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NBA Continues to Slam Dunk with Social Media

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By: Dallas J. Short

The NBA gets it, they really really get it. They are aware their fanbase is younger and socially connected (read: addicted to smartphones and tablets). They strongly believe that “fan-generated content is the ultimate marketing.” Teams and players are both active and followers continue to grow. More than 87% of NBA players have one or more accounts and the league’s new campaign #ThisIsWhyWePlay has been successfully exploding. Numbers wise, it’s hard to deny their force. The NBA has 27.5 million (Facebook) and 17.7 million (Twitter). How does that compared to the other big leagues? NFL has 12.5 million (Facebook) and 13.9 (Twitter). MLB has 6.3 million (Facebook) and 5.3 million (Twitter). NFL has 3.9 million (Facebook) and 4.21 million (Twitter).

This season the NBA is bringing games to Facebook and Twitter. Subscribers to League Pass (or Team Pass, which for the first time grants access to all out-of-market games for a single team) will be able to go straight from social media (official NBA posts/tweets) through a “watch” link into the games they pay for and watch in real time. Non-subscribers can purchase access to a single game for $6.99. The NBA will become the first major U.S. professional sports league to offer a single option for fans throughout the regular season.  The single game offering, available for purchase three days prior to the game, will allow fans to watch individual NBA League Pass live games during the regular season. The only league doing it this way for streaming, where you don’t have to buy the entire package and can only watch what you want. I say again, the NBA gets it!

So instead of just hearing or reading about Steph Curry putting up another 30+ points in a game, you can watch it wherever you are at as well. If LeBron or someone is set to break another record, access that single game to see history happen. As a Sixers fan, the fear of throwing my phone becomes even more a risk. So, I think I will have stick to yelling at the television for at least a few more years.

Last season, there were 101 international players on opening-night rosters, which is almost 25% of the league. This new update allows international growth as well.

(From their press release) The NBA had a record breaking year on social media, adding 240 million new fans since the end of the 2013-14 regular season — a 40% increase and largest single-year total.  Overall, the NBA now has more than 811 million likes and followers combined across all league, team and player social platforms. The record year on social media for the NBA resulted in more than 31 billion impressions, up 130% over the previous season with record growth on NBA social platforms including:

Facebook: +4.8 million new likes, +22% (2 million total likes)

Twitter: +4.1 million new followers, +42% (13.9 million total followers)

Instagram: +3.5 million new followers, +151%, (5.8 million total followers)

YouTube: +665 million new videos viewed, +33% (2.7 billion total videos viewed)

NBA.com and NBA Mobile achieved all-time traffic records during the 2014-15 season with more than 16.7 billion page views and 4.2 billion video views combined, up 9% respectively when compared to the previous season.

While other leagues are trying to shut down user content, it’s great to see the NBA, under Adam Silver’s leadership, continue to grow and thrive while embracing their fans and wanting to do more for their overall experience.

Are you following the @NBA or your favorite teams and players on social media? Do you think you will watch games through the new watch link?

As always, if you enjoyed what you read, please be social and share. Please feel free to follow me @meddafore @indraPRGroup

 

Red Nose Day – May 21, 2015

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By: Dallas J. Short

Are you, your friends or your office participating in Red Nose Day?

Red Nose Day is a campaign dedicated to raising money for children and young people living in poverty by simply having fun and making people laugh. The inaugural Red Nose Day will be held in the U.S. on May 21, 2015. People across the country will come together to have fun and raise funds and awareness. The day’s events will culminate in a three-hour entertainment TV special on NBC featuring the country’s favorite comedians, musicians and Hollywood stars (you can check their website or social media for the long list or just tune in and be surprised.) The TV special will showcase top comedy and entertainment live and in pre-recorded segments, hosted by David Duchovny, Seth Meyers and Jane Krakowski. It will also highlight the issues for which Red Nose Day is fundraising. Viewers will be encouraged to make donations by phone and online. The monies received will be going to 12 charities working with children and young adults in the U.S. (where half of the money is going), Africa, Asia and Latin America.

This year’s Red Nose Day in the U.K. (March 13) raised over 121 million dollars so far and the number constantly increases with donations still pouring in. I’m guessing the U.S. donations will be a lot more.

#RedNoseDay is aimed at being a fun day. Yes, you will look like a clown, but it is for a great cause. This continues the trend of raising funds and awareness through doing ridiculous things. The Ice Bucket Challenge (ALS), dancing in adult underwear (Depend’s #Underawareness), and Color Runs (multiple organizations.) It might have already been coined, but it is what I refer to as #FUNdraisers.

