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Why Fantasy Football Players Love Social Media

Tom Sullivan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 01:31:13 +0000

Football season is upon us once again. With college football underway and the NFL season a mere day away it’s a great time to start talking about one of the most interesting characters in American society: Fantasy Football guy (or gal). Before I get into this though, I’d like to point out that we are very lucky to even be having an NFL season this year. Back in January I wrote an article about how social media use hurts the chances of there being an NFL season in 2011 (because of lack of player solidarity). Luckily, the lockout ended in August- thanks in no part to the Twitter banter among players- and football fans, and Fantasy Football nerds, everywhere breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Fantasy Football, in case you live on another planet, involves picking players at different positions and competing against office-mates, friends and family members on a weekly basis based on their respective players’ stats (touchdowns, yards, catches, etc) . Fantasy Football is so wildly popular that it will lead to countless hours wasted at the office and literally billions lost in worker productivity. According to outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, nearly 37 million people spend an average of 50 minutes of work time a week managing their fantasy football teams, resulting in as much as $1.1 billion a week in lost productivity.

Of course, the 50 minutes a week these football geeks are spending at work might be supplementing the time on Facebook they would have otherwise spent. Or not. The point is, Fantasy Football is big, real big. So, after individual match-ups are considered, what do Fantasy Football players rely on to make their game day decisions? First, you turn to the injury report.

One of the biggest things that scares any Fantasy Football player is an injury to one of their top players. Of course, the NFL is a brutal sport and many players often play injured on a weekly basis. You can turn to the injury report, which you can find on various sports websites; however, the injury report is often littered with guys who you know are hurt but will obviously play. For instance, Tom Brady has been listed on the injury report every week since 2005!

The injury list, which was designed 60 years ago in part to prevent gambling interests from gaining insider information, has become somewhat of a sham, offering very little meaningful information (such as Tom Brady’s constant shoulder injury). Conversely, some teams in recent years, like the Dallas Cowboys, have listed very few people, unless they’re totally unable to play. Teams can be fined for false information, as 13 teams have been reported to make false statements in the past 10 years (there hasn’t been any info disclosed on who these teams are). As teams continue to walk the line with the misleading injury reports they provide the NFL, Fantasy Football players will have to turn elsewhere.

So after the injury report where do you turn? Social media!

Here’s one example of Twitter use, by a player, that nearly scared Fantasy Football players to death: Arian Foster’s hamstring MRI. In the photo on your right Arian Foster, one of the top running backs in the NFL, tweeted a link to his hamstring MRI and in the tweet he said, “This is an MRI of my hamstring, The white stuff surrounding the muscle is known in the medical world as anti-awesom…”

Another interesting example of Twitter talk gone too far is Washington Redskins’ safety LaRon Landry. On Tuesday Sept. 6th he posted a tweet that appeared to blame the Redskins’ training staff for his slow hamstring recovery: ”Uuhhh oo it ain’t my fault, blame the genius circus staff for the rush. wouldve been there 2wks ago. Im sry but saga cont.” Landry later deleted the tweet, but not after it was re-tweeted by the Washington Post. On Wednesday Sept. 7th Landry tweeted, “As of now, yeah, it looks like I’m going to miss it,” referring to the season opener on Sunday.

With so many athletes out there willing to turn to social media to immediately let you know about their injuries, contract disputes and political leanings fans are closer than ever to their favorite players. Social media is so new that we’ve yet to see any backlash in the form a discipline handed down to a player over a tweet. That doesn’t mean that teams haven’t internally scolded their players over their tweets, but as of now players are free to discuss their health, and anything else, openly.

Time will tell if and when the NFL personal conduct policy extends to social media. My guess is that commissioner Roger Goddell is coming up with a plan as I write this. Until then Fantasy Football players will continue to turn to social media to make their game day player selections, and why shouldn’t they. Unlike Peyton Manning, who has kept his neck injury status as secret as our nation’s nuclear missile locations (with word finally coming today that he’s out for week 1), a plethora of other NFL star players love to divulge everything on social media, including their injury status.

