Some rumours were circulating last week that YouTube might be about to announce live streams. A screenshot showing a ‘livwe stream’ icon seemed to point a new feature but apparently is only part of the producer account of certain channels and not viewable by the public…which, for now, is very sensible.

YouTube are constantly battling with copyright issues, so opening up live streaming to the general public would seem slightly suicidal, however there is a strong argument for them to work with more  organisations such as sports teams, fashion and entertainment brands to give them this option in their channels.

You Tube have been getting into streaming Live Music and live sport in the past year, and I would expect to see the trend continue. Obviously there is broadcast rights and copyright redtape that would stretch around the globe, but with connectivity and device capability increasing rapidly there is going to be more and more opportunity to put live events to a global audience.

Facebook has started to integrate live streaming apps and there is already the likes Ustream and Live Stream (who have been doing some stuff with fashion brands recently) for raw live streaming so there are options for the types of organization or brand that has both ownershjip over live content and fans willing to chew it up. YouTube would do well to get in on that action…and will almost certainly give the others a headache when they do.

Each day, more and more sports teams, organizations and athletes are launching social media programs, joining social networks and starting to jump on the social media bandwagon. The reasons are obvious – Their fans have shifted their media habits towards social platforms over official websites and want greater interaction with their team. The social tools allow a greater level of interaction and richer user experience and there is measurable commercial value to be realized by being active.

However, just setting up a Facebook Fan Page or Twitter account without an understanding of the rules of social engagement can result in missed opportunities or worse, the alienation and general pissing off of the people you want to engage with. So with that in mind, here are five, broad, best practices to kick things off.

1. Don’t be scared!

The main barrier seems to be a fear that getting into social media will open up a wave of regular and uncalled for criticism by the fans. In the same way that the fans vent, with furious anger, each time the team loses down the pub, on the forums and phone ins, this will now happen tenfold on Facebook or Twitter. Truth is, it probably will…for a while! Your fans love your team, so when they lose they aren’t rational but most of them are doing it because they care, with all their body parts they care and this should be embraced. Sure, there are the ones who will be unnecessarily negative, but with the correct engagement plan, they can be minimised and your social channel can become a valuable area to engage. Alongside the abuse will be valid points on how to improve the service at the game, the outlets in the ground and the customer service.

A clever dude (Aristotle) once said – “To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” If you aren’t involved in these conversations, it doesn’t mean they won’t be happening. You can’t control the community anymore but you can manage, learn and use the insights from it. Plus, it won’t all be negative!

2. Dedicate the resources.

Social isn’t as expensive as other media in terms of creation…but the cost is in the time your staff have to dedicate to do it properly. There really isn’t any hiding from this. You will get out what you put in and the more of your staff (and that includes the players) that you can get interacting with the customers in a way that is valuable to them…then the returns can be exponential. Hire a £20,000 per year intern and you will get what you pay for. In the same way that most of your staff have email and a telephone, social can become another communication tool for them to provide a better service to the fans.

3. Do your research

You know your customers (or you should do!) and what they want based on historical research. You need to do the same in social. This means spending time in the communities that already exist and listening to what works, what doesn’t, who’s influential, what media they like to consume. There is also software (free and paid) which can help with this and will give you a full picture of the type of tactics and the tools you need to be successful when you start to engage.

4. Integrate social with your other channels

Social isn’t a silver bullet. It needs to work in conjunction with your other media channels, online and offline. Your website is your official online home and will still be the place to convert sales and to make official statements but the conversations, UGC  and interaction will happen off site (for now). Make sure your social presences are designed properly, the content is engaging and integrates with the official site and that there are clear calls to action on your other marketing materials and programs.

5. View the engagement as your marketing and customer service

Your fans (or customers) are already active on the social web on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs or the multitude of forums and unofficial fan sites. By engaging with them on these platforms and your own official channels in the correct way, you can turbo charge your marketing, customer service and research programs. The fans are talking and exchanging opinions and ideas about your brand on a regular basis whether you are there or not. You can use these channels as a cost effective way to listen, learn and engage with them.

Going for a 50/50 split this week between raw social media and social media and sport. Excited? Thought so!

