Writer For Content Writing King Published Social Marketing Article

Dynamo core behind Geoff Cameron, who has been a solid participation in all 3 of Jurgen Klinsmann’s camps this year, reported to a U…

Small Business: Using amicable media sites

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May 20, 2012 1:43 PM
By JAMIE HERZLICH
jherzlich@aol.com

Quick ReadExperts advise tiny businesses that a pivotal to successful networking is to not widespread yourself too skinny opposite a crowd of sites

Photo credit: iStock | For a small-business owners with singular time and resources, it’s unfit to be on each site. The pivotal is to not widespread yourself too skinny opposite a crowd of sites, though to concentration on a few that are many applicable to your audience, contend experts.

Jamie Herzlich

Jamie Herzlich

Herzlich writes a Small Business mainstay in Newsday.

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Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and now Pinterest.

The list seems endless, generally deliberation there are some-more than 200 amicable media sites out there and new ones popping adult daily.

For a small-business owners with singular time and resources, it’s unfit to be on each site. The pivotal is to not widespread yourself too skinny opposite a crowd of sites, though to concentration on a few that are…

Content Preview This calm is disdainful for Newsday digital entrance and 7-day home smoothness subscribers and Optimum Online^® customers.

Major league teams working on social media message

CHICAGO (AP) Bridget Houlihan rifled through her gift bag and pulled out a gray T-shirt with a circular Chicago Cubs emblem on the front and FOLLOWER emblazoned across the back, resting on a row of logos from the top social media websites. ”This is awesome,” she said.

Baseball thinks Houlihan is pretty sweet, too, and major league teams like the Cubs are hoping to entice more fans like her to come out to the ballpark. Social media nights have become a common part of the promotional schedule, and some of the best ticket deals and giveaways can be found on Twitter and Facebook. Savvy franchises are trying to create the right mix online, part content and part business opportunity – keeping their followers engaged while also padding the bottom line.

Players such as Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips and Miami Marlins outfielder Logan Morrison are Twitter superstars, but devoted fans across the country also are responding to the personal touch provided by the teams’ online presence.

Social media nights vary from ballpark to ballpark, but some aspects are fairly consistent. The Cubs offered specially priced tickets and put together contests for their online fans. They encouraged their Twitter followers to use the hashtag (hash)CubsSocial to mark their tweets throughout the night.

”I think it’s going to be mandatory for all clubs to be not just involved in it, but go all-in, not just dip your toes in the water,” said Jamie Ramsey, who works in the Reds’ media relations department and writes a blog for Major League Baseball’s website. ”Teams are going to realize how important it is to help sell tickets, generate revenue and keep the fan base interested and engaged.

”I think it’s still kind of new to everybody. Once teams realize how to master it and do what works for them, it’s going to keep growing and become as important as your marketing department, your sales department.”

Houlihan, 33, of Chicago, attended the first social media night at Wrigley Field on Wednesday with her boyfriend, George Hayman, and his brother, Pete. She pounced on her phone when the Cubs announced a Twitter contest, and managed to post in time to win an autographed pack of the social media-themed cards that were part of the promotion.

”I think it’s really awesome to put together events like this,” Houlihan said. ”I’ve been going to social media events for several years now and I find it’s the perfect way to network because you meet people through Twitter and then you go meet them in person and it gives an entree into what they like to talk about, things that you have in common.”

The Cubs put approximately 300 special bleacher tickets on sale for the promotion and sold each one. They are planning a second social media night for September.

Kevin Saghy, a public relations and marketing specialist for the Cubs who helps run their Twitter account, said the key to generating revenue in the field is content.

”If your focus is revenue and your content reflects that, I don’t believe that’s a wise strategy … That’s not why people are there,” he said. ”They’re there to converse. So we’ve taken the other approach where it’s definitely a priority for us, it’s something we track, and I can say from 2010 to last year, as we got more involved and offered better content on our platforms, we quadrupled our revenue. So we’re up about 300 percent.”

