Practical Steps for Rugby Organisations, Sponsors and Suppliers to Leverage Online Social Interaction

ByColm Hannon

Founder of eSocialMedia

Is an enterprise social media consultancy based in London

We advise and train companies to achieve real business value from having online interactions with clients and talent

The Bar Analogy

How we add value…

What is a social media strategy?

Define quantifiable objectives that can be helped by digital marketing

Examples: Increase ticket sales by 9,000 or £225k in

2013 Fill 10 more corporate hospitality boxes in

2013 worth £15,000 Sell 3,000 more jerseys worth £150k in 2013 Attract 10 more sponsors worth £250k in

2013

ID the resources you have available

V

Understand your target audiences Demographics? Fans/CEOs/Marketing

Directors? What are they most interested in? What content would they like? What are their stories? How and when do they use online and

mobile? What calls to action would they follow? How do they want to engage with you?

Your audience can help to build and improve your organisation if you let them

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K3hLBGO53s&feature=player_embedded

Other tabs display relevant videos, conversations and competitor mentions

RSS News feeds

Google news summary

Conversations on forums

Conversations on blogs

Listen to what your audience is saying

Super Bowl Social Media Command Centre

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wje1a16Ubec&noredirect=1

Will there be a command centre for:

Create one of these:

Content Questions What do CXO’s and

Marketing Directors care about and talk about?

Are you set up to facilitate these interactions online?

What do the fans want to see?

Do you currently have this targeted content on your site?

You have a secret weapon….

Your Players and Support Staff

Create an online interaction policy for staff and players

Create a policy and educate your staff and players on the benefits, risks and opportunities of interacting online effectively.

Create online learning materials they can refer to.

Remember to use the carrot over the stick and show them what is in it for them.

Infrastructure

Market reaction to Eversheds

Blog:Website 8:1

The UFC is training fighters on social media useCEO leads by example

Rugby MUST train it’s players to interact online and to a plan that benefits both them and the club or union

Calls to action and advertising should be balanced alongside content

Social Media Manager

Listens online for opportunities

Co-ordinates the planning, creation and publishing of content

Facilitates interactions online between the target audience and your staff

Potential Online Communities

Fans Sponsors Your internal community Suppliers Community Governing bodies

Mobile Apps or Mobile Sites?

Don’t build a mobile app before you have defined your objectives and are clear on why you want one, what you want it to do and where the content will come from.

However mobile enabled sites are now a necessity

Huggity – Fan Tagging at Scotland v New Zealand

To Recap Define your business objectives that digital

communications could help to achieve. Understand your audience related to your

objectives and listen online Create a content strategy, content plan and

online tone of voice that is targeted at your audiences and linked to your objectives

Have an online interaction policy and train your staff to create content & interact online in the right way

Share content in the right places in the right way

Have balanced calls to action relating to your business objectives

How we could help your organisation

Objective setting and resource ID Content strategy and content

planning Social media policy and training Build social media online

infrastructure Train staff on content creation and

online interaction Social media support and

management

Contact

Colm HannonManaging DirectoreSocialMedia

Colm.Hannon@esocialmedia.co.ukPhone: +44 7704 921 651Twitter @ColmHannonSkype: Colm.HannonLinkedin: uk.linkedin.com/in/colmhannon www.esocialmedia.co.uk