan expereince second to none.

* Provide unique content within social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.  If you are not adding value and just telling me who is pitching tonight or what the promotion of the week is, you will probably be ignored.  More than 400 million people have signed up for facebook and 50% check their accounts every day. Can you say growth potential?

* Create a digital marketing department within each team’s hierarchy and give it the flexibility to listen, engage and educate fans.  I know there’s Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) on a national level, but this organization cannot impact the fan experience like a local club rep can.  It is about touching people’s lives and delivering an experience that an adult or child will remember forever.

* Do not give your social media platform to junior staff or interns.  Do not hand the brand over to those that are not ready to guard it, and promote it.

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If you like these and other posts I hope you will consider using the tools at the top of the blog to repost it on YOUR Facebook, YOUR Twitter account or event via DIGG.  Thanks for your continued interest in this blog.

The University of Southern California wasted no time in announcing that it will appeal some of the sanctions issed by the NCAA.  The school issued  a press release on Thursday and in it said it will accept some of the penalties imposed by the Committee and it will appeal those penalties it believes are excessive.

The university noted that it is pleased that the NCAA determined that USC’s self-imposed penalties on men’s basketball and women’s tennis were sufficient, and that the NCAA imposed no further sanctions.

“We acknowledge that violations occurred and we take full responsibility for them. However, we sharply disagree with many of the findings in the NCAA Committee on Infractions Report. Further, we feel the penalties imposed are too severe for the violations identified in the report,” Todd Dickey, USC’s senior vice president for administration said in the release.  The school also had Dickey comment via a video stream on the web site.

However, I suggest this note to USC Athletics and their tech folks.  In today’s fast-paced, tech savvy world, you need to make this video available to be reposted to blogs like this one.  While I could copy the photo, (see below), I could not embed the video here for you to see.  You must click on the link above to see it on their site for yourself.

That, in my mind, is a big mistake.  They want to get the word out.  They feel they have something to say which is why they issued a press release.  For anyone working in the sports management space listen up…..  Make the content user friendly so it can be repurposed on Facebook and blogs.  It is in your best interest.  All of that said, here is additional information by the school as it relates to the sanctions.

Dickey added, “We will accept those sanctions we believe to be consistent with penalties imposed upon other NCAA member institutions found guilty of similar rules infractions. We are hopeful that the NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee will agree with our position on appeal, and reduce the penalties.”

“There is a systemic problem facing college athletes today: unscrupulous sports agents and sports marketers,” Dickey stated. “The question is how do we identify them and keep them away from our student-athletes? To provide us with recommendations about the best way to protect our student-athletes and their families from those who seek to violate the rules, we have retained the Freeh Group, headed by former federal judge and ex-FBI director Louis Freeh.

“Our success in athletics and the outstanding individuals we recruit make our student-athletes an attractive target for those seeking to take unfair advantage of them,” Dickey stated.  “We cannot and will not tolerate this. Our program must set the highest standards in the country. USC deserves that and our 640 student-athletes deserve that.”

Dickey said that USC will not comment about specific elements of its position while it is in the appeals process.

File this post under you never know who you will meet.
Earlier this week I received an email from Tyrone Brooks of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
We had not met but as it usally turns out n sports knew a few of the same people. Tyrone is the director of Baseball Operations for the Pittsburgh Pirates. There are still a few old friends who are working for the organization since my Dodger days and it quickly became a small world.

How I came to meet Tyrone is directly related to social networking and in this case via LinkedIn. Tyrone saw that I used to work for the Dodgers and Angels and invited me to join his group.
About six months ago, Tyler started a LinkedIn group for people that worked inside professional baseball. This group includes major league staff, minor league employees, vendors associated with the game — really it is targeted to anyone working or wanting to work in baseball.
He has seen the list balloon during the six months to more than 3,800 members.
For the most part Tyrone believes people want to learn and network with others with the same interests. Obviously, by the sheer number of people interested on his list, his intuition was correct.
Tyrone says he just wants to give back and help others. He is a person who says he is thankful to be in a great position and since we has provided with opportunity, wants to do the same for others.  Here is a  bit of background from our conversation.