Social Media Helps with Emergencies

Tom Sullivan — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:26:57 +0000

It occurred to me right after the 5.9 earthquake that hit the east coast, followed by hurricane Irene last weekend, that social media, while silly and useless to a lot of people, is very important during emergency situations. As a California native, it was weird to feel an earthquake on the east coast. So weird that I didn’t even realize that I was experiencing it until at least 10 seconds into it. Immediately after I wanted to know if in fact it was an earthquake, and if other people felt it. Well, no news network or blogger is that quick, so where did I look? Twitter!

Now, the example above was me merely trying to confirm my suspicion about an obvious occurrence. Hurricane Irene, however, is a different story. You see, one of the biggest threats that people face when a hurricane passes through (other than death and destruction) is power outages. If the power goes out not only can you not use your oven, stove, microwave or toaster to cook food, but you cannot turn on the television to get emergency updates.

So how do you get real time emergency updates when the power goes out during an emergency situation? Twitter! As long as you have a laptop, tablet or cell phone with battery life you’ll be able to connect to Twitter through wi-fi, even if your not connected to your network, which you won’t be able to do since the power is out.

Almost every local news station and weatherman has a Twitter account. In emergency situations they can provide you with valuable information on the storm danger zones, potential flooded areas, local shelters, tips for emergency kits and much more…

The character limit on Twitter messages is often thought of as a hindrance, but in emergency situations messages that are ‘short and sweet’ are most effective. They quick and easy to type, and they’re to the point. So what’s my suggestion? Sign up for Twitter and follow local news stations and weathermen (or weather-women), even if you never plan on “tweeting” just so you’re prepared in case of an emergency.

Using Social Media to Find a Job

Tom Sullivan — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:39:50 +0000

With unemployment lingering at about 9%, the team at Turbo thought it would be helpful to discuss some of the best ways for job seekers to find employers who might be looking for their talents. Just like businesses use social media for branding and promotions, so can you. In this case we’re talking about self branding and self promotion. Here are several sites that can help you get your name out…

1) LinkedIn: By far the best website for job seekers. Make sure that you take the time to completely fill out your profile (including your photo and detailed descriptions about your previous job experience and accomplishments). Also, make sure you optimize your profile. What I mean by “optimize” is use keywords related to your job experience in the headline and description of your profile. For example, “medical device sales rep” or “software database engineering expert.” I would also add your location as well, for example “Chicago website graphic designer.”

LinkedIn also has a premium service for job seekers. It’s $29.99 per month and it allows users to contact recruiters and hiring managers directly with InMail messages, save profiles and organize your job search with Profile Organizer, get introduced to inside sources at companies, and much more. If you don’t have the budget for this you’ll notice that with just a basic profile you’ll see a box that says “Jobs You May Be Interested In.” LinkedIn is targeting jobs for you based on your profile.

2) Blogging, Facebook, Twitter: I decided to combine these three into one because by themselves I don’t think they’re enough (or equivalent to any other networks mentioned in this article). The first step is to set up a blog about yourself. You can do this pretty easily with WordPress and Blogger. Also, while I recommend the self-hosted version of WordPress (.org), the hosted version is easier to set up and there is no monthly hosting fee. Once you have a blog in place you’ll want to write articles about your skill set, your goals, and why you’re the best at what you do.

Once you’ve started to blog you’ll want to set up Facebook and Twitter. If you already have a Facebook profile, but it’s full of your college drinking buddies’ inappropriate comments, then create a new professional profile. Do the same for Twitter and then set up your blog to automatically update both networks. On Facebook you can also use the “Marketplace” to look for posted jobs. Facebook allows you to message the person who posted the job listing . For Twitter, you’ll want to make use of the hash tag (#) in searches for #jobs, and more specifically, jobs that you’re looking for: #softwareengineerjob. Also make sure your Twitter messages include links to your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, and blog.

