Tuesday night, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White officially crossed the 1 million follower threshold on Twitter. But how? And with what strategy? More importantly, so what?

Although social networks have millions of users, in some cases hundreds of millions of users, there are actually less than 220 individuals or brands on Twitter who have ever passed the 1 million follower mark. And of those brands and individuals, few if any are Presidents of organizations–not to mention sports organizations.

Even fewer have the degree of two-way communication that Dana has with his followers. Communication that includes breaking news and rewarding followers in a personal way with everything from event tickets to autographed items. Communication that entails responding to followers–even if that means being blunt.

And that’s where strategy steps in. Through Twitter, Dana uniquely humanizes the UFC brand. Sure, a million followers are great but what’s the bigger picture? Dana White and the UFC brand now have a combined, tight-knit community of 1.3 million followers that not only disseminates news, but often dictates trending topics. The UFC’s social media efforts demonstrate that they listen to fans, engage with fans and deliver valuable information where, when and how fans want to receive it. The entire organization understands the value of this new form of communication. That’s pretty powerful.

Sure, pre-planning of the annual White Sox fan convention, SoxFest, included press conferences, media-only events, seminars stocked with current and former players, autograph sessions and thousands of square feet of White Sox merchandise, but it also involved something new.

New on the agenda? To make SoxFest 2010 the most interactive and virtual experience to-date. Intentions were two fold. Adding and making content virtual was one-part keeping out-of-state and international connected, and one part about unifying attendees as not just fans who share a mutual affinity for the same team, but as a tightly connected community.

And virtual it was. Full disclosure, VP of Communications for the White Sox, Scott Reifert, published a detailed list of initiatives that the White Sox had planned with Digital Royalty on his blog a week prior to the event–complete with two namesakes of the Digital Royalty brand: “Hide & Tweet” and “Twitter Tag.” Other specifics included videos of Digital Royalty’s Amy Martin interviewing player Mark Teahan about social media, fan videos, event photos, quotes from seminars, Q&A opportunities, mascot olympics, a Twitter/Facebook booth serving as the social media home base, and day-by-day video recaps–all of which would take place online or be housed on whitesox.com/soxfest. MLB White Sox-branded Flip cameras, iPhone’s and Twitter fingers were all ready to go.

In the two weeks leading up to the event, Reifert and White Sox staff hid SoxFest passes around Chicago and tweeted hints of their wherabouts prior to their location — “Hide & Tweet”. If winners weren’t already waiting for the tickets based on clues, they would arrive just five minutes after the location was divulged. In one case, a fan waited outside in chilly Chicago since 4:00 a.m. to snag tickets that wouldn’t be available via Twitter Tag until 6:00 a.m. The local NBC affiliate even joined the Twitter games and highlighted the activation live throughout the broadcast as their main anchor tweeted in attempt of winning the tickets.

When SoxFest had become sold out, the interactive aspect of SoxFest served a new purpose: to offer value to fans although they weren’t able to attend the event.

In turn, positive results were generated. Official White Sox accounts experienced across-the-board growth in follower counts, as well as interaction rates. Large crowds gathered to watch Chicago mascots (NFL Chicago Bear Staley and NHL’s Tommy Blackhawk to name a few) compete at mini Olympics. And, fans were given social media-exclusive opportunities to win autographed baseballs, t-shirts and bobble heads throughout the weekend.

Rewarding was the amount of conversation and gratitude that was shown throughout the three-day ordeal by fans. Countless tweets and comments such as “I love what you’re doing interactively, 4,000 miles away suddenly doesn’t seem so far.”

Let’s not kid ourselves, being featured in Vanity Fair is an honor. Controversy aside, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity. I have to admit, when I heard the news I immediately called a family member and dropped a Ron Burgundy, “I don’t know how to put this, but I’m kind of a big deal.”

There’s a bigger story and higher objective to the six of us that were featured: @FeliciaDay @PRSarahEvans @Pop17 @JuliaRoy @AdventureGirl @DigitalRoyalty. It’s more than just an article gone wrong. It’s a missed opportunity for the publication, their readers and those featured.

Since it’s web debut, the Digital Royalty team has been sitting around the office gossiping about all of the chatter surrounding the article as we watch American Idol and brush each other’s hair. Not. End sarcasm here (with a cheer).

