Poll: Which NBA Player Would You Most Like To See In The Twitterverse?

Graduating to Toddlerhood: It's Still About Relationships

This past Monday, October 26th, my blog turned one year old. 

Skip the cake, candles, and frivolous Facebook gifts. Forget the lists of 365 tips, tricks, and benefits to blogging. There's only one real reason you, too, should get in the game.

Relationships.

That's correct. The freebies, exposure, and potential revenue streams are all accessories to building powerful real-world relationships with like-minded and like-hearted individuals. A blog is essentially a networking platform that allows you to create and share valuable, purposeful content around your passion. 

Passion + Purpose + Relationships = Opportunities (but they come later) 

Nobody, outside of fly-by-night internet marketers, will tell you it's easy. It's surely not. However, blogging can be very rewarding and can lead to a range of real world professional opportunities that you may have not thought were possible. 

You will have to give and give and give to your niche community. And be prepared for many late or sleepless nights. But, if you're patient and you hustle, and you have the chops (3 of Gary Vaynerchuk's principles), blogging (vlogging or podcasting) will be one of the best decisions you ever made. 

Hands down. 

Now, before you get defensive and put your hands up (i.e. make excuses), give it a shot. Twitter may be fast; LinkedIn may be your new resume; and Facebook may be the most widely-used service, but blogging is still the Mac Daddy of exchanging knowledge, resources, and building productive relationships.

So what do you think?  

Here's a peek back at my initial post.

Who Will Take The NBA Twitter Crown This Season?

Life is good. I'm on vacation in sunny Florida, and the NBA season is set to tip-off tonight. With that, my colleague Jon Thompson fired over a list of NBA team rankings based on Twitter followers. Thanks, Jon, for stepping up while I'm mostly away from the computer this week!

Before social media purists get their panties in a bunch, we both recognize that the quantity of followers is nowhere near as important as the quality of conversation, community participation, and influence. This is just a fun experiment.

Without further ado, here are the rankings (Division/Conference/League).

Who will win the "Follower" title this season?

EASTERN CONFERENCE

ATLANTIC

1 / 4 / 5 Boston Celtics - http://twitter.com/celtics (20,210)

2 / 5 / 12 New York Knicks - http://twitter.com/thenyknicks (11,492)

3 / 7 / 15 Philadelphia 76ers - http://twitter.com/sixers (9,814)

4 / 14 / 28 New Jersey Nets - http://twitter.com/NetsBasketball (3,803)

5/ 15 / 30 Toronto Raptors - http://twitter.com/raptors (2,126)

CENTRAL

1 / 2 / 3 Cleveland Cavaliers - http://twitter.com/cavs (26,360)

2 / 3 / 4 Chicago Bulls - http://twitter.com/Chicagobulls (21,856)

3 / 8/ 19 Detroit Pistons - http://twitter.com/DETPistons (8,193)

4 / 10 / 22 Indiana Pacers - http://twitter.com/IndianaPacers (5,712)

5 / 11 / 25 Milwaukee Bucks - http://twitter.com/bucks (5,299)

SOUTHEAST

1 / 1 / 2 Orlando Magic - http://twitter.com/Orlando_magic (779,858)

2 / 6 / 13 Miami Heat - http://twitter.com/MHEAT (11,373)

3 / 9 / 21 Atlanta Hawks - http://twitter.com/atlanta_hawks (5,789)

4 / 12 / 26 Washington Wizards - http://twitter.com/washWizards (5,084)

5 / 13 / 27 Charlotte Bobcats - http://twitter.com/Gobobcats (4,438)

WESTERN CONFERENCE

PACIFIC

1 / 1 / 1 L.A. Lakers - http://twitter.com/LAKERS (1,183,016)

2 / 2 / 6 Phoenix Suns - http://twitter.com/PhoenixSuns (18,399)

3 / 7 / 11 L.A. Clippers - http://twitter.com/MYCLIPPERNATION (12,219)

4 / 10 / 17 Sacramento Kings - http://twitter.com/sacramentokings (8,243)

5 / 15 / 29 Golden State Warriors - http://twitter.com/WARRIORS (2,183)

SOUTHWEST

1 / 3 / 7 Houston Rockets - http://twitter.com/HoustonRockets (17,196)

2 / 4 / 8 San Antonio Spurs - http://twitter.com/SPURS (16,766)

3 / 5 / 9 Dallas Mavericks - http://twitter.com/dallasmavs (12,924)

4 / 11 / 20 New Orleans Hornets - http://twitter.com/hornetsdotcom (7,023)

5 / 14 / 24 Memphis Grizzlies - http://twitter.com/memgrizz (5,565)

NORTHWEST

1 / 6 / 10 Portland Trailblazers - http://twitter.com/pdxTrailBlazers (12,494)

2 / 8 / 14 Denver Nuggets - http://twitter.com/DenverNuggets (11,230)

3 / 9 / 16 Utah Jazz - http://twitter.com/Utah_Jazz (9,717)

4 / 12 / 21 Oklahoma City Thunder - http://twitter.com/OKCThunder (6,496)

5 / 13 / 23 Minnesota Timberwolves - http://twitter.com/MNTimberwolves (5,628)

UNC Recruits Marketing Affiliates Much Like They Do Players

The following is a guest post from Jon Thompson...but "not the John Thompson you're thinking of." Jon is a UNC graduate ('08) with a Bachelor's degree in Management and Psychology. The born and bred Tar Heels fan is seeking a sports marketing opportunity in the NYC area. Please welcome Jon and share your feedback in the comments section below. He also invites you to connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) is a perennial leader in academic rankings, basketball recruiting, and merchandise sales.