3) Jobster: This is an up-and-coming network that deserves to talked about more. Users can upload their video resume, showcase links to their website (or blog), add their picture, and “tag” their skills. You can also search for open positions, find out who posted the job, and add that person to your network and connect with them individually.

4) Plaxo with Simply Hired: This is a network that is similar to LinkedIn in that it allows you to create a profile and add a steam of updates from your other networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. The biggest benefit to Plaxo is that it keeps track of your location and where your contacts live. Since Plaxo is integrated with Simply Hired, a job aggregator that searches thousands of job sites and companies and aggregates them in a single location for you, you can search for jobs locally more efficiently.

This is just a simplified list. There are many others to look into, including Craiglist, Xing, MyWorkster, JobFox, VisualCV, Ecademy, and YorZ. Also, consider joining a Meet Up group in your area. They’re typically informal networking meetings that don’t require any membership or affiliation with an actual company. This in-person networking, combined with a strong presence online, will drastically improve the visibility of your talents to recruiters, hiring managers, or people who have connections to businesses that are seeking new employees.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can use social media to help land a job then fill out this form and we’ll get back to you.

Why Social Media Use Hurts Chances of an NFL season in 2011-12

Tom Sullivan — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:33:21 +0000

While most of my articles focus on internet news, marketing tips and social media tools, I thought I’d spend some time discussing the dynamics of America’s favorite pastime (sorry Baseball) and social media. More specifically, how the growing use of social media could hinder the ability of the players union to unite against the ownership of the NFL, agree on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, and ultimately, prevent the 2011-12 season from being “locked out.” What better time to discuss this than one week before the biggest sporting event on the planet: the Super Bowl!

For those of you who aren’t up to date on the imminent danger of a lockout in the 2011-12 NFL season, let me bring you up to speed. The NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is a contract between the employers (owners) and the union (players) that stipulates wages, working hours, training, health, safety and so forth. The current agreement runs through the 2010 season, and it expires on March 4. If there is new no agreement in place by this date then players will lose many of their benefits programs, such as 401Ks, player annuities, severance pay and performance-based pay. Just to put this into perspective, in 2009 the total league-wide contribution to these benefits was over $325 million.

2010 was considered the “Final League Year” for the soon-to-expire CBA. With this designation there was no salary cap this past season, and there were more significant restrictions on player free agency. There are a plethora of free agent terms and stipulations that I won’t delve into in the article, but the bottom line is, if there is no new CBA in place after March 4, 2011 there will be no NFL season in 2011-12. Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, has offered to cut his salary to $1 next year if that happens. Unfortunately, not only does that offer mean nothing to fans (he’s been making $10+ million a year), it also does nothing to further the negotiations between the players union and the owners. Thanks for the gesture Roger!

So where does social media come in?

Even the most casual of fans recognize names like Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens because of their TV shows. They are both very active in social media as well, particularly Twitter (Ochocinco has over 1.5 million Followers and T.O. has nearly a million). Social media has made NFL players like these more accessible, and more importantly, it makes their thoughts and feelings more accessible. One player who has used Twitter to discuss his displeasure with the progress of the new CBA is New York Jets’ cornerback Antonio Cromartie. He unleashed this tweet earlier this week: “They [the NFL] got their guys acting like a–holes. So they just need to get their s– together and just get it done” (referring to the new CBA negotiations). On camera, he later referred to the head union rep as an “a–hole.”

Keep in mind that Cromartie has no involvement with the players union (I don’t think they’d want him to be involved). He’s not even an alternate player rep. Yet he’s bashing the very people who represent him and the very people who are working to prevent a lockout. He received some harsh words from Ray Lewis and Darnell Docket, as well as Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback Matt Hasselbeck (who is his teams’ 2nd alternate union representative). Hasselbeck tweeted this in response to Cromatie’s comments: “Somebody ask Cromartie if he knows what CBA stood for.” This then prompted another response from “Cro” saying that he’d “bash Hasselbeck’s face in.” Nice.