Actually, we’ve been listening. It’s one of the things we do best. We’ve been monitoring the discussion because we all have a voice when it comes to social media. Let’s take a look at what’s going on from a bird’s eye view. The photo above represents a portion of the Vanity Fair online brand relative to the “America’s Tweethearts” article. We at Digital Royalty call it an online ecosystem. It’s very simple. Red is bad. Green is good. Vanity Fair is the epicenter. Stats show that people online are talking about this story three times more than the VF cover story on Tiger Woods. The tonality they’re using to describe the “America’s Tweethearts” article is nearly 70% overtly negative. Some of the most frequently used words which appear in the ecosystems’s semantic cloud include “hate”, “wrong”, “VFfail” and “rant”. Sentiment and semantics speak for themselves. Readers feel that Vanity Fair doesn’t get it.

Over the past few days, I have been intrigued with the voice behind the Vanity Fair twitter account. They’ve recognized a handful of the people that have strongly opposed their very own Tweethearts article by responding to their new haters and acknowledging valid points. It appears someone inside those traditional Vanity Fair walls ‘gets it’ and could probably turn this around given the proper counsel and support from above.

The topic of social media behind closed corporate doors can lead to heated debate. Believe me, I’ve been there.

Most ‘traditional’ media outlets cringed and were originally threatened by this zany monster called social media. They hoped it was just a trend. The media outlets that have embraced new forms of digital communication and found ways to converge mediums to leverage their brand’s influence probably have a better time sleeping at night.

Here’s what has kept me up the past few nights. Here’s where I call twullshit. Unlike assumptions made in the article, the fact is that all six women featured are more than just twitter handles. They are pioneers. Individuals and companies are making money off of Twitter. Maybe I wasn’t clear during the two-hour, one-on-one interview when I explained that I’ve built a business around this exact topic. My firm works with some of the most progressive, A-list brands who garner national and international media attention on a regular basis because of their social media strategies. In addition, Twitter is one of the key communication tools we use to generate revenue for our clients through e-commerce, endorsement/sponsorship deals and ticket sales.

For the sake of Vanity Fair, a publication I’ve respected and subscribed to for years, I hope that the human behind the @VanityFairMag avatar can be the catalyst for an evolution.

When I speak nationally about the value of social media and how to monetize it, I leave my cheerleading megaphone behind. Two months ago I showed the VF writer some tools and discussed Digital Royalty strategies, measurement philosophies and case studies. Well, now I’m the writer. Ironically, I’m applying those tools to the situation her article has created. There is a science to social media.

Until next time… you stay classy, Tweethearts.

Photo Credit: Michael Halsband

As we’re all gearing down from last-minute, overnight-shipping, how-do-I-wrap-a-basketball frenzy, it’s good to reflect on exactly how some of our favorite gifts came to us. No, not by sleigh, but e-commerce. Social media drove online sales up 300% for one dR client.

In the last few months surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas, we collaborated with our clients who sell products and merchandise online about how to utilize their preexisting social media presence and relationships to direct new and existing consumers to their online stores.

Discount Tire was one of these clients. After leaking promo codes and directing consumers to offers via Facebook and Twitter, Discount Tire experienced substantial results in terms of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, over-indexing from years prior.

But even if your brand isn’t in the business of exclusively selling retail products, perhaps e-commerce is a portion of your overall business. Take the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for example. The UFC and UFCStore.com needed initiatives that would inform consumers that they could still order gifts in time for Christmas, as well as direct them to their online property–free of off-tone, sales gimmicks. Enter Dana White. UFC President Dana White and UFC personnel selected a handful of their favorite apparel items, both male and female, from the UFC Store and shared them with their online network. Dana White posted his favorite hooded sweatshirt to nearly 1 million followers on Twitter, as well as his Facebook page. It was a personal touch that combined e-commerce and social media for astounding results.

The same year-to-year increase in sales were seen for the White Sox, who employed not an official White Sox account, but the social media channels of mascot Southpaw and Vice President of Communications Scott Reifert, encouraging fans to consider buying White Sox merchandise for their friends and family.

Since their addition to Twitter, trending topics have provided powerful insight into what’s being said not only domestically–but internationally. 

So when Twitter released their list of most discussed topics of 2009 on their blog Tuesday, the list not only reflected 12 months of conversation on Twitter, but the year’s most talked-about events. Events such UFC 100 and brands such as the Cavs–two clients that Digital Royalty works with. 

You can view the full list of most discussed topics of 2009 on Mashable, where Twitter divided the comprehensive list of topic into subcategories such as news, people, movies, TV shows, technology, sports and hashtags.

