Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Ever tried watching a baseball game by yourself, not uttering a single word about a great diving catch or a towering home run? Yeah, not that fun, right?
At this year's first-ever downtown College World Series, Capital One is using social media to stoke fan interaction — regardless of what team you're pulling for — and promote seamless digital communication through smartphones and social applications, or “apps.”
“Social media is no longer looked upon as something that's just nice to have. It's a must to have,” said Sukhi Sahni, a Capital One spokeswoman and social media specialist.
Social media now is a branding linchpin. And the CWS is providing an example of the type of strategies being used by corporate giants like Capital One, AT&T and ESPN, as well as local businesses on the perimeter of all the CWS fanfare.
Firms big and small are using applications like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare to expand their marketing influence on fans, one “like,” tweet and “check in“ at a time, hoping to increase fan participation and interaction, which, in sports, is key.
For the credit card and financial giant Capital One, the payoff comes from engaging CWS and other college sports fans in positive two-way interactions, even if they aren't customers.
“The goal is really to link fans and to give them different options to connect back and engage with Capital One,” Sahni said.
Realistically, social media isn't powerful for companies looking to convert users of competitors into customers. Instead, it's better used to keep current customers loyal, said Gina Pappas, director of new media and senior public relations specialist for Bellevue-based Albers Communication.
“Social media offers many opportunities to make an impact, and it encourages companies to think big,” she said. “Events can build brand loyalty with existing users, and they are an opportunity to reach a competitor's audience — but we always encourage our clients to execute their strategy in a manner that isn't overly promotional.”
In Omaha, Capital One and AT&T have set up shop outside TD Ameritrade Park with a fan zone where CWS attendees can score instant prizes using Foursquare, a location-based mobile platform with more than 10 million users that alerts friends when you “check in.”
The area is also tied to the Capital One Cup, a contest held at NCAA championship events that awards universities scholarship money based on their athletic accomplishments.
Specifically for the CWS, Capital One and AT&T organized a Facebook chat with Robin Ventura, an ESPN commentator and Oklahoma State University baseball great. CWS fans posted questions on the social media platform that Ventura later answered via short videos.
Posts on Twitter provide updates on happenings around the “Fan Zone.”
“It's an opportunity to be behind the scenes,” Sahni said. “It's giving fans that opportunity to get information that a lot of people wouldn't have an opportunity to get on a regular basis.”
College sports once deemed online marketing and communication as intrusive. As recently as 2009, one conference even tried to ban all ticketed fans from “producing or disseminating” material about the event they were attending.
But now, it's not just huge companies harnessing the reach of social media.
Local businesses, like the Slowdown, the rock club that transformed into a CWS sports bar, and Film Streams, the artsy north downtown movie theater, have employed social media recently to lure fans to their establishments.
Even the Omaha Police Department has jumped into the social media fray, posting updates on parking, traffic, flooding and CWS safety on the department's Twitter account.
Last week, Film Streams, which is working with hospitality provider PrimeSport and offering food and baseball-themed movies during the CWS, posted an alert on Twitter and Facebook that gave fans and followers free admission to the theater.
The posts weren't meant to be a huge deal, said Film Streams spokesman Casey Logan, but the simple messages brought in traffic.
“Right away, we heard from people that saw it,” Logan said. “We've had a handful of people of people each day that have responded directly to that.”
Pappas said organizations that use social media at events like the College World Series need to consider the environment and mood. So fun, laid back and exciting would definitely fit the bill for the CWS, she said.
“Consider what a relationship with the CWS has to offer to the target audience and develop a strategy that speaks to where that audience lives in the online space,” she said. “As a local, small business, offering an incentive to your audience and promoting it through social media may be a valuable strategy.”
Contact the writer: 402-444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com
Gina Pappas' name was mispelled in earlier versions of this story.
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