1. How to Use Facebook for Business and Marketing - Tamar Weinberg

With nearly half a billion users, Facebook is now a ‘must have’ for most businesses. However, creating the perfect Facebook page is easier said than done so this post looks at some case studies and examples to show you what’s possible.

2.  Are You Slow Enough to Succeed in Social Media? – Jay Baer

A top post from Jay Baer pointing out that while the sales and customer interaction opportunites are obvious with social media, the challenge is to build relationships…and that takes time and patience to realize the full value. Remember, you are dealing with real people so treat them with the respect and time they deserve.

3. Trend: Social CRM Consolidation - Jeremiah Owyang

There have been some high profile acquisitions of social media monitoring firms by CRM companies in the last few months as the race to provide Social CRM solutions hots up. It’s a natural fit as organizations are going to need to integrate the opportunities gleaned from social data into their CRM databases. Expect this trend to continue throughout 2010 and into next year.

And now onto the Sports…

4. Cleveland Browns Draft Player From YouTube – Megan O’Neill

Thought this quite cool! Joel Reinders, an undradfted rookie landed himself a contract with the Cleveland Browns (American Football team for those that don’t know!) by posting his ‘show reel’ on YouTube. Nice work, and probably sets a precedent for more athletes getting discovered through social media.

5. Auto Racing Capsules: Drivers use social media to gain All-Star support – Pete Iacobelli

Motor sport in general, seems to have grasped social media better than most sports. This post has a look at how the likes of NASCAR and Formula 1 are bringing the fans closer to the drivers and teams using a range of social platforms.

6. Which World Cup Fans Are the Most Passionate? Facebook Knows – Jennifer Van Grove

Just under a month to go until the World Cup kicks off in South Africa and Facebook and Involver have had a quick look at which nation’s fans are the most passionate based on the number of likes each team gets on the app commissioned by Facebook. Current holders, Italy are leading the way…but we still think Brazil will win! (sorry England).

Have a good weekend.

Written yesterday but posted today, here are six posts from the past week that stood (and there is only one post about the ipad!). Let us know what you think of any of them in the comments or, even better, post your favourite from the last seven days.

1. 5 Ways Non-Profits Can Increase Engagement With YouTube – Geoff Livingston

Facebook is the obvious choice for non-profit organsiations, and with good reason as it is the top channel for engagement and Causes provides a contextual match. However, don’t ignore YouTube. Any non profit should consider a video strategy and this post looks what can be done.

2. Social Media ROI and Obliquity - Charlie Osmond

What’s ‘Obliquity’? Pursuing your goals indirectly. Organisations and people who achieve the most success seem to focus on value ahead of revenue and this is exactly the approach you need to be successful in social media. Good post – check it out.

3. University to Provide iPads for All New Students – Lauren Indvik

This was posted a few days prior to the ipad launch so isn’t one of the millions of app reviews! The iPad could have a revolutionary role to play in education in terms of knowledge transfer (and in saving students from carrying heavy books!), so it was interesting to see this University giving them out to new students.

4. Goodbye, e-commerce, hello f-commerce? – Jake Hird

Jeremiah Owyang wrote about the 5 eras of the social web last year. And it looks like we might be getting to the era of social commerce quicker than expected. You can now embed ecommerce into Facebook using the paypal API. Big possibilities for any consumer products and for Facebooks company valuation.

5. Should You Outsource Social Media? – Valeria Maltoni

Should you outsource your digital strategy? Can a social media expert help you? In this post, Valeria Maltoni reaches out to some industry experts and gets their thoughts on the questions. Interesting reading.

6. Redefining Viral Marketing – Brain Solis

Everybody loves to talk about viral marketing or how they will create viral videos etc. In this lengthy but very insightful post, Brain Solis breaks down what is needed to create content , strategy and ideas that will spread a message through the social web.

What should have been included but wasn’t? Would love to hear any thoughts below.

“Of all the amazing new technologies that are opening up possibilities to communicate and connect in the digital space, video is the one that holds the most promise” (Valeria Maltoni – Conversation Agent)

Human beings are visual creatures and the experiences we get from seeing someone or something is far deeper than reading text or hearing audio. The good news, is social media and the web in general is becoming more video friendly. It is easy to make videos, easy to upload them to sites with potentially millions of viewers and easy for those people to share them. With the search engines and advertisers now more interested in engagement levels and time and depth of a site visit, it is a bit of no brainer for media owners and brands to not harness this.