Tyrone began his career with the camera. As a student at the University of Maryland he took pictures of the college’s sports teams for five years.

“I wanted to stay close to sports,” he admits during our conversation.

Right before graduation he learned of am internship program with the Atlanta Braves. He applied and was accepted.
Within a year, Tyrone was made a full-time employee, an admin assistant as he calls it.

That opportunity turned into jobs that included area scout, assistant player personnel to Director of Player Personnel all with the Braves.
Tyrone also enjoyed am opportunity with the Cleveland Indians before landing in his current position with the Pirates.
Now, he assists Pirates GM with the day to day baseball operations and has the ultimate goal one day of being a General Manager in baseball.

As for his growing LinkedIn list, he says, “I have always enjoyed meeting other people in our game and this is a way for me to give back.”

I enjoyed meeting him too, Tyrone, and I am joining your list today.

This week, I had a discussion with an executive recruiter who attended the National Sports Forum in Baltimore earlier this week.  This person told me the hot topic of the conference was all about Social Media. The review of the presentations were mixed but the information obviously generated a buzz.  It was the hot topic.

Here is the challenge.  Many sports team owners and executives come from the “old school.”  In baseball terms, this is the pre-Moneyball era.  They operate like they always have.   Annual events like the traditional Select-A-Seat have not changed with the times.  They try communicating the same way and market just like they always have.  The sports world remains well behind progressive companies outside of sports that are using social media for listening, testing, engaging and providing a more transparent operation for fans, sponsors and media.

All this new age stuff folks, takes work.  Call it an investment if you will.

Here is the comment I have heard more than once from a sports executive — If we cannot show a measurable ROI, then management is not interested.  Worse yet, there is just silence from the top down when the subject comes up.  Not every team can will a Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup or NBA championship every year, but I will tell you nearly every team will go through some sort of crisis sooner than later.  This is just one example why every sports team and organization needs to be trained and staffed for this here-to-stay communication method.  Don’t believe me? Facebook just announced on its sixth anniversary that it has passed more than 400 MILLION USERS. No typo there. 400 MILLION

The question in terms of social media is, will the team, organization or league have invested enough resources to help them get through the troubled waters.

Let’s take Toyota, which is currently having its reputation tested with multiple recalls.  I wanted to know what the company was doing to listen, quiet the storm and deliver key messages.

Here is what I have seen in the last few days:

1) Big media TV interviews starting on February 1, 2010 in places like the Today Show.

2) Full Page Ads in The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.

3) A strategic button for recall information on the home page of company’s web site

4) Video and messaging points from the company on the media section of the company web site.

5) President and CEO Jim Lentz apologizing for problems in all media outlets.

These are the tactics I would certainly expect during a time of potential upheaval.

What it also did was to jump out in front on the social media front and in a coordinated effort, Toyota also launched an information and engagement campaign in various outlets including Facebook and YouTube.

On February 1, the same day he appeared on the Today show, this video on the Toyota Facebook page also appeared.

The well-time coordinated plan helped Toyota reach people in many different areas.  In the online social media world, they remembered to do the following, quickly.

1) Provide updated information

2) Answer questions

3) Deal directly with the consider

Here’s a photo of Toyota’s You Tube Channel

The next stop stop was Facebook fan page for Toyota’s Prius.  With nearly 50,000 “fans” they have a decent base to work with people interested in the product

Here are a few of the comments since the photo might be hard to read (you can clickon it to see the site directly)

Kevin Anderson “I’m very satisfied with my 2007 Prius. I hope all goes well with the recall and that future generations of the vehicle will be better for it.”

Sarah Smock “As a 17 year old girl most don’t expect me in this car but I love my Prius, It is perfect for my lifestyle!”

