But, as with most things in life, it’s not quite so black and white. The US Twitterverse alone is expected to cross 25million users in 2010, meaning that being found within that crowd is going to become harder and harder. People follow more and more folks, and unless you’ve already got a name, even your good content can get lost in the shuffle. One of the solutions, especially if you’re trying to use Twitter as a marketing channel, is to build a huge follower count knowing that some percentage of those people actually will see what you say. You can afford to only have 10% of your followers see what you write if you have 10,000 of them, right?

Most of these follower auto-generators sell themselves on that principle – you need a big following, so pay us money to get one for you! With varying degrees of accuracy and targeting, they work by following other twitterer’s followers. Going on the theory that 50% of people automatically follow anyone who follows them, if the software can follow 500 people per day for you (without tripping Twitter’s spam filters), that’s 250 new followers every day – bingo!

Like I said, my first reaction is to go running away from these damn spam bots. This isn’t growing my list organically, this is gaming the system. It’s just not right!

But life isn’t that cut and dried. What if the software followed the followers of your competitors? Sure, that might be a bit bold, but if they’re interested in what your competition has to say, won’t they be interested in you? What if you could target keywords, so the software picked people that were clearly interested in what you have to say? In a way, you are actually doing them a service, assuming you have something to write about. After all, what good is a storefront on Broadway if you don’t have a sign out telling people what you do!?

In the end, it all comes down again to having a plan for posting content, interacting with the community, and being useful. If you can’t do that, beating AplusK’s follower count won’t do you the slightest bit of good. So, build yourself a plan, write some great stuff, and if you buy yourself some followers, I promise not to gag reflexively.

The Internet isn’t a place…

…it’s a communications technology. It took me a while to realize that. Most websites, whether in sports or not, still treat the internet as a place, a storefront if you will. But it’s not been that for some time. Seth Godin talks about a website being “a step in a process.” For cycling teams, there’s the process of turning casual fans into team fans and the process of marketing their sponsors’ products/services. The creation of easy-to-use social media applications has shifted the website’s place in the process, but it is still a step along the way.

Modern web strategies that reach out to and interact with fans must incorporate social media (where the fans already are), which means your website is a critical hub for all your online activities. Like a hub, its spokes reach out to where fans are on major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., but the hub is where the process is driven. It should include:

• Basic Content – like a FAQ, the site should clearly and compellingly explain who you are, who your riders are, who your sponsors are, what they do, when you are going to be where, what you’ve accomplished, and how fans can interact with you. Just because it is basic content does not mean that it needs to be presented in a simple and boring manner. Multi-media should be used to make the site a destination. Content must be updated regularly, giving fans a reason to come back again and again.
• Media Resources – particularly in sports, the media is a key tool for spreading word about your team and your sponsors. Media resources can no longer include only boiler-plate press releases and stock photography, but should include a full suite of resources in a variety of media that help reporters tell your story, as well as being consistently updated with new story ideas. If there’s one thing reporters love, it’s subjects that make it easy for them to file interesting stories on tight deadlines.
• Clear Links to Social Media – since fans are going to be on Facebook, Twitter, etc. anyway, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to find you wherever they go. Direct links out to your fan pages, video channels, podcasts, etc. are more critical than aggregating that content on your own website. It is also important to think about where on your site a fan might click across to, say, Facebook and what you want them to see when the land there. The two experiences have to flow seamlessly together.
• Robust Data Capture – While there are several effective tools for monitoring social media statistics, none of them yet match the ability for you to gather accurate and detailed data on your own site. This data is used to adapt your content plan on the fly and provide detailed evidence of the value you offer your sponsor. A with-it sponsor will be a data-analysis partner to maximize the opportunities available.

Site Design and Content Concepts

A study has shown that website visitors decide in 4 seconds whether or not they are going to stay on a site. The best content in the world won’t keep fans at your site unless they immediately have a visually arresting way of telling them that your site is worth their time. Fortunately, cycling’s innate beauty makes it easy to capture fans’ interest immediately.

The design of the site is the key factor in making a first impression. Detailed attention must be paid to cleanly integrate sponsor graphic themes in a manner that generates a strong mental impression, but doesn’t overpower the rest of the site content. Fans have come to expect that in a sport as visually compelling as cycling, team websites will have beautiful images that dominate every page of the site. A great design gives fans the conscious impression that you have great images of the races and riders that they love, while leaving them a subconscious visual impression of your sponsors.

Visual design is not the be-all-end-all though, because once a fan’s interest is captured, you have to provide them something of value to keep them around. The major cycling news sites have captured the market for general race reports, news, and press releases, so don’t even go there. Sure, you can put up your press releases in a newsroom, but a great team website must therefore provide something more, a deeper connection to the team that they can’t get from Cyclingnews or Velonews. This content should change throughout the year to emphasize and focus on the riders and events that hold center stage in the cycling news media at that time. Augmenting your text with images, audio, and video is now easy, inexpensive, and from the fans perspective, expected.