You hear online video and you think YouTube, and why not? There are over 400m people per month watching between 6-9 million channels! Impressive. Also, we have the social networks who have their own video upload platforms and streaming sites such as Ustream or JustinTV. A recent, and very interesting entrant is Vpype. I saw them in action at SMWF on Monday and think this has some real legs from a fan engagement perspective.

This is truly social video . Sure, you can watch a video on YouTube and comment on it or watch a live event or broadcast on Ustream (even with some nice social chat features running alongside) but the ability to run a live, unscripted, ‘meeting’ or ‘party’ with your friends or fans is a far more engaging and authentic proposition.

Features include:

-          Live chat alongside each video

-          Chat History and storage

-          Viral tools to promote broadcasts on Facebook and Twitter

Bring out the Celebrities

I think the real winners in this will be celebrities or brands who have a community of advocates such as bands, fashion designers and especially sports teams and athletes. The ability to provide an experience such as Vpype to fans, embedded into a platform where they are already investing a huge amount of their online time is one that they should be seriously looking at.

Too many media owners are still thinking they need to use this type of golden content as a way to drive traffic to their ‘official websites’ or require a two page registration form before you can access this good stuff. You don’t need to put your audience or fans in a headlock before giving them what they want! The tools are available to provide remarkable experiences outside of official sites and it will be interesting to see who starts putting some stakes in the ground and experimenting.

Would love to hear you thoughts…and Happy St Patrick’s Day!

The winners this week, in no particular order, are…

1. Andreessen’s Advice To Old Media: “Burn The Boats” – Erick Schonfeld

Mark Andreesen (Co-Founder of Netscape and prolific investor) likens the development of the web and new media consumption to the discovery of the New World and offers the same advice to old media luddites today,  that was given to the Mexican’s over 500 years ago…”Burn the boats”. In other words, shut down your printing business and focus online. Unlikely we will see them abandoning a multi billion pound industry overnight…but I like the thinking!

2. SuperPower: Visualising the internet – BBC

Not much use to man or beast but a lovely visualization of the growth of web access from 1998 to 2008 around the World. Did you know that Congo only had 200 registered internet users in 1998…and Africa still lags way behind the rest of the globe ten years later. Check it out…we like the slider below the image.

3. Does Sports Need Social Media? – Lewis Howes

Yes! Without going over old ground too much, it is no secret that we think there is a huge amount Sports teams aren’t doing with social media and a huge amount that their fans wish they were. Lewis Howes looks at what is going on Stateside…and there is even less going on in the UK with a few notable exceptions. A big growth area for 2010 we think.

4. How Will The End of Print Journalism Affect Old Loons Who Hoard Newspapers? – The Onion

We aren’t on a crusade against print media this week, but thought the below video was too funny to not make the cut. Enjoy!

How Will The End Of Print Journalism Affect Old Loons Who Hoard Newspapers?

5. VIDEO GETS SOCIAL ON FACEBOOK – Murray Newlands

Spotted this one on Murray Newlands’ blog about Vypype, who are launching social video in Facebook. This is different and arguably better than the current video experiences, YouTube or streaming. This lets individuals or fan page owners create private video chat with their friends and fans on their terms, whenever they want. There are too many brand applications for this to talk about here but expect to see this type of technology play a bigger and bigger role in customer engagement programs.

6. How To Use Video SEO To Jump To The Top Of Google Search Results – Benjamin Wayne

Its getting harder and harder to get onto page 1 of Google’s search results. Google are (apparently) tweaking their algorithm to reward social interaction and ‘blended’ search results which include images…and video. This post looks at how by creating videos and uploading them to YouTube (who Google own) will help your SEO, and has some useful pointers.

Right, that’s it for another week. Whatever you do over the weekend…do it safely!

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.

No messing around this week, just straight in with our top six.

1. iStrategy 2010 – Moving Away From Campaigns To Constant Engagement – Sean Colgon

Sean Colgon shares this article and presentation from the iStrategy 2010 event in Berlin. Coca-Cola have recently been ousted by Google as the top brand in the world, but they do social media as well as anyone, which is saying something given they are as corporate as they come. Their Fans First approach to community engagement is a good benchamark for any organization grappling with how to move away from the campaign mindset to one of constant engagement and brand building. Good to see.

