A special series looking at the build up to the first ever ‘truly social’ FIFA World Cup, South Africa, June 2010.

Today, we look at how one of the world’s most famous and ‘tribal’ sporting events, the NCAA College Basketball Championship, is using social media and online channels to fuel ‘March Madness’ and the high standards being set ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

March Madness 101

If you’re not familiar with ‘March Madness’ let me give you a quick rundown.

One single elimination tournament. 65 US college basketball teams. TV, digital, radio and publishing rights worth $529 million. 130 million viewers worldwide.

TNS Media Intelligence, VP of research, John Swallen sums it up well:

“As a sports marketing event, the collegiate basketball tournament is part of a Final Four alongside the Super Bowl and the Summer and Winter Olympics.” 

In other words: IT’S A BIG DEAL.

The Method Behind the Marketing of ‘March Madness’

The BIG question is: How is the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and it’s commercial partners leveraging the passion fans have for the tournament?

NCAA.com – the ‘hub’

The ‘star’ of the NCAA.com hub is March Madness on Demand - live free video streaming featuring EVERY GAME of the tournament.

CBSSports.com is powering the dedicated channel, delivering around-the-clock coverage in HQ (High Quality) which would have only been a pipe dream for sports fans just five years ago.

An official March Madness on Demand iPhone app has also been launched to support the web channel, giving fans mobile access to the excitement.

Social Media Platforms

Most of the major social media platforms are being employed by the NCAA, including:

- NCAA Blog Central
- Twitter / NCAA
- Facebook Fan page
- Podcasts
- YouTube Channel

Nothing particularly groundbreaking is happening via these platforms, but in making sure each platform is integrated into the ‘fan offer’ with each featuring fresh content throughout the tournament, the NCAA is ensuring fans can connect via the channels they use on a regular basis.

Things to take note of:

- Membership of the NCAA Basketball Facebook Fan Page is at about 12,000, where as the recent Vancouver Winter Olympics Fan Page reached more than 1.2 million fans. There are definitely more opportunities of cross-promoting this channel within the streaming broadcast.

- The NCAA has chosen not to use a 3rd party photo sharing platform like Flickr, instead adopting a more ‘old-school’ and commercially focused approached by hosting galleries solely within NCAA.com.

- The NCAA Twitter account is almost being exclusively used as a news feed, with not much interaction taking place. This element of the offer could be bolstered if the the NCAA responded more to followed more fans, responded to fan comments and re-tweeted other people’s content. I think they are missing a trick here.

Commercial partner activity

A lot of creative activity is being undertaken by the brands associated with the NCAA including: AT&T, Coca-Cola Zero and Capital One.

Coke Zero and Capital One are probably the two worth looking at in the most detail as they are taking very unique and engaging approaches to their partnership exploitation.

Coca-Cola Zero: Brain Bracket Championship

This simple, but clever idea, involves asking fans to submit innovations (or as they call them ‘fannovations’) to help enhance the fan experience of the Championship.

The shortlisted ideas have made it into the final 64 elimination showdown, where they go head-to-head and voted for by other fans.

The ultimate winner receives $10,000.

Capital One: The Ivan Brothers 

I like the use of video in this campaign however this appears to be a more costly execution than the route Coca-Cola has taken but only sign-ups / leads generated as a result will give us a complete picture.

In saying that, the channel has already had more than 285,000 views.

For more, check out TheIvanBrothers.com

Summing it all up

I think it’s fair to say that the NCAA’s commercial partners, especially CBS Sports, Coca-Cola and Capital One are really doing some innovative and powerful things around this year’s NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA itself, like most amateur sporting associations, is probably not meeting the same ‘grades’ via their own channels (most likely due to funding / budgets) but some minor tweaks like increasing Twitter engagement levels could make a big difference.

It’s a great case study, and one that FIFA should keep a close eye on.

Adam Vincenzini

Notes:

By Adam Vincenzini 

I often review tools and apps on the COMMS corner but usually as part of sets i.e. 5 online tools making social media easier in 2010

However, it’s very rare for me to single out one social media service or product.

It has taken something “pretty freakin’ awesome” to change that fact…and that dose of “awesomeness” comes in the form of mflow.

What is mflow?

mflow is music sharing on steroids.

In order to give you the best insight into what it is and how it works, check out the demonstration video I compiled below:

(Excuse me and my cold…sound a little ‘nasaly’)

As you’ll see from the demonstration, it is a really clever and fun service.

The fact that you can earn credits (in addition to topping up your balance via your bank card) by being active and recommended music is a really engaging feature.

