Steps 1 and 4 (People and Technology) - Our new social media campaign #THIS must start with identifying who the various people that MLB could reach out to in order to bring more fans into ballparks during the 2015 season. By identifying the various people, we can also decide on what technology should be used within our social media site to attract and keep them involved.
As the textbook "Groundswell" states, "you need to dissect and quantify the dynamics that separate different participants ... because a strategy that treats everyone alike will spell failure - people aren't alike and won't respond in the same way". Li, Charlene, Bernoff, Josh (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies (Expanded and Revised Edition). Boston, Massachusetts: Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing (Page 40)
Following the advice given within our textbook, I think that we can identify the various types of fans:
A) Diehard fans of the game as a participating force. They follow each game of various teams, know the statistics of each team, know the players on each team and physically go to the ballpark to watch games, purchase tickets and buy merchandise. These fans are one of the core MLB groups and definitely one of the main profit centers within MLB. It is critical that we keep these fans and find a way to incorporate them into our new social media experience.
On the "Social Technographics Ladder", they would most likely be the creators, conversationalists and critics and would be attracted to our new social media because of our new available blogs, available "do-it-yourself" web pages, ability to upload video and content, post ratings and reviews of games, and ability of these fans to actually contribute articles and commentary directly to our site.
B) Fans that either listen to MLB games on the radio, watch on television or participate from a distance. They may live in an area that is physically distance from any MLB stadium and they may go to a game or two but only rarely based on their proximity. These fans may still buy merchandise but their main value to MLB is as the main audience that attracts advertisers and revenue based on number of fans watching or listening to televised games. These fans are a second core MLB group as they are another large profit center for MLB but not directly. It is critical that we keep these fans and find a way to incorporate them into our new social media experience.
On the "Social Technographics Ladder", they would most likely be spectators, but depending on their interest, habits and knowledge of the game, they may approach the participation level of our diehard fans as creators, conversationalists and critics. Their attraction to our new social media would be to feel closer to the action of the game and may also be very similar, if nor exact to our discussion concerning diehard fans.
C) Fans that simply follow the various MLB games based on their region and state. For example, fans of the Detroit Tigers simply because they live in the State of Michigan. These would be the type of fan that simply are aware of the previous game(s) and whether they won or lost, mainly as a conversation piece at the office or simply just to be aware of their legions standing. They neither watch nor listen to televised games but they do catch up on the standing in the newspaper or internet. These fans would spend very little money on the game and would definitely be a target audience as they are a huge potential market and profit center, if they can be motivated to participate. These are the main target audience for our social media expansion.
On the "Social Technographics Ladder", they would most likely be the spectators that both physically and mentally feel that they are far from the actual action of the games. They would be attracted to our new social media because they could read and view all the content that our close-by diehard fans would create, post and discuss. The goal would be for these fans to feel closer to the action through their online experience, which may develop into a desire to attend the games. Our site could also give discounts to spectators based on social media activity somehow, which may be enough to persuade them to drive the distance.
D) People that are not currently fans at all. These are people have no current interest in MLB or baseball, but may be persuaded to become fans, if the right conditions arise. These could be something major, like their local MLB team has a great season and is a contender for the World Series, which pressured people to want to be part of something great. It could also be something simple, such as a sudden new desire within their family and especially their children arise, where they want to get involved with MLB.
Social pressure causes people to join groups that they would not necessarily be a part of. Family pressure is even greater and can create a huge potential market as most parents want to do things that their children show interest in. If our new social media experience involved free games or some sort of free interaction with and for children, this might indirectly impact long-term sales of merchandise and family-targeted ticket sales.
On the "Social Technographics Ladder", they would most likely be the inactives, but hopefully the site is interaction enough that it would cause them to become joiners. They might become attracted to our site because it would allow content and material to be attached from ours to other different social media sites, such as "Facebook" and this connection may inspire them to join ours. Such joint material, such as the free children section and free games that might persuade children to become involved in baseball and MLB through the fun environment and free games, which in turn may attract their parents and other family members to become involved. It is critical that our site be very user-friendly and contain an easily found "New User" section.
