Foursquare and the NFL scored more than 200,000 check-ins worth of awareness from Super Bowl XLV parties across the United States and 125 countries, becoming the site’s most checked into venue to date. Old Spice awarded a fan exclusive, limited-time use of a promotional video. And Ultimate Fighting Championship held the first large-scale sporting event exclusively broadcasted on Facebook.

Applying social technology in innovative ways effectively attracts attention to your message — a topic that I recently discussed with Amy Martin, the CEO of Phoenix-based Digital Royalty.

Achieving results
I first met Martin in 2009 when she was organizing the NBA’s first fan Tweetup. She has since parlayed that experience into Digital Royalty, her own agency that manages digital communications for an admirable roster of sports teams, athletes, celebrities and corporations.

Martin and her team continue to create new initiatives that draw fan support to their clients’ causes, such as their work on Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Facebook campaign.

The preliminary matches for UFC’s Jan. 22 “Fight for the Troops” event was the centerpiece of its Facebook broadcast. Viewers simply had to “Like” UFC’s Facebook page to gain access to the fight. UFC has previously streamed backstage interviews and fighter weigh-ins, so streaming an event (or a portion, in this case) was the next logical step.

The “Fight for the Troops” campaign goal was to reach a new audience.  Tactics included social media, traditional media and website placements.  The campaign generated 123,000 new Facebook fans — 49,000 of those on event day.

The league clearly understands the value of going where fans are, rather than fighting to change their behaviors.  This approach works: The UFC is second only to the NBA for most pro sports league Facebook fans, according to public fan pages.

The UFC selecting the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund as its charitable partner was a significant part of  its Troops strategy. Martin finds that people come together for a cause, especially with social media.

Connecting IRL
It’s vital for practitioners to bridge the virtual and physical worlds, given that personal relationships are a cornerstone of public relations and successful business ventures.

“The magic of social media is most effective when you make things come to life,” explains Martin, who stresses simplicity over technology for technology’s sake. “Geo location apps, for example, now give us more complex ways to make connections, yet it all boils down to making online relationships come alive, whatever the method may be.”

Martin cites public relations as an essential contributor to the digital communications landscape.

“We call a lot of what we do social PR because it factors into every campaign. We rarely write press releases unless mandated by clients, and instead ask PR pros on our campaigns to reach out personally to their media outlets,” she says. “Humans connect with humans, so the pitching process changes when you’re building relationships with media who engage in social networking.”

Martin’s advice to communicators is to build your personal brand beyond the organization you represent, since it is transferrable. Modify these social media tactics to support your goals or even inspire innovation of your own.

Attract more attention online

Digital communication tools offer practitioners many methods for helping their messages be discovered. Consider the following when seeking new audiences online.

• Take Q-and-A to the next level — Create dialog in your blog and community comment sections; readers return when you engage frequently. Or try Quora, a Q-and-A site becoming a reputable thought leadership forum for posting and following questions, as well as rating response value.
• Mobilize your message — Connect with people in proximity by offering access to deals or events using geo-location apps like Foursquare and Facebook Places. Or create your own app to qualify the followers who most want to receive your communications, and update them instantly.
• Polish up a podcast — There are thousands of podcasts. Those with congenial hosts, hot topics and slick production garner the most listeners or viewers. Select a frequency and duration you can manage, and for production try Audacity for sound editing and Audiojungle for theme music.
• Be vivid with video – You know YouTube, Skype and have probably viewed a Ustream event. Go beyond these staples with Qik (recently acquired by Skype) to stream public or private videos live using your mobile phone, and create a channel on a video sharing community like Vimeo.

This post also appears as the March “Digital Dialogue” column in the PR Tactics Journal, published by the Public Relations Society of America.

My “Tweeting up with THE_REAL_SHAQ: Phoenix Suns PR Pros embrace Twitter, social media” article for PRSA Tactics published today. Thanks as always to the PRSA publications staff, and also to Krystal Temple (@sunsprgirl), Amy Martin (@phoenixsunsgirl), Jamie Morris (@sunsprdiva), and Jeramie McPeek (@sunswebmaster) from the Suns organization for their time spent meeting and interviewing with me about their social media use.

The article is about a Tweetup event the Suns held during their January 16th home game for fans who use Twitter, and it of course emphasizes the PR perspective that drove the event. Shaq (@the_real_shaq) himself attended, and there were plenty of activities to satisfy just about any NBA fan.

Equally impressive is the team’s application of social media beyond Twitter. They have put themselves in a leadership position as far as sports franchises go. The organized Tweetup for example was the first of its kind in the NBA. I think it was an award-caliber event (hint: Krystal, submit in “events” category of various PR award programs).

See the article for details on other social tools the team is using; there are many, these are the highlights. The article also includes a link to video of Shaq meeting his Tweeps after the game (also below), and to capture some of the vibe from that night search #sunstweetup on http://search.twitter.com.

Judging by the favorable reaction from Tweetup attendees, I would expect more spins on this idea to come from the Suns, and likely other NBA teams. Next up may be the All-Star Game which Phoenix hosts at the US Airways Center Feb 14th and 15th.

Rick Welts (the very guy who created All-Star Weekend – that’s right, the dunk and three-point shooting contests etc.) is the Suns’ President & COO. Could he have something new and unique up his sleeve with the game being on his home court? Jamie Morris tells me that although the Suns are the host team, they have a prescribed league event flow to follow. Makes sense, but consider this my encouragement to shake things up a bit. Whatever the case, the Suns are “one to watch,” on the court and off.

(Full “Tweetup” article at PRSA Tactics online)

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