It seems to be a formula that people consume easily though, so here are my 5 reasons why your business should not be using social media.

1. Because it’s new and cool.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people out there making social media pitches based purely on fashion. There’s a buzz out there. It’s new and improved. If you don’t have it, you are missing out. Every couple of years, something comes along that changes the way people behave. Just because something is covered by the media, does not mean that real people are using it as part of their everyday lives.

2. Because it’s massive. .

I guarantee you that if you have sat through a social media pitch, that you have been bombarded with figures like ‘If Facebook was a country, it would the 4^th largest in the world’. The country with the 4^th biggest population is Indonesia, yet my bet is that your business has no presence there. What’s more, you probably don’t have any plans to be in Indonesia any time soon. That’s because pure market size is not the only thing that matters to real businesses.

Last week there was a story about how Pepsico were going to use location service FourSquare for marketing purposes. The article reported that FourSquare has a million users. Let’s put that another way – there are about 308 Million people who don’t use FourSquare in the US alone.

3. Because your customers are interacting with each other on social media.

In 2008 there were an estimated 6.5 billion texts sent every month in the UK, but the vast majority were between individuals. There are very few companies (other than mobile networks) that have successfully used SMS text messaging for business.

Just because your customers and potential customers are talking to each other on social media is no guarantee that they want to interact with your business.

4. Because it’s cheap.

Anyone can set up a YouTube account. It doesn’t cost anything to create a Twitter feed or a Facebook page. Creating a LinkedIn Group takes minutes and you can blog away for free on all many of platforms.

Once it’s been set up, you can get an intern or an expert social media consultant to represent your brand assets the best way they see fit, despite in many cases not having any marketing or business credentials.

You’ve probably spent a lot of time and money to create your brand, why risk devaluing one of your most important business assets by cutting corners.

5. Because your competitors are doing it.

I’ve always had a dislike for consultants who think that their technology based model can be applied across industries and businesses without any need for modification. Look out for a social media pitch that tells you that you need to be on social media because there are others in your industry that are doing it. There are probably competitors of yours that do trade-shows or sponsorship or other outdoor advertising that you might not do. Me-too is never a reason to do anything.

1 Reason Your Business Should be Using Social Media.

There are many reasons why your business may benefit from using social media including; better customer service, increased brand awareness, targeted product positioning and understanding your customer’s requirements, but the number one, and only reason that your business should be using social media is…

Because it will deliver you revenue.

Social Media is just another weapon in your sales and marketing arsenal. It has a cost and it has a return. The only reason you should consider using social media for your business is if it is going to have a positive impact on the bottom line.

Value social media the same way you would value any other sales and marketing spend. What are your objectives? How do you know if you have succeeded?

If you are being told that engaging in the conversation is enough and hopefully over time it may lead to sales, then ask yourself how much of your marketing budget you are willing to invest in that hope.

If on the other hand, you are being told how social media can have an impact on key metrics within your business like; transaction frequency, basket value, margin, customer satisfaction and loyalty, market share, recall rate, cost per lead and return on investment, then evaluate those numbers against your current marketing options and make a business decision.

Topic One – The positives and negatives of an organisation (brand, governing body or rights-holder) getting deeply involved in social media

The use of the phrase ‘Social Media’ means a lot of different things to different people. For many, it is a catch-all for a few well known sites like Facebook, Youtube, Flickr and Twitter. For others, the definition is broader and includes web 2.0 enabled blogs and some gaming applications.

While there is no doubt that these platforms have a huge number of users, they are hyped a little by the media and those who work in the digital industry. Many sports organisations have reason to ask questions about the relative merit of different platforms, but I think that the time has come where the opportunities do outweigh the benefits.

To put this question into some historical perspective, rephrase the question to “what are the positives and negatives of getting a fax machine or a post box or publishing your switchboard number on your website.

According to figures presented by Comscore at the conference, Facebook is the largest site on mobile – bigger even than Google. This is no real surprise – mobile is a person to person communication media and Facebook is a person to person platform.

So to answer the question (something I was accused on Twitter of not doing on the panel)

Positives.

Social Media is another channel. Another touchpoint. Another mechanism to listen to and communicate with partners, customers and fans. At the very least, these mechanisms make it more convenient for your fans to receive your news and content.

