Utilizing LinkedIn for Business Prospecting

kirk_wakefield 2015, Lead, Luxury Suites & Premium Tickets, Networking, Relate, Sell, Social Media, Tickets July 21, 2015October 31, 2018linkedin, NBA, no off-season, Nuggets, prospecting, Rockets, selling, tips 0 Comment

by Mike Dimitroff – July 2015

My sales philosophy: Better to go after the big fish than waste time fishing for minnows! Anyone can go to the local watering hole, cast a line, and catch small fish. But if LinkedIn is your fishing pole, businesses will be the big fish you are trying to catch.

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”550px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]“It’s no secret that today’s business decision makers have greater control over the buying process. Three-fourths of B2B buyers use social media to educate themselves before making purchasing decisions and twice as many use LinkedIn to research purchasing decisions than any other social network.” ~ LinkedIn.com[/dropshadowbox]

If 75% of B2B buyers do social media research prior to buying, you can bet that business professionals preparing to make a large monetary commitment will run a background check on the seller–and that’s you!

First Impressions

People buy from people they like and often decide if they like you within the first few moments of contact. What will buyers think if they look on your LinkedIn profile with no picture? A photo helps prospects put a face to the person they’re talking to and helps develop familiarity.

Your story

Provide a short background story about yourself and list your job responsibilities. I recommend listing sales accomplishments since people are more likely to buy from people who are successful at what they do. They perceive that if other people are buying from you then you must be trustworthy. These may seem like nuances, but they will help build trust with your prospective buyer and trust ultimately leads to sales.

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”350px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]”New and different methods to contact decision makers are invaluable. LinkedIn is an effective, smart tool for prospecting new companies, identifying decision makers and increasing your network. Professional salespeople will definitely increase productivity, generate qualified leads, and have a higher closing ratio when using LinkedIn.” Jesse Salazar, Manager of Season Sales, Houston Rockets[/dropshadowbox]

No Off-Season

At the Houston Rockets, our motto is, “There is no off-season!” Although some sales reps choose this time to relax and take a break, this is the perfect time to build your sales pipeline. I spend most of the off-season business prospecting.

Prospecting

Prospects can come from oil & gas magazines, billboards on your drive into work, or simply searching under the “people you may know” tab on LinkedIn. With over 500+ connections, many are within my target industries of oil & gas, construction, & law firms. When you search for a new company on LinkedIn simply type in the company name and it should pop up under the drop down menu. Once you have your company selected you can begin to filter by city.

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”350px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]“LinkedIn is an essential tool for staying connected to business professionals and a creative method to target companies. C-level executives are almost impossible to get on the phone. LinkedIn is just another way to get in front of decision makers in a competitive business environment where their time is limited to unique salespeople who they see as a resource to get them immediate results.” Rob Zuer, VP of Ticket Sales & Services, Denver Nuggets[/dropshadowbox]

Once you identify a company, contact one of the following from your search of their LinkedIn profiles: Business Development Manager, Marketing Manager or Executive Assistants to CEO. These are typically the people that either make decisions on purchasing season tickets or handle the distribution of tickets.

You make the call

Call the mainline of a company and ask directly for the person by name. I’ve seen sales reps call the mainline and use basic intro lines like this:

“Hi, this is Michael Dimitroff with the Houston Rockets. I was wondering if you could put me in contact with the person who handles season tickets purchases at your company.”

Gatekeepers are taught to screen such calls and you’ve just given them a layup! Instead, act confidently, as if you’ve already had a conversation with the person. Ask using their first names (e.g., Rob, or Rob Zuer; not Mr. Zuer) to give the sense you are familiar with them. Once the gate keeper transfers you to the direct line…now it’s time to work your magic and catch the big fish!

5 Tips For Managing in a Social Selling Environment

kirk_wakefield 2015, Lead, Sales Management, Sell, Tickets April 25, 2015October 31, 2018coaching, hustle points, linkedin, professional selling, sales management, social listening, social selling, sports sales 0 Comment

by Justin Gurney – April 2015

Does this sound familiar?

“Great job Brandon! You made 150 calls today, those will be sure to turn into sales, so keep it up.”

