The Sports Info Business

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.

Football season is just about here.  Fans have waited throughout the lockout and now the pre-season.  For those that want to work in the industry, this is your last chance for open positions if you want to work in sports.  Below, there are job listings from the Eagles, Cowboys, Lions and a hockey job, from the Los Angeles Kings added for good measure.

If you want to work in sports, this will help get you started in your search.  Remember to check the blog roll for other sports related business resources within this website.

Communications: Media/Public Relations Servicing

SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW
The Philadelphia Eagles are known as one of the more progressive organizations in professional sports and have come to be considered one of the most storied sports franchises in history. As an organization the Philadelphia Eagles is both an exciting and demanding place to work fueled by passion, dedication, and a commitment to the community and the Eagles Youth Partnership.

Lincoln Financial Field is one of the premier sports and entertainment facilities in the United States. In addition to being the home of the Philadelphia Eagles, the stadium plays host to numerous other events, providing an unmatched spectator experience for over 65,000 fans. Lincoln Financial Field is maintained and managed by over 50 professionals working together to provide the highest quality sports and entertainment experience in a safe, clean, and friendly environment.

POSITION SUMMARY
The successful candidate will have a solid understanding of how to drive consumer engagement within social, mobile and technical platforms. Also must have experience actually managing and executing social media campaigns.
Click here to apply:

Sales & Marketing: Client Relations/Customer Service

The Customer Service Representative – Retail is responsible for providing superior customer service in our fast-paced, call center environment with the ability to keep information and tasks organized while multi-tasking. This position is an outstanding opportunity for a detail-oriented team player with a positive, enthusiastic, and customer-focused attitude. The Customer Service Representative – Retail reports to the Retail Customer Service Manager and will be part of an overall Call Center team.

Job Duties:

- Assist internet/catalog customers with questions via e-mail, telephone, system “Live Chat” and mail
- Provide sales support through cross-selling and up-selling products
- Follow-through with customer inquiries and requests/ document and record efforts in the process
- Ensure that our customer receives superior service
- Provide resolution to customers through communication and problem-solving skills
- Work effectively within a team-oriented environment
- Answering phones, functioning on the computer and providing customer assistance
- Order processing, issue resolution, selling ability, return processing
- Perform other functions and activities as directed by the Retail Customer Service Manager
Click Here to Apply:

Internships: Communications/Community Relations

AEG, Anschutz Entertainment Group, is one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world. AEG owns and operates a host of world-class entertainment venues and professional sports franchises around the globe including the L.A. Kings (NHL), L.A. Galaxy (MLS), STAPLES Center, the Home Depot Center, the L.A. Live Entertainment district in downtown Los Angeles, and more.

Fan Development Intern

Essential Job Functions: The individual must possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities and be able to explain and demonstrate that he or she can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation.

• Assist Fan Development Department with grassroots sales initiatives and hockey growth programs
• Run Fan Development Game Day Program Sales Fundraising Program
• Assist with Game Day Fan Development hockey programs at STAPLES Center
• Coordinate Program Sales Fundraiser
• Assist with grassroots marketing of hockey programs and sales initiatives
• Track sales numbers and hockey program participation
• Assist with client customer service
• Candidates must possess excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to work 20 hours a week, including some evenings and weekends

Click here to Apply:

Sales & Marketing: Marketing

Description:

The Marketing Department at Ford Field is accepting applications for a Marketing Manager. The Manager will be responsible for providing marketing strategies that will assist the Business Operations Department and Events Department with increasing revenue. The manager will be responsible for all marketing efforts for the Detroit Lions and Ford Field events, both internally and externally. This includes the areas of advertising, brand management, web, social media, and research.  This position reports to the Director of Marketing. 

Hours/Duration of Position:

This is a full-time position working 40+ hours per week. A full benefits package is available. This position is based in Detroit, MI.