Red noses have been available for purchase at Walgreens & Duane Reade stores across the country. You can locate a store near you here: http://www.walgreens.com/storelocator/find.jsp. A lot of locations are sold out, but keep looking or make one of your own. M&M’s has also partnered for the campaign.

About Red Nose Day: Red Nose Day was founded by Jane Tewson and Richard Curtis (writer and director of TV and films including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually). Comic Relief UK launched on Christmas Day in 1985 with a live broadcast from a refugee camp in Sudan. It was created out of the firm belief that the power of mass media and high-profile celebrities can raise awareness of issues of poverty to change and save millions of lives. For more information or to make a donation online: http://www.rednoseday.org

If this event somehow snuck below your radar, hopefully now that you are aware, you will participate. It is never a bad day when you can have fun and help others.

Here are some ideas for this year and to help you plan better for next year’s: https://www.rednoseday.org/get-ideas

Have you held or been involved with a philanthropic event based around having fun? What are your thoughts on #FUNdraisers?

Let’s laugh and do good.

As always, I welcome your comments and if you like what you read, be social and share. I look forward to seeing lots of pictures of people with red noses.

Get in the Game: Tips for Tweeting on Super Sunday

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By: Dallas J. Short
The big game is this Sunday and just because you might not have been able to afford an ad, does not mean you have to miss out on the opportunity for exposure. This is an excellent chance to grow and strengthen relationships. Here are a few tips:

1) Don’t Force It. If sports isn’t something that usually aligns with you or your company, don’t try to be a part of the event, just to do it. You would be the equivalent to a person jumping into a conversation and talking just to hear yourself speak, while others would stare and wonder why you are even there. However, do pay attention to the pre-game, game, half-time, post-game – something could come up or happen that you could be able to tie into with sincerity. The events being talked about are by fans, this is their game and their party, respect that and be a fun guest.

2) Know the Hashtags. Pay attention and follow what is trending and how it can apply to your involvement. You want to be in-the-know and relevant.

3) No Excessive Celebration. Do not try to come up with a clever quip and then think you won the game. Save your “Gronking.” Respond to people and put value into those conversations and interactions. Make people feel involved and appreciated, because they are and should be. Don’t respond to them how Marshawn Lynch might to the media.

4) Consistency is Key. If you are going to tweet during the event, make sure you’re not flooding timelines in the first half and then radio silence in the second. Well, you should not be flooding timelines at all. You want to tweet and to talk, but you do not want to be spammy and annoying.

5) Ear to the Ground. Listening is such an important and overlooked aspect of social media. You need to know who and what people are actually talking about. You need to understand the emotion and intensity, it is not just about the message you want to get out.

6) Don’t Hit the Locker Room Too Quick. Even after the game is over, the conversation and opportunities are not. This is a large scale event and conversations will continue to develop well after the clock has expired. Engage in relevant recaps and summaries. However, do not risk being “the last guy at the party,” if it’s dying out, it is ok to move on.

This Super Bowl is going to be a great game and with millions and millions spent on television advertising; there will also be millions and millions following along on social media. This is an opportunity for you and brands to connect and engage on a more natural level and develop meaningful interactions and relationships.
As always, I welcome any and all comments and if you like what you read be social and share.

Hating from the Sideline

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By: Dallas J. Short
Are you a fan of a sports team or athlete? Do you follow them on them social media? There is a good chance that if you said yes to the first question then you said yes to the second question, but here’s the curveball:

Do you consistently respond or engage with them positively on social media?
While it’s easy to like, favorite or retweet, the anonymity of social media has turned the comment/response option into a breeding ground for negativity, sarcasm and quips.

Social media allows us to feel more directly connected to our teams and athletes, but this is a privilege that many take for granted. Game play critiques are one thing, we all have opinions, but there should never be an excuse for death threats, racism, involving a player’s family and other such vile hate that has become all too commonplace.

The irony is most of the negative comments are from people who buy the jerseys and tickets for the people they are insulting. Though a lot of players will say they don’t read comments or let it affect them, truth is – they do and players can struggle when heckling turns into hate.
Trust me, I understand the frustration of being a loyal sports fan – the past few years as a Miami Hurricanes / Philadelphia Phillies & 76ers haven’t been the most cheerful, to say the least. Why would I want to do anything that risks making it worse?

