Internet Strategies

Internet strategies details how to dove tail traditional media/PR with Internet/PR to create community dialogue leading to a successful communications programs to garner fan support for the team, for new stadiums, etc

Internet Themes for Success

1. The Team are the People’s Team.
   
2. Stadium issues address all of the tough economic times ahead for most cities in the future, promising jobs, revenue, economic growth, pro-team quality of life for all citizens.
   
3. The best problem solving discipline is communications.
   
4. There is no Teflon, whether in the private or public sector, even for the formidable.
   
5. It is true for all: you cannot not communicate. Everything said and done is a communication.

Internet Campaign Goals for Success

1. Generate fan awareness and interest in the Team’s Season
   
2. PR campaign for Team ownership group.
   
3. Begin campaign to increase attendance or continue sell outs.
   
4. Increase number of season ticket holders
   
5. Create ticket give a way plan to generate more single game ticket sales
   
6. Begin the process to double the value of the team within four years
   
7. Begin the process to generate $200 million/year of local revenues.
   
8. Generate fan interest in Head Coach, his record, and the Team’s future.
   
9. Begin human interest stories re team members, players, coaches and owners.
   
   

Internet Strategies for Success

1. Take advantage of the INTERNET, as outlined below, with an interactive, flexibly changing web page and Email communications.
   
2. Develop email lists of all reporters, print and broadcast and cable, and, as appropriate, selected national ones (especially those with whom good relations already exist). Create buzz.
   
3. Put an auto responder on each web site for instant responses to emails, with those to actually respond to with more to be decided on a case-by-case basis.
   
4. Have explanatory paragraphs for most issues for use in selecting email responses.
   
5. Send out a short one paragraph statement every day, with reference to longer pieces on the campaign web sites, to all who subscribe the Email newsletter.
   
6. Use the 1-2-3-4 knock out punch of the Internet of reach of audience/exposure; richness of content (quantity and quality); affiliation for loyalty, and navigational control/influence (which is changing things faster than we can sometimes comprehend, so why not create a parade rather than follow someone else's), with interaction in ways that are still being explored and discovered, in order to impact positively with the fans.
   
7. Exploit the differences in communications channels by adapting to each accordingly. Develop and add to WEB LOGS, which can run on any site, and which run in reverse chronological order, including listing relevant web sites, so people can follow the team better.
   
8. Web Stream news conferences and game highlight on the web site, so media, fans, etc., can hear from the organization's key people, and talk about subjects close to their heart without having to be edited to a too short piece or edited by media where the message is considerably different from the unedited version.
   
9. The Web page can also create the "perfect" periodic, easily changeable pamphlet to reflect the Communications Strategy approach being followed at the moment, as well as enable the providing of "examples" of what may otherwise undermine and sabotage the otherwise fine relationship between the organization and the fans.
   
10. Use an intranet for the Team organization and its consultants, on which can be placed schedules, commentaries, favorable media pieces, and provide navigational links to appropriate information related to the team (see layout of www.ceoexpress.com
    
11. Have a chat room on the Internet site to discuss the team and to keep up with the debates in the community. Chat rooms are the biggest "value" AOL provides to its users, and creates it "stickiness" (return visits).
    
12. Have a designated consultant from Beacon on the Hill Sports Marketing provide input into any continuing negative thread that might appear on one of the major newspaper’s web site, in order to provide a positive response. Keep an eye out for others and respond to them as well.
    
13. Develop a FAQ list, updated regularly on the Internet site.
    
14. “Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities”: Hagel and Armstrong make the case that business success in the very near future will depend on using the Internet to build not just relationships, but communities.
    
15. “Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining A Competitive Edge”: Figallo shows the advantages businesses can gain from creating or supporting online communities, plus what types of expectations are unrealistic. He believes, for example, that creating online communities is not a reasonable way to directly boost sales or provide a highly profitable income stream. He does show, however, that it can offer major corporate advantages in the same way that good public relations or other indirect marketing activities do.

TOP