“Ryan, wow you set 10 appointments this week leading the way.”

“Mark, you were on the phone for 200 minutes today, way to dig in with your prospects!”

Whether you are a sales manager or sales rep, it probably does. It’s how most sales managers in sports manage. In fact, I did this same thing and even copied my CMO and VP of Sales on this e-mail every day so they could chime in and reinforce the point.

How did my top reps respond to this?

I had to write up the top performing rep in the entire company for faking calls and even fire a couple of talented ones.
One of the most talented Inside Sales reps I ever had went to Enterprise Rent-A-Car rather than accepting a promotion to Group Sales.
Rep burnout –
- What they say: “I want to manage one day.” What they mean: : “I want to manage so I don’t have to deal with these annoying Hustle Metrics.”
- What they say: “I want to ultimately get into marketing.” What they mean: “I can’t see myself doing this much longer.”
- What they don’t say: “I want to be a career sales person!”

Do you want to be a manager?

When I asked one of the top performing sales reps at Linkedin if she wants to manage one day she responded by saying…

“Absolutely NOT, who would want to deal with all that comes with managing when I can control my own paycheck, have total autonomy, and be challenged by working with different businesses every day.”

Note: This particular sales professional was recruited to Linkedin from a world of “pounding the phones” because she discovered how to use Social Selling to become more efficient.

My reaction? “WOW!”

In three years working in the NBA’s Team Marketing and Business Operations Department, meeting with hundreds of sellers at various levels, I don’t think I’ve heard one sales rep, at any level, say something like that to me.

I could site a number of different research projects that show that this kind of sales environment is BAD – regardless of the source–because we know sales rep tenure drives business growth and rep turnover costs a lot.

So how do we solve this?

There is one finding, above all, that I learned directly from a Linkedin study of 100,000 business professionals that inspired me to study and understand social selling:

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”550px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Sales professionals with a high “Social Selling Index” feel more inspired at work.[/dropshadowbox]

So, what are Linkedin managers doing differently to attract top performing sales reps that are grinding out hundreds of calls/day and turning them into inspired sales professionals?

My co-workers at TMBO and I recently took a field trip to the Linkedin office at the Empire State Building for a “Managing in a Social Selling World” training session. Here are the 5 keys to success for managers:

1. Become The Expert

Social selling is here to stay and sales managers have to master it in order to manage it. This will take time, effort, energy and intellectual curiosity. I’ve been studying this now for over a year and I learn something new every day. If we aren’t willing to to take the time to master this than #2-#5 aren’t possible.

2. Train, Train, Train

Did you know that sales reps forget 87% of sales training after a month and 70% of it within a week?[ref]Download the report from Qvidian [/ref] Once we become the expert, we must reinforce how to weave social selling into the sales process. Don’t flip a switch or pile more work on top of the 100 call minimum. Share success stories on how to build a proper profile, how to use Advanced Search, how to ask for a warm introduction or referral, how to write a proper connection request or inMail, and how to maximize groups.

3. Practice What We Preach

Be active on Linkedin. Connect with your reps’ top clients. Post sharable content. Do everything top performing reps are doing. Pull up profiles in your one-on-ones. Coach your reps on how they can use Linkedin to find a warm introduction or engage with insights. This is way better in one-on-ones than reinforcing that reps are not making enough calls.

4. Use Social Selling Index as a Primary Measurement tool

Click Here to Understand the New Formula For Calculating Social Selling Index. Caution for control freaks out there, you are going to have to learn to let go – but your reps will be more inspired and love the autonomy.

5. Reverse Pipeline Management

Rather than focusing on how many calls are made or appointments are set, first focus on sales! Sales reps gravitate to what we measure and recognize. If we continue rewarding quantity in the first stage of the sales pipeline, regardless of quality, we will continue to have high rep burnout and fake phone calls.

On the flip side, recognizing and rewarding sales performance along the pipeline, regardless of whether it was through e-mail, text, in-mail, networking events, in arena activity, etc. will lead to more inspired sales professionals. In fact, you may want to remove the term “Hustle Metrics” altogether.

