Social Media Lessons from the BCS

Social media seemed to be the most dominant presence during the BCS National Championship weekend. If you’re still wondering or questioning whether 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, which in the Twittersphere is known as the #Natty. Everywhere you turned this weekend, heads were buried in smartphones, 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 I knew were so we could catch up with them. On Sunday morning, there was a large gathering of Duck fans for a Nike pep rally, which brought Ducks stars from the past on stage.  Arms were held high with smartphones in hand, snapping picture after picture shortly after that 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. There were pictures of crazily dressed fans being soaked up by the tens of thousands of smartphone users attending the weekend-long festivities. Is there anything better than doing a Foursquare check-in at the 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 do with me?” Good question. What forms of media people are using is essential. For years, businesses in traditional media usage have spent 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 happening at these events. I have other clients whose picture posts of the BCS experience on Facebook made ideal sense. 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 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 talk about yourself and, more importantly, make everyone feel good about their community and the fun thing going on.