Cromartie’s stance is simple: just get the deal done. Whether you side with him or not on his stance you cannot deny that the bickering between players on social media forums, like Twitter, is only damaging the players’ solidarity and leverage with the owners. Because baseball players were untied back in 1994 they were able to avoid a substantial lockout (although they did lose about half of a season). Still, it was perhaps the greatest show of union solidarity in modern sports history. There was no Twitter back then.

With a lockout looming the players need to be untied. The owners have all the leverage, and bickering on Twitter or through the media is only hurting the players’ solidarity. Players need to understand that their actions on social media, while well intentioned (and humorous), are not helping their cause. We’re living in a new world now with social media, and just as job seekers need to “clean up” their Facebook page to make themselves employable, NFL players need to think before they tweet (or they may soon be unemployed).

Several NFL analysts and reporters are predicting that the lockout will go into the 2011-12 season. If that happens the players (who make millions) will hurt more than the owners (who make billions).

A Few Cool Social Media Website Tools

Tom Sullivan — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:40:21 +0000

If your business has started to see the potential with social media you might be looking for some cool social media tools to utilize on your website. In this article I’ll break down a few of the many tools that could potentially benefit your website:

1) Facebook Like Button- Now that you no longer become a “Fan” of a business, make sure you include the “like” button in all of your blog articles. You may even want to add it to every page of your website.

2) Facebook Activity Feed- The Activity Feed is a plugin displays Facebook profile pictures of your Friends who “like” the website you’re visiting. This a neat tool to use because it can persuade visitors to your website to “like” your business on Facebook, since they can see that their Friends already do.

3) ‘Tweet This’ button- Just like the Facebook “like” button, this Twitter button will allow you to tweet out a blog article or a page of a website with one click of your mouse. WordPress has a plug known as TweetMeMe that allows you to easily add this to any page of your website.

4) Wibiya Social Toolbar- This is a website enhancer that adds a little bar across the bottom of your website or blog. This toolbar encourages people to stay on your website will interacting with others. It also fully integrates with many different social networking websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz and YouTube.

These are just a few of the many social networking tools that your business can use on it’s website. Remember, it’s all about encouraging interaction. The more your audience engages the more information you can get from them, and the more quality information you can provide them. All this leads to more business down the road.

If you have any tools you’d like to add to this list please do so. We’d love to hear about it.

The Importance of a Consistent Brand

Zack — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:32:17 +0000

A little while back, you may have noticed, that here at Turbo Social Media, we redid our whole website. We upgraded the features as well as the design and style. In order to stay consistent across all outlets of Social Media, that we are present, we have finalized implementing our design on those sites as well. Go Ahead and check them out, I will be waiting right here:

Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

So what do you think? Pretty cool, huh?

Well this amazing design is not just for the looks. The design was implemented in order for us to keep our brand apparent wherever you find us. Branding is a very important aspect of just about any business as it gives you an edge in competitive markets. Your brand is your promise to your customer, and you want to make yourself know wherever people find you.

To learn more about how we can help you with your Branding and your Social Media Marketing, click the red button at the top of the page to watch our free video series or give us a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Zack Zucker, Manager Client Services, Turbo Social Media

What should your business tweet about?

Tom Sullivan — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:32:06 +0000

I’ve encountered a common question when consulting with my clients: what the heck do I tweet about? If you’re relatively new to social media you’ve probably asked yourself this very question. You can even apply this same questioning to Facebook wall posts.

Assuming you have the audience, or are growing the audience (of Fans and Followers), then the key is putting out the right messages. Here are some basic ideas for “stuff to Tweet about“:

1) Blog posts: If you have a consistent blogging strategy then take advantage of that and set up a feed for your blog posts to your Twitter and Facebook accounts. This can be done through Feedburner, Social Oomph, Twitter Feed or Hootesuite, to name a few. You can also re-purpose old blog posts and link to them from Twitter and Facebook.