Celine Lopez “These recalls happen with ALL cars. I think the American media is beating this into the ground just so they can get people to buy crappy American cars.”

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True, not every comment is going to be positive, but three of the first four were and more importantly, Toyota has engaged its consumers.  I found them not just shoving promotional materials and messages down their throat.  That add value to the conversation and this has won trust and loyalty from their consumers.

Are you listening team executives?

Stop posting only the latest ticket program, news release or community project to your fans.  Start and add value to conversations.  Listen and respond to people that care about your product.  Before your team gets recalled by its fans.  It is not too late.

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Additional Background.

This is a longer post than most, but an important one I hope you re-tweet, email or post for others to read.

Here are two additonal things Toyota did which was smart.

They also attacked the online community with a Digg Q&A session

and they hoped for the some goodwill with the 15,000 plus people that follow them on Twitter.

There are many reasons for using social media.  Helping generate conversation from those loyal to you and your product or team is just one reason.

Yesterday, we tackled the NFL and today we feature the National Basketball Association and how its teams use social media.

Let me just begin by saying, if you did not see yesterday’s article on the NFL, you can easily click on it here. Overall, I applaud teams for entering into the next stage of sports marketing and that is using social media to listen, brand and communicate with fans via different platforms.  However, just because they develop a site does not mean the team is using best practices.

Today, we begin with Twitter.  I put together a brief chart on the top five teams using Twitter. based on the number of followers each organization has listed over the weekend.

Okay, it has been a while between normal posts.

It is not that I have been ignoring my blog.  Rather, my business Coast 2 Coast Experts, has kept me very busy of late.  We have been assisting companies launch email marketing programs, develop company-wide social media guidelines, pitching and placing clients on the front pages of magazine as well as other strategic marketing initiatives.

Currently, I am preparing to assist a professional sports team and began doing research in how the top four sports organizations (NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL) are using Facebook and Twitter.  I know that there are dozens of social media tools, but based on current understanding, critical mass and immediate impact, I chose these two platforms for today’s discussion.

On January 23, 2010, I surveyed each individual team in the National Football League as well as the National Basketball Association for their activities in Twitter and Facebook.  I started by looking on the league sites and then, I went to each individual team to see the following:

1) Were the actively participating?

2) Were they/How were they marketing the tools?

3) What were they saying?

THE NFL

For all but two teams, the 2009 NFL season is over.  The upstart Jets’ season came to a premature conclusion last night when the Peyton Manning and the Colts figured out New York’s defense and is returning to the Super Bowl.  The second game between the Saints and Vikings proved to be a thriller and the Saints are now scheduling their first visit to the Super Bowl in franchise history.

Before the games were played however, I wanted to see  how every team in the league was tackling these two social media platforms.  First, some stats to digest.

Team                             Facebook Fans

1. Pittsburgh Steelers 458,252

2. Minnesota Vikings 323,197

3. Indianapolis Colts 242,032

4. Green Bay Packers 218, 232

5. Washington Redskins 210,037

Now, if you click on any of the teams listed above in red, you will find that the numbers of fans do not match the numbers I am reporting.  Why?  Because I did a survey over the weekend of every team around the same time.  As with any social media tool, the numbers will fluctuate n a real time manner.

I know what you are saying as you read this, of course the Colts and the Vikings are on the list, they were playing for the Super Bowl.  If that is so, then why are the Redskins, Green Bay Packers and Steelters on the list then?  Some of it is winning no doubt, but some of it is applying the social media tools and marketing them tot he fans correctly.  Why weren’t the aints or the Jets there?  The Saints have one of the lowest facebook fan followings with a but more than 42,000 folks adding them to their accounts.  And the Jets?  They were ranked 13th with nearly 87,000 fans.

On to Twitter….

The Micro-blogging tool turned up these top teams in the number of followers.