4 Keys to Social Selling

kirk_wakefield 2014, Sell, Tickets October 20, 2014November 1, 2018linkedin, professional selling, prospecting, qualifying, social media, Success 0 Comment

by Tim Salier – October 2014

Social selling has become increasingly prevalent in the professional sports sales environment. For years, the concept of social media in the workplace has been associated with fears of misuse, poor time management and potential disclosure of proprietary information. However, recent trends have shown that, when used appropriately, social media can be developed into a very effective sales tool.

In discussing the concept of social selling with several members of the Spurs Sports & Entertainment sales staff, four primary steps were identified in developing an effective social selling strategy:

Develop your brand/presence on social networks such as LinkedIn
Target the “right” prospects
Engage with identified prospects
Build trust and qualify the prospects

Develop your brand

According to Allen Schlesinger, Premium Sales Manager for the Austin Spurs, developing an appropriate personal brand on social networks such as LinkedIn is critical. An appropriate personal profile on LinkedIn should be completed with updated personal information, professional affiliations, an accurate description of your role with the franchise and, most importantly, a professional profile picture.

Target the “right” prospects

Both Allen and San Antonio Spurs Premium Account Executive, Julian Dais, agreed that having a strategy to target the “right” prospects is the key to being successful with social media tools such as LinkedIn. The “right” prospect has a unique combination of (1) decision making authority, (2) some sort of connectivity or interest to basketball designated on their profile and, preferably, (3) a shared connection to help with an introduction. Both shared similar thoughts that there isn’t a “perfect” prospect, but there are multiple factors to look for in searching for the people they would like to prospect.

Engage identified prospects

After identifying the appropriate prospects, the next step in effective social selling is engaging those prospects in a way that invites further discussion. Julian and Allen commented that the initial message should include a brief introduction, a reason for reaching out to them and an invitation for further discussion, usually face to face but by phone if necessary. The initial message should be no longer than a paragraph and emphasize the invitation to meet in person for further discussion.

Build trust (and qualify)

The last step in the process is building trust and further qualifying the new prospect to insure an effective face to face meeting. The trust building and qualifying process is usually very similar to a traditional sales call. Use general fact finding questions about past interactions with the team and/or a casual e-mail conversation about mutual personal or professional contacts. After some brief two way discussion and confirmation that the prospect is qualified, a mutually agreed upon meeting location is established and the social selling process commences.

Social = Sales

Over the last couple of seasons, both Allen and Julian have emerged as two of the more effective social sellers within Spurs Sports & Entertainment as well as their respective leagues and sales categories. In fact, Allen is widely recognized at NBA League meetings for his best practice usage of LinkedIn as a sales tool. Averaging approximately ten LinkedIn generated face to face meetings each week, Allen currently ranks as the #1 New FSE revenue producer in the NBA D-League and attributes 90%+ of his new revenue generation to social selling.

Cover photo source: Mark Smiciklas

Can social media make or break interview chances?

kirk_wakefield Careers, Learn, Personal Development, Social Media April 1, 2013November 1, 2021careers, employer, employment, Facebook, interviews, jobs, linkedin, ruin, search, social media, Success, twitter 0 Comment

by Jeannette Salas – April 2013

Social Media, Networking, Common 1st Year Mistakes, and Tips for Success

Social media shows up in the most unusual places

Employers frequently search candidates on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linked In, and blogs to see what they find. Maybe they find a cute picture of your dog (Griffie, above). Or maybe other things not so cute.

Some employers may say, “What you do outside of the organization is your own business.” But, at the end of the day, employers want great company representation 24/7/365.

The best way to find out what potential employers can see is to Google yourself. How can you manage your social media and use it to your advantage? Don’t publish anything in social media you wouldn’t want your mother (or next employer) to read or see.

While running a minor league sports team, a few arena employees were tweeting opinions on our low attendance one night. Once received on others’ feeds, tweets can’t be erased. Their comments were out there for the world to see, including their boss (me), our fans and customers and most importantly, any future employers of theirs. These young employees underestimated the power of social media, almost lost their jobs and could have damaged chances for employment elsewhere.

Social media is the new extension of your resume.