Major league teams also are finding loads of intangible benefits to their social media presence, ranging from increased brand awareness all the way down to a connection with a single customer who leaves with a positive impression.

Saghy will monitor Twitter for Cubs fans celebrating their birthday or making their first trip to Wrigley Field, then put together a bag of free goodies to place under their seat before they arrive. The Indians have a designated social media suite at Progressive Field, and team president Mark Shapiro has stopped by to visit with fans and answer questions.

Several teams hold in-game scavenger hunts that award autographed memorabilia or team apparel, and some clubs put together contests that result in upgraded tickets for their online followers.

”From a business standpoint, we use social media mainly as a way to connect with fans, give them unique access and provide a different perspective,” said Tom Garfinkel, the interim CEO of the San Diego Padres. ”Obviously, it can be used to communicate promotions and sell tickets, and we do that, to a lesser extent. We try very hard to maintain an authentic voice and make sure our followers are getting value from the content we are posting – not just being sold on something. We also use it to crowd-source ideas. It’s a living focus group.”

Washington is putting together a tweet-up for July 3 that includes discounted tickets and a commemorative poster. There are plans for a player meet and greet and a Twitter request line for pregame ballpark music. But the most compelling aspect of the Nationals’ promotion involves the location of tweet-up seats, which will improve as more fans RSVP for the game before tickets go on sale on June 22.

”It’s about fan engagement and the ability then to be able to enter into that discussion, and not being too corporate, but helping lead and participate in that conversation,” Nationals chief operating officer Andy Feffer said. ”Why? Because the social media platform is now an access point – to the club, to the players, to promotions, to ticket sales, to the story that’s being told. And the story really lives now in the social media world. It’s extended into that community more than it ever has before.”

Dan Migala, a founding partner of Property Consulting Group who worked for the Padres and has consulted for other major league teams, thinks social media will become even more important for sports teams in the future.

”I don’t think that there’s ever been a better time to be a fan than right now because for the first time really as a fan you have a two-way relationship with your favorite team,” he said. ”For some teams that’s a very exciting proposition and some, they’re probably scared to death.

”But my dad and his generation, it was a one-way relationship. You bought a ticket, they took your money, you came to the game and you bought as much stuff as you could and they never responded to you. Now they can know when your birthday is. Now they can communicate and answer questions in real time. It’s a really powerful vehicle but you have to embrace it.”

—

AP Sports Writers Joe Kay in Cincinnati, Bernie Wilson in San Diego, Howard Fendrich in Washington and Tom Withers in Cleveland contributed to this report.

—

Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap

Social Networking Comes to a Ballpark

Baseball thinks Houlihan is flattering sweet, too, and vital joining teams like a Cubs are anticipating to tempt some-more fans like her to come out to a ballpark. Social media nights have turn a common partial of a promotional schedule, and some of a best sheet deals and giveaways can be found on Twitter and Facebook. Savvy franchises are perplexing to emanate a right brew online — partial calm and partial business event — gripping their supporters intent while also stuffing a bottom line.

Players like Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips and Miami Marlins outfielder Logan Morrison are Twitter superstars, though clinging fans opposite a nation also are responding to a personal reason supposing by a teams’ online presence.

Social media nights change from ballpark to ballpark, though some aspects are sincerely consistent. The Cubs offering specifically labelled tickets and put together contests for their online fans. They speedy their Twitter supporters to use a hashtag CubsSocial to symbol their posts via a night.

“I consider it’s going to be imperative for all clubs to be not only concerned in it, though go all-in, not only drop your toes in a water,” pronounced Jamie Ramsey, who works in a Reds’ media-relations dialect and writes a blog for Major League Baseball’s Web site. “Teams are going to comprehend how critical it is to assistance sell tickets, beget income and keep a fan bottom meddlesome and engaged.

“I consider it’s still kind of new to everybody. Once teams comprehend how to master it and do what works for them, it’s going to keep flourishing and turn as critical as your selling department, your sales department.”

