This is a Guest Post by Chris Hughes. Chris is Head of PR and Communications at Sine Qua Non and has extensive experience in the motorsport arena. You can follow him on Twitter @chrishughespr .

There is an increasingly common misconception about ‘social media’. It is a phenomenon that is still rather loosely interpreted and with sufficient uncertainty surrounding its true meaning to warrant the need by some firms to segregate it into a separate box within its annual marketing and PR plans.

This has led to an influx in recent years of specialist digital PR firms, experts and social media strategists, all of whom are – quite legitimately – finding new business with brands or companies who are not truly au fait with all that social media entails. But sometimes even the most expert of experts cannot fully capitalise on the various social media opportunities that arise hour by hour, day by day.

In Formula 1 circles, there has been a notable increase in the use of Twitter as a communications platform this year, which has been a huge step forward in bringing Formula 1 fans closer to the action on track and behind the scenes. This revolution has been sparked by the need for journalists to satiate the immense hunger of the F1 fanbase who are always after the next morsel by laying claim to the next big story or the most insightful backstage feature.

It has also been helped in no small part by the openness of the new teams and their drivers who have embraced social media unreservedly. While the new teams have adopted social media as their communications tool of choice, it is unlikely that they have a specific strategy on how it should or should not be used. And that is no bad thing. In my own experience of social media, the moment you start to stifle it is the moment you start to go wrong. With anything as open and engaging as, say, Twitter, there comes an unwritten invitation for the public to criticise, to deride and to attack the brand, but in equal measure there is the opportunity to praise, commend and – most importantly – recommend.  Ah, yes, the power of an endorsement.

An excellent example of an organic social media success story in recent weeks was with the tongue-in-cheek GrandPrixDiary.com and German race driver Timo Glock. Below is a brief background to the story and how Glock’s team Virgin Racing used an out-of-the-blue social media opportunity to bolster its own reputation online. GrandPrixDiary looks at the world of F1 from a very sarcastic viewpoint. Its founder has made no qualms about the site’s sincerity, but instead offers a light-hearted and comical look at Formula 1.

When Virgin Racing driver Timo Glock started to use Twitter, there was an overwhelming culinary feel to his content. From a quick coffee to lunch in the motorhome to dinner in a restaurant, Timo would always tweet a photo. GrandPrixDiary pounced on the subject and quickly developed a column called Ready, Steady, Glock! (for those not familiar with the TV show Ready, Steady, Cook! its premise was to challenge chefs to cook a meal from an unknown bag of ingredients in under 20 minutes).

The column reproduced Timo’s Twitter images and presented them as if from his own German recipe book. Cue meals such as ‘Pizza mit der ham und mushrooms und olives’ to ‘Double chocolate cake mit Ice Cream’. After the Turkish GP, GrandPrixDiary challenged Timo (via Twitter) to participate in F1’s first ever online cookery show, Ready Steady Glock, offering Twitter followers the chance to submit recipes for Timo and his girlfriend Isabella to cook during the weekend.

Succumbing to a barrage of online pressure, Timo agreed. In fact from here on in, it was Timo’s own enthusiasm for the challenge that really propelled it forwards. The winning recipe was selected and announced on Twitter through the @grandprixdiary page, as well as through @realtimoglock, with suitable fanfare, and thus the shopping trip was set.

The winning entry, submitted by Kathryn Bird, was Marinated Chicken with Virgin Olive Oil followed by Timo’s Truffle Chocolate Puddings. Timo promised to tweet photos of the shopping trip as well as images from the cooking challenge itself, which he duly did. Credit also to @VirginRacing who recognised the growing stature of this online competition and agreed to supply a prize to the competition winner. The team has agreed to cook the winning recipe in its hospitality area for team members and guests at the weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.

