Staying On Top of an Everchanging Internet Landscape

One of the biggest things I have learned this past semester while writing the Social Sideline is that in order to be successful in new media (Internet, social media, etc.) today, you have to be on top of all the trends and apps, becoming a part of the influencers and the "early majority" of users, as opposed to catching on to something late. 

This, of course, leads to the question of how one stays on tops of trends in an online world where 15 minutes of fame has decreased to just 15 seconds of fame?

1. Be flexible
Trends and apps rise and fall at the drop of a hat it seems today - remember how popular those Harlem Shake videos were on YouTube? Remember how big games like Candy Crush and Flappy Bird got? Yet, as quickly as those rose to prominence, they disappeared into obscurity again. Even sites that seem firmly entrenched (looking at you MySpace) can fall from grace, so to speak. So be prepared for any and all apps and trends and, more importantly, to change your content so that it fits. For example, Vine only shows six seconds of videos. So find ways to get important information in then. Show the team coming onto the field. Get video of postgame celebrations. Make sure to give the audience things they cannot get anywhere else. Which leads to point #2...

2. Separate yourself
The beauty of the Internet is that anyone and everyone can add to the conversation. Unfortunately, this also leads to a whole lot of noise, making it hard for even the best work to raise to the top. There are ways though, and you need to find the one that works best for you. Find a topic that few people are talking about and focus on that. Answer questions for people. Find a niche and stick with it. On that same note, follow people who talk a similar topic as you and do what they do not. Some good sports social media accounts I follow (in case you are curious) include MLB Fan Cave, Fieldhouse Media, Wealthbridge, SB Nation and Black and Blue Review.

3. Follow influencers
If you cannot become an influencer, then you should find them and follow them closely. They are the ones who help create and determine what is popular and the public's opinion of things. What to know what the next big thing will be? Follow these guys closely and you will be ahead of the curve at whatever comes next.

Does the NFL Need A Stricter Social Media Policy?

Miami Dolphins safety Don Jones is in hot water for tweets he made in relation to Michael Sam.

As you are most likely aware by now, the recent National Football League Draft saw the first openly gay player drafted in NFL history in Missouri linebacker Michael Sam. Many celebrated the pick, but when Sam was shown on television kissing his partner, some...not-so-nice tweets came out (to put it nicely). Among those that tweeted negatively were Miami Dolphins safety Don Jones, who would later be fined and excused from the team for what he said.

It even went outside the realm of the NFL. Ole Miss guard Marshall Henderson attacked SportsCenter via Twitter for showing the kiss, saying:

Henderson would later say that the tweets were a part of a "psychology experiment" for a friend of his who was also gay.

All of this bothered many, including Bleacher Report NFL columnist Mike Freeman, who questioned if the NFL needed to reform their social media policy. Many leagues, including the NFL, have social media policies that restrict when a player or coach can tweet, but there is nothing in the policies that talk about what someone can tweet about. Freeman asked league spokesman Greg Aiello about this, and Aiello's response was as close to perfect as you could get in such a situation.

"As far as comments on social media, players and all NFL personnel are accountable for what they say, same as we are when being interviewed by a member of the media."

New York Giants offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz added that perhaps the league could set guidelines for punishment on tweets, but that there's no way the league could police every player's Twitter account, so there should not be further policy on this (see the Tweet here).

I believe that the NFL's current stance on the content of tweets is the best way to go about it currently. As Schwartz stated, it would be near-impossible for any league, not just the NFL, to monitor the social media accounts of every athlete. Plus, playing Big Brother is no way to build trust between a league and its players - just ask colleges how well that works for them.

Maybe somewhere down the road, someone will find a better way to monitor player's accounts, but for now, holding athletes responsible for what appears on their social media accounts is the best practice for leagues.

#WeAreAllMonkeys: A Fútbol Approach to Dealing with Racism

Bananas: Bringing People Together Since April 2014

In case you missed it, racism has become the hot topic in sports over the past week, thanks to some leaked comments from Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. You've probably read plenty about that, so I don't need to say much there.