1. New England Patriots 33,401 followers

2, San Diego Chargers 31,857 followers

3, New York Jets 20,971 followers

4 Oakland Raiders 20,687 followers

5, San Francisco 49ers 20,535 followers

All of these numbers are fine and dandy if we were doing a straight popularity contest, but here is the thing.  Just about every sports team is getting it wrong, including some of the teams listed in these two charts.  First of all, they are not taking a strategic approach, second of all they are not marketing and reaching fans in the correct manner, yet most of them know they need a presence.

I would be willing to bet dollars to donuts that fewer than 10% have an actual social media policy.  Even fewer still have had key executives trained on these communication tools.

I would call it opportunity missed.

Giving current employees additional duties or putting an intern in charge of communication is not the right business decision.  There are a few leading companies that do get it and they have developed or appointed someone or a team devoted to digital strategy.  The world is changing and sports teams need to change with it.  Now.

Tomorrow, I tackle what the NBA’s teams and numbers look like from the weekend.

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Notes:  I could not locate official Facebook fan sites for the following teams:  Dallas Cowboys, NY Giants, Carolina Panthers, St. Louis Rams.  As for Twitter, the following teams, according to my research, are not using the tool:  New Orleans Saints, Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers.  If they are and I have missed something, please help me locate their sites.  Not only are they missing an important communications strategy, they are letting others control their name and message.

The numbers are from my own research.  One of the issues sports teams as well s businesses have is sites like Twitter have not created a tool to verify business sites.  So, there is a chance that some of these sites might not be the “official site of” — Another job for someone at the league offices.

I have another first to share with you today. After posting an interview with Arizona Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall earlier this week and the story about Byron Scott yesterday, I was searching for a better way to develop blogs. When I am not in front of the office computer screen I needed to find a better way to share my thoughts.

I learned that WordPress had developed an app for Apple’s iphone for this need.  It is called exactly what you would expect — WordPress for iphone I have downloaded it and am using it for the first time today in this blog.

It is a free app, easy to install and in less than five minutes I have been typing away from my iPhone. Even the picture below was taken from my iPhone and easily inserted into today’s blog.

Here are a few functionality components about this app to note. There are slots that you can easily add a Title of the blog, tags for SEO purposes, the categories you want the blog listed as well as status of the blog.

In addition to writing, I can see comments about this entry, photos (either take one or use one from blog roll already in the iPhone data base). You can also preview what it will look like and adjust settings.

If you want to understand the specs of the app, I took a photo from the iphone store (on my computer, while I was editing today’s entry).  Here is a peek so you can look at the specs.

A rew other notes.  This release of WordPress 2 was made to the public on Octoer 29th, just a few weeks ago.  Also the rating by users is a 4+ so I am not the only one who is enjoying the this mobile App and of course it is free.

Overall I like it. It is easy to use and a good first attempt by the folks at WordPress.

A few things are missing however. When I blogging from the road or even at home, I need a spellchecker and I did not find one here. Also you canny embed any links within the blog so they will either need to be added later or not entered at all. Finally, while there is a way to add photos, I did not see a way to add videos from the app.

This kind of functionality can now turn every sports fan into a journalist.  Press Box not included.

Once in a while I post a few videos I find interesting.  while most of my social media blogging has been moved to my corporate site at www.coast2coastexperts.com but I thought you should see this one.  For those of you that spend anytime on YouTube, you may have seen Oprah’s season opening special with a flash mob video to begin her 24th season.  The Black Eyed Peas performed live outside in Chicago and 20,000 people all were bouncing around to the same choreographed moves.  Here is how it looked.

Not o be overshadowed, I recently discovered a new viral video to the same song.  This music video was produced by students at the University of Quebec.  The amazing part about the video is that it was all done in one take.  172 students with no edits for a song that lasted five minutes.  A pretty cool production.  Watch how much ground they cover during the filming of the video.

Finally, these home-made videos are getting all sorts of coverage.  It has always been and always will be about the content.  If you have not figured that out, wake up.  Content is king.

Here CNN coverage deals with both videos, but mostly concentrates on the college students.