Now that we’ve got a basic structure in place, next week I’ll cover integrating it with your social media accounts, both technically and strategically. As always, if you have any thoughts, comments, or questions, hit me up in the comments or on Twitter.

Once upon a time, a cool website was a “nice-to-have” element of a cycling team’s marketing assets. But as individuals and corporations both large and small lead the way onto the social web, it has become a vital core of the marketing portfolio. Complicating matters even more is the speed at which web trends and technologies develop. Twitter and Facebook were nice-to-have elements last year, this year they are a must-have. Within the next year, some new technology that is just on the fringe now will become a vital element of a sports marketing portfolio.

Sadly, you can rarely look to traditional marketing and PR firms for support in keeping on top of the web. Some agencies have areas of competence, and some digital agencies can create spectacular looking websites, but they usually come at a price and rarely understand the unique opportunities cycling presents to teams and their sponsors. Of course, if you are concentrating full-time on running a team, you don’t have time to keep up with what works, where fans are, and how they interact with each other, you, and your sponsors. So you put up a quick blogger “website”, or if you’re lucky a Wordpress or other CMS-based website, posting content in the form of race reports that get written by whoever has the time or was at the races that week. There’s no season-long plan, little adoption of the variety of inexpensive multi-media tools, and too often a lack of follow-through (how many teams last posted content in September, August, or even July of 2009?).

The move of corporate marketing dollars from traditional media outlets to online and customer engagement outlets demands that sponsored properties create and manage modern online media programs, regardless of time-intensity. This series outlines a strategy for creating an engaging team website, integrating it with social media outlets, and populating all of them with content that engages fans, delivers value to the current sponsors, and establishes a framework that increases the value of the team to existing and future sponsors.

This series will cover four separate areas teams need to consider when developing a strategy for creating web content:

• The website as an online hub
• Connecting with social media
• Integrating Multi-media
• Measuring, measuring, measuring

We won’t talk about everything in detail, and we won’t cover ever last potential item, idea, or tactic. The idea is to give you an idea of what the landscape is like, what the basics are, and give you a way to measure yourself against a benchmark. The idea is that you can improve in a few areas depending on time and budget, deliver more value to your sponsors (justifying more money), and take the next set of steps. Hit me up in the comments or on Twitter if you have questions, thoughts, or topics you’d like to make sure I cover.

You see, over the holidays, things got hectic chez Cardillo. There was a trip back to O-H-I-O (cold!), roomates moving out (surprise!), my own move (double surprise!), and of course client projects (no surprise there!). All of this meant I got behind on writing these posts, and couldn’t even keep up with my normal weekly schedule. Not even one post per week – weak!

It’s not that I didn’t have ideas for posts. It’s not really even that I got too busy. No, the real reason is that I didn’t execute the part of my plan that involved creating a quiver. A quiver, for a writer, is a set of posts that are pre-created and require little-to-no additional work to post. The kind of content that’s in there ready to go when you only have 5 minutes before you board your flight, or you’re laying sick in bed and can’t summon your creative juices. They are best when they are time-independent thoughts on your topic. Above all, they are useful.

They are not posts that you wrote and didn’t like. They are not posts that you never finished and need to wrap up and edit extensively. They are not time-sensitive topics you never got around to (my gut reaction to Tiger’s “indiscretions” is not a post in the quiver for May 2010). They are definitely not topics that you haven’t written about, but can put together a half-assed post on in 5 minutes.

So, I drained my quiver and never filled it back up. Instead of researching for inspiration in free time and knocking out some posts, I kicked back with a few beers instead of one. I went for a 4 hour ride when only 2.5 was in the works. I tried to find the partners to the single socks that appear after I do laundry. Anything but doing my bloody job.

So, dear reader, I’m back on it. Even though it’s a hectic time of year, I’m only having one beer, keeping the rides short, and leaving those single socks lonely – all to make sure there’s a full quiver of lessons from my mistakes. If I do it right, you’ll never know when I’m too busy to write.

The problem is pretty straightforward: Jokes that are funny when you’re in your mid-teens tend not to be funny to other groups – in this case women, or most adults in general. But with some very quick searching, I found this prospect was not alone; some of his peers also left an unseemly electronic breadcrumb trail that, I would have to expect, could illicit [sic] some pretty damning questions when the NHL draft combine comes up in the summer.

To further complicate matters, you not only have to worry about what you say, you also have to worry about what your friends say. This, of course, is more of a problem on services like Facebook where mutual consent is required than on Twitter, where you can’t possibly be expected to be held accountable for your followers. What this means is that, like the rest of your public communications, you need to have a process and strategy for establishing friend connections, creating and posting materials (text, photos, videos), curating what other people post to your wall, and managing your privacy settings.