Now, it’s still in Beta and won’t be released in full until mid-April, so it’s hard to be too critical of the bits that are missing i.e. the music selection (currently) is relatively limited and it is also only available to UK users (again, currently)

Nevertheless, I really think it gives us a preview into the future of music sharing / buying and I encourage you (for what that’s worth!!) to try it out.

Special trial code for readers of the COMMS corner


The guys at mflow have been kind enough to give me a bunch of trial codes to pass on to you so you can try the service out for yourself.

Simply go to:

1. mflow.com

2. Enter the following code: ADAMV77

3. Test away!

There are only a limited number of trial passes available, so get in quick.

For more on mflow, check out the mflow Blog

Adam Vincenzini

Oh, if you want to follow me on mflow, my user name is AdamVincenzini

NOTES: I do not have an official connection / involvement with the marketing or operation of this product. It is simply a really interesting idea that I wanted to highlight on my Blog

By Adam Vincenzini

I noticed a bunch of chatter on Twitter last night referring to the overtly blatant, but somehow palatable, brand / product placement in the new Lady Gaga video, “Telephone”.

This subject is nothing THAT new of course, but it did show how sophisticated branded content or advertainment has become.

‘Advertainment’ and brands

If you’re not familiar with the term ‘advertainment’, Wikipedia describes it as:

A form of communication that combines the elements of advertising and entertainment which is designed to overcome the tendency, especially among television viewers, to change channels or mute the audio during standard television commercials.

This isn’t just applicable to television.

Social networks, radio programmes, magazines and online news all serve up incredible amounts of content driven by and / or featuring brands.

A new era: ‘Citizen Advertainment’

What we might be on the verge of seeing is the coming together of two activities, that we perhaps never thought would be commercially important enough for brands to pursue until now.

I’m talking about ‘Citizen Journalism’ i.e. Bloggers and ‘Advertainment’, which fused together creates ‘Citizen Advertainment.’

The rise of Social Media, the instant ‘fame’ that can be created via vehicles like Twitter and Blogs has suddenly made the ‘everyday Joe’ incredibly influential.

These people are also much easier to trust because we don’t put them on a ‘pedelstal’ and don’t consider them as ‘tainted’ as we might do with a ‘conventional’ celebrity.

What does this mean and what impact will it have?

It’s pretty simple.

The smart brands will look at the conventional model, of which Lady Gaga’s video is a great example, and produce content in consultation with these influencers.

They won’t ‘pitch’ stories at them, nor will they pay them to feature content on their Blogs.

What they will do is create platforms that will not compromise the ‘brand essence’ of the parties collaborating, providing the consumers with entertainment they trust and can easily engage with.

‘Citizen Advertainment’ is already happening…now, perhaps, we have a fancy term for it…which I’ll happily claim unless Google proves me wrong (and no, that was not a branded plug for Google).

Adam

Note: You can view the 9 minute epic that is Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” video below.

“My interest lies in the future because I’m going to spend the rest of my life there.”

Today, we take a peek into the future of PR and personal(ity) branding.

More specifically, we meet a young lady who might just be the prototype for how young professionals need to market themselves before they even enter the workforce.

Her name is Mikinize Stuart (@Mikinzie), and although she doesn’t finish her university studies until May this year at Ferris State University in Michigan, we could all learn a thing or two from her now, especially in relation to building relationships via social media…

The interview

Q1 (AV): You have established an impressive suite of online destinations / places to connect as you prepare for a life in PR – for those who aren’t aware, what are some of the things you are doing and what is the rationale behind your strategy?

Brian Solis, who I have a great deal of respect for, stopped me in my tracks with this snappy ‘Tweetline’ a few hours ago:

“Breaking News: Twitter Changes Updates to Tweets http://bit.ly/b8kZNI

(Brian, also qualified this in the link / subsequent post, shedding some much needed perspective on the ‘scale’ of this news, but nevertheless…)

But, Brian touched on a point in his post which has been bothering me for months; in the world of Social Media this IS considered significant ‘news.’

From his post: “In the grand scheme of things, this news seems a bit insignificant in light of other current events However, it is significant in the world of Social Media. “

A ‘new’ news criteria?

Does this ‘update’ really pass the “so what?” test? Is it news?

Prominence, topicality and change. Yes.

Proximity and action. Maybe.

Conflict, rarity, consequence and personality. Hmmm, no.

For me, this barely passes as news (in the traditional sense), let alone BREAKING NEWS, so should we be classifying it in that way?

Quantity engulfing quality?

Imagine being an alien and arriving on planet Earth and you asked someone:
         
“So, what’s making news today?”