It comes down to this: sports are great, (now I’m going to give you a second to sit down), but they pale in importance to other things in real life. Would you tweet at your boss for a new hire you disagree with? Would you like your doctor to blast you online for unhealthy habits? How would you react if the person you cut off in traffic this morning made public death threats towards your children?

If an athlete angers you to the point where you become so upset it leads to outbursts, rants and colors your view on the game, just breathe and let it go. Seriously, it’s not that serious. Hate is such a wasted emotion – disengage and move on.

Will this change? Optimism aside, this is a growing trend that will probably continue to worsen. The downside to that, it is going to chase away the value of interaction for fan, athletes, teams and everyone involved. Sports should be our break, our getaway, our release. Have fun and remember why you love it. Think before you post and remember there are no championship rings given for being a “tough guy.”
Do you agree? Disagree? There is a comment section below here as well.

As always, if you like what you read be social and share.

Great Tips on How to Strategically Build Your Social Media Following

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By: Gina Mason

Creating a loyal and interactive fan base is extremely important when developing a successful social media marketing strategy, but it can also be very difficult. After all, if you don’t have many followers, your messaging is not going to get far.

We often see people try to boost their following overnight by purchasing followers and while this method may look great on paper, they are wasting time and money spreading their message to fake accounts and completely missing their target audience. So how do you build a quality following organically? Well, let me start by saying that this process isn’t simple and it may take some time, but the quality vs. quantity theory applies when it comes to getting your company’s message out there.

Outside of the common tips such as “follow more people” and “be more engaging or interactive,” there are so many additional ways to increase your following and build buzz around your social media accounts and business. I recently read a fantastic article from Inc. written by Jayson Demers called, “39 Ways to Get More Social Media Followers” that I found to be extremely beneficial and useful. Here are 10 of my favorite tips from the article and I hope you find these to be as helpful as I did.

1. “Reach out to influencers: Find influencers in your niche using a tool such as Buzzsumo, and then share their content, tag or mention them, or comment on their blogs. As you build relationships, they are more likely to share your content with their followers.
2. Identify popular posts to get more shares: Getting new fans often comes down to how often your content gets shared. A tool like Fanpage Karma can help you identify the most popular posts in your niche.
3. Use relevant hashtags: Use a tool like Hashtagify.me to find relevant and trending hashtags. Use these in your posts to attract new followers who are searching for those hashtags.
4. Post viral content: Easier said than done, right? Post Planner can help by providing you with images and content that have been proven to go viral.
5. Add Facebook and Twitter widgets to your site: Go beyond simple social media icons, and use a Facebook Like Box or Twitter Embedded Timeline on your site or blog.
6. Build network-specific landing pages: Create landing pages on your site for visitors from each social network you’re on, and then link to these pages in your social media bios. This may increase your follows only marginally, but you should see an increase in traffic and conversions.
7. Use humor: Evoking emotions (positive or negative) through your posts is great for increased sharing; however, posting funny or happy content will net you more sharing overall.
8. Reshare other people’s content: Share posts, images, and tweets from other businesses, and they’ll be more likely to share yours.
9. Be relatable: Let your fans and followers know you’re a real person rather than a faceless business; this will make sharing your content with their friends feel like less of a risk.
10. Make your blog content tweetable with a click: Use a plugin such as Inline Tweet Sharer to encourage visitors to share your tweetable content.”

To read the full article, visit: http://www.inc.com/jayson-demers/39-ways-to-get-more-social-media-followers.html

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As always, if you like what you read be social and share.

Productivity Tips for the New Year

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By: Gina Mason

As we welcome 2015, many of us reflect on the past year and begin to think about all of the things that we can improve upon. One common New Year’s resolution that many people have (outside of losing weight or joining a gym) is to be more productive. In our world of constant connectivity, smartphones and multitasking, it is hard to stay productive when we have millions of distractions a day. For most of us, it seems like the days get shorter and we find ourselves saying, “if only, there were more hours in the day.”

I recently read a fantastic Huffington Post article titled, “12 Habits of Productive People” with some great tips on how productive people get things done effectively and efficiently. Here are a few of my favorite tips from the article, in hopes to help us all make 2015 our most productive year yet:

Don’t be chained to your email.
We have all done it, spent hours and hours scanning our inboxes and constantly hitting reply, send or delete. According to the expert, Robert Pozen, “email is one of the biggest barriers to productivity” because people “are overwhelmed” by it and “don’t know how to deal with it.” He suggests checking your email every hour or so and save time by skimming the subject lines.