As Rob Sinfield of GrandPrixDiary.com explains: “Ready, Steady, Glock! would not have happened were it not for a combination of Virgin’s laid back style and Timo Glock’s now obvious sense of humour. We never set out to be cruel but we do like to prick the precious F1 bubble. So, referring to Glock as ‘the 5th best German in F1′ and then writing the cookery column in an ‘Allo ‘Allo style could have easily offended him but once he got into the idea it was he that drove it. The photo diary of the day is hilarious, he even decorated the fridge.

Once Virgin saw the fans response they too embraced it. The feedback I have had about Glock has been immense; he has scored a hit here. Now he has turned the tables, organising his own competition via Facebook where I have to cook a meal of HIS choosing with the winning recipe provider getting the cap he wears at the Canadian Grand Prix. A whole lot of fun has been had by all.

F1 must encourage this sort of participation with its fan base.” The outcome has been a hit for all concerned: – The GrandPrixDiary site has a heightened profile with endorsement from Timo Glock and Virgin Racing – Timo Glock has engaged directly with a website who were portraying him in a comical light and turned potentially negative comments into a massive positive – Virgin Racing has used an impromptu social media competition between one of its drivers and a Formula 1 fanbase to derive positives for its team – Formula 1 fans have been able to gain a closer connection to both team and driver via a social media portal and to have a bit of a laugh along the way.

So it doesn’t always need a carefully honed social media strategy to enhance a brand’s reputation online. Sometimes, it just takes a sense of humour and a willingness to engage socially.

Here’s an experiment for sports teams and organizations – Substitute the word ‘fans’ or ‘supporters’ for ‘customers’ and see how that impacts the thought process behind getting into social media and which departments should be involved or ‘own’ social media. Also, try replacing the word ‘players’ or ‘athletes’ with ‘staff members’ or ‘employees’ and then think how their participation could make a difference to your business operations.

If you remove the technology barrier from social media and accept that it is a new communications channel that lets you interact in a real, human manner with your customers then much of the confusion and fear can also be removed. Organisations know that customer service is the corner stone of any successful business so the ability to build better relationships with your customers and talk to them on a regular basis should be an opportunity rather than a threat.

There is a nice post here from Felix Wetzel asking some similar questions and looking at how sports teams need to realize they are businesses and that means aligning all your assets (especially your staff) for the good of the business…not the individual.

Sport is an unusual industry in that players have a very different role to play in the organization than in a ‘normal’ company, but they are still on the payroll…and clubs need to ask themselves what is more important, the team and players or the club. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive and if they work in tandem then the results can be far more powerful. Filling the ground isn’t or shouldn’t be the focus for sports teams. Most of them enjoy the luxury of being the local team and have the brand loyalty that comes with being the nearest place to watch live sport. With social media and the ability to connect and spread content to the community, they should be looking at how they can fill the ‘virtual’ stadium on a regular basis, how many fans can they reach on a regular basis?

Integrate Social Communications

Customers of corporate brands want to be able to interact with the people behind the company. Business is social, whether its B2C or B2B, it is about the people. The companies who are successful in social media have recognized this and are integrating social communications in as many customer touch points as possible.

Sports teams are at a huge advantage in the sense that their fans (customers!) desperately want regular interaction and the more authentic the better. They are used to reading the press releases and ‘official’ statements on the websites, if you can get more of the departments such as the playing staff, the backroom staff, the ticket office, the club shop etc active on these platforms, and not just the marketing and PR teams then, it extends the available resources…and takes the engagement effect to a totally new level.

image from www.life.com/image/87068217

Daniel McLaren is founder of ‘The UK Sports Network’ and is a consultant here at Spearfish Labs. He also runs several groups on LinkedIn including ‘The UK Sports Network’ and ‘Social Media & Sport’. You can follow his tweets on @danielmclaren. This is his first post for Spearfish Labs so leave him some comments and let him know what you think!