In what is an already difficult job market, employers use social media to eliminate candidates, even those with great resumes. As a hiring manager, once I found candidates I wanted to interview, I first looked them up in four places: Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (images included). If anything at all gave me the sense they were unprofessional or wouldn’t represent our company well, they were eliminated immediately. While it’s cool to post fun pictures from your last vacation with your friends, think about who might see those pictures and how they may be construed.

Managing Social Media

Make sure your profile picture is appropriate. Microsoft Outlook pulls up your social media profile picture whenever an email is received directly from you. Not sure a keg stand (or any other “party” picture) would get you in for an interview. THINK PROFESSIONAL!
Beware of content in personal blogs! Everyone is subject to their own opinions BUT negative and/or inaccurate content can come back to haunt you. (See cancel culture circa 2021.)
Social media outlets allow you to reach millions of people in seconds. Use it to your advantage when searching for jobs/internships. Let friends and family members know you are looking for a position.

Networking

When it comes to sports business careers, networking is king. Like everything else in life, it always comes down to relationships.

Stay in touch. When you make a contact keep in touch. Forward your resume immediately after contact. Make contact at least every 6 months and after career achievements like graduation, obtaining a certificate [e.g., HR Cert, Sales Cert, etc], or an award.
Join professional organizations and relevant social media networking sites and groups on LinkedIn like the S3 Report, Ticket Sales & Technology, or Ticket Sales Best Practices.
- Make sure your LinkedIn profile is complete and professional in appearance.
- These are great ways to connect with professionals that may be able to help you on your career path and offer insight, as well as search for positions.
- Some groups and individuals frequently post open positions. Follow them.

Common First Year Mistakes

Mistakes entry-level employees tend to make during the first year of employment:

Lack of communication: Afraid to ask questions or for help; don’t call in when out sick; no notification of being late.
Staying out of spotlight: Make an IMPACT within the organization; get involved in committees, events, etc.; EVERYONE should know who you are or at least heard of you.
Poor networking: Get to know employees in other departments. This isn’t high school – don’t fall into a clique. Attend all company events – GREAT networking opportunity!
Not leading: Don’t be scared to pitch ideas/take lead on projects. You bring a fresh thought process to the table – voice your ideas! Volunteer to take the lead on a project to develop leadership and project management skills.
Complaining: DO NOT complain. PERIOD! Complaining is:
1. unprofessional,
2. unattractive, and
3. unpromotable. People will not want to work with you or consider you for other positions within the organization. They will think of positions for you outside the organization.
Inflexibility: Adapting to change is important. Business can change at the drop of a hat. Be open to new ways of completing tasks or approaching scenarios. Flexibility helps you grow with and within an organization and seamlessly transition into another one.

Tips for Success

Continue learning. Stay abreast with the latest in your field. Attend training, seminars, conferences, and certificate programs.
Ask for help. Not sure? Ask for clarification and guidance. Then you’ll be able to help others who don’t know.
Ask for feedback. Feedback lets you know how you are doing and where you are lacking. This is essential for professional growth and development.
Communicate. Make sure lines of communication are always clear and open.
Create Raving Fans. A customer service based fundamental: All co-workers should enjoy working with you because your product is top quality and you are great to work with. If people like working with you they are more willing to help and listen to you.
Read self-help books. Start with How to Win Friends and Influence Others and Emotional Intelligence. These are great books to help you continue growing both personally and professionally.
Look to the future. Keep moving forward. Plan your career and move towards your ultimate goal.

Reinforcement from the Houston Astros

I agree with all Jeannette points out. Two related thoughts to share:

Don’t underestimate the importance of a resume-appropriate email address. Stick with the traditional last name, first name (or some version of name). This format is simple and it works. An unprofessional address can mean the difference in a team contacting you regarding a job or passing you over for lack of professionalism.

In the interview, be sure to follow the lead of your interviewer. When you are informed at the beginning of the interview that this is going to be a quick phone screen (e.g., 10 minutes on Handshake), stick within that time frame. Everyone’s time is valuable. Sometimes you only have a short time span to sell yourself…PRACTICE THAT SKILL. It proves you can be clear, succinct and respectful of other people’s time. Consider it to be an extended elevator speech.

PS: That said, you need a 30-second elevator speech and a USP of eight words or less about who you are. Read m0re about branding you in our next article here.