The listening part is important. While some may focus on the negatives of being open to criticism (See Negatives) others see that the feedback channel is a great way to improve the product, to understand what works and what doesn’t and to adapt to that feedback. This is another way of saying that the voices are a diverse set of opinions that are perhaps more useful than the groupthink of old white males that usually make the decisions.

Social media provides an immediacy that other media cannot. This is not just what fans are saying, it is what they are saying now, and in many cases their location can also be determined. The insights from social profiles and monitoring of sentiment in conversations provide a level of demographic information that traditional registration forms can’t match.

Finally, there are demonstrable benefits of using Social Media for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Obviously the more times your team, club, organisation or sponsor is mentioned on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc with a link back to your site, the more highly it will score with Google, Bing and the like. This will become even more important as Google moves to include real-time results in it’s search mechanism.

Negatives.

Many of the negatives associated with Social Media are actually not problems with the technology. A lot of the negative perceptions of social media come from a misunderstanding about the true nature of who is using it and how it is used.

It is true that anything negative will be amplified and accelerated by Social Media. A larger group of people will be exposed to comments and if the correct procedures are not in place then this can get out of control quickly.

Many of the negatives associated with Social Media can be fixed with good business practises and policies, so here are some of the issues to consider.

The use of social media when done properly will require resources that may not exist in the organisation. There is no point in doing it for the sake of doing it, if you are going to engage in a conversation with your most important stakeholders via this mechanism, then you need to show them that you are committed and you take it seriously.

I disagree with the sentiment that you can “throw a rock out the window, hit a teenager and get them to run your social media programme.” Better to invest in training the people who understand your business, its products and culture to represent you and your brands online.

Social Media is two way. This scares a lot of businesses who are worried about criticism. Many sports organisations, particularly governing bodies have a tendency to be faceless bureaucrats, sitting behind gatekeepers and policy. But here’s the thing – people will use social media to criticise you and your policies whether you are there or not. You can’t stop it. You can’t control it. You can’t spin it. The best that you can hope for is that you can influence key people via participating to see your point of view.

Read Part 2 – Monetisation of Social Media for Sport

The Who’s Who of yacht racing will be in town to discuss many of the issues that are affecting the sport as a business, to network and to forge partnerships. Pilote Media CEO, David Fuller says:

There are not many opportunities to get everyone together in the same room and talk about issues that affect the business of yacht racing. From where we sit, looking at the sport as a whole, there are plenty of opportunities for sailing to do things better. There are a few innovators, but that doesn’t mean that the sport can’t learn from best practise elsewhere. Networking and getting a view on what others are doing should help the sport to grow.

Via Yachtsponsorship.com, Pilote Media will be using several social media platforms to report on the Monaco event, but they probably wont be the only ones. David says:

As a whole, the sport of yacht racing is still scrambling to understand some of the new media opportunities. Certainly many of the brands in the sport just don’t get it, but there are innovators. Mark Turner’s Twitter updates over the last few days for example, describing the unfolding events with their Open60 BT have been compelling because they have a timeliness and a human element. I imagine that the twitter feeds from the World Yacht Racing Forum will be quite entertaining, so keep watching #WYRF.

The World Yacht Racing Forum is also a great opportunity for Pilote Media to promote the DARK BLUE BOOK. The directory is modelled on similar references for other sports and is a useful resource for anyone in the business of yacht racing. The 2009 edition was welcomed by many as a great way to define those in the industry, allowing the sport to be promoted to sponsors and major event partners around the world.  David commented:

At last year’s forum, the DARK BLUE BOOK was just an idea, but the timing seemed right. Many of those who attended the first World Yacht Racing Forum also appeared in the first DARK BLUE BOOK. Since we published the first edition in April, we have received hundreds of entries for the 2010 version but the forum gives us a great opportunity to partner with brands who want to be seen as leaders in the industry.

WYRF Chairman and World Champion Sailor Peter Gilmour will open the Forum on 9 December before the opening keynote address by Tom Whidden, President and CEO of North Sails on the state of the industry.