Some of you may wonder why I have chosen Reading Football Club for this article. Well it has been my hometown for the last 10 years and I’ve been following the team for a large proportion of that.  I was there at the Madjeski Stadium watching the big screen when they were promoted from League 1 after playing away at Brentford…. great memories.

Since then the club has played in the Premier League for two seasons and this year ended up a comfortable mid table (after a very shaky start) and went on an FA Cup run that included the scalps of West Bromwich Albion and Liverpool before bowing out to Aston Villa at the quarter-final stage.

Despite this I have found myself drifting away from the club as the prices went up and work/home took up more of my life.  I keep meaning to go to games but just not made it down to the stadium for a game.

Reading Football Club

The club has a bright future ahead of it; a good young manager in Brian McDermott, a young talented team, a prudent and wise Chairman and a modern stadium with the hotel, training ground and all the facilities a team needs.  The income streams are in place for merchandise, events, conferences, hotel stopovers and sponsorship.

The Thames Valley area is one of the wealthiest in the UK and with the likes of Microsoft, HP, Nokia, Vodafone, Oracle and Dell on the doorstep so sponsorship should be an area in which the club should prosper.

To give you an idea of the clubs local reach before I delve any deeper.  The nearest football clubs of note are Swindon Town and Aldershot.  Beyond this you are travelling into London hence why the majority of Reading locals support Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Social Media

In terms of Social Media the club does not have any official presence.  Not on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube…. not even a fans forum on the man www.readingfc.co.uk website.

There is a fair amount of unofficial activity going on with over 5,000 fans following the Reading FC fan page on Facebook.  That is a large number of people that are showing a great interest in the club, want to talk about what is happening and want to engage with the club.

Add this is to unofficial players fan pages of Noel Hunt, Shane Long, Sigurdsson and Matejovsky this brings the Facebook activity for Reading FC up to almost 10,000!  That is not a small, inconsiderate number considering the average crowd at the Madjeski was 17,408 for the season just gone.

There is obviously a life away from Facebook where more activity is going on.  If you search YouTube for Reading FC content this brings up over 9000 results.  This is another sign that the fans want to engage, show their experiences from their point of view.  On Flikr, the photo uploading site from Yahoo, there are almost 2000 photos from fans that have been added.

A quick look at that other major social media platform, Twitter, shows that @ReadingFC and @Reading_FC have already been taken by fans.  With almost 1,500 followers between them with little content being offered this is another place in which the conversations and updates are taking place.

What should Reading FC be doing?

The first point is always to listen first, which is what I have started to do with in the section before.  You have to look at where the fans are, what they are talking about and how best it is then to engage with them.

It is not about just adding a Facebook and Twitter page with your club RSS feed plugged in because everyone else is on it and it seems the thing to do.   Without a strategy in place that ensures the aims of the business are being serviced by this new marketing media and that it dovetails with the other marketing and PR activity the club has planned then the chances of it being a success are reduced.

Content is something the club is not short of, as with all sports organisations.  You have players, training sessions, events, awards, journeys to games and much much more.  Fans want to see what is relevant to them – not players rambling about their inane thoughts but them talking about football.  They want to feel part of the club, see/hear what is happening behind the scenes, the chance to win prizes and ask questions.

One of the keys is to give the power to the fans…. a scary thought I know and an issue that crops up time and again within sport in the UK.  The fans are going to talk about it anyway, so instead of hiding away and pretending nothing is going on why not participate in it?  You can’t control the conversation but you can be part of it; give them a platform to use, listen to their suggestions, answer their questions, offer them content and exclusives.