2. UK retailers missing a trick with social media – Net imperative

From the good to the bad. Apparently only two in five retailers in the UK have a presence in social media. It doesn’t cover whether they monitor what is being said about them (which may raise the number a bit), but if you are in the service or retail game then the corner stone of your business should be customer service…social media is pretty good at helping with that so we found that surprising.

3. The Secrets of YouTube Marketing Revealed – Ruth M Shipley

Social media Examiner does as good a job as any blog in explain social media and its possibilities in laymans terms. We like that! Here Ruth Shipley covers an area we have been looking at lately with how important Youtube is as a marketing channel for businesses. “400 million people worldwide actively seeking information on an estimated 6 million to 9 million YouTube channels every month” is hard to ignore.

4. Scorecard: Does Your Agency Fondle The Hammer? – Jeremiah Owyang

Fondling the Hammer you ask? That’s focusing on the shiny new technology tools and not business needs. Some very sound advice here on how not tying social media programs to business objectives and simply jumping from one platform strategy to another will confuse the hell out of your customers. Your agency partner should be helping you develop a long term customer engagement strategy not a short term marketing one.

5. SOCIAL MEDIA: The power of influencer marketing – Meg De Jong

A good (long) analysis of the art of influencer marketing. Influencers for your specific market or industry won’t be your customers, they will hang out on the sidelines…but will have the ear of your market and their opinion matters. The post covers finding them and keeping their attention – check it out.

6. Ustream Pairs Live Video With Simultaneous Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace Chat – Adam Ostrow

There a lots of live chat options available now…which we like! For fan or customer engagement and authenticity there really is nothing better so we thought Ustream’s new Social Stream feature which lets you login to all of the above and ping content out to them as well as the Ustream chat box is very cool.

On that note , have a good weekend.

I am sure many of you are familiar with Eric Qualman’s excellent socialnomics videos, with a plethora of social media stats set to inspirational (or annoying, depending on your musical tastes) soundtracks. If not then check them out here and here.

I stumbed across “Did you know 4.0” released last year as a second installment of “Shift Happens, Did You Know?”, a presentation developed by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Jeff Brenman in 2007. The video below has had over 1m views on Youtube and is worth a look…

In no particular order, six highlights from the past week that caught our eye…

1. Pope tells priests: Start blogging – Martin Bryant.

Pope Benedict XVI has his finger well and truly on the social media pulse. Apparently a new decree from the Vatican has encouraged priests to start blogging and generally get their geek on! What’s even better is the Pope’s own social media arsenal which includes YouTube channel, Facebook application and iPhone app, all accessible via his Pope2You site. Amen to that! 

2. Your Brain can’t handle your Facebook friends – Stan Schroeder at Mashable

Robert Dunbar and subsequently his number say you can’t hold more than 150 friends or relationships effectively. This apparently also applies to management of groups and teams. My number of friends on Facebook friends is currently 103…so no problem at all

3. Hello Twiterverse – @Astro_TJ

Yes, it is only a tweet so not really a story or post…but I think worthy of being in the top six all the same!

4. Katie Delayahe Paine’s New Social Media Measurement Checklist – KD Paine

A second appearance in as many weeks on the Friday Round Up for KD Paine. This week Katie gives us the definitive social media measurement checklist which will guide you through planning and progress. As she points out though, it is important to bare in mind the individuality of each social media program and tailor the measurement accordingly.

5. 7 Year Old’s Bike Ride Raises More Than $240,000 For Haiti – Samuel Axon at Mashable

Charlie Simpson from London got on his bike and raised over £160,000 for Haiti from all round the world showing the power of social media as a fundraising tool and showing everyone else that social media doesn’t have to be hard or complex. Not too shabby for a 7 year old!

6  . A Chronology of Brands that Got Punk’d by Social Media – Jeremiah Owyang

A post that was started back in May 2008 and compiles a list of some of the biggest social media ‘Fail’s’ by major brands going as far back as 2001. Expect it to keep growing as more and more brands dive, headfirst into social media in 2010.

Add any of your favourites in the comments.