Other presentations will feature the commercial case for sailing sponsorship, the impact of yacht racing on host cities and ports, the measure and evaluation of sailing events’ commercial return, sailing sponsorship and new media.

The World Yacht Racing Forum and Design & Technology Symposium will create the platform for delegates to debate the key issues that are critical to the future of yacht racing. The event will focus on the socio-economic aspects of the sport as well as developments in media coverage and the technical and commercial aspects of large-scale sailing events, especially in terms of their organisation and promotion.

For a full schedule and to register for the World Yacht Racing Forum, visit www.worldyachtracingforum.com

David, who has worked for global branding giants like Unilever and pioneering social networks says:

It’s a shame that the media focus on the celebrity use of tools like Twitter. There are millions of serious business people in the world who are realising that these platforms are not ‘just for kids’, they are an evolution in the way a brand talks to its customers, suppliers and the wider world.

Pilote have developed the seminar for those in business who are still coming to terms with the variety of tools that are lumped together as social media. In David’s view:

I talk to a lot of people who don’t understand why business hasn’t adopted some of these practises more quickly, but in the main, these people are early adopters. For those who are head down in the day to day running of a business, especially in uncertain times, it is not always easy to get your head around the opportunities and implications of new ideas. One of the problems though, is that social media has been sold as technology and is therefore seen as the domain of the IT crowd. Actually, these tools are for marketing, PR and corporate communications professionals and more and more, those in business development.

David’s Social Media for Business Bootcamp will run on the 14th of October, 2009 in London. For more information visit the event page.

SportBusiness is looking for the best in sports marketing case studies for our annual Sponsorship Works report. So, if you are a sponsor, sports property or agency with a great story to tell we would love to hear from you.

For some in sponsorship the past 12 months have been tough so there is no more important time to reinforce the message that “Sponsorship Works”. With sponsorship spend ever more subject to scrutiny, our focus this year is on value which is why submitting a case study for the report is absolutely FREE. Click here to submit your case study abstract today.

Sponsorship Works for you – published as a report style book Sponsorship Works is read by some of the most influential decision makers in sports marketing but this year we are going a step further. The top 11 case studies will be serialised in our magazine SportBusiness International getting your story out around the world.

What are we looking for from you?

As submitting a case study for Sponsorship Works is absolutely FREE, we need you to help make our delivery process as easy as possible. At this point we are asking you to submit an abstract of up to 200 words telling your story by Wednesday 19th August 2009. We will then contact you with the editorial guidelines for the complete piece and the report will be ready for serialisation and publication later in the year.

Submit your abstract or download more details here, we look forward to hearing from you. ]]> http://www.pilotemedia.com/2009/08/sponsorship-works-submit-your-case-study/feed/ http://www.pilotemedia.com/2009/06/sports-marketing-social-media-networking-event-in-london/ http://www.pilotemedia.com/2009/06/sports-marketing-social-media-networking-event-in-london/#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:31:40 +0000 admin http://www.pilotemedia.com/?p=180 Sports Marketing is a growing business. Social Media is a huge buzzword at the moment relating to sports marketing, but most of the discussion, at least that we are exposed to is happening in the USA.

We’ve decided to run an event. The premise is pretty simple - we’ve booked a room at a cool members club in London. All you have to do is register and show up. We want to get together people who are interested, people who are thinking about it and people who are doing it to share stories, work out what’s working and what’s not.

It doesn’t matter if you are an ad-agency, a PR agency, a sponsor, a team, rights holder or blogger. This is an opportunity to get together with like minded people, have a couple of drinks and get the low-down.

Check out the details at http://www.pilotemedia.com/thought-leadership/sm2-sports-marketing-free-social-media-networking-event/

Sponsorship Expert David Fuller of Pilote Media On Securing A Sponsor For Your Team

Most Melges 24 owners will have at some time considered sponsorship as a potential means of offsetting the cost of campaigning their boat on the regatta circuit. Indeed on the US and European circuits, hulls and sails displaying sponsors decals are a familiar site these days.

Bagging yourself a sponsor is not a simple matter and requires a professional approach. What is the best way to attract a sponsor in these post credit crunch times? Are there still businesses out there worth approaching with a proposal? How do you position your team as a viable sponsorship option?