What is the secret to UNC's success?

It’s simple. Only invite people into the Carolina family who have the potential to make UNC an even more prestigious and respected school.

You can be the most talented player in the country, but if your attitude and reputation doesn’t fit the Carolina Way, there’s no way the relationship will work. Most people agree that John Wall, Kentucky’s freshman point guard, is the most talented player in the country, but his reported attitude issues, along with his breaking and entering charge in May, halted Roy Williams' pursuit of Wall.

People were upset by Roy’s decision, but how are you going to question a man who has won two national championships since coming back to his Alma Mater in 2003?

Let’s go back to the 2004-2005 season.

Jameson Curry was one of the best scorers in high school basketball and set the all-time North Carolina high school scoring record with 3,307 points, averaging 40.2 points per game. UNC was excited about the homegrown talent coming in the fall, but in April 2004, Curry was arrested for his involvement in a drug raid, after which his scholarship was immediately rescinded. Without Curry, UNC went on to win the 2005 national championship. That recruiting class also included J.R. Smith before he declared for the NBA draft. I think Marvin Williams did a great job representing the freshman class that year.

This philosophy has led to UNC forming partnerships with some of the most successful companies in the world, making UNC one of the most marketable and recognizable brands in all of sports. Let’s takes a look:

NIKE

UNC and Nike have had a long-standing relationship that won’t end anytime soon. There are 9 more years left on the 10 year contract that started in 2008. The contract is worth $37.7 million. MJ played for and won a national championship at UNC and went on to become the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time), so this powerhouse duo makes sense. Don’t expect this relationship to dissolve after 2018, either.

There were only about 250 of these limited edition shoes made and they were given away to UNC students who were camping out at the Dean Dome for Senior Night in 2008.

GATORADE

With the success of the new “G” campaign, this power duo can only get stronger. People don’t realize how big of a deal brand representation is, and the legal repercussions associated with it. I know I didn’t until watching a Cleveland Cavaliers game a few years ago. LeBron James had to put tape on his Gatorade cup because he was the spokesperson for Powerade.

Once again, having MJ as alum doesn’t hurt. This is a limited edition MJ Gatorade collection that was very hard to find. Trust me, I’ve been to almost every Gatorade vendor in Charlotte. I have tasted the Championship Red flavor out of this series and let me tell you, it was berrylicious.

COCA-COLA

This is a more subtle, classic relationship; hence, Coca-Cola Classic. Coke likes putting the UNC logo on their products and when they do, it’s a rare item to find. Not bad being affiliated with the most recognized brand in the world. Here are some examples:
I was a freshman at UNC in 2005 when we won the national championship, so I have some great memorabilia. A couple of months after winning the 2009 national championship, I went to historic Merritt’s Store & Grill in Chapel Hill (known for their world famous BLTs) and luckily found this 6 pack of limited edition Coca-Cola cans:

And let's not forget how much Roy Williams likes Coca-Cola…

WACHOVIA

Before the series of bank failures, Wachovia was at the top of the industry in the South, and was the fourth largest bank in the United States. With its headquarters in Charlotte and a UNC alum installed as CEO at the time, it made it easy to form a partnership with Wachovia. Let’s see what happens to this relationship when the Wells Fargo merger is complete in March 2010.

As a student you have the option to make your Student ID card a Wachovia debit card.

VERIZON

This is one of the more recent relationships and what better phone company to be affiliated with at the time than Verizon. With AT&T struggling, its only a matter of time before people are participating in the social media scene through their iPhone on the Verizon network. This can only lead to increased social media traffic amongst Carolina fans and the college basketball world. And if I remember correctly, when I started my freshman year, UNC had a partnership with Cingular, now AT&T. Somebody did their market research.

UNC’s resume includes many other partnerships with leading companies that set benchmarks in their respective industries. Nike, Gatorade, and Coca-Cola are all heavily involved in high school basketball recruiting and sponsor basketball camps and all star games; so being associated with these 3 brands can only improve the recruiting aspect of Carolina basketball.

This year will be Carolina basketball’s 100th anniversary and for 100 years there’s been one objective. Not only win, but win strategically.

7 Social Media Sites for Sports Fans

The following is a guest blog post from M.E. Ward, who writes regularly about online sports management degrees.

Social media sites are all the rage right now. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr are popular among all age groups, ethnic groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. But, the fastest growing area of social media sites are activity-specific sites, where people who share common interests come together to "meet," discuss topics related to their activity and read pertinent news. If you’re a sports fan, be sure to enjoy social media sites dedicated to the sport you love.

Here are 7 that I recommend:

1. NHL Connect – This is the official fan site for the NHL. Keep up with all NHL news, standings, and stats; includes blogs, groups and message boards.
2. Rodeo Up – RodeoUP.com is the #1 site to watch PRCA ProRodeo videos and to post your own rodeo videos.
3. FanVoice – The official fan site of the NBA. Connect with fans and make your voice heard. This is a great site to watch during the NBA Draft. You’ll get all the Draft news here first.
4. FanNation – Sponsored by Sports Illustrated/CNN, this site offers news and rumors from all sports, niche communities, blogs, message boards, and fantasy challenges.
5. Fanspot - Boast about your favorite team or athlete; connect with other fans of your favorite team or athlete; make and challenge rivals of your favorite team; join groups; participate in forums; create a blog to share your thoughts and sports experiences; show off your autographs, collectibles, memorabilia, game photos, etc.
6. FreeTheFan – An arena for you to debate the hottest sports headlines, win prizes and watch the best sports video online. You’ll find a lot of arm chair quarterbacking going on here.
7. Fanzak – Founded in honor of the fan to feed their insatiable hunger for trivial sports information. This is a great site if you like to rant about sports or read the rants of others.