My process and strategy for posting on the blog and/or Twitter is fairly simple – I call it the Mom Test. Basically, would my Mom be offended if she were to read this? Not “tut-tut-that’s-not-nice” but actually “can’t-look-her-in-the-eye” offended. If it fails that test, it doesn’t get posted, period. Same goes for things that get posted on my Facebook wall. Same goes for photos and videos (I’m lookin’ at you, Iinterbike!).

My Facebook friending strategy revolves around actual connections. Family obviously makes the cut, friends that I’ve known, and work connections that I have a more-than-professional relationship with. People that I ran into that one time at a race or bar don’t make the cut, nor do people I quickly did a project for (they end up on LinkedIn). If I actually had success in any of my sporting endeavors, all of those people’s friend requests would have been directed to a Facebook Fan Page with a polite note saying something like, “my friend list is confined to close, personal friends and family. I have a fan page, and look forward to connecting with you there!” Nice and polite.

The curation strategy goes back to the Mom Test. If it’s written on my wall and would offend Mom, it comes down. That goes for both the personal page as well as the fan page.

Finally there is the matter of privacy settings. My personal preference is to set everything to only be visible to Friends, and remove the ability for others to tag me in photos and videos. Especially because images can be taken out of context, you don’t want to be explaining away photo after photo. Make sure your settings notify you every time you’re tagged in a photo, and if it doesn’t pass the Mom Test, remove the tag and/or ask the poster to take the photo down.

That prescription might sound terribly restrictive, but it really is the best way to nip problems in the bud before an employer, team, or sponsor walks away from you.

If the only reason you don’t do something is because you never did, that’s not a good reason. If the environment has changed dramatically and you are feeling pain because of it, this is a great reason to question yourself, to ask why. -Seth Godin

Unless you’re Alberto Contador, you’re probably feeling the effects of the global recession. Whether you’re an athlete, managing a team, or promoting an event, the pinch probably has you worried a bit. The natural inclination I see is to rush headlong towards the activities that have always brought in money in the past, and push them harder than when times were good. Trouble is, that’s probably not the best strategy.

For those companies that still have money, the same-old same-old is not an attractive investment. When consumers are spending less and less, companies want the most direct and efficient route to whatever consumer dollars are out there. No longer can they throw money at a general opportunity and guess which 50% of their budget is bringing the returns. Every dollar needs to be accounted for and producing returns.

If you’re ready to step outside of the usual, this is a great opportunity for you. I’m sure the Specialized/Alberto Contador/Team Astana negotiation was unusual, and the result certainly is. My guess is that the result was a good sponsorship deal for Specialized, a guaranteed contract for Contador, and we’ll now see AC staying at Astana even if their Pro-Tour license isn’t renewed.

But what about missed opportunities?

Daniel Holloway’s personal Ustream of the Munich Six-Day from his laptop was one of the only ways to know what was going on there. What if the promoter set up a couple of cameras, a mixing board, and streamed the event on the Internet? The riders could stop in and chat with fans live between events, and sponsors would have live access to engaged fans. I would bet that they could attract an international audience as large or larger than their current in-person audience, giving them a reason to pitch more and larger sponsors. Critically for six-day promoters, when the event grows in stature internationally, locals will be more likely to show up – who doesn’t want to be part of an EVENT?

Does your local event have a unique feature that stands out from other events? Maybe your men’s fields have gone up and down in quality, but the women’s fields have gone from strength to strength. What would happen if you doubled-down on that and, heaven forbid, made it a women’s only event? Promote the hell out of it using social media – which would be incredibly effective – with the goal of becoming the premier women’s event in yourstate/yourcountry/theworld. Can you make more out of less? Sponsors would love you for that!

What if you’re not winning as many races as you used to? What are the possibilities if you spent a ton of your non-training/racing time forging real connections with fans over social media? How valuable is it to your team and/or sponsors if you have 300-500 die-hard fans that will follow and support you wherever you go, even if you’re struggling? Damn valuable, that’s the answer.

Your Iron Curtain

Anything different that you might do is a risk. But if you’re already struggling, is it really a risk? Isn’t it a risk to keep doing what you’re doing? I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal about red deer in Germany and the Czech Republic. Throughout the Cold War, there was a fence, a road, and guards that constantly patrolled the border, making it impossible for even wildlife to cross. 20 years after the fence has come down, almost all the deer – even those born AFTER the fence came down – refuse to cross the old Iron Curtain. Yet two bucks – one from each side of the border – cross to feed and mate. They will, if they haven’t already, become the alpha males of their herds, having their choice of food and mates.