• How much would Reading fans love to listen to a live chat before a game with Shane Long and interact using UStream or Vpype.
• Be able to follow the twitter game updates if they are away from the TV or radio via their mobile.
• Hear what key executives and players are doing via Twitter and Blogs.  How much of a hit would Sir John Madjeski, manager Brian McDermott and Director of Football Nicky Hammond on Twitter!  Look at what Tony Fernandes does with Lotus F1.
• Have some player interaction through Facebook with their own fan pages with pictures, video and messages to their fans…. Nadal and Federer are two of sports biggest stars and use Facebook brilliantly.
• Invite key twitter/bloggers to games and bring them closer to the club.  It is publicity and with more and more sports content online you want to encourage insightful positive comment/reporting.
• Acknowledge fan twitter pages and blogs who offer great content and post links to them from the main site.  Manchester City has a page dedicated to their fan blogs, something that I am sure has caused more positive publicity and built new bridges.
• Drive traffic back to the club site by creating stories around product launches, season ticket dates, game ticket offers and player appearances to encourage sales from Facebook/Twitter.
• Use the platforms as an additional sponsorship activation tool to acknowledge sponsors, run competitions and inform of offers.  Liverpool have over 1.2m Facebook ‘likes’ which be the cherry on the cake to any sponsor coming in and can access this additional area

And you can measure it!  There are many tools out there, both free and chargeable, that can help in making sure you are where the chatter is and making positive moves towards your goals and many more hitting the market all the time.  For free you can use Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, YouTube Insights and Swix (whilst in beta phase). Or use paid for searches such as Radian6 for a more detailed analysis dependent on your budget size.

Bring the fans closer

When I used to work for a cricket club one of the constant issues with fans if the feeling of being left behind, that no-one was listening to them.  Social media gives you the tools and opportunity to bring them in and nip any arguments, negative reaction in the bud.  Sometimes you have to stay silent but most whisper campaigns can be silenced by a quick tweet or message.  It can make some ones day to have a reply from their favourite player or their club – it makes them feel special, included and leaves them with a positive experience…. which they will tell their friends about and the ball starts rolling.

If you can bring in the capabilities and content already out there on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flikr and blogs then this will become a major fan interaction, sales and marketing tool.  It is not a quick fix but can grow the fan base, create more positive associations, increase sponsorship sales values, help focus advertising spends and much more.

I hope that the club wants to learn more about the possibilities and make a decision to look at these new areas and how they can benefit the club as a whole.  The 2010/11 season could be the best one yet for the fans and the club….. on and off the pitch!

The football and rugby seasons are drawing to a close in the UK and while some teams are battling it out for honours and trophies, there are others who will spend the summer regrouping after being relegated or underperforming during the season. Those who have been successful may be developing their marketing strategies to focus on recruiting new fans, growing their membership, increasing their brand reach and improving sales of merchandise. For those at the other end of the spectrum they should be focused on one thing – Customer retention.

Some companies have realized that, sometimes, the best people to market to are your current customers. It generally costs a hell of a lot more to acquire new customers than it does to retain current ones. Sports teams need to think “How much is an ‘engaged’ fan worth to us?”  There is a natural tendency for clubs who have dropped a division to try and squeeze as much revenue from as many sources as possible but if they think first of all, how to provide value to their existing fans then they will be in a much stronger position to increase their reach and financial activity when the tide turns.

As a fan of a beleaguered club, you probably aren’t feeling too hot about spending hundreds more pounds on renewing your season ticket or buying the club’s new kit for the kids, so the clubs need to think how they can reach out the fans and create a ‘we are in this together, lets get out of it together’ mentality. Offers, Deals, Promotions are great…but also giving them exclusive content and more importantly, a platform to voice their opinion and a better ‘user experience’ when interacting with the club. A lot of the time, human beings just want to be heard or noticed – especially when you are as passionate as a sports fan, the smallest amount of interaction or connection with the club can have a big impact.

The brand equity that clubs could win by making the fans believe they are important to the club, their opinions do matter and ideas they have can be implemented, would be a good start to retaining their loyalty (and revenue) for another year.

Taking a break from the usual social media round up, this week we are having a look at six posts on our favourite topic – social media and sport. Sport is an inherently social activity and there is now a unique opportunity for teams, organizations and the athletes themselves to connect to their fans, and we are starting to see some good examples of that.