The Marketing Manager must have the ability to work with a flexible schedule, including being available for major scheduled events on nights, weekends, and holidays.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Assist Director of Marketing with development and implementation of marketing plan
• Manage and market all Detroit Lions business to increase revenue
• Work with clienst on promoting events at Ford Field
• Develop and oversee all advertising campaigns; work with third party advertising companies
• Manage all media buys with key media vendors
• Develop and enhance all branding approaches for the Detroit Lions, both internally and externally
• Assist with website development and help expand functions of www.detroitlions.com
• Coordinate with the graphics department on the visual content for the Detroit Lions website
• Act as a liaison with Ticketmaster for all marketing efforts
• Oversee all marketing publications, graphics, and special projects
• Foster and maintain effective working relationships with vendors, community, corporate and media partners
• Oversee departmental budget
• Work all Detroit Lions home games and Ford Field major events

Apply here (remember to scroll to the middle of the landing page)

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A few days ago, I posted a blog offering graduate students the opportunity to be heard.  Since then, one student, who is about to graduate has taken me up on the offer and submitted this guest blog post.  However since this person is still job hunting, they prefer that their name not be used.  That said, please enjoy this different perspective, from someone about to enter the job market.

In this market, you best be persistent

Graduated from college, CHECK. Graduated from graduate school, CHECK. Job offers lining up, INCOMPLETE.

Welcome to the world of unemployment. As our economy creeps towards a double dip recession, college graduates and even graduate school graduates find the job market bleak, at best.

I so often see the frustration and anger permeate from the pool of talented graduates fighting for jobs all over the sports industry. Sales, marketing, community relations, public relations, social media and operations, seems like jobs should be coming after you, not the other way around, right? WRONG! In this market, you better be actively scouring jobs in any area within the sports industry if you plan on having a job upon completing your degree.

The question becomes, how can I differentiate myself and stand out during this unruly economic downturn? The answer, PERSISTENCE! The days of submitting a resume and expecting a job offer to follow are long gone. Graduates must realize the importance of being persistent and even borderline annoying in regards to prospecting jobs.

The art of networking has become a hot topic in today’s job market. Making contacts, building those relationships and hoping they pass along your name when a job opens seems like a pretty easy process. Wrong again. Very few people are looking to help you during this job crisis. Your only TRUE ally is yourself. This is why gathering letters of recommendation immediately following your internship or job is mandatory. But what happens when a former employer or professor refuses to write you a letter, move on and assume they are no longer your ally.

I am currently in the long and stressful interview process for a job in sports. Let me remind you, this is an entry level position that has already included interviews with HR, a group of employees and lastly one with upper management. I have yet to hear a decision and we are pushing two weeks since my last interview.

Frustrated, you better believe it. I approached these interviews as if I were applying for a position in upper management. I put together professional portfolios, gathered past work samples and letters of recommendation, wrote personalized introduction letters, hand wrote thank you notes and much more. I want to again remind you that this position is ENTRY LEVEL.

Welcome to the new world of employment in sports. Organizations no longer give prospective graduates “trial by fire” jobs. In this economy, organizations want to see ROI from entry level jobs all the way up to the President. There is no room for error these days and organizations are making this point clear through the rigorous interview process for a mere 30K entry level job.

The best words of advice I can give you, from one unemployed student to another, don’t be afraid to annoy someone with an email or a phone call. It’s much easier to sleep at night knowing you pushed too hard as opposed to not pushing hard enough. Welcome to unemployment, summer 2011.

Written by a member of Learning Team 18

Today, we are talking community relations, grants and partnerships.

Most professional sports teams have a community relations department and many college sports programs have a version of a pro team’s CR team.

These departments put a community face on a team, player or organization often raising money for specific groups that align with their business strategy.

When I worked as part of the senior leadership team with the Anaheim Ducks, we also provided grant money for organizations.  They could apply and receive funding for important community based programs.