These are just a few of the many sports enthusiast social media sites out there, and new ones are being built every day. It’s a great way for fans and content creators to connect, keep up with news and share their opinions.

My main man, Jason Peck - a well-recognized blogger who covers sports, social media, sponsorship, and marketing - also composed an exhaustive list a couple of years ago. You can check it out here.

What other sites do you visit that feed your social sports fancy?

Q+A with Phoenix Suns VP of Digital, Jeramie McPeek

Jeramie McPeek, VP of Digital for the Phoenix Suns is accessible, knowledgeable, and extremely amicable. He's also a very busy dude. Don't believe me? Just check out his bio and workload description from the upcoming Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC.

"Entering his 18th season with the National Basketball Association's Phoenix Suns this fall, Jeramie leads the organization’s digital and social media efforts. Under his direction, Suns.com has twice been named the top team site in the NBA and received the Website of the Year Award from the NBA in 2007. In his role as vice president of digital for the Suns and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, McPeek oversees eight in-house websites, as well as the Suns' social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube.

In addition to his position with the Suns, McPeek is the "editor at large" for the NBA's official publications and has had nearly a thousand articles published in national magazines over the last 14 years."

Naturally, McPeek loves his work and was kind enough to lend his time for some Q+As about the intersection of social media and the NBA. Below is a transcript of the discussion. You can follow Jeramie McPeek on Twitter: @SunsWebmaster

PRC: You wear at least two hats: Webmaster and VP of Digital for the Phoenix Suns, and Editor-at-Large for HOOP Magazine. Which came first, the chicken (Suns) or the egg (HOOP)? How does your editorial work complement the success you've achieved in your role as webmaster and VP of Digital?

Jeramie: If the Suns represent the chicken, then they arrived before the egg. A huge Suns fan as a teenager, I took a job at our team shop back in 1992, selling Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson jerseys at the local mall. I was a 20-year-old studying journalism at Arizona State University at the time and just wanted to get my foot in the door with the Suns, in hopes that I could work for them full-time someday. The following NBA season, I added an internship with the team’s basketball communications department, and was soon writing for the team's official magazine, Fastbreak, as well. I was hired full-time as a publications manager shortly after graduating from ASU in late 1995.

Earlier that same year, Phoenix hosted the 1995 NBA All-Star Weekend, where I got a chance to meet the editors of SLAM, which was only a couple issues old at the time. I loved the unique style of the magazine, both in the editorial and design, and basically begged the editors to let me write for them. I think they took pity on me and gave me a small article, which I wrote and re-wrote about a dozen times before submitting it. Thankfully they liked it and gave me more articles, and within a couple years I was one of their lead writers.

During the summer of 2000, my editor and managing editor left SLAM to go to work for the NBA, taking over HOOP, NBA Inside Stuff and the league's official game programs for All-Star and the NBA Finals. So I joined them and have been writing for the NBA’s publications ever since.

I would say that my two positions really complement each other nicely. Working for the Suns obviously gives me access to all of our games, which gives me an opportunity to interview players and coaches from around the league, whenever they come into Phoenix. But I’ve also been able to make some great connections with other communications teams around the NBA, which helps in terms of schedule phone interviews, as well.

On the other side of the court, writing for HOOP in my spare time keeps me well informed about the other teams and players around the league, and keeps my writing skills sharp, as I don’t get a chance to write for the Suns’ website or print publications nearly as often as I would like.
PRC: The Phoenix Suns are often regarded as one of the most progressive and successful NBA team properties when it comes to leveraging digital media. What's in store for 2009-2010?

Jeramie: We’ve got a lot of exciting things coming up this season, including some new online promotions in which fans can win tickets, party suites or even a trip to the playoffs. Yes, I’m predicting the Suns will be back in the playoffs this year! We’re going to be refreshing our virtual tour website, SunsLockerRoom.com, next month and launching an entirely new Suns Dancers section, which is always popular with our fans.

In terms of social media, our big focus is tying Twitter into our games. So not only will fans be able to follow the latest Tweets about the Suns via our website, but we’ll be displaying live Twitter streams on the big screens inside US Airways Center at different points during the game, and along the bottom of the TV screen at a couple points during our broadcasts on Fox Sports Arizona. So the goal is really to promote our own Twitter initiatives, while making our games more interactive for our fans.

PRC: Describe the working relationship that the NBA League Office has with the Suns' digital media initiatives. Do they play an advisory role, or do they extend full autonomy to the teams' leadership in this area? Or a mix of both?

Jeramie: I would say it’s a healthy mix of both. All of the teams’ sites are hosted by Turner Sports, which as of a year ago now manages NBA Digital, and we use the league’s content management system. The NBA also provides live stats, box scores, photos and game highlights, among other things, and the league’s creative services department assists teams in the basic design of their sites. So for the most part, the league serves in a support role to benefit the teams, which have control of the creative, editorial content and promotions that are featured on their sites.

PRC: We've seen the benefits and misfortunes of NBA players checking into the social media game. Talk about some of the pros and cons, from your perspective, about having your team's players interacting directly with fans online?