To try to find answers to these and other questions we sat down with someone who specialises in yacht sponsorship - David Fuller, founder of Pilote Media, a niche publisher and sports marketing consultancy that specialises in the business of yacht racing and the contributing editor at the website www.yachtsponsorship.com .

IM24CA: Given the difficult global economic situation are there still any businesses out there that are interested in sponsoring yacht racing?

DF: Yes. For some, the global economic situation is an opportunity to re-evaluate sponsorships and some companies are looking to more ‘niche’ sports where there might be some relative bargains to be had. It needs to be a business-based sponsorship though, with real deliverables. Companies can’t be seen to be spending money on going sailing while at the same time making people redundant.

IM24CA: What would you say potential sponsors find attractive about yacht racing?

DF: Yacht Racing has many attractive attributes, some unique. For example the team element - racing a Melges 24 with a four person crew is one of the only sports where the whole team is contributing at the same time. Not like a basketball team where one or two players are involved or football where eight people are ‘not doing anything’.

There are some obvious environmental advantages of sailing over Motorsport for example and overall it can be relatively cheap compared to other sports.

IM24CA: What type of businesses - large or small - are most likely to respond positively to an approach to sponsor an individual Melges 24 campaign?

DF: Rather than think about the size of a business, it is better to think about what their goals might be and who they are trying to communicate with. Companies that operate in the same markets that you are competing in are probably the best place to start. Not only are their customers being exposed to the sponsorship, but they can also involve employees and partners.

IM24CA: What is the best way to make initial contact with a business to open a dialogue about sponsorship? In a large organisation which department would be the best starting point?

DF: It is different for every company. Very large companies have dedicated sponsorship teams and if a business is already sponsoring sports or community activity they will talk about on their website. Marketing or communications (PR) is a good place to start, but often it is more productive to approach the CEO directly.

IM24CA: Is mass mailing of a proposal to hundreds of companies a good idea or does a more targeted approach work better? How about cold calling by phone?

DF: Sometimes you might get lucky sending out a mass proposal, but it’s like getting a job. You will do better if you take some time to understand the company. If you don’t know who they are or what they do, then you can’t know how you can help them. Do some research and find out where their offices are. Understand their products or services. Then you can cold call.

IM24CA: What are the key sections of a sponsorship proposal document?

DF: The key section of a sponsorship proposal is the outline of benefits to the sponsor. What are you offering in return for the money? What’s included - what’s not? If you are in a fleet - why are you more sponsorable then the next team? Companies will vary as to the amount of detail they need depending on their sophistication.

IM24CA: What is in it for the sponsor? What are the typical reasons that a business might be interested in sponsoring a yacht race team? What are some good ways of measuring the positive effect of sponsorship?

DF: This depends on what they are trying to achieve. The phrase ‘return on investment’ (ROI) is used a lot, but there is another phrase that is being used for sponsorship which is Return on Objectives (ROO). A company might have an objective to reward their high-performing sales team, they might have an objective to enter a new market or launch a new product. Most companies are looking for awareness and exposure but some are trying to position themselves more accurately and all are hoping that it will lead to more sales.

Measurement is difficult and it is often expensive to qualify sponsorship value. Traditionally, sponsorship has been measured using a model of equivalent value - for example if a photo appears in a magazine with the sponsor’s logo and the ad rate for a page in that magazine is £2000, then the equivalent value is £2000. This is a pretty flawed model and one of the reasons sponsorship gets a bad name sometimes.

Luckily, in the new world, we have digital forms of media. It is easier to count a webpage visit or a click or a You Tube view and in some cases you can track that back to sales. Setting clear objectives makes it easier to measure if you have achieved them.

IM24CA: What other sports can we learn lessons from?

DF: There are best practices in all sports. How you get the most out of a sponsorship depends on the audience you are trying to reach and your budget. There are some great examples in sailing.

Puma is doing an amazing job at the moment with their Volvo Ocean Race campaign and a lot of it can be done relatively cheaply. You aren’t going to build a hospitality unit out of shipping containers, but you can make sure you have a good website with some video and ways of communicating. Some of the extreme sports do a great job of using new media like You Tube, Facebook and Twitter to engage with their fans and communicate their sponsor’s message to a wider audience.