What you probably did not hear as much about is what happened that same weekend during a professional soccer/fútbol match in Spain. During a match between FC Barcelona and Villareal FC, Barcalona defender Dani Alves went to take a corner kick. As he was preparing to take a kick, a fan from the stands threw a banana at Alves. Yes, you read that right. Disgusting act of racism, right? Don't worry though, Alves reacted in arguably the best way possible.


His act quickly spread on social media from one soccer fan to another. Then, his teammate, young soccer starlet Neymar, posted the following photo on Instagram.


He included four hashtags with the photo: "#somostodosmacacos," "#weareallmonkeys," "#somostodosmonos" and "#totssommonos." All four hashtags translate to 'we are all monkeys.'

Suddenly, player after player and team after team began posting their own #weareallmonkeys photos on social media.

With my colleague Marta from Brazil we say #NoToRacism. We are all equal. pic.twitter.com/0kWLsaAgwP
— Sergio Aguero (@aguerosergiokun) April 28, 2014

With my mate @Phil_Coutinho #SayNoToRacism #WeAreAllMonkeys pic.twitter.com/mY3W4GogqZ
— Luis Suarez (@luis16suarez) April 28, 2014

#SomosTodosMacacos pic.twitter.com/lgxJLBa9X0
— Corinthians Paulista (@Corinthians) April 28, 2014

Juventus #SayNoToRacism con @danistone25 @Asabob20 #Pogba #Giovinco (1/2) pic.twitter.com/tj0qZ8XfAJ
— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) April 29, 2014

Even the Maldivian national team are going bananas pic.twitter.com/Wgi1rA3LFu
— 101 Great Goals (@102greatgoals) April 29, 2014

#SayNoToRacism #weareallmonkeys #Schalke #S04 pic.twitter.com/scY5vkZaC4
— FC Schalke 04 (@s04) April 29, 2014

The movement initially looked like a great success, particularly for something as spontaneous as it was.

But, just as with David Ortiz's viral selfie with President Obama, it turns out to was not as spontaneous as it seemed. Turns out that Neymar himself, who has dealt with racist acts this season, actually hatched the idea to eat a banana that was thrown at him, with the help of some advisors, including Neymar's father.

Alves had the opportunity before Neymar did, and did not think twice about eating the thrown fruit. Neymar then took to Instagram to launch the campaign, including with the photos the hashtags that were actually planned out by a Brazilian marketing firm.

Guga Ketzer, who works at the marketing firm, said:

"Actions speak louder than words. A gesture needs no translation and what we’re seeing is that this has gone viral, globally. The concept was for Neymar to eat the banana, but in the end it was Alves, and that works just the same.
The best way to beat prejudice is to take the sting out of the action so it is not racist repeated. We created #weareallmonkeys #somostodosmacacos, with the gesture of eating a banana, and it has been turned into a movement."

More information can be found here.

The fact that the act and movement was preplanned should not diminish what Neymar and Alves have been able to accomplish. They have brought worldwide attention to the racism that still exists overseas. Working with a marketing firm certainly helped with the success of the #weareallmonkeys movement and should be something athletes consider doing more often in the future.

If the racist acts of this past weekend have done nothing else, they have reminded us that A. unfortunately, racism still exists. B. just how powerful social media can be when used correctly by opinion leaders and those with massive followings.

And for those wondering, the fan suspected of throwing the banana has been found and arrested.

The Right Way to Celebrate a Birthday

Birthdays are a big moment in anyone's life. Friends and family come together to celebrate the special day. Unless you are an athlete, in which case you also celebrate with the multitude of fans you have on social media. Most fans will wish 'Happy Birthday' via a post or tweet and never hear back from the athlete personally.

Of course, it is unreasonable to assume an athlete has the time to look through or respond to each birthday wish. So how can athletes use their birthday to help build their online brand with their fans?

Take a look at soccer/fútbol star Ricardo Kakà for inspiration.

The athlete celebrated his 32nd birthday earlier this week, and of course the birthday wishes came rolling in from all corners of the globe. But, someone on his social media team came up with a genius idea: have fans create birthday cards and submit them to be posted on Facebook to surprise the star with.

