Alana Fisher; Manager, Digital and Social Media (FIFA World Cup Bid), Football Federation Australia
This was another one of those presentations that I really found insightful as it explained how an Australian sport organization handled it. I was also able to contrast it with two of the state bodies that I’ve some familiarity with from having talked to their W-League representatives. There were some numbers that were really impressive but then put into the context of membership appeared less so. This doesn’t appear to a problem unique to the FFA though as an AFL club representative said that when you looked at the number of people who fan/like the team and then hide them from their feed, it can be shockingly high. I just didn’t take that many notes for this session as some of the numbers were a rehash.
- COI : Cost of Inactivity.
- You need a community manager. Community managers deal with content and moderation.
- They have over 160,000 people supporting their World Cup bid fan page.
- They have around 100,000 fans for the Socceroos on Facebook.
- They have a policy similar to that of Essendon regarding moderation.
- A good post has 250 comments.
- The coach decided to not allow players to use social media during the World Cup. FIFA also has their own guidelines for social media usage by players.
Nick Marvin; Chief Executive Officer, Perth Wildcats
I wasn’t expecting to take as many notes during this presentation as I did. The organization seems very on the ball with what they are doing. I really enjoyed this presentation.
- Marvin is not a sport guy. It is not his background.
- He has a sporting model based on the business model:
Top of triangle:
Member
Customer
Advocate
Fan
Prospect
Bottom of triangle.
- Winning isn’t everything. Engagement and tribal belonging are more important.
- Converting fans into paying customers: Specia deals on Twitter, discount codes. Target Perth Wildcat fans using e-mail.
- 51% of Facebook fans are likely to buy. 67% of Twitter followers are likely to buy.
- 35% of women are looking for deals online.
- CRM to SCRM: Need to move that way.
- Broad traditional media campaign is important to run but it is important to run that parallel to a social media and e-mail strategy.
- Going through social media, it allows:
1) Real time,
2) Direct/No intermediaries,
3) More authentic,
4) Less noise,
5) More frequent, and
6) Appropriate length.
- Social media allows real time feedback.
- The Perth Wildcats players sign a contract with the team for ethical behavior and community work.
- You need to monitor your brand.
- BackType and Social Mentions are two tools to help you monitor your brand.
- The Wildcats hire for character first. Character helps to build a brand.
- The Perth Wildcats use social media to monitor staff welfare. One person who the CEO saw tweet about feeling ill he talked to and suggested they go home if they are not feeling well.
Panel discussion: Nick Marvin, Jonathan Simpson, Jeramie McPeek, Alana Fisher
This was interesting but not as much interaction between panelists as there could be. It was at times more of a dialog with the audience. Still, lots of interesting things to learn from the panel.
- The Wildcats have increased their ticket prices 35% just to decrease the demand.
- The AFL is watching the NBA is doing and checking their own policies for online broadcasts as it relates to radio/audio.
- Steve Nash does his charity work quietly, without broadcasting it.
- Essendon has the best merchandising sales in the AFL. Essendon has a good situation as many advertisers approach them directly to cut their own deals, unlike other clubs who are hamstrung by the Telstra deal.
- Essendon encourages players not to look at comments. The club has talked with players about managing Facebook, and educating players in how to deal with social media.
- The Suns get in contact with Twitter people when people impersonate players and management.
- The AFLPA is working on snuffing out fake accounts on Facebook as they can be problematic.
- The Perth Wildcats CEO sat down and talked to a player who was slagged in the blogosphere.