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basketball

Social Media Finals: The Heat vs. The Mavericks

June 9, 2011

By: Kirsten Stubbs

As the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat, two teams with intensely loyal fans and standout players, play game 5 of the 2011 NBA Finals, it seems like the perfect time to evaluate their respective performances on a different court: social media. Here are our picks for the inaugural 2011 NBA Social Media Finals:

First Round: Audience

If this were a pure game of numbers, the Miami Heat would win in a blowout. With their 3 million Facebook “likes” and 216,000 Twitter followers dwarfing the Mavs’ 770,000 and 79,000, respectively, there’s not much competition.  The Heat also emerge victorious in a hashtag battle: In the last week, #LetsGoHeat has been used 7,949 times in comparison to #LetsGoMavs being used 1,952 times. But at Digital Royalty, we know that cold metrics (likes and follows) are only a part of the equation.

Winner: Miami Heat, plain and simple.

Second Round: Engagement

Like most Facebook Pages with large numbers of subscribers, there is little engagement in the form of comments and post “likes” from the Mavs and Heat. The Heat has instead taken advantage of Facebook polls to stimulate conversation.

However, on Twitter, conversing with fans through retweets, replies and mentions is much easier for both teams. While the Dallas Mavericks mainly retweet accounts associated with their team, The Heat reply to fans’ questions and comments and retweet followers’ content frequently. The Heat also use hashtags more effectively, using #HEATPlayoffs to track conversations on Twitter. The Mavs have dabbled in several different hashtags, making the buzz less trackable.

Winner: Miami Heat

Conference Finals: Content/Value Offering

When it comes to content and delivering value to fans, The Mavs and Heat excel in different areas.

Live Tweeting: Those stuck at work or without access to a television can easily keep up with the game by following The Heat’s Twitter stream. The tweets are not only fast-paced and informative, but portray the excitement of the game. The tweets are categorized with easily identifiable hashtags.

Contests and Offers: If you are observant and participatory enough, you could probably win a free Mavericks-themed wardrobe and free tickets to just about any game through their social media. The team is constantly featuring deals for Mavericks fans at restaurants and businesses as well as contests to win tickets and merchandise. It pays to be a Mavs fan online.

The Heat offer periodic discounts on merchandise and tickets, but nothing as robust as The Mavericks.

Exclusive Content: Both teams offer exclusive content on Facebook and Twitter, with The Heat featuring behind-the-scenes videos and quotes and The Mavs posting podcasts recapping the game.

Commerce: Each team has an iframe-based store on Facebook. While they are both convenient and functional, The Heat’s serves as the Facebook landing page and includes a social stream of tweets, a “Like” button and even addresses you by name. Kind of creepy, kind of awesome. The overall design is cleaner and more user-friendly.

Winner: Tie. The Mavericks would have taken it if it weren’t for the avatar generator I just came across on The Heat’s Facebook page.

Finals: Social MVP’s

To fans, players are the team brand. Being able to connect with a favorite athlete increases fan affinity as well as desire to attend games, buy merchandise and become a brand loyalist.

The standout social media players on The Heat and The Mavs, respectively, are Dwyane Wade and Shawn Marion. Their tweet styles are as distinct as they are different. Wade is a Twitter professional – an eloquent tweeter, UberSocial user and fervent believer in hashtags. It’s not surprising he has more than 1.2 million followers. His tweets are often exclusive and always chockfull of interesting content.

Marion, in contrast, is a spur-of-the-moment tweeter, consistently tweeting personal thoughts from “Step Brothers” quotes to daily good morning tweets and sock TwitPics, conversing with his 75,000 fans, and shunning common English mechanics to create a personal, unrefined voice all his own.

Winner: Shawn Marion (Dallas Mavericks). His breezy style and endearing potpourri of personal content gives him a slight edge over Wade’s quality, yet sometimes ‘salesy’ tweets.

Bonus points also go to the Mavs for a stellar performance from owner Mark Cuban. The social media savvy Cuban is a frequent tweeter, blogger and commentator of all media. His authenticity is undeniable and refreshing. Plus, he has his own Facebook game called “BattleBall.” Cool.

Champion: Miami Heat

Both teams have well-executed social media campaigns, but overall, the Heat edge out the Mavs by going above and beyond standard online presence and community engagement. From their comprehensive e-commerce Facebook tab to captivating live tweeting of games, The Heat has improved since last year. In a league that stands out in the social media world, teams and players have to actually engage in order to stand out themselves. The Heat have prevailed during their moment in the spotlight.

Shaquille O’Neal Retires… Social Style

June 3, 2011

Digital Royalty has worked closely with Shaquille O’Neal for more than two years to develop his online brand and media network comprised of 6 million friends. Over the course of Shaquille’s historic career in the NBA spanning nearly two decades, he’s had plenty of BIG nicknames:  Big Diesel, The Big Shaqtus and The Big Shamrock. But like many of his fans, Digital Royalty has always seen him as The Big Social Media Center.