Jeramie: Well, obviously, the big pro is that direct interaction or communication with fans. Before social media, the only real online interaction fans had with their favorite players were the occasional online chats or mailboxes. Now fans can hear from those players throughout the day and week, and learn a lot more about their lives off the court, and ask them questions directly. So I think it really creates a stronger bond for fans, who feel like they get to know players on a more personal level.

Steve Nash is the perfect example. In the past, he used to “go dormant” during the off-season, and fans wouldn’t hear a whole lot about him, outside of a charity event or two that he was involved with. This summer, though, fans got to read about @The_Real_Nash’s trips to Hawaii and Europe, hear about his lunch with Carlos Santana and his tennis matches with his father. They found out that he was filming an episode for HBO’s Entourage, and heard about some of his favorite books. And then, of course, there were his viral videos on YouTube and his blogs on Facebook. So even though Steve is a huge star, fans got a much broader picture of who he really is as a person and what his day-to-day life is like.

And then, of course, there are players like the Suns’ Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619). Jared earned the appreciation of Phoenix fans with his hard work and hustle last season, but is going to be a much bigger fan favorite this year because of his constant interaction with his fans. This guy is on Twitter around the clock, and answers dozens of fan @replies daily. Once again, fans now have a much stronger connection with him because they know what he’s about, what his interests and hobbies are, and they can feel his appreciation for them, as well.

In terms of the cons, I think those are pretty obvious, as well. There have been players who have posted things on Twitter that they shouldn’t have, and incidents quickly become big stories. There’s always that risk that a player, or for that matter any employee who is representing your team or organization in social media, is going to say something that could be controversial.

PRC: What advice would you give to a Suns player that just signed up for a Twitter account? Which NBA player, outside of the Suns, do you enjoy following the most?

Jeramie: The biggest pieces of advice that I would give are to:

1) Interact: Twitter should not be a one-way communication. Don’t just broadcast information about yourself. Reply to your followers comments as often as possible to let them know that you’re seeing their @replies and that you value their support.

2) Use common sense: Athletes and celebrities need to remember that anything they Tweet out could end up in the newspaper the next day, so they need to be careful with their choice of words.

3) Have fun: I like to see athletes send frequent updates, but they should be interesting or funny anecdotes and observations whenever possible. Fans get tired of reading “just finished practice. Time for a nap” tweets after a while. Give the fans something more, and send them pics, too!

In terms of an NBA player outside of the Suns that I enjoy, I’d have to say Dwight Howard. He really gets it. He’s posting TwitPics and TwitVids, having contests for prizes, replying to fans, and just keeping his followers up to date with what he’s doing. He’s clearly one of the best in the NBA at the whole social media thing.

Listing out the Basketball Community on Twitter

The bird is out of the bag.

Twitter's "Lists" feature, which was announced last month on the company's blog, has been secretly rolled out to a select group of Beta testers for requested feedback....only the secret was spoiled the second the Twitterati started tweeting about it.

Anyway, that's old news; so why is this important?

Twitter's Lists feature will allow you to categorize some or all of the people you follow into streamlined feeds. Furthermore, you can:

- Add or delete members from your lists
- Name and rename your lists, and
- Subscribe to any lists that you deem interesting, which will add it to your home page

For example, let's say you wanted to follow all current NBA players and teams that are active on Twitter in one fell swoop. How would you do it?

Just follow the list; one click, baby: http://twitter.com/Peter_R_Casey/nba-players-on-twitter

If the hyperlink doesn't work for you now, don't fret...it soon will. Twitter plans on rolling out the feature to all users in the very near future.

I'm anticipating all sorts of basketball-related lists, from the hyperfocused categories of players, coaches, strength and conditioning professionals, scouts, bloggers, journalists referees, pro, college, high school, streetball, etc. - to the hypofocused: basketball, or basketball community members.

Twitter lists will help you find other interesting people in the basketball community that you didn't know were on Twitter...but the coolness doesn't end there.

If you want to know which lists include you in it, simply click on the word listed under your bio.

Robert Scoble believes this feature spells the demise of Follow Friday and directories based on followers. Others think Lists will create a new authority system similar to Google's Page Rank.

Bottom line? You will have to manage more lists. Your number of followers will become much less important. And you will end up following more people.

What kind of lists, if any, will you come up with?

How Jalen Rose Crushes It Online...And How You Can, Too

Jalen Rose may have hung up his high tops, but the former NBA point guard and current ESPN/ABC studio analyst is crushing it on the web.

How?

Well, first, Jalen wisely chose to align himself with quality advisors that have experience and cachet in the social media space: Vaynermedia (Think Gary, AJ, Sam Taggart and company).

Second, it never hurt that Jalen spent many years in the spotlight; initially, with Michigan's Fab Five, then with a half-dozen NBA franchises, and now with ESPN/ABC.

I can hear you now: "That's great, but I don't have enough money to hire a reputable brand consulting agency, and the closest I've ever been to the NBA was third tier nose-bleeders at my local team's arena."

I get it, and I respect that.

However, you don't need to be a smooth southpaw playmaker or have a powerhouse agency in your corner (though I would recommend Vaynermedia if you do have a budget) to build a strong brand.

Where Jalen Rose separates himself from most - and where you can, too - is that his personal brand includes three important features:

1. Clarity
2. Consistency
3. Constancy

Clarity refers to how "clearly" one states their brand's promise. Consistency is a "function of not detracting or wavering from your brand's unique value proposition." And Constancy means always being visible to your target audience.