Bubba Watson is known on the golf course as the PGA Tour’s leading distance driver. But on Twitter, Bubba’s known as a professional athlete dedicated to fan engagement. Just look at his number of tweets on twitter.com/bubbawatson, which have surpassed 9,000 in two months.

So when Bubba was looking for a golfer to play a round with him in a charity tournament, Birdies for the Brave, he turned to his friends on Twitter.

On December 8, Bubba extended the offer to play a round with him in a tweet that read “I need a 4th Fri morn for Birdies for the Brave tourny! It’s starts at 8:00 then we shutgun at 10:00. Who wants to play?”

Hundreds of followers made their case to play with the PGA Tour golfer in 140 characters, and one lucky follower, @ShaneBacon, was selected–all via Twitter.

For a quick video of @BubbaWatson and @ShaneBacon at the event, click here.

Monday, December 6, the Roger Smith Hotel in New York City played host to the Sports Networker Summit (#NYCSports) co-hosted by Digital Royalty and Sports Networker. The four-panel, half-day summit featured an all-star list of speakers representative of progressive brands using social media within the sports industry. The NY Knicks, Rangers and NHL were represented on various panels while reps from the MLB, NFL and NBA attended. In true social-savvy form, individuals not able to attend the summit were able to follow along in real-time via live stream at http://livestream.com/sportsnetworker.

The panels covered a variety of topics all of which centered around the underlying theme of social media. From sports sponsorship ROI to ticket sales, service and retention. Separate panels focused on the convergence of traditional media and social media, as well as social media marketing and measurement. A lively conversation revolved around Tiger Woods and his level of involvement with social media.

Key takeaways included case studies of fan loyalty and retention via social media, to the value and process of being credentialed for pillars in the journalism industry such as The New York Times, versus bloggers. Discussion also focused on the trend of geo-tagging and the potential use in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

After the summit wrapped, attendees snacked on hors d’oeuvres and mingled with speakers such as New York Times Sports Editor, Tom Jolly, Founder of The Cuban Revolution, Brian Cuban, and Founder of Invoke Media, Ryan Holmes.

Photo Credit (from left): Amy Martin (Founder of Digital Royalty), Jim Bankoff (SB Nation CEO), Brian Cuban (Founder of The Cuban Revolution) and Tom Jolly (Sports Editor of The New York Times).

Shaquille O’Neal completed another of his Random Acts of Shaqness this morning when he hid an autographed Sports Illustrated magazine at the West Side Market in Cleveland, and tweeted it’s location to more than 2.5 million followers. It took a fan five minutes to find the signed copy of SI, and 30 minutes for local media such as Clevelander.com to cover the story. For the complete story, visit http://www.cleveland.com/ohio-sports-blog/index.ssf/2009/12/shaquille_oneal_autographed_sp.html.

Digital Royalty activated a twitter contest for client Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Nearly 1,000 fans showed up to participate.

Background: A fan had been tweeting under Shaquille O’Neal’s name on Twitter, yet because this was occurring prior to Twitter’s rollout of a verification process for celebrities, Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t publicly disprove the credibility of his impostor. Not only that, but if Shaquille O’Neal did create an account on Twitter, how would he humanize his mega-celebrity status in order to thrive in a social networking environment like Twitter?

Approach: Digital Royalty trained the basketball superstar, @The_Real_Shaq, how to tweet both strategically and tactically on his “ShaqBerry” (as he likes to call it) so that he could tweet himself; authentically. Most importantly, to turn followers of Shaquille into friends and brand loyalists, Digital Royalty developed the concept of Random Acts of Shaqness. The idea behind Random Acts of Shaqness was that not only would followers get to interact with a virtual friend in a tangible, real-world way, but followers of Shaquille would be rewarded for following Shaquille and for how closely they followed his tweets.

Results: Shaquille O’Neal is currently ranked among Twitter’s top 10 celebrity users according to WeFollow.com. In addition to having a well-established presence, 2.5 million followers strong, the threat of imposters have been abolished. Not only is Shaquille regarded as an early adopter, but his tweets often become news – a testament to his credibility in the space. Additionally, Shaquille is a groundbreaker for furthering the idea that celebrities on social networking sites can be active participants of a community—engaging, responding and meeting followers. And since pioneering Random Acts of Shaqness, the concept has been adopted by celebrities of all types on Twitter who include Ellen DeGeneres, UFC’s Dana White, Lenny Kravitz and Chad Ocho Cinco.