Even though I love the game of baseball, one of the main problems that MLB has within the future of baseball, as a sport, is the fact that it has relatively no appeal to a large group of inactives, namely an entire generation called Millennials, who have a very small attention span and who will not sit and watch a 3-hour game of extremely slow baseball. So this social media site is critical to beginning and is our first attempt at appealing to this generational group, so that it can learn about or even begin to appreciate baseball as a sport.
Steps 2 and 3 (Objectives and Strategies) - As identified within our assignment, our main goal within MLB is to increase ticket sales and get more people into the stadiums and of course physically watching our games. To do this, we must appeal to all of the people that we have identified. Our main objective can be reached through our some of the 5 different strategies that have been identified.
Again, according to our textbook, we must do all of the following: energize our current diehard fans through giving them more ways to communicate and present ideas and blogs; keep the interest in those fans that watch, listen and follow MLB as spectators or critics; present many opportunities or situations that would attract our fans that live a good distance from our stadiums to finally attend games more often; and lastly develop new ways to connect to people and families that are not currently involved directly with MLB, specifically the new generation that uses social media as a normal daily tool.
In order to meet our primary goals, we must first use our new social media site as both a way to listen and talk to our fans. It is important to be able to directly talk to our fans but it is more critical to be able to listen objectively to our fans and their opinions and insights. This may be difficult as they may be critical and negative toward some of the things happening within MLB and baseball, but we must never stop or dilute the reality of their decisions. What our fans present as the truth is their perception, but within MLB, the perception of our fans (customers) is the truth.
We must also use our social media site to energize, support and persuade. Giving our fans new ways to follow, communicate and be a larger part of MLB is critical to move them from simple fans to super-charged enthusiasts. That is why the new site always all of our fans to create their own content, video, posts and blogs. It also allows direct interaction between different types of fans and MLB.
I do believe however, that since we are just starting with the new social media site, we are still a long way from what is called "embracing our fans", which is one of the last strategies that any company can use and is where we would allow our fans direct access to help make decisions or designing logos, etc. This step is too large of a leap forward and I believe that we must first see how our fans react to our social media first and then get and give feedback before we even try to move that step into our overall strategy and the overall process.
2) Relating to social media vernacular, terminology, and use, why do you think the hashtag #THIS was chosen as the official hashtag of the campaign? Why the word THIS?
The hashtag #THIS was used to coordinate all the new advertising and marketing that MLB was trying to put in place in 2014 and was used because their new slogan per say was "This is Baseball", hence the hashtag word #THIS.
As I mentioned earlier, I love the game of baseball but the problem that baseball, as a sport, is having is trying to appeal to a new generation, correctly called "The Millennials" and who have a much smaller attention span and only show interest in things that are quick, easy and fun. I call it the generational curse of social media, which is only presented in 6 to 10 second GIF's that loop around and around, or in Twitter interactions that must be done in less than 140 characters, or in internet searches that must be done on high-speed broadband or forget it.
Let's face it, baseball is a 19th century sport, that prided itself on long games, with 7th innings stretches and of which average 2-3 hours and in reality may continue even longer if the game ends in a tie, because they will just add extra innings forever. This is also a game with a total season that spans almost 7 months of every year. Millennials, as a generation, have very little desire to watch over 160 games in that long time period to see who the winner is. They just finished their favorite video game in 3 days and binge watched the entire series of "Lost" in 6 days.
So, baseball realized that it had to change the game, in order to appeal to this next upcoming generation, but it then has a huge problem. The older diehard fans don't want any changes to this sport because of its long tradition, whereby the newer fans expect and even demand changes to shorter the game and the season and make it more exciting and quicker.
So, why the hashtag #THIS? Probably because any hashtag that was longer or had more characters would not have been accepted by what MLB knew was their future fans, the Millennials.
3) Now that you have researched the MLB #THIS campaign, do you believe by using social media tactics the MLB organization created a groundswell to bring people into the ballparks? Why or why not? Answer in one sentence.
The #THIS campaign did help create more brand loyalty from the diehard fans and routine spectators and it also gave a voice to other fans who may now feel closer to the game, however a groundswell has not really happened yet, and that is mainly because social media gives and gets inherently quick responses and feedback, in contrast to the sport of baseball which was specifically created to be a slow leisurely activity that takes hours, weeks and months to play and of which any change to the sport would be very difficult to make happen, even with today's technology.
