Social Video CEO

Midtown Manhattan, New York City

Last week, I was on the east coast and had the opportunity to attend The Social Sports Marketing Leadership Forum in New York City, and learn more about how organizations and companies supporting the sports industry connect to fans. I heard representatives from several prestigious groups talk about why they have embraced social networks and Facebook, in particular. The presenters included Andrew Giangola of NASCAR, Philip Grieco of MARS (yes, the candy company), Pat Coyle – consultant to the Indianapolis Colts, Peter Robert Casey – a sports blogger, Mark Fratto – athletics director from St. John University, Vince Thomson and Michelle Grech of MELT and others.

Sports marketers have figured out that Facebook is a huge distribution platform and network. They are creating innovative Fan pages that help them bring in even more fans. To keep everyone interested they continually distribute information about products, events and tickets.

Some compelling social media statistics from the event site:

In December 2009, consumers spent 82 percent more time on social networking sites compared to the same period a year ago, according to The Nielsen Company. The average global consumer now spends more than five and half hours per month on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, up from 3 hours in December 2008. The National Basketball Association has about 1.7 million fans on Facebook. On Twitter, The NBA and the NFL have more than 1.6 million and almost 1.35 million followers, respectively. Meanwhile, NBA star Shaquille O’Neal (2.55 million) and cyclist Lance Armstrong (2.22 million) rank among the top 20 people followed, comparing favorably with President Barack Obama (2.69 million) and talk show host Oprah Winfrey (2.63 million

Sports fans participate in the social media phenomenon for self expression, for affinity to the group and because their friends have joined the group. Businesses are using their sports-related Facebook presence to get access to these fans and to generate revenue. Revenue for a sports team can come from sponsorships, selling the tickets or branded merchandise.

Savvy sports marketers are moving beyond the old school and traditional Web 1.0 and embracing a more social and mobile web. Sponsors want attention from fans. They seek consideration and actions that will lead to revenue. They want to do more than create traffic, they want to sell tickets and merchandise.

Pat Coyle of Coyle Media maintains Sports Fan Graph that tracks majors sports teams on Facebook and Twitter. Click here to check it out! If interested in all the happenings in major sports world, you can follow Peter Robert Casey on Twitter.

Vpype and Sports Marketing

Marketing with ‘social video’ can increase the engagement level of a fan base. We have already seen this from our filmmaker interviews (Barrie Osborne, Julie Richardson and the gang, Jeremiah Birnbaum) and Hollywood screenplay pitch contest (led by Julie Richardson and Cindy McCreery). By integrating Vpype with a Facebook Fan page, players or NASCAR drivers can communicate via live video to their fans/followers. Their live video interaction can help them tell their story and host an authentic social conversation on Facebook.

Vpype Promotional Platform

Vpype Promotional Platform provides brands the ability to manage and control social video broadcasts from an unlimited number of Facebook pages inside and outside the Facebook ecosystem. Vpype Promotional Platform can be customized and branded for businesses, brands, studios and talent to connect with their communities.

Brands know that leveraging Facebook for campaigns is essential. Vpype’s private-labeled offering of Vpype Live Broadcaster provides a turnkey, social video solution that brings brands and fans together, seamlessly.

Tags: andrew giangola, Barrie Osborne, cindy mccreery, Facebook, facebook fan pages, indianapolis colts, julie richardson, live video, mars candy, nascar, pat coyle, peter robert casey, philip grieco, shoieb yunus, social media, social video, Vpype

This entry was posted on May 25, 2010 at 9:00 PM and is filed under Facebook, social networking, social sports marketing, social tv, social video, sports marketing, technology, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.