Let's take a look at how Jalen Rose tackles (excuse the football metaphor, it's Saturday) all three elements.

Clarity: You don't have to turn on ESPN or ABC to know Jalen's a studio analyst or loves talking about a variety of topics in front of the camera. Just check out his blog, Twitter feed, Facebook fan page, YouTube channel, or soon-to-be leveraged USTREAM account. Also, if you read any of Jalen's bio pages or tune into his lifestream, you know the man's serious about basketball, philanthropy and entertainment. There's no ambiguity in his brand.



Consistency: His tagline may be "The Rose that grew from concrete," but Jalen sports a hardwood backdrop across all of his social channels. His roll-up-the-sleeves, thinking man's profile image conveys the message that Jalen's hard working and analytical, not to mention one of the best dressed figures on or off television. Jalen's online touch points are all tightly integrated and his messaging (look, tone, and terminology) - and design (name, logo, tagline, color palette, type styles, sizes, textures, etc.) are remarkably consistent. Consistency begets familiarity and recognition; which, in turn, generates trust, confidence, and loyalty. Repetition wins, on and off the court.


Constancy: Jalen is ever-present on both traditional and social media channels. He blogs, micro-blogs, video blogs, attends and presents at conferences, interacts and engages with old and new media publishers, hosts a fan club, and of course, analyzes basketball games in front of a national television audience. What can you say? The man is ubiquitous on multimedia.

Jalen clearly uses the 3 Cs to crush it online.

How does your brand stack up? Does it pass the test? What can we learn from Jalen? Please leave your thoughts below.

Need help?

Read Gary Vaynerchuck's new book, Crush It, for more information on personal branding and converting your passion to profits.

Let's #Hash This St. John's Twitter Thing Out

I’ll make two bold assumptions if you’re reading this post:

1) You’re on Twitter, and
2) You follow (literally and/or figuratively) St. John’s Basketball

If you responded “No” to number one, please click here. If you responded “No” to number two, what are you waiting for? Opening night is right around the corner.

Twitter can be a confusing place for newbies and veterans, alike. The micro-blogging platform makes it relatively easy to follow people, but finding a specific conversation can prove to be challenging.

For that reason, the Twitter community created #hashtags, which are appended to tweets as a way to organize and categorize conversations. In our world, the topic of interest is St. John’s Basketball; and fans, media members, and other on-lookers are in need of an appropriate #hashtag to easily identify the conversation in search.

That’s where YOU come in! In the first go-round, our canvassing efforts yielded two highly popular #hashtags, and it's time to take a vote.

Deadline: Thursday, October 22, 2009, at 12pm noon. Winning #hashtag will be announced on Twitter at Red Storm Tip Off event that evening!

If you're still struggling to wrap your head around Twitter or #hashtags, or both, please click here and here.

Thanks for participating! Will you be joining the conversation this year?

Interview with NBA's Director of Marketing (and Social Media Strategy), Dan Opallo

While social media is on the cusp of exploding into mainstream marketing, the National Basketball Association is quickly becoming a benchmark organization for building influence and community online. The global sports entertainment brand has successfully integrated social media into its internal and external marketing campaigns and promotional initiatives, all of which have enhanced NBA fan interactivity and the overall fan experience. Dan Opallo, the NBA’s Director of Marketing and catalyst behind this success, was gracious enough to answer a few of my questions about the League’s use of social media.

Here’s a summary of our conversation. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

PRC: The NBA has always embraced continuous innovation and change. When did social media utilization shift from an idea to an integrated element of your marketing strategy?

Dan Opallo: We have worked very hard in the social media space to position the NBA as a market leader. Three years ago, we started working with Facebook and integrating social media as an important part of our marketing mix. When we first engaged fans on Facebook in April 2006, the site had 6 million users. Today, Facebook has over 300 million users. Further, we launched our Twitter account last February and have seen a huge boost in our fan's activity in the space. We are constantly looking for innovative ways to enhance our fans' experience with the NBA, its teams, and its players.

PRC: How does social media tie-in with your overall marketing goals? Given the ever-changing look and names of social media platforms, how often do you revisit these goals and decide on which platforms to use?

Dan Opallo: The goal of our marketing department is to get our fans to consume the NBA by going to games, watching on TV, visiting NBA.com, buying a jersey, etc. Our social media platforms offer us a more intimate way to interact with our fans in real time. We try to keep them current at all times on breaking news, scores, milestones, compelling player and team stories, exclusive offers from our partners, and compelling content. We always try to maintain the balance of keeping the user experience on our platforms fresh, while also keeping an eye on what our next platform may be. As I mentioned before, our fans are very sophisticated in the social media space, and so are our players. Those are two powerful resources for us to utilize. Many times, they are the trendsetters themselves.

PRC: What other departments do you work closely with when strategizing and executing your plan? Do other internal departments have plans to use social media for other functions (i.e. communications, hiring, research, customer service)?

Our social media operation is really a day-to-day collaboration between Marketing, Communications, Interactive Services and NBA Entertainment (content is king!). However, we work closely with every group and team in this organization to ensure that we are properly leveraging our audience to best serve their specific goals and initiatives.

PRC: How does your department define success with social media? What metrics are used to gauge performance?