Houlihan, 33, from Chicago, attended a initial amicable media night during Wrigley Field on Wednesday with her boyfriend, George Hayman, and his brother, Pete. She pounced on her phone when a Cubs announced a Twitter contest, and managed to post in time to win an autographed container of a social-media-themed cards that were partial of a promotion.

“I consider it’s unequivocally overwhelming to put together events like this,” Houlihan said. “I’ve been going to amicable media events for several years now, and we find it’s a ideal proceed to network since we accommodate people by Twitter and afterwards we go accommodate them in person, and it gives an snack into what they like to speak about, things that we have in common.”

The Cubs put about 500 specifically labelled tickets on sale for a graduation and sole any one. They are formulation a second amicable media night for September.

Kevin Saghy, a open family and selling dilettante for a Cubs who helps run their Twitter account, pronounced a pivotal to generating income in a margin was content.

“If your concentration is income and your calm reflects that, we don’t trust that’s a correct strategy,” he said, adding: “That’s not because people are there. They’re there to converse. So we’ve taken a other proceed where it’s really a priority for us, it’s something we track, and we can contend from 2010 to final year, as we got some-more concerned and offering improved calm on a platforms, we quadrupled a revenue. So we’re adult about 300 percent.”

Major joining teams also are anticipating loads of unsubstantial advantages to their amicable media presence, from increasing code recognition all a proceed down to a tie with a singular patron who leaves a certain impression.

Saghy will guard Twitter for Cubs fans celebrating their birthday or creation their initial outing to Wrigley Field, afterwards put together a bag of giveaway goodies to place underneath their chair before they arrive. The Cleveland Indians have a designated amicable media apartment during Progressive Field, and a group president, Mark Shapiro, has stopped by to revisit with fans and answer questions. Several teams reason in-game scavenger hunts that endowment autographed memorabilia or group apparel, and some clubs put together contests that outcome in upgraded tickets for their online followers.

Bringing an end to child hunger

slideshow

Forget about the ancient adage of robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Kasey Trenum, an ambassador for the Child Hunger Ends Here campaign, teaches people to save so they can then, out of their savings, give.

“Kasey’s passion for giving back is infectious, and the success of her blog is a testament to that,” said Genevieve Mazzeo, the Public Relations and Social Media manager of ConAgra Foods. “Through her work, she is helping to raise awareness about the more than 1 in 5 kids in the U.S. who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. She is spreading the word to her community to join the cause.”

ConAgra Foods and Feeding America have banded together to launch the Child Hunger Ends Here campaign. This is the third year the campaign has taken up the initiative to help more than 16 million food-insecure children in the United States.

According to Gary Rodkin, the CEO of ConAgra Foods, more than 20 percent of children do not know where their next meal is coming from.

The Child Hunger Ends Here campaign has recruited several bloggers to raise awareness across the country. Trenum heard about the program while attending a bloggers’ conference in Nashville.

“Basically as a blogger ambassador for [the issue], I want to bring awareness. … My role is to get the word out through media, social media, and word of mouth. However I can reach as many people that are within my reach,” Trenum said.

Trenum is the nationally recognized blogger of Time2$ave, a blog dedicated to locating daily coupons and offering couponing tips.

“I don’t really like couponing,” Trenum admitted. “I started couponing because I had to. So I understand people that do do it because there is a need in their lives.”

As she talks, Trenum reveals some of the crises that caused the needs that were once in her life. They include a father with brain cancer and a husband effected by downsizing. In addition, two additional houses, that were built with the purpose of selling, sat for over two years.

“Couponing saved my family’s finances,” Trenum said.

Through trial and error Trenum became something of a coupon guru. Soon she was sought after for advice.

“I was asked to speak to a moms’ group. I thought there would be 10 to 25 people max and there was 200,” Trenum recalled.

The overflowing class was an eye-opener for Trenum and in June 2009 she launched her blog.