IM24CA: What can class associations and sailing’s governing bodies do to help make yacht racing more attractive to potential sponsors?

DF: This is not easy. Every class has its own rules and its own culture. Not everyone will want to accept sponsorship. If a class makes a decision to allow sponsorship then it has to be prepared to work to help those sponsors achieve their goals. Class associations and governing bodies need to be able to show that they have the skills to compete for a share of the sponsorship money out there. Do you have dedicated press? Do you have people who can explain sailing to a non-expert audience? Do you have an up to date website? Do you have the infrastructure to entertain guests before, during and after an event? How do spectators watch? An event needs to show that all these things are in place and the more it can be a fixed menu of options, the better.

IM24CA: What three key pieces of advice do you have for someone starting to look for a potential sponsor for their Melges 24 campaign?

DF: Be Prepared.

This is a commercial transaction. Know the product you are selling. Understand your numbers. Understand what benefits you can provide. Know what makes you different from the other teams - do you have a story? If you don’t have a website, get one. Create a sponsorship pack. For some key companies it might be worthwhile to get your presentation bound. It is amazing how a professionally printed, bound document can make you look the part.

Start local.

I heard a story the other day of a team whose base was located over the road from a large corporate headquarters. The team manager bumped into someone in the car park and they got talking. When asked what they did, one guy said - we run a race team and the other guy, the CEO of the company said, “if only we had known - we’ve just sponsored another race team”. They had been neighbours for years. Network.

Think about Activation.

Sponsorship is only half the story. Good sponsorships are accompanied by activity that promotes the relationship in the rest of the company’s communications. Typically, activation costs about the same amount on top of the sponsorship amount. It might take the form of banners at the events, it might be advertising programmes or local papers, it might be You Tube videos or appearances by the team at company events. It might be photo opportunities or tie-ins with other sponsored properties. You don’t have to be an expert at activation, but being creative with these ideas can show how sailing can be more than just a logo on a boat - it can be a platform for many messages to many audiences.

First published at : http://www.melges24.com/?p=news/&id=1602

Between the garage area and the track, which was open to the public before the race, was an 8 foot chain-link fence. As our group casually ran our hands along the sponsor decals and listened to Jeff Gordon tell us how he thought the car would perform later, hundreds of fans pressed their faces through the chain-link fence, desperate to get a few inches closer to their heroes.

Our goal then was to convince NASCAR and others that fans treated the smallest piece of inside information from their sporting idols as gifts. We called it ‘pub-currency’ - the kind of thing you would tell your mates about while having a beer. Getting a text message from a driver or a photo that no-one else had via your PC desktop was something that sports-marketers wrote off as insignificant, but for fans, it was like standing in the garage or dressing room.

In 2009, the ability for sports stars to communicate ‘directly’ with fans is easier than ever. While some tools, like twitter, are still relatively niche, they are being used by savvy sports marketing people to give fans something they crave - frequent, direct interaction with heroes.

But that’s not all. Tools like blogs and twitter enable sponsors to develop long term relationships with consumers. The lesson we learned from NASCAR and later from Manchester United was that communication in the off-season was as important, if not more so, than news during an event.

So, I have declared my interests. I am passionate about using new and emerging technologies to enable brands to develop long term relationships with fans through sport. One of the reasons I set up yachtsponsorship.com was to communicate with promoters, teams and sponsors, the best practises from other sports and show they can be used with sailing to deliver real ROI.

The last couple of days, I have been researching how sailing as a sport uses these new technologies. The results vary massively, but in general there is a trick being missed, especially when there is nothing going on. During long distance races like the Vendee Globe, competitors were forced by race organisers and sponsors to blog daily, but now their websites are like time-capsules - as if the clock stopped a couple of days after the boat crossed the line. How can we build heroes in the sport if they go silent for months on end?

Here are some examples from the UK. Ben Ainslie, one of the most recognisable personalities in the sport, last updated his blog on the 13th of February. The last update on his facebook page was August 20, 2008. Alex Thomson, who is said to embrace new technologies last updated his blog on February 9, while his facebook page was updated on 10 December 2008 by an administrator.