2) Tips: Consider tweeting out a tip of the day to your Followers. Tweet about tips, tools, strategies and advice that you know as an expert in your field, but your Followers may not know. They will begin to see you as more of an authority figure in your industry.

3) Questions: Consider discussing a struggle or challenge that you or your Followers have had, and then pose an open-ended question as to what solutions or conclusions your Followers have discovered about this issue. This is a great way to gather feedback from your target market and really learn more about what they want to know and what they are struggling with.

4) Quotes: Famous quotes can be refreshing and inspiring. It’s never a bad idea to tweet out a famous quote now and again.

5) Mentions or Retweets: If you have a new client or a colleague who does something special for you consider giving them a mention. A thank you goes a long way, especially on Twitter. Retweets are also nice to utilize, as you can not only repeat a tweet that you like, but you can also give credit to the person who originally tweeted it.

As you can see, there are plenty of things to tweet about. Remember, unless you’re a famous athlete or celebrity, no one cares what you ate for lunch or where you went shopping. You cannot monetize the power of Twitter if this is your strategy. You need to take the time to learn about your Followers (and Fans) and use Twitter to establish your credibility, increase your visibility, and build relationships.

If you know of other popular things to tweet about feel free to leave us a comment.

Twitter: 2 Billion Tweets per Month and Counting

Zack — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:16:23 +0000

A new report has come out that states, that there are around 2 Billion tweets per month on Twitter. That is Billion… with a “B.” This is just more proof that Social Networking and Social Media Marketing are HUGE, and you and your business and missing out by not grabbing a piece of this. Twitter is getting bigger every single day, with more users joining and sharing their information for you to read. It only makes sense for you to be a part of it, so your company does not get left behind.

Now I know what you are thinking, “2Billion tweets a month is a lot, but there is no way that number will continue to rise, it has to be on its way down…” Well what if I told you that Twitter reached its 1 billionth tweet back in the fall of 2008. Nearly 1 year later, it reached 5 billion tweets. In March of 2010, Twitter hit the 10 billion tweet mark, and now, less than 3 months later, they are over the 15 billion tweet mark. The graph would look something like this:

Aside from showing the insane growth of Twitter, these numbers tell us something else: Everyone and their mother is now on Twitter. That means there are that many more people out there to sell your products or services too. It is a great way to keep in touch, syndicate out your Blog Posts, or Network. Twitter is the best way to stay up to date on current issues build your business to a level you are happy with.

To learn more about Social Media Marketing and the Importance of Social Networking, click the red button at the top of the page to watch our free video series or give us a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Zack Zucker, Manager Client Services, Turbo Social Media

The Importance of Social Media Buttons on Your Site

Zack — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:31:22 +0000

Social media is obviously a very important part of growing your business in the new millennium. Social media allows you to connect with other like minded folks who can help your business grow. In order to grow your social media lists, you need to make sure people can find you with ease, so the goal is to make it easy for them. Obviously when accepting friends on Facebook you can send them a quick message telling them to follow you on twitter, or become a fan of you on Facebook. But what about from your blog? It does not make a whole lot of sense to tell people to check you out on Facebook or on Twitter in EVERY post. That is where social media buttons come in.

If you are not too sure what I am talking about, by mentioning Social Media Buttons, scroll up to the top of this page and look in the upper right hand corner. These “buttons” link directly to Turbo’s social media accounts. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and click on them… seriously go ahead, I will wait…. Pretty cool huh?