Make your to-do list count.
One of my favorite things to do is to make to-do lists. Call it my Type-A personality or simply call me crazy, but I find them to be an incredibly helpful tool to stay organized. However, expert Adam Grant suggests, “starting off [your to-do list] with an easy task to provide a sense of momentum, then moving on to a grander or more important task. That way, the positive energy from the first task carries over to the second task.” Feeling sluggish after all of that work? Try “switching back to an easier task to rejuvenate and regain a sense of progress before going back to a harder, more time-consuming task.”

Have a plan for distraction.
Things happen all the time that keep us from getting work done. Keep yourself in the game and one step ahead by planning for distraction. Grant suggests trying to “anticipate any possible distractions and then come up with solutions for avoiding them.”

Sharing is caring.
The term “sharing is caring” comes to mind, but not for the traditional use. The article suggests that telling someone that you are working on something makes you more accountable. This “self-imposed accountability” will keep you on track because you won’t want to let that person down.

It only takes a few small changes to make you more productive and with time, these small changes can make huge difference. Here’s to a very happy, healthy, prosperous and productive New Year! Cheers to 2015!

As always, I welcome your comments and if you like what you read be social and share.

The Difference Between Marketing and Public Relations

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By: MJ Pedone

The terms marketing and public relations seem to always be confused and intertwined. While they do compliment each other, there certainly is a difference between the two. I’m frequently asked the difference and below I have included the differences.

Marketing
Marketing is the development of an image through collateral strategies such as your website, logo, ads, writing, social media, bio and a media kit. Experienced marketing and design professionals will assist with writing and developing your marketing materials, which will save you money in the long run. Marketing professionals will brand you the way you want and in a timely fashion.

Public Relations
Public Relations is the development and management of an image. This consists of media outreach which includes print, tv, radio, digital, social media, blogging, charity/non-profit outreach, obtaining endorsements and the distribution of press releases and media kits.

The majority of people think that public relations is an area where they can save money and do the work themselves. Writing press releases and sending them to media outlets isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. The time involved in writing the releases and researching the correct contacts can take almost an entire day. Do you know the techniques involved in writing an eye-catching press release and how to obtain the correct contacts to submit your release to? Or how to “pitch” your story so that those reading it are eager to hear more and feature you? Editors today are over-pitched and hit the delete button very quickly so you will need to make sure that you don’t fall into that category.

Here are some tips when you should hire a PR expert:
• You have a solid marketing plan in place
• You want to utilize a professional who has existing relationships with the media
• You understand the value of hiring a team experienced in executing successful PR campaigns.
• You realize that although you have experience in your industry, a PR professional will brings added value to the table
• You realize that you won’t gain the earned media and awareness that you seek by just talking about it and need to hire someone who can

The power of PR can catapult your brand instantly. Start with a solid marketing plan using experienced professionals and than launch your PR campaign with a public relations team who has the experience and contacts to do so. Let the publicist do what they do best while you tend to the day-to-day needs of your business.

Do you use a publicist to get the message out for your company? Is your campaign effective? As always, we welcome your comments and if you like what you read, be social and share.

Four Great Ways to Generate Publicity

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By: Jenifer Wetterau

One of the big challenges in PR is making your client’s brand perpetually relevant. It can be quite tough to come up with fresh ideas to pitch and post at those inevitable times the company finds itself in a newsworthy content drought. Touting the same product or service day after day will only serve to turn customers off – exactly what you DON’T want to happen. So what do power publicists do to earn media mentions? Here are a few ideas:

Make the most of every event</strong
Many brands are great at building buzz before events, but the most successful ones continue to generate publicity during, and long after the guests go home. Make the most of all the hard work you put into the event by live-streaming it with a top-tier broadcaster, allowing online viewers to act as voyeurs. Create a unique hashtag and tease it out a few weeks prior to, and during, the event. You should also record footage for multiple follow up posts and to tease your next event. Great, sharable visuals will always boost your brand image. The last thing you may want during a stressful event is to give yourself more work, but this will pay off infinitely. Offer your audience multiple ways to interact with the event and they will generate news for you. Keep the conversation going and the content from your event will continue to spread throughout the interwebs.