Today, Trenum is hoping to use her social media skills to help ConAgra and Feed America’s Child Hunger Ends Here Campaign.

“The fact is that 27.4 percent of children in Bradley County are food insecure. Basically that is 1 in 3 children,” Trenum said. “My kids are sitting at a table where, statistically speaking, one of them is food insecure. That absolutely blows my mind.”

The program works through consumers purchasing specially marked packages of ConAgra Foods brands. These packages will have a special code to be entered at www.childhungerendshere.com.

“Once you enter the code online, you have the opportunity to download a song called “Here’s Hope,” Trenum explained. “You have the choice of a version by Jewel, Jay Sean, or Owl City.”

Said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America, in a recent press release, “With the help of friends, neighbors and music fans across the country, we know we can continue to make a positive difference in the lives of children in need.”

Trenum urges people to look outside of the box.

“You think that the people in need are the ones on the side of the interstate. It is families that work, families that are trying to put food on the tables. These are real American families that are trying to do their best, but they just can’t do enough to keep food on the table for their kids,” Trenum said.

A meal will be donated for every code entered. According to the campaign’s website, the price of a meal from one of Feed America’s local food banks is 13 cents.

“I know that most people want to give, but people can’t afford it,” Trenum said. “I mean, I could not afford it before I began couponing. I could barely afford to pay our bills.”

Trenum’s experience with both need and couponing has allowed her to pour her energy and heart into her couponing classes and blog. Her dedication has been noticed by her two children, Morgan and Caleb.

“It feels good because you know you helped someone and God is going to honor you,” Morgan said.

It was Trenum’s father who originally taught her to give through his life’s example. Today, she carries on his legacy.

“I think it is important to look beyond yourself. Life isn’t fair and we are going to face things. It wasn’t fair watching my father die of brain cancer,” Trenum shared. “Now instead of looking at my life and thinking about what I have lost, I can think about what I have to give. He lives on through that.”

For more information on the campaign, visit childhungerendshere.com. To receive more insight into couponing, visit Trenum’s blog, time2saveworkshops.com.

“I teach people every time they go to the grocery store, you need to buy something to give,” Trenum said. “For me it has always been time to save plus time to give equal time for hope. It’s not about getting a deal, it’s about making a difference.”

Hamish Macdonald will host Ten’s new late news show. Source: Supplied

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Free workshop on social media tools

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FAIRHAVEN — The Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network (MSBDC) Southeast Regional Office and First Citizens’ Federal Credit Union are sponsoring an upcoming workshop titled “Marketing Strategies Using Social Media”.

This free workshop will teach a basic overview of social media tools to include: search engine optimization (SEO), blogging, social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest), and E-newsletters. This workshop will be Tuesday at the Fairfield Inn Suites New Bedford, 185 MacArthur Drive, New Bedford. The workshop will begin promptly at 8:30 a.m. and run until 10:30 a.m. Refreshments will be available.

To register, visit the MSBDC website at www.msbdc.org/semass and click on Event Calendar or call Alison Moriarty at the MSBDC office at 508-673-9783 Ext. 10.

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Raging Social Marketing

Larry Allen

Everybody is going amicable and brands know amicable is a contingency buy. But a doubt they are all seeking is “what to buy”? Facebook is a apparent answer, though maybe not for all brands. Facebook has been a good opening for pushing trade to fan pages, augmenting ‘likes’ and compelling app downloads but, for a vital code marketer, does Facebook broach a form of earnings they are looking for? GM, for one, has motionless to change their multi-million dollar FB spend, carrying dynamic that paid ads on a site have small impact on sales. 

The good news (and bad news): there is a far-reaching accumulation of options out there for brands to cruise in amicable media. The plea is that many brands don’t know how to enhance over building a fan page on Facebook, focusing on ‘likes’ or tweeting sound about their product or events. They are blank a incomparable design of a energy of a amicable audience.

It seems simple, though when evaluating where we wish to put your amicable dollars, we need to cruise your goals and objectives. 