1. Why Teams Should Get Involved With Social Media – Jason Peck

A good, concise argument for why and how sports teams should be on the social web. The opportunity is there for teams who want to hear what there fans think, what they want, how their experience can be improved and this should be the first stage for all social media entrants. Put your customers (in this case, fans) at the centre of your strategy and you will be on the right track!

2. 5 Social Media Lessons the NBA Can Teach Businesses- Jalen Rose

Some organisatons are doing social well, very well! The NBA are one of those and ex player and now ESPN analyst, Jalen Rose has a look at how the corporate world could do well to use similar strategies and tactics with their customers.

3. Professional Athletes on Twitter

OK – not a post at all, but a site which shows, by sport, which athletes are active on Twitter. (I didn’t realize there was a Lingerie Football League , and will now research it thoroughly… especially as so many players seem to be on Twitter!)

4. Interview: Why Manchester City Get Social Media – Ash Read

While many UK sports teams haven’t embraced social media as a way to bring the fans closer to the club, a few have and Manchester City are probably the ones with the most coherent strategy. This interview is a useful window into how a team should focus their activity. Check it out.

5. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) wins via Social Media – Alex Lopez

Once critisised for ‘not getting it’, the UFC, led by their President Dana White are one of the more active organizations on the social web. As the post says, they have made themselves and the fighters more accessible to fans on a personal basis than any other sport.

6. Sports teams, leagues tap SAS Analytics to boost profits – Winnie Palaran

Interesting one to end with as we are now seeing sports teams use social media monitoring effectively. This post looks at how the San Francisco 49ers are using SAS Analytics to listen to their fans who are unhappy, thinking about not renewing season tickets, have ideas on how to improve the game experience etc. By harnessing those insights, the club is putting themselves at a competitive advantage over teams not actively listening and integrating.

Have a good weekend.

I think most people who follow football (Soccer to those across the pond!) will agree that Barcelona are the best team in the World it at the moment. Their manager, ex-player Pep Guardiola, took the reins last year and proceeded to win every competition they competed in and did so playing the most attractive and attacking football out of any team in Europe. In an interview with the Evening Standard, Guardiola shed some light into the philosophy behind how the club operates and there are some lessons that all organizations should take on board.

What is different about Barcelona to other sports teams is that the club is owned by the fans.  Each year, over 100,000 fans pay a solid chunk of money to be members and get voting rights over who the President will be for the next two years, who has to submit his plans of new signings etc in a kind of election manifesto. What this means is the club is inherently ‘fan centric’, they understand the importance of keeping their customers happy!

Guardiola said “We live in a world where everything is spiraling in cost and many people need to make a big sacrifice in order to go and watch a game of football. So for me it all makes sense, the effort, the work the planning the concentration and the discipline if you do it for the people. The manner in which we play is a demonstration of the respect we have for the people who pay for a ticket or pay money to watch matches on television” Cool huh?!

Even though most businesses aren’t owned by their customers, if they adopted the mindset that they are and were constantly thinking about how they can delight them, keep them coming through the door or turnstyle, keep them spending their hard earned money, then the result will be a customer centric organization…and we all love them!

Sports teams and athletes are at an enormous advantage to corporate or consumer brands. They have a huge amount of content, they have an exisiting, passionate offline community who want their rpoduct. On top of that, sports fans are one of the most brand loyal groups of people I can think of and sport itself is inherently social. It brings people together around the game itself, in bars and pubs, in people’s homes…and online can help augment the game experience by bringing the fans into the inner workings of the clubs on a daily basis.

A sports team’s product isn’t just the game each week that the fans will pay to come and watch and broadcasters will pay to distribute. Fans want interaction with the team and players and not through the traditional methods of the press and staged TV interviews. In the UK, Football is going through a rough time financially and we may see more clubs going the same way Portsmouth and Crystal Palace have recently -  into administration. I am not saying for a minute that a social media program will solve these structural problems, far from it, but it can keep the fans,  from feeling like the clubs don’t care about them and keep them coming through the turnstyles or buying their favourite players shirt – wanting to stay loyal, wanting to be brand advocates. Long term, that’s surely the game.

