Twitter

[wxjunkie]

I'm anxious to see how Twitter will be used in the sports biz world. We don't yet know what it will become, because it hasn't scaled to the proportions of Facebook or MySpace. As an example, It can be a powerful stats tool.

Or who knows it could die and be replaced by something else. Anyone have any predictions?

[Kent Jordan]

Our company, KlickSports.com, is using Twitter as a platform, in addition to Instant Messaging and mobile phones, to make live sports predictions for College Football, College Basketball and Pro Football. See our fun live Super Bowl prediction game for this weekend: http://www.klicksports.com/promo/1271.

Users simply add their Twitter account when they join, and can add their cell number and/or the IM of their choice.
The pre-game predictions you post on KlickSports.com automatically post to your Twitter feed so your Twitter followers can see what games you are playing and join in if they like.

Recent press:
Dino Herbert podcast interview: http://dinoherbert.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-01-26T15_37_54-08_00
Mobile Marketer: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/messaging/2528.html
Wireless Gaming World: http://www.wgworld.com/site/article/twitter-style-interactive-exper...
CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/28855079/
AOL Money and Finance: http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/klicksports-debuts-premi...
Yahoo Finance: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/090126/20090126005394.html?.v=1
USA Today: http://content.usatoday.com/topics/article/Events+and+Awards/Sports...
Dallas Morning News: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/dallasnews/?ndmViewId=news_...
San Jose Mercury: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/mercurynews/?ndmViewId=news...
Hollywood reporter: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/hollywoodreporter/?ndmViewI...

[Amy Martin]

I'd be happy to share the Suns social media approach and results with you. www.twitter.com/PhoenixSunsGirl

[wxjunkie]

I know the Suns use Twitter frequently, what else are you guys working on?

[Paul Nicholson]

Here's one way the teams could use Twitter - as a place for fans to interact.

http://paulnich.blogspot.com/2008/12/retweetbot-instruction-manual-...

We are still in a semi-closed beta (@reply to @pwnicholson if you want an account) but the results so far have been strong where the administrators are managing the accounts well. Twitter provides a way for live game chats to take place across SMS text (people in the seats or on the go), from smart phones, PCs, or just about anywhere. It allows people to talk about their teams and have real conversations with very large groups of people (something you can't do with #hashtags), but not have to follow every Twitter those users send.

[wxjunkie]

Because of your broader usage of Twitter, do you think a more dynamic chat-like service should be created?

[Paul Nicholson]

I think it has a great application.
Twitter has two possible uses: microblogging (1-way communication) and accessible-anywhere 2-way communication (not exactly chat, but close to it).

While i think twitter is best used as the first option, it naturally lends itself to the second option and manye people end up going there. The chat-like service that we're providing offers the ability to let people use Twitter for the second option, while not sacrificing the cleaner stream of micro-blogs in the first.

It isn't perfect, but the ability to essentially have a live game chat that people can use from anywhere (phones, PCs, etc all equally) is awesome. And with this ReTweetBot, we don't clutter up everyone's normal twitter streams (which would be REALLY annoying)

[Tom Cosentino]

I see it as a great vehicle for giving fans access to athletes during media tours, book signings, promotional appearances, etc. I years past, you would rely on media to cover an in-market promotional tour with an athlete. Now, you can still drive mainstream media but also give fans real time updates during the course of the tour. Also, there are numerous broadcast affiliates that have launched Twitter pages and are putting out requests. This allows one to directly interact with news producers as stories are being developed. Last week in making calls regarding a vnr, I had a producer on a desk at an affiliate in Wichita tell me that his supervisor would call me back after she got out of a Twitter meeting. That should tell you how media are already responding and using the service.

Tom

[Kris]

have you heard of twackle.com? It's incubated by Octagon and looks like a sports-specific app built on top of twitter. ps - our username is sponsorpitch.. come follow us!

[Tim Horton]

Interesting article in "The Times Online" in the UK about professional athletes, in this case soccer players and how they could use Twitter: http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2009/03/footballers-mis.html

Good discussion.

Tim