And you replied:

“Oh, the big story of the day revolves around some letters on a web page being replaced by some others, and it’s just thrown us all into disarray…we now ‘Tweet’ instead of ‘Update.’ True story.”

If I was that alien, I’d hop back on my spaceship and never come back…ever!

My big fear when I embarked on my newspaper-less experiment for 2010 was that quality would be replaced with quantity.

I think if I was in a court of law right now, I’d quite happily refer to this example and say:

“The defence rests your honour.”

What would your decision be?

Sentenced to Tweet-jail for the remainder of your natural life for blatant and repeated use of illegitimate ‘breaking’ news ‘Tweetlines’?

Or, does this now qualify as big news?

Do we need a new term?

It’s YOUR community…you decide!

Adam

Notes:
Brian Solis: If you do happen to read this, I hope no offence has been taken, and as you rightly clarified in your post there is an argument for this being ‘big’ news for people interested in Social Media…of which I am one of those people, hence asking this question

In those days the comments came in via email and through other direct media - ICQ, IRC and MSN. But the intention was always the same: to capture the ideas and commentary happening in a live event or in response to live events, and to use these as a record for later review and as a source for idea development.

Being text, live blogging can sometimes give you the capacity to record lightning quick ideas that strike you while you're listening to a presentation that, captured only in notes on paper, don't have the effect that live blogging can have. 

Frequently lost and rarely revisited, paper notes only have a life if the author engages with them, where live blogging has value not just for the author, but for the audience, and it can act as a catalyst for future conversations and business propositions that would otherwise never see the light of day. 

Tricks of the trade

But to be a useful live blogger, there are a few tricks to the trade. 

First of all, for any event you want to live blog, it's always a good idea to turn up early, and to have your own broadband connection by way of a mobile broadband dongle. Even if there is broadband at the venue, there is no guarantee you will get a decent connection when you have to share it with everyone else. Having your own connection gives you an opportunity to prevent your live blogging from being lost when a venue connection goes down.

Then when you start to live blog, it's useful to announce where you are, what you're live blogging and provide links to further information about the event at the top of the post - this way peoplewho 'drop in' to your live blogging feed can catch up as you blog. 

You should also tweet your live blog as soon as you start blogging, so that readers can watch the event unfold.

Wherever possible (in the tags to the post and in tweets) use hashtags for the event. That's simply the # key and the name of the event or its abbreviation - all as a single word - like #bemyguest for these posts. It enables tracking of the event after it concludes, and it is likley to expand the readership of a live blog if people recognise the event you are covering, even if they do not know you. 

As for the structure of live blogging posts, I favour a timestamp at various points in an event, or during a session, so the reader can see how long any idea took to develop, and they can compare the time of your last update with the current time. The closer the reader is to the timestamp, the more engaged they feel with an event as it is happening.

Upload/update posts as frequently as possible. If it's a live blog of a short event (under 2 hours) then you should probably be loading content every 5-10 minutes. Any longer and your audience will assume your connectin has failed. For an all-day event it's okay to update once every 30 minutes or so, but if you come across a particularly interesting point, it's a good idea to upload and then edit an existing post to add more content, partly so you give your audience a chance to engage, and also just to make absolutely sure that you record the interesting point and it doesn't get lost in the clutter of idea recording. 

For content, I tend to report what is happening, and then add my own commentary, often in square brackets, to distinguish what I think from what the speaker is saying. As much as possible, I create live links to sources and content referred to in presentations. It adds a layer of richness to the content received in a live blogging channel because it allows readers to access the context of a point, rather than just hear what is being said. And of course for the live blogger, it enables you to return to and visit sites after the event for further review of ideas presented. 

Finally, live blogging is immensely tiring. If you do it all day at an event you will find yourself absolutely exhausted at the end of it. Even doing an hour or two can be tiring, as it requires immense concentration to be able to record all of what is being said as well as link content and add your own commentary throughout. So if you plan to live blog, be prepared for a buzzing brain and babbling tongue afterward. 

It's a rewarding and important means of engaging with ideas, but it's also the equivalent of being thrown into the deep end of a pool of new concepts, without knowing how to swim your way to coherence!

__________

Joanne Jacobs is a London based Social Media Consultant, providing advice to firms on knowledge management through social media, word-of-mouth marketing, client engagement and execution of business strategies with emergent technologies.

She also acts as a consultant to Paratus Communications (the agency I work at).

For more on Joanne, visit her Blog at joannejacobs.net

__________

I thought having Joanne as a guest on my Blog was especially useful (well, at least for me!) ahead of next week's Social Media World Forum in London.

I'm attending as an official blogger and will be adopting many of the techniques Joanne outlined in this post.