Today, I wanted to show you a specific example of a professional sports team, their CR efforts and grant money that is available for those that qualify.

The Miami Dolphins and Sun Life Financial Inc. partnered together and announced this week they are seeking Sun Life Rising Star Award grant applications from non-profit organizations in South Florida that advocate for youth from under-served communities.

A total of  220,000 in grants and scholarships are available in the current grant cycle.  This money provides educational opportunities and promote financial stability in under-served youth.  I say cycle since grant money is usually made available via qualified applicants once or two times each year.

Here is a bit of background for you.

The Sun Life Rising Star Award program is designed to improve the lives of under-served youth by providing financial resources and education to students and non-profit organizations committed to increasing success in high school and beyond. Each winning organization will receive a $50,000 grant and other unique resources. Additionally as part of the application process, each organization will nominate an exemplary student for a $5,000 Sun Life Rising Star scholarship to help finance a college education, with the goal of helping students achieve long-term financial stability.

According to eligibility rules, to be considered for a Sun Life Rising Star Award grant, organizations must have 501(c) (3) tax-exempt status and promote skills that directly translate to educational success in high school to students under the age of 21. Applications will be reviewed by a local judging panel consisting of community leaders and senior-level educators.

As part of this application process, each non-profit will nominate an outstanding student from its organization for a chance to receive a $5,000 college scholarship. Nominees must be high school seniors actively involved in an organization that shares the sponsor’s (Sun Life Rising Star Awards’) mission; they must also plan to pursue post-secondary education, exhibit leadership qualities, and demonstrate a strong commitment to their communities. Nominated students are required to submit a 750-word essay on how financial education contributes to future success.

Smart teams and businesses often limit the number of consecutive years an organization can receive aid.  Also, grants are often linked to other funding.  Some teams, the Ducks included had a policy that grants for organizations could not account for more than 50% of the total funding requested by an organization in any one year.  Because of this, a good amount of paperwork and proof of other funding is needed.

If you’d like more information about this specific program I mentioned, you can go to www.sunlifestadium.com/risingstar.aspx

The website states application are due by July 23rd.

I admit it.  I am a recovering stats geek.  As a former PR man for professional baseball, stats ruled my life.  I researched and publish daily information that helped media do their job.  Sometimes it is just easier to let the numbers do the talking. So without further ado, here are sportsinfo101.com’s numbers and news chart.

0- The number of games the Los Angeles Lakers won against the Dallas Mavericks in the last round of the NBA playoff series. Some are calling for blowing up the team.  Don’t look for Koby Bryant, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol or Andrew Bynum to be moved unless you see a Dwight Howard joining the team.  However, look for a different Lakers bench and a new guard to compliment Bryant next year.

1.5: That’s offiically $1.5 million, the gross by monthly check Los Angeles Angels Torii Hunter received for playing professional baseball, according to LA Times sports writer Mike DiGiovanna.

3 - as in billion. the PAC-12 conference announced last week it had signed a new 12 year television deal with Fox Sports and ESPN to broadcast the conference’s football games. According to the LA times, it is the richest TV deal in college history. It is also the same number the Dodgers are claiming Fox offered their baseball franchise which would help ease current financial constraints on the team.

5: The number of games Lakers big man Andrew Bynum is suspended to start the basketball season next year.  Oh yeah, the cheap shot he administered to Mavericks guard J.J. Barea in game four of the playoffs also cost him more than $700,000.  Ouch.  The move will hurt Bynum more than Barea in the long run.  Let’s hope lesson learned.

8:  The Detroit Red Wings became the eighth National Hockey League team to come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series to force game seven after coming back to beat the San Jose Sharks last night.

23: The number of wins the Cleveland Indians have amassed in the first 34 games of the 2011 Major League Baseball season, good enough for the most wins in the American League and all of baseball.

30: Dodgers outfield Andrea Either compiled the second longest hitting streak in LA Dodgers history.  The streak temporarily took the media’s eyes off the McCourt divorce.