A team’s ‘customers’ want to be as close as they possibly can to the club and the players…this is in stark contrast to consumer brands. If you sell mobile phones, insurance or detergent, do your customers really want to be your friend? They will take any freebies or decent offers but its no small ask to keep them engaged on a regular basis and enjoying every bit of content, they just aren’t that interested. Not so in sport.

So, what can a club or team do to harness this opportunity?

Make sure you have a ‘fan engagement’ strategy – This is different to an online marketing and PR strategy. It needs to provide an experience the fans can’t get through traditional channels.

Have at least one community where conversations can take place – An interactive area of the clubs website,  An official Facebook fan page, a private social network. Be active and conversational here, don’t treat it as another PR vehicle.

Think what ‘exclusive’ content you can reward your fans or members with. There is boat loads of this! Exclusive footage from training, locker room interviews (within reason!), injury news from the physios, community projects….

Bring the fans into the fold. Consider empowering the fans, if you check your Facebook groups and forums I bet there are plenty of unofficial communities already thriving – harness that. Why not create Fan reporters, team tweeters, a fan zone that has some clout with the club. In Spain, Barcelona are ‘owned’ by the fans…other teams would do well to adopt a similar mindset.

Consider what Mobile can offer. Mobile is going to be big for entertainment – The devices are getting better and the teams already have a glut of content which can be distributed to people’s pockets. Think, what can we get to the fans via mobile? Arsenal and Chelsea both have iphone applications at around the £2.99 mark which is a good start. Sure they are the big fish, but the same will be true for clubs of all sizes, just on a different scale…the same principles apply.

Another key difference is that sports fans will pay for this type of content and level of interaction. Not huge amounts, as some fans will testify that it is expensive enough supporting their team but this is a question of value rather than pounds or dollars. Anything that provides a level of joy and touches the tribal part of our brains, a few quid here and there to make me feel it’s MY club is fine by me.

New Revenue

I think clubs have genuine untapped revenue streams here, not only through online advertising, sponsorship and merchandise sales but in streaming and distributing their games and content to much, much bigger audience than they currently do through TV broadcasting contracts. For the clubs with international audiences (especially Asia and Africa who have a lot of growth in terms of intenet access ahead of them), if and when the devices and connectivity improve, they can have millions more people watch their games and additional content and pay micro payments for the privilege. We aren’t there yet but it is coming.

Youtube have begun streaming live sports events.  We have seen England football matches being streamed live, admittedly not very well yet but that is to do with the devices and the connectivity, Virgin are trailing 100mb broadband, Conservatives have said they will make high speed connectivity priority if they win the election this year, smart phone penetration is on the up…and that is just for the games, what about news, updates, promoting community and charity work?

Players

For the athletes and players there is also the opportunity to build a huge amount of brand equity. This can be used a positive platform for a media career, raise awareness for good causes they are involved with, create a more authentic and trusted voice for the individual than old school press releases. Some are doing it well, (more in the US but we are seeing signs of it this side of the pond). Chad Ochocinco has his OCNN channel, Shaq has been a Twitter exponent for a few years now. Having the players active on these channels does come with its own set of potential pitfalls, but ignoring the new communication channels and opportunities isn’t going to make them go away. The clubs, agents and athlete’s representatives need to find a balance where the players can be treated like adults and decide the type of relationship they want with their fans…they may need them after they retire!

Organisations, brands and sports clubs are all in the same boat with needing to be more trusted and that takes time and comes with authenticity and engagement. Its all people to people communications, after all!

Update: A good example of exactly what I was talking about is Manchester City. Read this excellent post by Ash Read covering similar lines of thought.