For more on the Social Media World Forum, click here.

Til next time.

Adam

__________

STAYING CONNECTED:



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And if you're on Twitter, we can connect there too: @AdamVincenzini


My Posterous is also available at: posterous.adamvincenzini.com

Like a lot of other people (I imagine), his post encouraged me to do my own ‘tools review’ – and, quite worryingly, I’d used / tested more than 100 tools in the first two months of 2010.

Once I stopped hyperventilating, I took a great deal of solace in the discovery of five tools / services that have made my social media world A LITTLE SIMPLER (so far) in 2010.

threadsy - integrated messaging hub

They say: threadsy is the world’s first integrated communications client. It combines email, Twitter, Facebook and the broader social web into a unique, enjoyable experience that provides deep context on the people you message with.

My translation: Gmail + Hotmail + Facebook + Twitter + IM + contact information + archiving = living ‘happily’ together on one busy looking, but manageable, screen (see below).

What’s missing? I’m a PC, so if it integrated my Outlook it could potentially mean I finally have the ultimate messaging solution. Nudge, nudge.

Evernote - online filing cabinet and sorter supreme

They say: Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your notable life using your computer, phone and the web.

My translation: Electronic post it notes + an automatic filing system + user-friendly ‘searchability’ = a place I trust more than my bank to store, file and keep all the important information I find everyday, mostly online.

What’s missing? Until recently I thought it, like most other cool tools, it wasn’t available on Blackberry…turns out it is…lovely! I’m even tempted to go premium on this one…which as they point out is pocket change.

NutshellMail - social media personal assistant

They say: NutshellMail takes copies of all your latest updates in your social networking and emailing accounts and places them in a snapshot email.

The NutShellmail update is then set to your primary email address on your schedule.

My translation: New followers + latest quitters + latest direct messages + latest replies + latest status updates = my twice a day snapshot of the things I need to respond to / make note of.

This is such a time saver, it really is like a virtual personal assistant.

What’s missing? A nice cup of tea and some biscuits.

Posterous - easy-to-use, ‘mid-level’ blogging

They say: Posterous is the dead simple way to post everything. Just email us.

My translation: Twitter + Blogger / WordPress = the mid-sized love child of Blogging / Micro Blogging.

I use Posterous as my half-way house. If my Blog is my social media hub and Twitter is my real-time connection to the social-sphere, Posterous fills that gap in the middle, allowing me to post mid-sized bites / thoughts that require more than 140 characters but less than 250 words.

What’s missing? Until yesterday, I found posting images via the web option impossible – however this can be solved via a simple plug-in (h/t to @emilycagle)

AlertRank - Google alerts on steroids

They say: Better Buzz Management for Google Alerts. The ‘secret weapon’ of top SEOs, online marketers and PR pros, that helps them instantly identify top priority buzz, stay focused, and on top of their workloads and their clients’ expectations.

My translation: Google Alerts on steroids.

Once you’ve set up your Google alerts, this very simply ranks them in order of importance as the content featuring those key words ‘goes live’ and delivers them in priority order at times that suit you.

What’s missing?  this is now a completely free service for, with no fee attached – excellent – even more of a reason to use it.

So, there you go.

Not quite 39 like Jay’s impressive list, but if you fancy a bit of streamlining, these might come in handy.

Until next time.

AV

The event is billed as Europe’s leading social media event, featuring a speaker line-up of some of the industry’s  most intriguing people, representing some of the world’s most intriguing organisations / brands.

YOUR Blog, YOUR questions

If you are a regular visitor of this Blog, you’ll know I’m pretty partial to getting you involved in the content that is created.

So, I thought it’d be worth adopting this approach in relation to the Social Media World Forum by asking you which questions you think I should ask / keep in mind when I’m at the event.

Or, there might be a specific issue relating to social media that might be a hot topic at the event which you think would be interesting for me to track and report back on.

As always, it’s up to you.

How it will work

A basic form has been embedded at the bottom of this post.

Simply fill in the sections as directed and I’ll include your suggestion in my “reporter’s brief.”

Speaker’s of note

As I mentioned earlier, the speaker’s list is very impressive (view full line-up here).

I thought’d it be useful to provide some background on a few of the speaker’s I’m particularly interested in seeing at the event as they might help shape your questions / requests.

Nick Halstead, CEO, TweetMeme - In charge of one of the world’s most popular Twitter-sourced news aggregators

Kevin Eyres, Managing Director of LinkedIn, Europe – Hoping to get some insights on the future of the world’s leading online professional networking service

Allison Wightman, Head of Marketing Systems, Virgin Atlantic – Interested to hear what she has to say about relationship building via digital channels in the airline industry

Sam Barrat, Head of Media, Oxfam – in charge of media for Oxfam in more than 80 countries around the world.

