Episode 24 of the DSMSports Podcast w/ Brian Cheek of Postano: Snippets

Best Of... Postano's Brian Cheek
Episode 24 of the Digital and Social Media Sports
Podcast
On episode 24 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast,
Brian Cheek, Director of Business Development for Sports
with Postano discussed how teams and brands are utilizing
social media aggregation and display for fan data,
engagement, monetization, and more.
What follows are some snippets from the episode. Listen to
the full podcast on iTunes or DSMSports.net
@njh287; DSMSports.net

Podcast
Brian's career path:
Grew up in SoCal before moving to the Northwest with family and
attended Washington State University, where he earned a Hotel and
Restaurant Management degree and worked at Hilton Hotels in
Southern California before opening up an Italian restaurant, Lagos.
→ Then got into investment business with stock analysis and moved
back up to Washington with family
→ Invested in various companies, especially tech, and invested in
Tiger Logic parent company of the Postano platform
→ Went from tech product management to sales / business
development for Postano now

Podcast
“We became challenged (at first) with monetization, but we began
getting calls from brands (who wanted one)...We went from a
business-to-consumer product to more of a business-to-business
product.”
(Also notes how more social platforms were delivered and
presentation evolved over time.)
(One of our colleagues said): “I see more interesting things in my
Facebook news feed than I do on any news site.'”
Reinforces personalized news, shared by friends/family and pages
one likes.

Podcast
Postano's differentiating factor:
“We really concentrate on delivering a branded experience. We have
an innovative and talented group here and we really care about the
protection of the brand...We don't just (display) posts...we work with
brands on the look and feel and messaging.”
[Cites example of Fenway Park social media feed coalescing with the
Red Sox brand]

Podcast
“We go all the way from our design and support to our client success
team (that helps service clients and shares best practices)...We work
on our brands and teams from a full-service perspective...
We understand what it takes to service an enterprise-type client....It's
really helping brands understand everything they can do with
social.”
“You have to have a platform that is scalable...That curation
interface and the UI of your platform is really important.”

Podcast
(The great solution to combining branded and personal experiences
is) “Where the brand recognizes the importance of that user-
generated content by showing that content...whether building a
branded hub or building campaigns around user-generated content...
We are all about strengthening that bond between a team/brand and
its fans...That happens (best) having that content show up (visibly) on
the brand or website of that favorite team (or brand)...
If that bond keeps continuing to strengthen (and leveraging social
platforms is part of it) then everybody wins.”

Podcast
Helpful Tool: inPwrd –
News Aggregator + Search Enhancer + Sentiment Tracker

Podcast
“The platform can help you filter and bring in content, but, at the
end of the day, someone has to make a decision about whether that
content is something we want to associate our brand with...
Protection of the brand is key...Social is obviously very powerful with
a lot of content out there, but you have to maintain that brand
integrity and you have to have a platform that allows you to do that.”

Podcast
“At some point...all sporting venues will be equipped with WiFi...But
there are some ways you can utilize Postano even if you do not have
during the game access.”
[cites example of promoting and collecting/curating content during
tailgating]

Podcast
“Even if you can't post (during the game), you can still enthuse the
fans in the crowd with photos of people celebrating the brand (of the
team) around game day. There are certain ways of working around
(these) limitations...
Whether that photo up on the board was taken 20 minutes ago or (in
real-time), it's irrelevant...It's about rewarding the fans showing their
affinity for their team and their involvement.”

Podcast
“I think brands and teams are realizing that being creative with user-
generated content is really the key...How can you tie a campaign to
social? That is where things can get really exciting.”
[cites example of Colorado Avalanche #WhyNotUs hash tag
originating from earlier season press conference becoming central to
team social hub during playoff run]

Podcast
“By utilizing our platform throughout the season, the Avalanche
marketing team could see (from the world cloud Postano provided)
fans using the #WhyNotUs hash tag.”
(So they decided to build the campaign for the postseason around it,
including a sponsor!)

Podcast
“It was a reward to the fans to capture user-generated
content...When a brand is really creative about using user-generated
content and associating them with campaigns – that is where the
magic happens.”
“When a team or brand can combine a social hash tag concept
around a new promotion, that is really powerful because that brand
advocate, that fan feels 'We did this. They recognized it and
rewarded us.'”

Podcast
“Our ability to effectively create visualizations that include
sponsorships or sponsor logos...”
[Cites how sponsors can appear intermittently on the visualizations]

Podcast
“It's no different than selling the Kiss-Cam activation...it's another
element that the sales people have as inventory to go sell...If you look
around a concourse in an arena, they're running ads and people walk
right by them...but if you put a really cool Instagram panoramic
visualization in there, people will stand there and stare at it.
Incorporating social visualizations with sponsorships, I think, will be
a continuing trend in sports venues.”

Podcast
“From an online perspective, there is the monetization of the time on
page...Social hubs get a tremendous (amount of) time on page,
particularly if you put in (quality) content and navigation there...In
addition, we have added attribution links to our social hubs, so, when
someone is on the hub and clicks on a post, there is an action they can
take.”
[Cites example of photo of a hoodie posted by a fan that can then link
to merchandise purchase with attribution to the hub; other examples
discussed too!]

