Sports Marketing – a good game for Twitter

MLB.com just joined the social media revolution in a way that is still as obvious, but probably hasn’t found its way into public domain. The question is if sharing the brand with Twitter officially makes it business-friendly for the sport, ( or consumer brand and advertiser like P&G, Sprint ) In fact as one might feel to be important , does this spread of ‘co branded’ Twitter and MLB/NFL/IPL/NDTV/BofA count for more than the reputation management and the catching up?

Before we move on with the discussion, let’s give the @mashable it’s due

MLB.com Shows You How Twitter Reacts Inning-by-Inning to Playoff Games

With the MLB playoffs in full swing, it’s been hard to miss the chatter on Twitter during pivotal moments during games. MLB.com is now tracking all of that action, and compiling it in an interactive inning-by-inning timeline of each game that compiles Twitter buzz alongside video highlights.

The result is MLB’s “Pulse” feature which now accompanies the Wrap Up of each game. In addition to the graph for each team’s tweet volume and highlights, you can also see all of the tweets that MLB pulled in, so you can see specifically what people were saying at any point during the game.

Unfortunately, Pulse is only available after games, though the team that worked on the project tells me that real-time is in the works for next season. Nonetheless, during games, MLB.com has added a Twitterfeature to its GameDay view where you can both watch a pitch-by-pitch description of what’s happening, and also see all the tweets coming in about the game. There’s also an option to login and post your own updates.

One must first put the facts in place:

A. Twitter chatter has created its own distinctive brand and brand pull for the social maven, the sport and the consumer brand – as Steve Jobs might have once done to Microsoft, It’s hard to ignore.
B. Twitter chatter is fun only real-time for the sports brands, NFL, IPL, NBA or F1 – you can set the watch by the tweets that come, for the game, the plays, the controversial moments or some real tweets as well! – The chatter dies away in twitter gloop soon after the last hit of the game..FACT!
C. The most important for marketers right now is to get into Twitter and stop getting shredded by opinion makers, twitterati and the cognoscenti or just common folk and similarly capitalize on the happy moments for the brand and the game
D. Twitter hasn’t sold the Healthcare bill to anyone
E. Twitter isn’t getting paid. None of the Twitter tools are
F. I believe, in most cases above you can easily substitute Twitter for Facebook. Only that Facebook has advertising and Twitter has more content per second than you would ever think possible and you cannot ignore it! People love to ignore Facebook
G. A lot of celebrity mistakes are already floating around. Bad spats in public domain, recorded in history

So, what does it mean? Well, for one thing the marketers seem to be doing it right. Only there are not enough of them. As usual I find only the Giants of the business game taking notice and spending bucks on Twitter. That is where we are and we are repeating the mistake we made last time as well. This is the crowdsourcing moments that need capturing, revolutions by the moment that can give tremendous leverage to the game.

There is beginning of the rudiments of policy for social media from the NFLs, IPLs and MLB. There is a lot of intelligent analysis real-time that makes my game day much more interactive and me more responsive to the word play and the brand fabric. There is the immediate impact on the brand’s visibility. There has to be now a commercial framework that does not overcharge the premium but also that sheds unresponsible engagement. It does not have to be a discouragement to new users, because any paying mode could be a big discouragement for millions of students, but apart from the crowd’s sway in making you add value there has to be a firm style from each sport brand that keeps tweeters that well tweet great and those that just ride. There has to be encouragement for the millions of listeners who are not there to ruffle any feathers but curious to read on twitter and see where the trend is for the game going on. And there has to be measurable incentive for brand owners and influencers to provide that culture.

Maybe we are the infomediaries of this Invisible Continent. But, maybe there is another revolution around the corner..The consumer’s ‘infrastructure’ requests have changed irrevocably, however.