Facebook: Massive scale globally with a elementary shopping model, though given a bomb growth, their pricing is going adult and ROI is harder to achieve. Plus, Facebook is a “walled garden” creation it most harder to guard and lane downstream conversions.

Twitter: Great for a marketer who wants to actively promulgate with their outspoken customers. Many find Twitter a good influence tool. But for a pure-play code module many are anticipating it formidable to scale and pierce budgets effectively. 

LinkedIn: Perfect for a B2B marketer or vast organizations with vast recruiting budgets. The news feed is a good assembly indicate though a amicable interactions are singular to a approach 1:1 connectors between members, creation it tough to strike adult a code conversation.

Pinterest: Ideal for a marketer with a vast product catalog or glorious shots. The village is wild and flourishing like a weed, creation it a princely petri plate for creation and scaling eCommerce sales.

G+: Ideal for those who wish to be on a draining corner or alone in a spook city depending on your optimism.

So how can a marketer take advantage of amicable and broach an fit buy during scale with plain results?

Enter amicable analytics and retargeting. With a right partner, we can weigh your code or product followers, digging deeper into their behaviors, demos and interactions with other consumers and, some-more importantly, other brands and media outlets. With clever research we can know a consumer passion points and how they describe to your brand. 

Once we know a several segments of consumers, your amicable and retargeting partner can erect a extensive devise that integrates a tradition media channel built from accurately those sites and blogs your consumers read. This will yield some-more discernment into:

• What sites and blogs are visited frequently
• What kind of articles consumers like to  share
• What keywords and affiliations consumers have
• How to rise assembly segments formed on a attributes your fans and influencers represent
• Where to conceal abounding media artistic to best rivet your consumers with amicable feeds and points of communication (POI) for real-time feedback 

 What other amicable outlets or strategy do we consider are vicious for brands today?

The views voiced here simulate a views of a author alone, and do not indispensably simulate a views of 24/7 Media, the affiliates, subsidiaries or the primogenitor company, WPP plc.

Spammers invade Pinterest, other amicable media sites

For 10 days, valuables builder Michelle Espinoza suspicion a singular print on a amicable website Pinterest was going to hurt her business.

It was an design of one of a pearl slap bracelets she designs and sells, nestled among snapshots of other desired equipment that users arrangement on Pinterest, a practical circular board. Yet anybody who clicked on a design could finish adult unwittingly examination publishing or downloading a virus.

“I can’t pointer how many business we lost,” Espinoza, formed in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, pronounced in a phone interview. “But we did have people messaging me asking, ‘Are we related to spam?’ we was only distraught.”

When Pinterest debuted dual years ago, e-mail was still a lucky format for spam messages peddling diet schemes, passionate encouragement and other unsolicited services. Since then, improved filters have outcast some-more spam from inboxes, pulling tens of billions of pieces of mass offered to social-media sites, according to Dan Olds of Gabriel Consulting Group in Beaverton, Oregon.

“Social spam can be a lot some-more effective than e-mail spam,” pronounced Mark Risher, arch executive officer of anti-spam program provider Impermium in Palo Alto, California. “We see a lot of it, and we see it increasing. The bad guys are holding to this with good abandon.”

Spammers emanate as many as 40% of a accounts on social-media sites, Risher said. About 8% of messages sent around amicable pages are spam, approximately twice a volume 6 months ago, he said.

Related

• Pinterest valued during US$1.5-billion in appropriation led by Rakuten

• Could Pinterest be value $5-billion? Some investors consider so

Spam Blockades

The looser a controls, a some-more prevalent a feign accounts. While Facebook Inc., a world’s largest amicable network, has grown adequate to mark and stop most of a attempted spam, younger entrants like Pinterest have nonetheless to make effective blockades.

Erica Billups, a mouthpiece for Palo Alto-based Pinterest, declined to make executives accessible for interviews.