Thank goodness for Paul Cayard. Paul is one of the sailors who writes regualarly and candidly - even when he is not neccesrily competing. This weekend, Paul was in Boston for the Volvo Ocean Race stopover. I know this because his blog tells me:

This event is really catching on with the mainstream public. It seems that anyone who gets a close up look at the event becomes hooked. There was a lot of non sailing public roaming through the race village this weekend and they immediately became intrigued. With the Race Village situated right down town, Volvo has really brought the event to the people.

Cayard has the best interests of the sport in mind finishing with:

I was speaking to a British sports marketing executive who was visiting the race for the first time, a guy who ran the marketing for Honda in Formula One previously, and he said that the Volvo is truly a top level sports marketing property. It was impressive to see the new faces, from other areas of sport, gravitating to the event.

I’m not sure if Honda F1 is the best example of sports marketing in recent years, but it’s good to know that finally the message is getting out there - that sailing at its best provides a great platform for sponsors.

Not all sailors have time to sit down and write blogs the length of Paul Cayard’s, but there is little or no excuse not to be able to shoot off 140 characters every so often.

Dee Caffari has joined twitter in the last couple of days, but the star of the Round Britain twitter comms so far is Johanna Payton, a journalist who is accompanying Dee on the journey. Maybe, just maybe it’s because Jo is new to the sport and has no preconceptions about what fans might find interesting. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t have to walk a corporate sponsor tightrope.

Perhaps the problem comes down to a question of demarcation. Who’s responsibility is it to develop and maintain a consistent online presence? Is it a PR job or is it up to the competitors themselves to manage their personal brands and get to grips with communicating with their fans? Should the marketing teams of sponsors be involved or are they they ones blocking uptake based on corporate ‘brand-police’ practises?

Several PR agencies that I have spoken to in recent days have told me that they have the tools in-house to provide these services to their clients. One referred me to a brand that they were managing a twitter account for - it has 30 followers! Others have said that they believe it is something that the competitors manage on their own.

The growing online presence of fans hungry for content shows that there is latent demand from fans for more interaction - and it’s not that hard. If you can find time to blog while sailing about in the southern ocean, you can find time to communicate when you are off the water.

Here’s the ad - I have worked with sports properties such as NASCAR, MotoGP and Manchester United as well as individual athletes to develop long term relationships with fans. These relationships are hugely important to deliver additional ROI for sponsors as well as maintaining the health of a sport. If the fans go away or stop watching, then the sponsors will follow. If you want to use some of these new tools to attract or retain sponsors or even just sure up a fan-base get in touch via Pilote Media.

Ruby TV is a series of documentaries profiling Australian creatives abroad fusing travel and arts programs, providing insights into the passions and challenges of Australians forging creative careers around the globe. Ruby and the team take their audiences backstage, on set and inside the concerts, homes and lives of musicians, performers, stylists and chefs both well known and delightfully hidden. The profiles are designed to inform and inspire both Australian and international audiences.

Ruby said:

Pilote Media create sites that are both user friendly and shining with professionalism. Their personalised service and expertise ensure you get the subtlties in design to suit your personal tastes and appeal, beyond your otherwise means, to your specific audiences and clients.
Pilote Media deliver way beyond expectation with a truly impressive support service that saves literally days of work plus many potential gray hairs or chewed nails.

Catch up with Ruby TV in Cannes 2009…

With the current economic climate in mind, David Fuller, CEO of Pilote Media and Contributing Editor of Yachtsponsorship.com, looks at the relative merits of sailing versus more traditional or well known sports.

The title; ‘Getting Onto the Plane‘ refers to the process of a boat lifting out of the water to skim across the surface of the water rather than pushing through it. The series aims to give potential sponsors, Marketing Directors, Event Organisers and competitors insights into the business of yacht racing and get them racing more quickly.

The First Paper ‘Getting Onto the Plane - Assessing the Benefits of Yacht Racing‘ is an overview of the topics and themes that will be covered by future papers. It touches on how sailing provides positive brand associations and how technology can provide new audiences. There are also messages for politicians and media who have sought to characterise sponsorship as a wasteful perk : Sponsorship of sport is a legitimate part of the marketing mix and can deliver real return on investment.

Get your copy of the White Paper here.