Is that fence really there for you, or are you pretending that the Iron Curtain is still there? What border can you cross that might have great success on the other side?

Psyching themselves out

There were slightly fewer people in attendance this year, and a good chunk of them are likely earning less than before, but the core group of people who bid on and win the big-ticket items are not hurting for money. Still, they did not bid aggressively for signed jerseys, posters, and other memorabilia that has little practical – but high sentimental – value. Yet the items – bikes, wearable clothing, etc. – that had higher utilitarian value still sold for reasonably high amounts. The difference to these bidders was not a financial one, but a psychological one. Even though they are not concerned with losing their house or where their next meal is coming from, they still bid and spent more conservatively than they would have in a growing economy.

This post is not meant to excoriate these people, but to identify a psychological trait of recessions that affects us all – fundraisers, athletes, teams, and events. If a charity has to deliver items of utilitarian value, what does this mean for sponsored properties? It means you have to “move the needle”.

The Nike model

Nike has long been a master of this, sponsoring only those athletes, teams, and events that will result in increased sales of their products. Properties like Ohio State, LeBron James, and the Tour de France are sponsorships that return more through product sales than they cost Nike, and the measurement of this is easy.

Lately it seems that the talk has been about sponsorships that look past the “move the needle” metrics to larger branding and consumer engagement metrics. I’d be willing to wager that, given the current state of the economy, more sponsors are concerned with the effect on next quarter’s sales than are prepared to admit it. Accepting that as true, the challenge for you is now two-fold; how do you increase sales, and how do you do so in a way that is measurable by you and your sponsor?

There are no quick answers to those questions, but the first step is to ask them. Your pitch should focus mainly on the audience you can deliver anyway, while figuring out exactly how to connect to that audience is part of the discussion/negotiation. Soliciting feedback from the sponsor on how they want to best utilize their dollars sets you apart from the majority of pre-packaged pitches that focus on signage and impressions. If you additionally invest time and a bit of money into tracking metrics, it will return dividends for both your current sponsor and for you as you go out looking for renewals or new deals. While sponsors can be excused for focusing on the short-term, you must think long-term to ultimately be successful.

Kimi’s reputation as a party animal has followed him since his early success in F1, and probably before that for those that knew him in karting. As he stood on more and more podiums, and gave many more interviews, it also became clear that he was rather aloof and at times cold to the press and fans – often seeming downright grumpy. Lately, he has been mixing his F1 responsibilities with fun trips out to Finnish rallies and other motorsports adventures.

Now, let’s think about his sponsors. At McLaren, the main sponsors were Vodafone (a communications company), McLaren (a supercar builder), and Mercedes (luxury car builder). At Scuderia, it was mainly Ferrari, an unbranded Marlboro, and Mubadala (a mid-east investment fund). With the exception of Marlboro, and possibly Ferrari, I can’t see an enigmatic, aloof, uncommunicative, carefree, party animal as the ideal person to be representing those brands on the world stage. Now comes news that Toyota (motto: One Team, One Aim) has offered Kimi a contract for next year (Scuderia Ferrari are letting him go). This is all wrong.

Kimi belongs at Red Bull Racing.

What image is Red Bull trying to portray to the world? B Mliaros writes,

Unique positioning strategies targeting high-school burnouts and college students, nightclubbers, and athletes have built the brand’s equity. Grassroots marketing campaigns emphasize the drink’s image as being a cool and trendy drink for cool and trendy young adults. Word of mouth and an intentionally vague strategy have made the brand mysterious. By not emphasizing what the company itself feels are the products strengths, it allows consumers to decide for themselves, as well as facilitates the emergence of rumors, some quite outlandish, adding to the drink’s perceived value and increasing the brand’s equity.

So, ideally, you would be looking for a cool, somewhat mysterious, extreme party animal. If he is an athlete at the top of his sport, so much the better!

So it would seem ideal for Kimi to become a Red Bull athlete. It’s that last word that is key to making this whole thing work, “athlete.” All of this works better if Kimi’s contract arrangement is unusual by F1 standards. Rather than be all for F1, cultivate the image that Kimi is a cool customer, unusually talented, that he can pop in to a rally or supermoto race on a F1 off-weekend. Other teams might freak out if he gets hurt, but Red Bull just gives him a branded cast and crutches and he comes out to the next weekend and parties with the guests. Red Bull achieves its objectives, Kimi gets to go fast in whatever form of motoring catches his fancy, and because of that, is probably more successful than if he were constrained to Vodafone/McLaren/Mercedes black-tie sponsor dinners and an exclusive F1 focus.

So the lesson is simply that not every sponsor is the best fit for every athlete or team. You should develop and own your “brand”, extending it with sponsors that fit. You’ll be happier, they’ll be happier, and you’ll both most likely be more successful for it.