“As a flourishing service, Pinterest is not defence to hurdles faced by sites opposite a Web including spam,” she pronounced in an e-mailed statement. “Our engineers are actively operative to conduct issues as they arise and are revisiting a inlet of open feeds on a site to make it harder for feign or damaging calm to get into them.”

Some 50,000 people might open a spam summary on Facebook within one hour, Chester Wisniewski, comparison confidence confidant in Vancouver for anti-spam businessman Sophos Ltd., pronounced in an interview. Spammers can make income by promotion products for vendors, offered their possess products, hidden personal information by surveys, or installing viruses that can squeeze consumer data.

‘Con Artists’

“For an normal Facebook scam, it’s simply on a scale of e-mail scam,” Wisniewski said. “It’s a rather mature economy of criminal artists.”

Facebook and Twitter Inc. — amicable media’s aged ensure — have bulked adult on programmers and confidence specialists to inhibit spam. When that fails, they go to court.

Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images files

Facebook and Twitter Inc. — amicable media’s aged ensure — have bulked adult on programmers and confidence specialists to inhibit spam. When that fails, they go to court.

In January, Facebook sued Adscend Media LLC, accusing a association of regulating scams on feign pages designed to attract users into visiting other websites. A standard captivate cited in Facebook’s suit: “You will be SHOCKED when we see this video. Simply “Like” this page to see a video.”

At slightest 280,214 users were duped into interacting with spam set adult by a defendants in a case, Menlo Park, California-based Facebook said, job a use “Likejacking.”

Cancelled Accounts

About 80% of Adscend’s monthly income of US$1.2-million came from Facebook scams during one indicate in time, a amicable network said. Adscend pronounced this month it staid a box for US$100,000 but revelation wrongdoing.

Twitter final month sued Skootle Corp., JL4 Web Solutions, a male dependent with TweetBuddy.com and 4 other individuals, claiming that they were obliged for spam that had caused some users to cancel accounts. Twitter pronounced it spent some-more than US$700,000 to fight spam attacks by a defendants.

Brett Gundlock/National Post files

Twitter final month sued Skootle Corp., JL4 Web Solutions, a male dependent with TweetBuddy.com and 4 other individuals, claiming that they were obliged for spam that had caused some users to cancel accounts

TweetBuddy.com combined program to automate a origination of feign accounts and mass placement of tweets, Twitter pronounced in a suit. TweetBuddy.com also sole Twitter accounts to spammers, according to a justice filing.

“We wish this fit acts as a hindrance to other spammers, demonstrating a strength of a joining to keep them off Twitter,” a association pronounced in a blog posted a day it filed a lawsuit. The Tweet Buddy site now says a products have been pulled from a marketplace and urges users to approve with Twitter’s terms of service.

‘Integrity Systems’

Twitter, formed in San Francisco, also set adult program to investigate links posted on a site and close down any containing malware or antagonistic content, that helped discharge hundreds of thousands of violent accounts.

“Tens of millions of dollars are spent on a site firmness systems including hundreds of full time employees,” Facebook orator Frederic Wolens said.

Facebook has been expanding a URL blacklist system, that uses information from partners including Intel Corp.’s McAfee to detect and retard famous threats. Facebook Immune System inspects any movement on a site, regulating a repute of a cookie or IP residence concerned to hindrance any questionable action.

Pinterest encourages users to form a practical area watch and news spam before it spreads. Last month, Pinterest posted a blog suggesting that consumers use a “Report Pin” symbol to brand spam.

Pinterest Spam

On Pinterest, spam mostly lurks in a embedded links trustworthy to photos, creation it wily for users to spot. Espinoza, a 40-year-old valuables maker, pronounced she contacted a association during slightest 10 times in as many days before a feign links tied to images of her bracelets were banished.

Lauren Williamson, a 31-year-old in suburban Chicago, didn’t even pointer adult for Pinterest to get spam from a site. After somebody else used her e-mail for a Pinterest account, she now gets several spam messages any week. She pronounced she e-mailed Pinterest twice attempting to repair a problem and afterwards gave adult when she got no response. She says a messages keep coming.