Newsjacking
Talk about what people are talking about, when they are talking. To practice real time marketing communication, identify a hot, trending topic and jump on it. Give your opinion on something that’s relevant to the brand and adds value to the story. Very easy, and since both Twitter and Facebook’s display real time trending topics, it’s a no-brainer when you’re in a pinch. The key is time is of the utmost essence. You don’t want to be late to the party, posting content on a topic that’s been long-exhausted.

Tap into tastemakers
Not every brand has a large budget to hire a celebrity to endorse their products. The next best thing? Your customers. They are appealing because they speak authentically and offer credible, unbiased reviews. People are more likely to believe a peer more than polished marketing and PR content. How do you tap into this resource? Give influential members a sneak peek into your service, offer a demo to select people, or send your product to key influencers. Your brand ambassadors will do the rest! Everyone loves to be asked for their opinion. Make sure to monitor and engage with their feedback.

Get involved with a charity
Tying your brand to a charitable organization not only demonstrates the altruistic nature of your company, but also offers additional media opportunities. Whenever the charity is in the news, you will most likely be mentioned as well. Give your time, product, and use your staff and resources to do something exciting and different to help the charity.

Your turn. What are your favorite strategies to hold the media and public’s attention for your clients? I’m interested in what has worked for you.

As always, if you like what you read, be social and share.

Volkswagen: Eyes on the Road

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By: Eliza Borish

Recently, the car company, Volkswagen, released an interactive PSA called “Eyes on the Road” in a Hong Kong movie theatre to show moviegoers the consequences of texting and driving. Using a first-person perspective of driving a car with only the arms of the driver being visible, the Volkswagen ad uses a location-based service to send a text message to each of the unsuspecting audience members while the video (and the car) continues forward. While the audience digs into their pockets to check the text message they just received, the vehicle on screen crashes, shattering the windows to the car and jolting everyone out of their seats. When the audience finally realizes that the person behind the wheel on screen is representative of them, it becomes clear that their wrongdoing—of texting while driving—causes the car crash. Immediately, in black writing the words “mobile use is now the leading cause of death behind the wheel” appears on a white background bringing forth the significance of the interactive ad that just occurred and the need for changing standards when it comes to mobile use within vehicles.

I’ve watched the video a few times now and every time the audience reaches to see their phone, I brace myself for what’s coming: I know there is about to be a car crash, yet I feel equally as unprepared and shaken when the car crash does in fact occur. So what does this mean for Volkswagen, the company behind the commercial?

Personally, it seems like a brilliant move if you ask me. With this commercial, Volkswagen is essentially killing two birds with one stone. From a marketing standpoint, the ad is an effective and strategic tool. Because of its original view point and its interactive ability, the commercial shows the importance of and highlights Volkswagen’s strong commitment to safe driving while also generating traffic and buzz to the Volkswagen brand itself. From a safety standpoint and using a clever PSA for the specific audience in the video and essentially all viewers of this video, it hones in on the point that texting and driving is plain stupid. Often people believe that bad things won’t happen to them and that they are indestructible and while I pray that no one gets into an accident due to a mobile distraction, the reality is, is that these things do happen. So to put the audience in the scene of the accident (and crime) sends a successful, yet chilling message: if you text and use mobile devices while driving, the person in that car on the screen next time could be you.

Down to the core of it, this commercial is relaying the visual that it is better to be jolted out of your seat in a movie theatre from an unsuspecting car ad than jolted out of the drivers seat from an incoming car or tree or anything that could become a target when your eyes (and mind) wander to a screen instead of focusing on the road. When you are on the road, a simple text message can wait and that’s what Volkswagen is emphasizing in this new commercial.

At the end of the day, this PSA is just an ad and the line between PSA and ad merges. For Volkswagen, however; it is a smart marketing tactic that accomplishes multiple things. Between the audience and the brand, there is a sense of trust and reliability created; it feels as if Volkswagen has the audience and future drivers’ backs by wanting to promote safe driving. Additionally, Volkswagen is evoking brand awareness and promotion by creating a viral, effective and highly regarded ad. Lastly, Volkswagen uses a new feature interaction to accentuate the overall ad experience for both themselves as a brand and their target, the audience. Overall, whether you think this commercial is for the audience or for the brand or you think it’s a PSA alone or an ad alone, there is one thing you can’t deny: it is very effective in all senses and to me, that is a win-win.

What do you think about Volkswagen’s “Eyes on the Road” PSA? Do you think its effective as a marketing ad? What about as a PSA? As always, I welcome your comments and spread the word.