Dan Opallo: Great question, and I think that answer has changed in the past year or so for all brands. It will continue to. I'm happy to say that our following in social media has been tremendous. Our fans find us and our players in this space in huge numbers. They have viewed over 320 million videos on our YouTube channel since its launch in 2007; we are the #1 brand right now on Twitter; and we have added over 1 million fans on Facebook in the past year. Equally noteworthy is that Shaq, Dwight Howard, Paul Pierce, and the Lakers are each over 1 million followers. These are just a few examples of our success in social media.
Most importantly, our success in social media is measured by conversation from our fans on these platforms. It's extremely important for us to have a constant sense of their sentiment: what is working and what isn't. We frequently recognize and react to their feedback. The immediate reaction from fans in this medium allows us to easily understand their view of our brand at an exact instant of time.

PRC: Is there one "voice" behind the NBA's Twitter feed, MySpace, and Facebook Fan Pages? How many individuals are dedicated to these accounts?

Dan Opallo: Yes, and it's Kermit the Frog. Actually, there is a team represented by the groups which I mentioned above. Because of the sheer volume of work required to maintain the branding, content, and communication on these platforms, we need to staff the operation similar to any other web network or even TV station. To manage the operation, we meet and communicate frequently on a daily basis, understanding the importance of getting "it" right in this space for basketball fans.

PRC: Describe the relationship between the League Office and team properties when it comes to social media training and development, implementation, and guidelines?

Dan Opallo: First and foremost, the league is a resource to our teams when it comes to social media or any other initiative that is important to them. We constantly try to assist our teams to achieve their business goals through social media. The league's social media properties are a great resource for our teams and players to elevate important messages which they want disseminated to our fans.

The recent guidelines we sent to our teams were in line with our existing media guidelines. They simply added some ground rules about the use of mobile devices and social media applications. Our guidelines provided clarity as to what periods of time communication activity would be permitted. I think the guidelines are very fair and leave our players more than enough time to communicate to fans in this manner around the time of their games. We encourage their interaction with fans. However, we felt there needed to be guidelines in place close to game-time.

PRC: Any thoughts on where all of this technology is headed? How does the League Office and its employees stay on the forefront of these trends?

Dan Opallo: If I had to guess, I think 2010 will be the year that a larger percentage of the population will be equipped with mobile devices better suited to deliver social media content. Fans, players, the league, all social media users will be able to create content and strategically distribute it at increasingly faster rates. We have two new smart phone apps coming out this season that we are very excited about. We are all going to be pushing the envelope and giving new meaning to the word "instant." Two years ago, I certainly wouldn't have guessed that I would be having meetings on how to cut down promotional copy to 140 characters, while being sure to leave space for a Tiny URL or a "RT @_____." Now, anything's possible.

Q+A with Founder and CEO of Career Athletes, Chris Smith

Career Athletes, LLC, is the leading provider of a wide range of dedicated career development services for current and former student-athletes who compete/d in collegiate athletics. To date, students from over 1,200 individual colleges and universities and all sports backgrounds have utilized Career Athletes as a valuable tool in their transition from the athletic field to the workplace.

Since 1998, Career Athletes has been focused on providing educational and career service resources, technology solutions, and career mentoring to assist and connect current and former student-athletes, college athletic administrators, athletic alumni organizations and hiring managers throughout the United States.

I recently had a chance to connect with Founder and CEO, Chris Smith, to learn more about Career Athletes and its services. Prior to founding this start-up, Chris held various positions in the Pharmaceutical, Finance, and Investment Banking industries. He holds a bachelor's degree from Missouri State University in Entrepreneurship/Management, and played college football.

Chris leads by example... Oh, and by the way, Pat Garrity (former NBA player and Notre Dame standout) is on Career Athletes' Advisory Board.

PRC: What is Career Athletes' raison e' etre, or reason for being in business?

Chris: I’ll give you our quick elevator speech – “Career Athletes is committed to growing a secure and advantageous national community of current/alumni athletes, athletic departments and business organizations by providing our members an opportunity to build and maintain professional connections with each other. “

So how do we accomplish that? For one, we work directly with athletic departments who outsource their career education and alumni relations needs, essentially making us an extension of their athletic department. Secondly, our staff conducts hundreds of on-campus seminars, providing updated career education for our athletic departments’ student athletes. These seminars help our members focus on life after sports and prepare them to make the difficult transition. Student-athletes who participate are then registered in their respective university career networks powered by our online community. Within these customized networks, current/alumni athletes have access to career education, mentoring, alumni connections and professional connections with our business organizations.

PRC: Student-athletes are often targeted for professional positions in all industries. Talk to us about some of these common qualities that employers are seeking from former student-athletes?

Chris: I think that our business members place significant value on the many traits student-athletes possess. In particular, we have found that employers value the fact that the majority of student-athletes possess a competitive nature, are coachable and goal oriented, handle pressure well, and understand the value of teamwork. As a former college athlete myself, it’s been exciting, and also a privilege to have assisted thousands of alumni student-athletes with outstanding career opportunities ranging from entry-level positions to VP’s of Fortune 500 organizations.

PRC: In what ways does Career Athletes provide value to both employers and prospective employees?

Chris: The world is getting bigger everyday and prospective employees and employers who have a shared interest are constantly looking for efficient ways to connect. Career Athletes provides employers continuous employment branding, community/resume search tools, on-campus sponsorships and customized career postings for all members of the Career Athletes community. On the flipside, our members know that if an employer is contacting them, that employer values the experiences and traits of a student-athlete and in essence is creating a warm connection. Instead of being one of millions of job seekers or employers on national job boards, all of our members are part of a community with shared interests.

PRC: How does your organization use, or plan to use, social media to carry out its goals?