“I get e-mails from debt brokers and online retailers,” she pronounced in an interview. “It’s an annoyance.”

www.bloomberg.com

Major league teams working on social media message

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CHICAGO (AP) – Bridget Houlihan rifled through her gift bag and pulled out a gray T-shirt with a circular Chicago Cubs emblem on the front and FOLLOWER emblazoned across the back, resting on a row of logos from the top social media websites. “This is awesome,” she said.

Baseball thinks Houlihan is pretty sweet, too, and major league teams like the Cubs are hoping to entice more fans like her to come out to the ballpark. Social media nights have become a common part of the promotional schedule, and some of the best ticket deals and giveaways can be found on Twitter and Facebook. Savvy franchises are trying to create the right mix online, part content and part business opportunity _ keeping their followers engaged while also padding the bottom line.

Players such as Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips and Miami Marlins outfielder Logan Morrison are Twitter superstars, but devoted fans across the country also are responding to the personal touch provided by the teams’ online presence.

Social media nights vary from ballpark to ballpark, but some aspects are fairly consistent. The Cubs offered specially priced tickets and put together contests for their online fans. They encouraged their Twitter followers to use the hashtag (hash)CubsSocial to mark their tweets throughout the night.

“I think it’s going to be mandatory for all clubs to be not just involved in it, but go all-in, not just dip your toes in the water,” said Jamie Ramsey, who works in the Reds‘ media relations department and writes a blog for Major League Baseball’s website. “Teams are going to realize how important it is to help sell tickets, generate revenue and keep the fan base interested and engaged.

“I think it’s still kind of new to everybody. Once teams realize how to master it and do what works for them, it’s going to keep growing and become as important as your marketing department, your sales department.”

Houlihan, 33, of Chicago, attended the first social media night at Wrigley Field on Wednesday with her boyfriend, George Hayman, and his brother, Pete. She pounced on her phone when the Cubs announced a Twitter contest, and managed to post in time to win an autographed pack of the social media-themed cards that were part of the promotion.

“I think it’s really awesome to put together events like this,” Houlihan said. “I’ve been going to social media events for several years now and I find it’s the perfect way to network because you meet people through Twitter and then you go meet them in person and it gives an entree into what they like to talk about, things that you have in common.”

The Cubs put approximately 300 special bleacher tickets on sale for the promotion and sold each one. They are planning a second social media night for September.

Kevin Saghy, a public relations and marketing specialist for the Cubs who helps run their Twitter account, said the key to generating revenue in the field is content.

“If your focus is revenue and your content reflects that, I don’t believe that’s a wise strategy … That’s not why people are there,” he said. “They’re there to converse. So we’ve taken the other approach where it’s definitely a priority for us, it’s something we track, and I can say from 2010 to last year, as we got more involved and offered better content on our platforms, we quadrupled our revenue. So we’re up about 300 percent.”

Major league teams also are finding loads of intangible benefits to their social media presence, ranging from increased brand awareness all the way down to a connection with a single customer who leaves with a positive impression.

Saghy will monitor Twitter for Cubs fans celebrating their birthday or making their first trip to Wrigley Field, then put together a bag of free goodies to place under their seat before they arrive. The Indians have a designated social media suite at Progressive Field, and team president Mark Shapiro has stopped by to visit with fans and answer questions.

Several teams hold in-game scavenger hunts that award autographed memorabilia or team apparel, and some clubs put together contests that result in upgraded tickets for their online followers.

“From a business standpoint, we use social media mainly as a way to connect with fans, give them unique access and provide a different perspective,” said Tom Garfinkel, the interim CEO of the San Diego Padres. “Obviously, it can be used to communicate promotions and sell tickets, and we do that, to a lesser extent. We try very hard to maintain an authentic voice and make sure our followers are getting value from the content we are posting _ not just being sold on something. We also use it to crowd-source ideas. It’s a living focus group.”

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