View the full list (including bios) here.

If you have any other ideas / thoughts after you’ve completed the following questions, just drop them in the comments section.

Thanks
Adam

Phrases like “Oh sugar!” were often used as a substitute.

Which brings me on to today’s topic, and the one word in the English language which for so long has been taboo in the professional world I operate in: the field of COMMUNICATIONS.

PR, Marketing, Advertising, Customer Service, Digital, Journalism, Branding – they are all based on the principals of the real ‘C’ word.

The re-emergence of ‘integration’ (especially in the fields of PR and Marketing)

The Vocus Whitepaper I read last night summed it up pretty well:

Integrated marketing and communications is the Holy Grail – and has been for several decades, and although it’s still seemingly idealistic, we have never been closer to achieving this goal. A confluence of measures and changes in the industry from a changing media landscape to social media and PR’s more central role in marketing, to the rise of reputation of management – the perfect storm of events has set the conditions to realize the objectives.

What does this mean? 

It means different things to different people, but it mainly comes back to where your interests lie, which is the problem and the solution.

The problem lies in our almost insatiable need to ‘categorise’ and ‘label’ everything we do / offer.

Hi, I’m Joe Bloggs and my agency specialises in digital media.

Hello, I’m Joanne Blabbs, and we just do offline PR.

Yep, Jeff Johnson here, and we strictly look after customer facing issues only.

I hate to spoil the party, but the end consumer doesn’t really care, and increasingly neither does the person charged with making the decisions that impact on the end consumer: Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs).

The CMO has always wanted complete COMMUNICATIONS solutions.

The problem has been that the disciplines within the discipline have continued to grow, creating silos internally and externally, making this virtually impossible.

Perhaps now, as each discipline gently bleeds into one another organically, we’ll see the ‘C’ word taken off the blacklist and given a VIP pass.

The people / agencies / departments that can, through approaching communications as a truly integrated piece, will be the ones CMOs will cherish more than anything over the next few years because that’s THE JOB THAT NEEDS DOING.

So, don’t be afraid to be someone who embodies the ‘C’ word…I can’t think of a more complimentary term in 2010.

AV

*Just to clarify, beyond any doubt, the C with the asterix next to it refers to ‘communications’ – just in case my Mum reads this and interprets it slightly differently. Love you Mum.

(For daily updates checkout the dedicated Posterous site or follow the dedicated Twitter account @BeMyGuestMonth)

Guest blogging is great.It’s great for the guest poster, great for the blog ‘host’ and most importantly, great for the audience.

Why?

The guest poster gets to expose his / her work to a new audience. The host gives his / her audience something new and fresh to enjoy. It’s what social media and sharing is all about.

So, we thought it would be a good idea to make March the month to encourage some mutual guest blogging via ‘Be My Guest.’

What is ‘Be My Guest’?

It’s pretty simple. During March 2010, anyone taking part will aim to:

1. Write at least one post for someone else’s blog, and

2. Feature at least one guest post on their own blog.

We’d really like to focus on creating some new relationships, so instead of writing and featuring posts for people you already know really well, we’d like to extend it further.

All you have to do is use Twitter to tweet out your blog details and the hashtag: #BeMyGuest to let people know you’d like to take part.

Your tweet might look like this:

“I write a blog about #media called The Media Blog (insert your Blog link) and I’d like to take part in #BeMyGuest (http://bit.ly/bemyguest1)”

or

“I blog about #food at The Yum! Blog…”

This will hopefully see bloggers who are interested in specific subjects connect and do some ‘mutual’ blogging.

You might want to just link up with one other blogger for the month or four…or more! It’s really is up to you.

Some guidelines & ideas

Use the hashtag – If you post on someone else’s blog or have someone post as your guest, let everyone know by adding #BeMyGuest to a tweet when it’s published. You can also set up a column in Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or your Twitter app of choice to track every mention of the keyword so you don’t miss any great opportunities.

Blog about Be My Guest – If you’d like to outline what you’re looking for from guest posters, and showcase what you’ve got to offer other blog hosts, write a post about your requirements and push it out across your social networks with the #BeMyGuest hashtag.

Set out your preferences – Some hosts prefer to retain the right to edit a post, while others publish as is. Similarly, some hosts only take exclusive posts, while others are happy to reuse. So think about your preferences before you get started and once you make connections, chat to each host/guest you work with to make sure you’re in agreement.

Have fun and good blogging!

Adam and Emily

Check out the other people taking part here