Podcast
“The ultimate is the relationship strengthens (through social
connectivity with the brands/team)...It is harder to define, but having
that social component inter-weaved throughout the entire
organization is going to ultimately pay off.”

Podcast
“In the college world, you have a lot of alumni that are not
necessarily on social platforms (and therefore missing the content)...I
can (access) the social hub and I can see all the content that team is
putting out (on social media)...
At least (one can) see the content and see it in a very visual way.
There is that value to the social hub. Not everyone that is (savvy) is
stuck...all of that content is there., aggregated and on display in a
branded way (for all to see).”
“We've never had a client give us a lot of push back (from fans) or
told us a social hub is not working for them.”

Podcast
“Our analytics that we provide are about giving that high level scent
of data on the performance of the hub...Currently, we show volume,
time on site, a geographic map, the hash tag word cloud, where
content is coming from (platform)...
We're starting to do things like showing highest brand advocates and
influencers..

Podcast
“We don't want to head down that slope of being an analytics
company.
We want to provide enough analytics where our customers realize
they are getting a return on our platform, but where we really want
to stay focused is on our creativity and our cutting-edge visualizations
and how we help brands really greater connect to their brand
loyalists and reward them in interesting ways.”

Podcast
On adding new platforms into the curation product:
“Our road map of features is really customer-driven...When we add a
feature, we want to make sure it is not a one-off feature; we want to
make sure it can be built into the platform...and be something that
could benefit all of our clients...
There is the competitive part (keeping up), but you really want to
focus on delivering things to our customers that they want.”

Podcast
Postano and mobile:
Postano has a native mobile app for iOS and Android for
management by brand managers, etc.
“All of our delivery is mobile-responsive and CSS-enabled (to keep
the presentation branded and consistent)”
[cites how you can easily drop the feed into a mobile app; Postano
does not have standalone consumer-facing app]

Podcast
Besides sports, other verticals in which Postano works:
Retail/fashion, travel/leisure, theme parks, studios, restaurants
(Brian foresees potentially big boon there), and live events space
,conferences, etc.)

Podcast
Share-able Stat:
57% of smart phone users access social media on their mobile device
during a live sports event

Podcast
The “epiphany” moment for Brian for social media aggregation:
The first time he logged in to the PostPost platform and saw the great
user experience of content delivery.
For Postano, first seeing the platform unveiled at Staples Center for
an LA Kings game and seeing fans so excite to check out the screen
and the posts being shared...
→ “That connection, that fan reward is something that really started
to get (to) me.”

Podcast
The coolest place Brian has traveled to for work while with Postano:
The MLB Fan Cave, where Postano worked with the Sports PR
Summit to display content on all the digital screens
“Every bit of detail in the Fan Cave is meticulously thought out –
from the elevators made to look like a subway to canisters of dirt
from every Major League ball park...everything about it was so on-
brand and unique.”
[Cites Fenway Park and seeing Postano posted content as a memory,
too]

Podcast
The sport or league with the most socially active fans...
Soccer: “The World Cup proves it. Year-long, Premier League fans
are massive in quantity and in activity.”

Podcast
Social Media hubs for one-off events are a fad or here to stay?
“Here to stay...A social component to major sporting events is not
going to go away...You're going to see really creative, smart people
find new ways to execute it...There is no question that type of activity
is here to stay.”
“I think it's going to become more what the data looks like, how you
can visualize it, and how creative you can be...how can you take social
data and present in a creative, digitally effective way?”
CUSTOMIZATION AND CREATIVITY ← Postano's big factors

Podcast
Best thing about living in Portland and best food in Portland:
“The best thing about living in Portland is the weirdness...you never
know what you're going to run into. The element of surprise is
fantastic.”
Best food – A Thai food truck (two trucks and a store front now)
called Nong's Food Truck, run by a young lady who also recently
gave an inspiring Ted Talk

Podcast
The next city to get an NHL team will be...
Seattle → He predicts a team will move there (as opposed to an
expansion franchise)

Podcast
If Brian had one day with the Stanley Cup...
[Notes he hopes it is with his son, who is currently a Colorado
Avalanche prospect]
“I'd love to take the Cup to Quebec, where my dad was born and
raised and started the family down the path of loving the sport of
hockey. The opportunity for my dad, myself, my son to bring the Cup
back to where it all started would be amazing.”

Podcast
Social Media All-Star to follow:
@TSNBobMcKenzie for all hockey news
@TedLeonsis (Ted's Take, Twitter and blog) for sports business,
especially in Washington DC

Podcast
Where to find Brian:
@Cheeker9 on Twitter and Instagram
@Postano on Twitter, www.postano.com with examples, info, and
company blog about how customers use the platform in creative
ways, as well as case studies

Podcast
Thanks very much to Brian Cheek for sharing his experience,
knowledge, and personality with us on the Digital and Social
Media Sports Podcast!
For more, visit www.dsmsports.net and follow me, Neil Horowitz,
on Twitter @njh287

Episode 24 of the DSMSports Podcast w/ Brian Cheek of Postano: Snippets

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Episode 24 of the DSMSports Podcast w/ Brian Cheek of Postano: Snippets