The idea was spread on his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts and photos were posted in a Facebook album within minutes. As of this posting, there were more than 185 birthday cards wishing Kaka a happy birthday, varying from handwritten letters to various pieces of art.

Social media specialists can learn plenty from what the '#KKTeam' did. 

First off, post as many responses as possible. The more people involved in something like this, the greater the success. 

Second, and most importantly, make sure to monitor the responses before posting. As Mark Emmert and his team learned, such social media experiments can go downhill quickly. You need to make sure that you do not post anything negative and (preferably) avoid as many grammatical errors as possible. 

Finally, advertise as much as possible on as many venues as possible. Even if the event takes place on Facebook, try to find ways to spread the word on other social media sites as well. Talk about it on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Reddit and everything in between. 

So, to summarize: monitor your responses, post or highlight as many as possible and advertise the event as much as you can. Thanks #KKTeam for the lesson. And a belated happy birthday to you Kakà.

Sideline Scoop: Troll So Hard

With the rise of social media sites and messages boards, Internet trolls have also become increasingly popular. For those who do not know, a troll is defined by Wikipedia as "person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people by posting inflammatory, extraneous or off-topic messages in an online community with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion." For more information on trolls, check on the YouTube channel Gloves and Boots' informative guide on trolls and the levels of trolling.

This also means that trolls have found their way into the sporting world. And no, it's not just the fans. Even athletes, teams and general managers are starting to show signs of becoming trolls. Let's take a look at just three examples from the past few weeks.

1. Houston Rockets got jokes!

Meet Portland Trail Blazers center Robin Lopez, who is probably better known for his hair than his playing ability (though that is not shot at his skill level). The Trail Blazers are taking on the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA Playoffs and, during Game One of their series, the Rockets sent out of the following tweet, more or less comparing Lopez to Simpsons' character Sideshow Bob.

You know, I think they may be on to something...

Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller, who has given Michigan plenty of fits on the field, is now taking shots at the school off the field.

2. Aren't rivalries great?

It's the spring, which means it's the quiet downtime of the off-season for most football players.  It also means that college spring games are underway, and any chance a team has to take a shot at a rival is free game. Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller took the opportunity to send out a tweet comparing the spring game attendance's of his school to that of their biggest rival, Michigan.

Toronto Raptors' GM Masai Ujiri pumps up fans using some unique language.

3. Toronto Raptors' GM is not the biggest fan of Brooklyn. Apparently.

The Toronto Raptors are in the playoffs for the first time since 2008, so the city is understandably excited. The team is hosting the Brooklyn Nets, and prior to the first game of the series, Raptor General Manager Masai Ujiri was giving a speech to help pump up the fans. Thanks to Instagram, we have video of what transpired (WARNING: NSFW language). There has been somewhat of a rivalry between the two franchises ever since the Raptors traded Vince Carter to the Nets and Carter, who some believed was not trying his hardest in Toronto, suddenly became a star again for the Nets.

#AskEmmert: An Epic Fail of a Twitter Q&A

NCAA President Mark Emmert

This is Mark Emmert, the president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, better known as the NCAA. In case you have not heard, the NCAA has been in some hot water lately as more facts are brought up on the amount of money the NCAA makes while the student-athletes who play the games see none of the cash. Student-athletes recently have said that they sometimes go to bed hungry (maybe that's just Shabazz Napier though) and are trying to unionize, which could be dangerous for the future of the NCAA.

On Friday, Emmert joined ESPN's Mike & Mike in the Morning morning show, and someone (whether it was the NCAA or ESPN is unclear) thought it would be a good idea to have people on Twitter asks questions of the NCAA President by tweeting using the hashtag #AskEmmert.
This is an excellent idea in theory. But, Twitter, for the most part, vehemently sides with the student-athletes against the NCAA and are not big fans of Emmert and the NCAA. As the Social Sideline has previously examined, Twitter has given people a new confidence to say whatever they want, whenever they want. Let's just say that the Twitterverse did not take kindly to #AskEmmert.
It started simply enough, with fans asking straight-forward questions.

Then it started getting a little more personal.

Then it just started getting ridiculous.