137: Years the Kentucky Derby has been run at Churchill Downs. On Sunday, Animal Kingdom captured the run for the roses.

40,000+: The attendance of Angeles fans on Tuesday night.  That is not new by itself.  However, the club established a new Guinness World record for wearing costume masks as the American League club handed out res wresting masks in a game vs. the White Sox.  Don’t believe me?  See for yourself.

It has been a few weeks since I have posted jobs jobs on this blog and while the media reported yesterday the largest hiring spree in nearly five years, jobs for many remain elusive.  I have written in the past how many sports jobs are never advertised or are only done to satisfy HR requirements.  That said, if it is listed or mentioned, I am bound to help provide you with a few leads on sportsinfo101.com.

Today we feature sports jobs ranging from Vice President of Marketing, Director of Sports and Entertainment to a program coordinator and a production assistant.  Job locations vary from New York to California.  The difference however in today’s post is that every listing I have researched and posted here was also posted publicly on LinkedIn.  I am an active business networker on this site, though I use LinkedIn to stay in contact with business people I have collaborated with over the years.  If you’d like to connect with me personally, you can find me on Twitter @sportsinfo101 or join the sportinfo101.com facebook page by clicking here.

These listings are also meant to help others.  If you find this information valuable or know someone else that would find it valuable, I kindly ask you to use your social media to repost on places like Facebook and Twitter or just email the link of this post to others.

Vice President, Marketing for AEG & LA Live:  Brief Description:   – L.A. LIVE is responsible for overseeing the day to day marketing and promotional efforts to drive traffic to the L.A. LIVE District. Vice President of Marketing is responsible for the overseeing, planning and executing marketing campaigns, grassroots and street team efforts, database marketing, promotions and other marketing and communications activities in conjunction with the AEG Sales and Marketing Department.  You can see the full job description here or apply via the company’s website here.

ESPN Production Assistant:  Brief Description:  Supports assigned CP, Producers and Associate Producers with the production of all or parts of assigned international live or taped studio show and show remotes; assistance provided includes gathering production elements for live and taped programming such as: video clips, graphics and research support.
Assigned to prepare and edit semi-routine pre production elements such as video clips, highlights, teases and features for use in live and taped events; prepares program fillers and other interstitial materials.
Conducts research in the video archives and develops relationships with different ESPN International Networks to obtain material to support shows needs. Assists in capturing and assembling production elements for on-line video highlights, features and teases.
Provides timely, accurate and complete delivery of multimedia elements and publishes to various platforms.
Screens and coordinates incoming live transmissions.
Maintains updated production manuals and element reels.
Can function as graphics coordinator for assigned studio telecasts of live and taped events.
Works with technical and production personnel to create an informative and entertaining program.
Adjusts to and interprets breaking news situations.
Works with on-air staff to write accurate and informative stories.
Teleprompter functions during show.
Leverages US-based and international libraries and highlight-gathering operation to support international shows needs.
Researches and prepares story ideas for future shows.
Proposes ways statistics can be exploited in ESPN storytelling or as premium products on TV. Click here for the full description and link to apply

Director of Sports and Entertainment.  Brief Description:  Rapidly growing national public relations boutique agency seeks Los Angeles-based vice president to manage sports/entertainment practice as well as drive agency growth through business development efforts. Person will play a key strategic, leadership and management role on all divisional accounts. We want someone who can inspire the team, creatively and intellectually challenge clients and, most importantly, maintain a results-driven work ethic.  Link to the job Description and application is on the same page

San Diego State Sports MBA Program Coordinator:  Job Description:  Full-time, temporary position anticipated to end on or before six months and one day from the initial date of employment, with the possibility for reappointment and/or permanency.