Chris: Social media is one of the most valuable tools in our arsenal from a communication perspective. We never set out to be another Facebook or LinkedIn, but rather we use those sites as a way to broaden our own community and also as a communications channel to get our message to members. We know that current student-athletes, as well as more alumni each day, are using those channels to connect, so we are bringing our message directly to where our members and prospective members work and play online, be it via Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, etc.

PRC: What does Career Athletes define success? What does ultimate success look like for your organization?

Chris: Personally, I define success by continuing to bring value to our members through an educational, advantageous and efficient community. We’ve come a long way since 1998, but ultimately we would like for every current/alumni student-athlete and athletic department to be a member of Career Athletes. It’s an ambitious goal, but it’s our mission to educate and prepare current student-athletes for “life after sports.” If we do our job of providing an efficient solution for our athletic departments and current/alumni members, then I know we can achieve it.

How Do You Answer These 3 Important Questions?

What are you doing?
What's on your mind?
What are you working on?

There's a strong chance you've seen these 3 questions before. They are the cornerstone status queries for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, respectively.

If all three images and questions resonate, kudos, you're already in the game. This puts you ahead of many in your peer group. Do you recall the ocean of vacant accounts for head coaches in men's college basketball?

The problem is perception.

A prominent Division I Women's Assistant Coach recently told me that "Twitter is a waste of time. Nobody wants to know what I'm eating for lunch....Not even my husband."

That's partially true.

Nobody cares about the pasta fazool you just had with garlic bread. But, what if I told you that you're not supposed to answer these three questions at literal value all of the time?

Huh?

That's right. These questions were designed to 'start' the conversation, not become a fixed subject of conversation.

Only a handful of mega-celebrities can get away with broadcasting their minutiae. You and I have to add value, and there's a lot of people doing this successfully on all three platforms. That's why I'm on board. The basketball community could always use more.

How you ask?

Share your favorite basketball drills. Link a useful article on the NBA's new marketing initiatives. Ask a question. Retweet (equivalent to forwarding an email on Twitter) a great quote from John Wooden. Post pictures or videos from the next big game you attend.


Maybe you can scrap all three questions and answer this one: How can I be useful to my friends/followers/connections right now?

Do that well and your network will grow with quality people. So, back to my original question: How do YOU answer these 3 important questions?

Please write them below.

Thanks, and make today a great day!

200 NBA Sites to Visit Before You Die

Okay, maybe that headline is a bit over the top. In an attempt to commemorate my 200th blog post, I fell back on an age-old advertising technique, the list post, and merged it with a "before you die" prompt to action.

Forgive me?

Maybe this comprehensive resource will change your mind. I'm quite sure there's 200 sites listed below. Blogger has been slipping up, and wouldn't let me use the numbered list function.

I'm even more certain that I left out some valuable sites. If you find it in your heart to look past the dismal headline, would you please leave those sites in the comments section below?

Also, I would love to know which site serves as your "go-to" place for NBA information. In the meantime, happy clicking!

NBA News, Analysis, Opinions, and Stats:

NBA.com

ESPN

HoopsWorld

HoopsHype

InsideHoops

NBA FanHouse

Fox Sports

Deadspin

Sports Illustrated

CBS Sports

NBC Sports

NetScouts Basketball

Hoopsvibe

The Sporting News

USA Today

FreeDarko

TrueHoop

Yahoo! Ball Don’t Lie

The Hoop Doctors

Both Teams Played Hard

The Basketball Jones

Hoops Addict

The No Look Pass

The Baseline

A Stern Warning

NBA Noise

TalkHoops.net

Empty The Bench

Le Basketbawl

NBA Tipoff

Real GM

Slam Dunk Central

Baller Blogger

The Painted Area

Hardwood Paroxysm

The NBA Breakdown

Courtside

All Balls Don’t Bounce

NBA Obsessed

Barkley’s Mouth

Basketbawful

Binary Basketball

Garbage Time All-Stars

Hooped Up

Low Posts

Basketball-Reference

You Got Dunked On

Basketball Prospectus

The Good Point

The Association

The Blowtorch

NBA Basketball and Other Unrelatedness

Sir Charles in Charge

New York Times

The Bleacher Report

82 Games

Team-Specific Blogs:

Hoopinion (Atlanta Hawks)

Peachtree Hoops (Atlanta Hawks)

Hawk Str8Talk (Atlanta Hawks)

Hawks Blog (Atlanta Hawks)

CelticsBlog (Boston Celtics)

Celtics 17 (Boston Celtics)

CelticsHub (Boston Celtics)

Red's Army (Boston Celtics)

Bobcats Baseline (Charlotte Bobcats)

Rufus on Fire (Charlotte Bobcats)

Queen City Hoops (Charlotte Bobcats)

Blog-A-Bull (Chicago Bulls)

Bulls Blog (Chicago Bulls)

Bulls Confidential (Chicago Bulls)

By The Horns (Chicago Bulls)

Da Bullz (Chicago Bulls)

Pippen Ain't Easy (Chicago Bulls)

And 1 Cleveland Blog (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Cavalier Attitude (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Cavs: The Blog (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Fear The Sword (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Le Cavs (Cleveland Cavaliers)

The Anetzberger Verdict (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Mavs Ball (Dallas Mavericks)

Mavs Blog (Dallas Mavericks)

Mavs Moneyball (Dallas Mavericks)

The Smoking Cuban (Dallas Mavericks)

The Two Man Game (Dallas Mavericks)

Denver Stiffs (Denver Nuggets)