A list of more responses can be found here, while the original tweet can be found here.

Whoever thought of #AskEmmert had the right idea in trying to incorporate and interact with fans, but should have realized the high chance of a Twitter revolt like this. If Twitter and the NCAA were political parties, Twitter would be Democratic (young and liberal) and the NCAA would be Republican (older and conservative). #AskEmmert gave the Twitterverse a chance to vent frustration that had been building for months or years even.

There are two lessons to be learned here: 

1. As stated in the Tom Crean's Backfiring Tweet post, you need to know your audience. If you are going to post something like this on Twitter, you have to be prepared for potential trolls. But, if you think that you will get more negative responses than positive ones, you probably should not post it. Even before all the negative tweets came flooding, many people's initial reaction to hearing about #AskEmmert was 'this will end well...' 
2. At the same time, fans need to be more open to the NCAA's mindset. Kyle Kensing, a friend of mine, brought up a very good point on Twitter.
   
   People (myself included) need to work on being more open-minded, both in the real world and on social media. No progress will ever be made if two sides just yell at one another. Perhaps student-athletes should be paid. Perhaps the NCAA is right in trying to enforce the amateur status of their student-athletes. But nothing is going to change if both sides just continue to argue with one another and refuse to change their mindsets on a topic.

Tom Crean's Backfiring Tweet and What We Can Learn From It

Indiana head coach Tom Crean opened a can of worms with his recent tweet.

Poor Tom Crean and Indiana University's PR Department. All they wanted was to try to get fans involved and closer to the team.

So some back story first: Indiana University is one of the proudest college basketball programs in the nation, but one that has fallen on tough times lately (the team did not even make the NIT Tournament this year). Fans have grown tired of this and are beginning to sour on the team's head coach, Tom Crean.

Back to the present day. Tom Crean, who in the past has said that he doesn't read replies on Twitter (red flag right there), tweeted the following out to his 138,000+ followers:

So innocent. So simple. But left wide open for trolls.

Seems innocent enough. It's even a great idea, a way for fans to feel a part of their favorite team and try to inspire them daily. Unfortunately, this is the age of the Internet, and trolls thrive on things like this like never before.

Responses came in quickly to Crean's tweet, but none of them were what the team at Indiana was expecting. Most people brought up the team's recent poor play. Others took shots at the coach himself. Take, for example, @RealPhilS, who said that playing for Indiana meant "TO BE VERY TALENTED BUT HAVE YOUR SH*TTY COACH F*CK UP YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING" (On a related note, @RealPhilS should read this comic on typing in all-caps). More examples of responses can be seen here.

My fear from this response is that teams and schools will stop doing things like this altogether, which is the opposite of what they should do. Much like a white paper I recently helped write for class, schools needs to teach everyone, from their student-athletes to those who coach them, the proper way to use social media and how to respond to situations like this. And no, ignoring them is not the correct answer.

So what can we learn from Indiana's mistakes?

• Know your fan base 

Indiana is coming off a 17-15 (7-11 Big Ten) season that saw them fail to make a postseason tournament.. For a team with such a prestigious history, that is not a good season Fans are not exactly going to be in the happiest of moods right now. Therefore, it's probably not the best time to ask such an open-ended question on a site like Twitter, where trolls lurk around every corner just waiting for an opportunity like this.

• Take the good with the bad

Unfortunately, as Alfred in the movie 'The Dark Knight' pointed out, "some men just want to watch the world burn." Regardless of what you do or say, some commentators to online posts will always troll and post negative things. Do not let that discourage you from trying to interact with your fans and readers though. The loudest ones are often the minority.

• Develop a social media strategy beforehand

 It is best to develop a strategy beforehand of what you will post, when you will post it and how you will respond to both positive and negative responses to that post. I am sure that Indiana had a plan when they had Crean post the tweet (because I have trouble believing someone who has so openly criticized Twitter in the past would come up with this idea on his own), but I do not think they executed it as well as they could have. It may have been better to have the school's official Twitter account post the question as opposed to Crean's account. But every mistake is a chance to learn, and I am sure that Indiana and Crean have learned plenty from the tweet.