The Program Coordinator for the Sports MBA program has significant responsibility for the administrative services of this fast-paced dynamic, customer-service oriented graduate program. The Sports MBA Coordinator collaborates with the Executive Director of the Office of Executive and Specialized Programs and Sports MBA Program Director in a wide variety of areas including admissions, student records, academic scheduling, recruiting, industry networking, marketing, research, project management, and special events. The Sports MBA Coordinator uses independent decision-making for problem-solving related to the smooth functioning of classes; is responsible for the logistical support of student issues, class sessions, guest lecturers, and assists in course registration and setups; works with faculty on distribution and ordering of necessary textbooks, case studies and other course materials.

The Sports MBA Coordinator provides a high level of support to students from initial inquiry through graduation and beyond and will serve as the first point of contact with the current cohort of students on all student affairs issues. The Sports MBA Coordinator will schedule appointments and meetings; prepare memos and correspondence for the program directors and faculty; produce expense reports and other reimbursements; monitor program databases and confidential files; and participate in special events including sporting events and other off-site events. With the program’s international focus, the Sports MBA Coordinator will often have to work with international recruits, students, and industry contacts, and will assist in the improvement of SDSU Sports MBA program’s visibility and competitiveness at the global level.

While this is a full-time position, it appears it is a temporary appointment so please read everything carefully before applying.

As Sales Account Executive at Fox Sports –Wisconsin.

FOX Sports Wisconsin.  Job Description for for an Ad Sales Account Executive:  This position is responsible for all ad sales for the region. This includes new business development, maintaining existing accounts, and meeting revenue budgets.

Responsibilities: Prospects and develops working relationships in the ad buying community. Utilizes integration concepts to develop regional sports marketing programs and create and deliver compelling presentations.

-Maintains existing relationships through stewardship of accounts, entertaining, presentations and overseeing pre-emptions and make-goods.

-Provides information to the Sales Planner and Sales Assistant in order to ensure generation of reports regarding prospects, pending deals, forecasts, advertiser contacts, specific proposal target lists and expenses.

-Remains current on industry trends and regional positioning. Works with Sales Planners and Sales Assistants to raise their knowledge level.

-Other duties as assigned.

Here is the link for full job description and you can also apply on the company website.

IMG has a Human Resources Coordinator:  Job Description.  We are seeking a Human Resources Coordinator for our New York City office.  The Human Resources Coordinator will assist with the day-to-day operations of the human resources team, as well as spearhead the administration of IMG’s year-round internship program. The ideal candidate will have experience working in a fast-paced corporate environment and must demonstrate a high-level of energy, organization, discretion, flexibility and good judgment.

Link to the description here and alink to apply for the position.

Ticket Sales Representative.  Job Description: The New York Islanders of the National Hockey League are seeking a driven, high-energy, highly-motivated, competitive sales executive who wants to build a career in the sports business. This account executive position is responsible for generating revenue through the sale of full season, partial season, and select premium ticket plans. The selected candidate will be assigned an on-site mentor and access to senior level staff as well as unique amenities to assist in the presentation and closing of sales to families and corporate senior level sales or human resources executives. As a member of the New York Islanders organization the chosen individual will have access to a good base salary and generous commission and benefits package. This is a full-time sales position at a major league team with a solid training and mentoring program. If you are looking to start your career in sports, and build a name for yourself, this is the place to start.

Here is the link for the full job description and the application process, all in one.

More and more PR people are discovering sportsinfo101.com and last week, I received several press releases announcing new projects, partnerships and naming rights. I decided to take one of the news releases and share a few tidbits from it.
Sponsorship is a key revenue generator for sports. Depending on your market these dollars play a larger role in budgets (college athletics and NHL hockey as examples) or smaller but still important roles (the national Football League). The bottom line is, if it’s a good revenue stream, its important to the bottom line.

Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK, short cut: O.co) is the latest company to put its name on a sports building. According to the press release, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority announced that Overstock.com acquired the naming rights to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Effective immediately, the Coliseum is now known as the Overstock.com Coliseum. The facility will host its first game under the Overstock name Friday, April 29, when the A’s host defending American League champion Texas at 7:05 p.m.