Roundball Mining Company (Denver Nuggets)

The Chris Andersen Files (Denver Nuggets)

The Nugg Doctor (Denver Nuggets)

Detroit Bad Boys (Detroit Pistons)

Full Court Press (Detroit Pistons)

Life on Dumars (Detroit Pistons)

Need 4 Sheed (Detroit Pistons)

PistonPowered (Detroit Pistons)

Pistons Nation (Detroit Pistons)

Golden State of Mind (Golden State Warriors)

Golden State Warriors by SFGate (Golden State Warriors)

The Warriors Rundown (Golden State Warriors)

Warriors World (Golden State Warriors)

Rockets Buzz (Houston Rockets)

Rocket Dunks (Houston Rockets)

Rockets Locker (Houston Rockets)

The Dream Shake (Houston Rockets)

Indy Cornrows (Indiana Pacers)

Eight Points, Nine Seconds (Indiana Pacers)

PacersInsider (Indiana Pacers)

PacersPlace (Indiana Pacers)

PacersNews (Indiana Pacers)

ClipperBlog (L.A. Clippers)

Clips Nation (L.A. Clippers)

Forum Blue & Gold (L.A. Lakers)

Lakers Blog, LA Times (L.A. Lakers)

Lakers of Fire (L.A. Lakers)

Lake Show Life (L.A. Lakers)

The Lakers Nation (L.A. Lakers)

Silver Screen and Roll (L.A. Lakers)

3 Shades of Blue (Memphis Grizzlies)

David's Memphis Grizzlies Blog (Memphis Grizzlies)

Grizzlies Online (Memphis Grizzlies)

Hot Hot Hoops (Miami Heat)

Miami Heat Blog (Miami Heat)

Miami Heat Beat (Miami Heat)

Peninsula is Mightier (Miami Heat)

Brew Hoop (Milwaukee Bucks)

Bucksketball (Milwaukee Bucks)

Bucks Den (Milwaukee Bucks)

Bucks Diary (Milwaukee Bucks)

The Bratwurst (Milwaukee Bucks)

Canis Hoopus (Minnesota Timberwolves)

Dunking with Wolves (Minnesota Timberwolves)

Howlin' T-Wolf (Minnesota Timberwolves)

Timberwolves Basketball (Minnesota Timberwolves)

TWolves Blog (Minnesota Timberwolves)

Nets are Scorching (New Jersey Nets)

Nets Daily (New Jersey Nets)

New Jersey Nets Basketball, NJ.com (New Jersey Nets)

At The Hive (New Orleans Hornets)

Hornets 24/7 (New Orleans Hornets)

Swarm and Sting (New Orleans Hornets)

KnickerBlogger (New York Knicks)

New York Post Knicks Blog (New York Knicks)

The Knicks Blog on SNY (New York Knicks)

The Knicks Fix (New York Knicks)

BlueBlitz.net (Oklahoma City Thunder)

Daily Thunder (Oklahoma City Thunder)

Thunder Oklahoma City (Oklahoma City Thunder)

Welcome to Loud City (Oklahoma City Thunder)

Howard the Dunk (Orlando Magic)

Orlando Magic Daily (Orlando Magic)

Third Quarter Collapse (Orlando Magic)

Bright Side of the Sun (Phoenix Suns)

Deep Purple (Phoenix Suns)

Official Phoenix Suns Blog (Phoenix Suns)

Planet Orange (Phoenix Suns)

Valley of the Suns (Phoenix Suns)

Liberty Ballers (Philadelphia 76ers)

Philadunkia (Philadelphia 76ers)

Philadelphia 76ers Blog (Philadelphia 76ers)

Sixers Journal (Philadelphia 76ers)

Blazersedge (Portland Trailblazers)

Beyond Bowie (Portland Trailblazers)

Beyond The Beat (Portland Trailblazers)

Bust a Bucket (Portland Trailblazers)

Rip City Project (Portland Trailblazers)

A Royal Pain (Sacramento Kings)

Sacramento Bee Kings Blog (Sacramento Kings)

Sactown Royalty (Sacramento Kings)

Cowbell Kingdom (Sacramento Kings)

Courtside with the Spurs (San Antonio Spurs)

Project Spurs (San Antonio Spurs)

48 Minutes of Hell (San Antonio Spurs)

Pounding The Rock (San Antonio Spurs)

Cuzoogle (Toronto Raptors)

Dino Nation Blog (Toronto Raptors)

Mediocre Forever (Toronto Raptors)

Pete Marasmitch (Toronto Raptors)

Raptor Blog (Toronto Raptors)

Raptors HQ (Toronto Raptors)

Raptors Republic (Toronto Raptors)

All That Jazz (Utah Jazz)

Jazz Bots (Utah Jazz)

Salt City Hoops (Utah Jazz)

SLC Dunk (Utah Jazz)

True Blue Jazz (Utah Jazz)

Utah Jazz, SLT (Utah Jazz)

Agent Dagger (Washington Wizards)

Bullets Forever (Washington Wizards)

Watching Wizards (Washington Wizards)

The WizzNutzz (Washington Wizards)

Truth About It (Washington Wizards)

NBA Draft:

Draft Express

MyNBADraft.com

NBADraft.net

NBA Fantasy Basketball:

ESPN Fantasy

NBA.com Fantasy

Give Me The Rock

Yahoo! Fantasy

NBA Magazines:

Dime Magazine

HOOP

SLAMonline

NBA Wiki:

Hoopedia

NBA Player's Association:

NBPA