As the most-followed American athlete and first verified celebrity on Twitter, Shaquille has used social media to deliver value directly to his fans when, where and how they wanted to receive the value. He did this before it was the popular thing to do. Few celebrities “got it” early on. From performing Random Acts of Shaqness and bantering with fans to posting hilarious videos and inspirational quotes, he has an innate ability to make his millions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers feel like close friends. He has allowed his friends to see the person behind the personality.

Shaquille naturally wanted to deliver the biggest announcement of his career  – his retirement – directly to his fans, the people who have made the past 19 years possible. Digital Royalty Founder and CEO, Amy Jo Martin, was with Shaquille to help him activate the announcement and engage with fans afterward. In case you missed it, view Shaquille’s retirement announcement is here.

A letter written in 1993 from Shaquille’s long time mentor, Coach Dale Brown, was posted to Shaquille’s Facebook fan page for his fans to read along with his retirement announcement. Digital Royalty is launching Shaquille’s Social Media Museum and allowing fans to take a trip down memory lane in the coming days. He will be touring his fans around his home via www.Tout.com/shaq videos and sharing memories, memorabilia and Shaqisms.

Within five minutes of the announcement, #ShaqRetires was the number one worldwide trending topic on Twitter. With more than 175 million users on Twitter who send 150 million+ tweets per day, that speaks for itself. The world was watching and helping him celebrate virtually. Digital Royalty’s Founder and CEO, Amy Jo Martin, was quoted on SportsCenter, ”Shaquille is the media. He didn’t need a press release so the media could tell the world he’s retiring in their words. He told his millions of friends directly, in his own words. The social influence he has built has given him the freedom to leapfrog the middleman.”

So what’s next for Shaquille? A hunt for a new nickname and maybe Kazaam 2? A rejuvenated rap career? Backup dancing for his buddy Justin Bieber or another stint with the Jabbawockeez? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: Shaquille’s fans will be the first to know.

It’s been an honor to work with someone who truly understands the power of being human and rising above a brand to deliver value how, when and where fans want it. Digital Royalty is excited to play a part in the next chapter of Shaquille’s career. “I’ve had the honor to join Shaquille in his journey over the past few years. His number one goal is to make people smile and laugh. Lucky for us, he will now have even more time to entertain all of his friends.” says AmyJo Martin.

You can follow all of the retirement announcement Shaqtion here: #ShaqRetires

Post image for The Miami Heat Goes MIA

The Miami Heat Goes MIA

July 9, 2010

A few hours ago, I watched “The Decision” on ESPN and Lebron made his announcement. He’s Miami bound. So, I decided to click over to the Heat’s official Twitter page to see what they had to say and I discovered the unimaginable. They were speechless. Hadn’t tweeted a peep in over six hours.

Where were they I asked? How could they not show up to their own party? Did the NBA make them sit on their thumbs? Nope, because other NBA teams were active even though things didn’t net out as they’d hoped.

This was their time to shine. The spotlight doesn’t get much warmer than this. It was important for them to have a presence especially in the HEAT of their moment. The team just spent nearly $300 million on three people and the World was talking about them.

This was a land grab. Brand new eager fans and old fans with renewed hopes were ready to take a step up on their loyal fan ladder. They would have loved to hear from the official voice of the team. Instead, they heard an outdated message. The Heat’s Twitter page was still trying to recruit D. Wade who announced 48 hours prior that he was committed to their team along with Bosh.

What happened to the human behind the brand? Did the social media intern go on vacation? Thumb sprain perhaps? Maybe the Twitter password was misplaced? Nope, because Facebook was the same. I was expecting to see a virtual pep rally or live video of Will Smith performing “Welcome to Miami.” but instead I heard crickets.

Wouldn’t it have been nice to have Chris Bosh and D. Wade streaming live from the court? Maybe a little Miami Thrice music playing up and under? J. Lo could have popped in to do the happy dance with crowned Heat dancers? They could have RT’d all the celebs who were celebrating, or simply expose the emotion inside the office. The Miami Heat was the glue to make a production like this happen and tell the story . . .  virtually . . . live.

There were missed sponsorship opportunities as well. The Heat could have sold their twitter background, integrated marketing partners who are welcoming King James with open arms (and open checkbooks).

Then about an hour later, they arrived. Well, kinda. They shared the same quotes from their coach that we’re also live on TV. Fans want photos, exclusive video, things nobody else can hear, what insiders are saying, what it’s like to work in the front office right now . . . these are things that only the Heat could have provided. Nobody else on this planet had access like they did. Opportunity missed.

Lesson: This space is alive and it doesn’t turn off. You can’t disappear all of a sudden because fans will stop trusting you. Fans are GRADING you at all times.

And, the way Lebron and Dan Gilbert handled this is another post.