Now I spent part of my youth in the Bay Area and just knew it as the Oakland Coliseum, but when revenue matters, and it does, then folks like Overstock.com are sought out for a business partnership.

An artist rendering of signage

The six-year deal covers the stadium facility that is home to both the NFL Oakland Raiders and the MLB Oakland Athletics. Overstock.com Coliseum is one of only two U.S. stadiums hosting two major league teams.  According to a story published in the Huffington Post, the deal is for six years at $7.2 million, although the story is ambigious as to the sponsorship dollars per year vs the total cost of the sponsorship.  It was confusing indeed.

As part of the new alliance Overstock.com receives branding opportunities through stadium signage, Internet, television, radio and print promotion. The site plays host to more than 100 events annually, including 10 Raiders games, 81 A’s games, MLS and international soccer matches, concerts and corporate events. The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority manages the Overstock.com Coliseum and Oracle Arena and is comprised of representatives from the City of Oakland, Alameda County and SMG, a facilities management company.

Founded in 1999, Overstock.com employs more than 1500 people. The company’s annual revenue has grown from $1.8 million in 1999 to $1.1 billion in 2010. For the past five years, Overstock.com ranked among the top five retailers in the U.S. for customer service, according to rankings published in the 2011 NRF Foundation/American Express Customer Service Survey, and recently Forbes reported that Overstock ranked first in employee satisfaction among all U.S. retailers and ninth among the best U.S. corporations to work for.

Overstock.com trotted out its head man, Jonathan Johnson, president of Overstock.com and posted a YouTube message related to the announcement.

I titled today’s blog, “Using Customer Service for a Save” for a very specific and personal reason.

Recently , I had planned to go out to dinner with my family and wanted to try a new restaurant.  My father was visiting from out of town, so I could not ask him for advice.  So, I did the next best thing.  I used technology to help find a new restaurant.  I went to a site called Yelp!, which lists user comments for many things as a way to recommend or trash consumer brands. (You can also try a popular travel site called TripAdvisor for other travel related reviews).

This one Italian restaurant in Newport Beach received, overall, glowing remarks so I called the restaurant, spoke to the owner, and he hung up on me.

Yep. That’s right.  When I asked him about his menu and a website I could check out to make sure it met our group’s dietary restrictions, he abruptly ended the conversation.

I certainly was not headed there for dinner.  I did the only thing I could.  I went to Yelp, which I did not use very often until last week, and told future visitors, exactly what happened.  I even suggested they go elsewhere based on my experience.  Now I love to compliment people for doing a good job and often ask to speak with supervisors of line item folks like telephone customer service people.

Good people deserve to hear feedback as it does not happen nearly enough.  This however, also needed attention.

Last night, I received a note in my email in box, via Yelp, from the general manager of the restaurant.  Here is what Luke wrote.

“Dear Charles,

My name is Luke, and I am the GM at xxxxxx ( I blocked out the name as it is not important).  I am writing on behalf of the Owner, Keith, who is the least tech savvy person on the planet and doesn’t know how to use a computer.

As soon as Keith hung up the phone with you, he knew he screwed up.  It was peak time hour at the restaurant, and he had a lot of his plate, but there is NO excuse for him not being patient with you and addressing your concerns.  Keith wanted to call you back and apologize, but we don’t have caller ID!  When we saw your review on Yelp, we were pleased that we would have a method of getting in touch with you.

We are in no way asking you to take down your review of us, or change it in any way.  What happened happened, and like I said there is no excuse for the way Keith treated you.  However, if you will allow us, we’d like to mail you a gift certificate so you can come have dinner on the house, and be given the respect and care you should have been shown the first time around.  If you decide to accept our offer, please send me an e-mail (address below) with your physical address, and I will be happy to mail you a gift certificate and a menu so you can look into the dietary needs you mentioned in your Yelp review.

