Social Media Lessons from the BCS

It seemed as the most dominating presence during the BCS National Championship weekend was social media.  If you’re still wondering or questioning if your business should be involved in social media, you weren’t in Phoenix this weekend.  I was a lucky Duck fan to have enjoyed the experience of attending the BCS National Championship, in the twittersphere the game known as the #Natty.

Everywhere you turned this weekend, heads were buried in smart phones, making tweets, FB posts and Foursquare check-ins.  If you have Oregon Duck or Auburn Tiger fans as friends on your facebook page you couldn’t help but feel that you were a little involved in all the festivities.  I kept going to my FB wall to see where people were that I knew so we could catch up with them.

On Sunday morning there was a large gathering of Duck fans for a Nike pep rally bringing on stage Ducks stars from the past.  Arms were held high with smart phones in hand snapping picture after picture shortly thereafter to become FB posts.  Video cameras catching the moment, so they can post to YouTube for fans not attending to feel a part of the weekend.

Pictures of crazily dressed fans all being soaked up by the tens of thousands of smart phone users attending the weekend long festivities.  Anything better than doing a foursquare check in at University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday night? For me it was the greatest check-in ever.

You ask, “as a business owner what does this have to do with me?”  Good question.  What forms of media people are using is important.  For years, usage of traditional media is what has driven businesses to spend their marketing dollars on advertising in those mediums.  Media usage is shifting and so should your attention and some of your marketing efforts.

I attended the game with a friend/client and it made perfect sense for his business to post what was going on at these events.  I have other clients that picture posts of the BCS experience on Facebook made perfect sense for.  While for some parts of Oregon this may have been the biggest story in years and it may take Oregon winning it to have a bigger story than this past weekend, there are smaller little community stories that happen every day.  As a business, it just makes sense to be a part of it.

Being a community leader and giving props to great community projects is a great position to own.  Is it something you would like to own or your competition?  It’s your choice.  Use social media to not only talk about yourself but more importantly make everyone feel good about the community they live in and the fun thing going on.