(Blogger’s Note: This post has nothing to do with plastic surgery. I’m just undergoing severe writer’s block and that’s the best title I could come up with. Please forgive.)
In last week’s mild rant about my frustrations with sports PR internships, I mentioned the Cleveland Indians’ outdated PR practices. Today I want to take the time to admit that I jumped to conclusions a little too soon.
Not sure who these people are, but I want to be one of them (photo courtesy of "...Only in Cleveland")
Many of you are probably already aware of the Indians Social Suite (i.e. the first ever social media seating section in professional sports). But if you were like me, you probably weren’t aware how the Tribe’s new strategic plan goes beyond a special portion of the Jake..er..Progressive Field.. and into a full-on campaign that takes PR out of the front office and into the hands of the team’s biggest fans and critics.
For the past few days, I’ve been looking through the schedule for what games I might want to get to and decided to dig deeper into some information about the social media seats. Never did I ever think I would come across an entire press release (coincidentally posted on my birthday) devoted to an innovative strategy for a team that was supposed to be the worst in the league thus far.
Innovation? In something Cleveland sports-related? This can’t end well, right?
Sure, we’ve had a crappy year in sports, but I think the Tribe might be turning things around, at least on the business side.
Per the Indians Website, I give you the main objectives for the Tribe’s 2011 social media strategy:
- Access to Indians organization unprecedented in Major League Baseball.
- Club president Mark Shapiro and GM Chris Antonetti to join manager Manny Acta on Twitter.
- Lauded Tribe Social Deck to be renamed Indians Social Suite and moved from Bleachers to Suite.
- Indians to launch innovative Social Media Ticket offer rewarding fans for sharing discount.
I started this blog as part of one of my class assignments. As part of another assignment, we had to read The Groundswell, by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li. The book’s basic premise is how PR and marketing professionals need to embrace new media and use it to build relationships to create trustworthy, word-of-mouth promotion. This type of buzz marketing gives the people the power to sell the brand, rather than having the organization shouting the message. It’s worked for some of the nation’s beloved consumer brands for a few years. Why wouldn’t America’s past-time be the first sports organization to embrace the phenomena?
As Twitter continues to grow and more people receive sports news from the blogosphere rather than traditional routes, it seems only fitting for athletes and organizations to gravitate toward PR 2.0. Ironically, baseball is the one sport that has experienced declining numbers in attendance and viewership, making it the most in need of a PR makeover.
Chief Wahoo finally has reason for this grin again (photo courtesy of examiner.com)
If the Indians were doing as bad as they were supposed to be, I would find it ironic that they were the innovators in baseball PR. Okay, scratch that. Even though they are 11-4 (only the second-best record behind Colorado), I still find it ironic. But as a fan, it doesn’t really matter to me how they are doing so well, it’s that it’s happening. Even if this high is only temporary, the progress the organization is making off the field is truly revolutionary in the world of sports PR, and that is something no one should overlook, especially silly grad students like me.
Sports PRspective 