Again, please accept our apologies for the way Keith treated you on the phone.  We look forward for the opportunity to make it right, and hope to hear back from you soon.

The reason why this GM could find me is that the review on the site is linked to an email that was sent to me.  The restaurant could not do it directly but using Yelp as a conduit, it could reach out and try and save the customer.

Not willing to hold a grudge, I sent Luke my address and will be willing to try the restaurant again with the family on another day.

The restaurant potentially gets a save.

As the consumer, I made sure my voice was heard and they responded and did the right thing.

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Do you use tools like Yelp to make sure you are listening to people speaking about your brand?  If not, you need to invest in resources like this to protect your business.

As a potential resource for this story, I went to the Yelp YouTube channel to view and link a “Hot To” video, but could not find one from the company.  Here is a YouTube user generated video for your viewing pleasure

Actively using social media tools means listening, monitoring, communicating, evaluating and monitoring your content, your brand and your messages. It takes time, patience, resources and a bit of experimentation. Yesterday morning, I received an email from an old college friend asking me to take a poll question.

My buddy Jeff asked: “Will this new Facebook Questions feature be better than Quora? “

I immediately answered his question and that got me thinking, wouldn’t it be nice to get additional feedback from my personal Facebook page to see which friends and colleagues click over to sportsinfo101.com to read the blog? I can always see if people make comments within Facebook about a post or if people like it, but I never know specifically which people actually read the entries.

It was time to do a bit of experimenting.  The first thing I had to determine was, where was the questions option located within Facebook?  Right in front of my face apparently.  The button is located near the top of the page, right between Status and Photo (see image below).

The next option was to determine the one simple question I wanted to ask my Facebook friends.  It was easy decision.  This is what I went with:

Do you click on my sports business blog, sportsinfo101.com when I link it to my Facebook page? I added in three custom answers.  Two of the three answers were obvious.  The options were:  Yes, No and the third answer I added was the most interesting.  I added:  ”Have Never Noticed it.”

Why did I include this option?  The streaming of posts we see from friends on Facebook is a never-ending sea of relevant or random information (and a few game apps that I would like to have removed forever).  Of course, some posts naturally gets lost and I was wondering if the link to my sports blog was missed in the daily scanning by my community.

I posted the question within my Facebook.  Once it filled the stream, I did not leave it at that.  There was an option to invite friends to answer the question and I picked some to specifically target and Facebook took care of the rest for me.

Here are the results as of last night.

Fifty-two people on Facebook answered the question so far.  The breakdown is:

23 people said yes, they do read this blog

9 said they did not

20 people answered that they have never noticed it

Let me just comment for one second on the folks that answered “no.”

First of all, I appreciated their honesty.  I even said so in the comments I sent as a follow up to the question.  However, for the record, those of you that answered no, and you would not know this since you are not reading this blog, including my best friend, you are officially cut out of my will.

As for real insight, here is what I found as a result of this little experiment.

1) I learned from the answers some of the people who really click through to this blog and I appreciate it.  I have a better insight of who my readership is.

2) In the future, I can target these people with a different set of questions in order to appeal to my reader’s interests.  I write what I think is interesting but now I can get their specific feedback.

3) The most interesting component for me was from those who answered, “Have Never Noticed It.”

It turns out that not all 20 of the folks who answered the question were actually my Facebook friends.  By going back and viewing who specifically answered the question, I found eight of the people were my friends and 12 people answered the question who I did not even know.

Why was that?

Once a friend answered the question, Facebook dropped the exchange in that person’s own information stream (see images below).

Others saw it and decided to answer the question as well.  The question became a viral element itself as now friends of friends could share their input.

The bottom line?  I could then ask these people to join my new Facebook page for sportsinfo101.com so they could be notified of new posts moving forward. — Which of course I did…..

Experiment and learning how to use Facebook Questions for Insight.

Time well spent.