I am sure you have probably seen these before on many other sites. We did not come up with this idea, but it is catching on quick with many websites and blogs across the Internet. These Social media buttons are actually quite important. Social media is all abotu being connected to others, so your goal and objective should be to make it as simple and as easy as possible for others to get in touch with you. Imagine if we did not have this. If you wanted to connect with us on Twitter, you would have to Search for Turbo Social Media within twitter, and may not find as as we are titled “TurboSMM.” Same with Facebook, if you wanted to check us out there, you would have to open a new window and go to facebook and search for us. These buttons at the top of the page, take all the work out of it, you can click on any of them and be immediately taken to the page and connect with us there. You can connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn or check out our RSS.

To learn more about Social Media Marketing, click the red button at the top of the page to watch our free video series or give us a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Also be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn by going to the top of the… oh who am I kidding, you know how to connect with us!

Article by Zack Zucker, Director of Operations, Turbo Social Media

Arguing Business Week and Their Call Out of Social Media Myths

Zack — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:30:16 +0000

Recently someone forwarded me an article from BusinessWeek, outlining “Social Media Myths,” and asked me if this was true and if they should be concerned. I told her that there is nothing to be worried about, and that the article was not researched well and that his arguments were superficial at best. Social Media Marketing is a powerful tool and one that is not going anywhere, anytime soon.

This article that was featured on BusinessWeek, outlines some myths about Social Media Marketing, and explained why you should steer clear of it. The first problem with this article, is he only uses Social Networking sites as his examples, which we all know is only 1 part of Social Media Marketing. He never mentions, video marketing, social bookmarking sites, Information pages, Press Releases or blogs. His understanding of Social Media Marketing is narrow and un-educated, as he feels all social media marketing is, is Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and LinkedIn.

As we know by now, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all crucial staples in the Social Networking arsenal, but there is a reason we do not talk about Myspace. Prior to the time BusinessWeek’s article was written, Myspace had started making changes to their site, being more geared towards celebrities and musicians. Myspace was not a big place for companies to begin with, just a place for tweens to gather and gawk at their favorite celebs, or a place for rising artists to share their new music. Myspace targets these users, knowing that it cannot compete with what Facebook and Twitter have to offer

He mentions that if you want your social networking site to work for your business, you have to invest money in it, and not just in the ‘free’ side of it. This right there should tip you off that he is not exactly sure what he is talking about. Social networking is a simple and easy tool used to connect with other business’ and business owners, or like minded people that can all help your business. These sites offer hundreds of free tools to add to your page to make it powerful. Just take Kelly O’Neil’s fan page for example: in the left hand sidebar you find a little opt-in box to sign up… that is just a basic HTML box… done for FREE!

Towards the end of their article, the author mentions that Social Networking sites are NOT for Marketing. Is this guy kidding? It was at this point I figured his article was just an early April Fool’s joke. Sure these sites may not have been developed for marketing, and it may not be their ONLY purpose, but these sites do an incredible job at marketing. On Facebook you can set up a fan page for your business allowing you to give information and connect with your clients at the same time. On both Facebook and Twitter you can link up your Blog articles via a RSS feed to bring the visibility of your company to that many more people.

To close his article, he mentions that Social Networking will be swept under the rug and forgotten in coming years. Newer and better things will come along and make it pointless…. I am pretty sure this same argument was made about the TV… and computers… and even the internet. In January of 2009 (2 months before this article was written) Facebook had 150 Million users. Today (14 months later), Facebook has over 400 million users. That is an increase of OVER 265%!!!

Social media marketing is showing no signs of slowing down. Heck, everyday, more and more people join the Social Media army and set up camp on Facebook, Twitter or one of the many sites on the internet used to connect with other people and promote themselves or their business. If Social Media was slowing down, I am sure large companies such as Pepsi, would not be ditching their famous Super Bowl Ads, in lieu of Social Media Marketing. The world is online, Business’ are Online. People are online. Maybe your marketing should be online too….

To learn more about Social Media Marketing, click the red button at the top of the page to watch our free video series or give us a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Zack Zucker, Director of Operations, Turbo Social Media