~Jennifer Springs, HR, Houston Astros

What does your Twitter and LinkedIn say about your personal brand?

kirk_wakefield Careers, Personal Development, Relate, Social Media March 1, 2013November 2, 2018career, Facebook, getting started, image, linkedin, personal brand, reputation, social media, twitter 0 Comment

by Ken Troupe – March 2013

Last month we talked about the importance of laying the foundation for your personal brand. Now let’s turn to the tools of the trade to communicate your personal brand online.

Twitter

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Twitter allows for another channel of communication with your customers outside phone calls, email, direct mail, or face-to-face meetings.Secondly, it gives the opportunity to build your personal brand by

Brandon Steffek

sharing relevant and exclusive content others normally would not have access to.[/dropshadowbox]If you are not on Twitter, start today. Why? Because Twitter is the greatest customer service tool since the hand shake. A few rules and tips:

Rule #1. Twitter is a business tool. Twitter is not a place for you to give life updates on your kids, friends, and hot sports opinions…….leave that kind of stuff on Facebook (more on that later).

Rule #2. Don’t Tweet original content. At first you have no voice. You need to develop followers. How?

Get started by following people that do have something to say and start to retweet them.
Find interesting articles relevant to your job or sports business niche and retweet them.
Take part in sports business Twitter chats like #social4tixsales, #sbchat, #sportsprchat, among others.

Within these Twitter chats you can begin to develop your voice by taking part in the conversation. You are answering questions and engaging one-on-one with other sports industry pros. Too many treat Twitter as a monologue instead of a dialogue. There is a difference.

Commit to being active on Twitter. Nothing kills your personal brand faster than a Twitter account with zero activity.

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

Trent Nielsen

When I look at a Twitter or LinkedIn page for someone in the sports industry, I may have a desire to learn more about their reach. However I’m also using the page as a window into their professional conduct. If you’re looking at a page that isn’t completely built out, has basic grammatical errors or even immature content, it’s typically a direct reflection of how that person goes about day-to-day life. I gravitate towards those who take their social media branding as seriously as their resumes and direct interpersonal communication.[/dropshadowbox]LinkedIn may be the number one social media site for learning how to do your job better and proving to others you know what you are doing. LinkedIn is so big we could do an all-day seminar, but I’ll hit the highlights.

Your profile

If someone Googles your name, your LinkedIn profile shows up near the top. What does your profile say about you?

Is it complete?
A complete summary section?
List all your past jobs and a little detail of what you did?
Are you using the “skills and expertise” section?
Any recommendations?
Updated contact information?
A professional looking photo?

Groups

With your profile ready, head to the “Groups” section. Join industry specific groups like “Ticket Sales Best Practices,” “Ticket Sales & Technology,” or “Sports Marketing 2.0,” among others. Within these groups you start to build your brand.

Watch the conversations and start to take part. Avoid offering wild or opinionated comments at first. Keep early interaction pretty vanilla. Once you have a little “street cred,” spread your wings to engage and offer divergent opinions.

Career Insight

LinkedIn is a great place to seek advice from people with a job you’d like to have one day. Ask their advice. You will be surprised how open some sports industry vets are if you just ask.

Facebook

Here’s the thing about our old social media friend Facebook: Facebook is great. A great place to stay in touch with friends and family. To read and comments on all those cute kids’ photos, updates on meals, and whatever else in on their minds. I love it. But, I really don’t think it is essential part of building your “professional” personal brand.

Facebook is, however, a place to quickly undo all your personal branding efforts.

My advice? Especially for young people entering or wanting to enter this business? Keep it clean and simple. No need posting photos drunk at parties or posts using bad language. Good rule of thumb: If your mom would not approve, odds are other adults won’t either. And these other adults are hiring managers or work in human resources.

Start Now!

Developing your personal brand means so much more. But if you take just one thing away from this:

Your Personal Brand is Important!

Start developing yours today.

Establishing Your Personal Brand

kirk_wakefield Personal Development, S3, Social Media February 1, 2013November 2, 2018Chicago Cubs, core beliefs, Facebook, goal setting, linkedin, personal brand, soical media, twitter, what do you believe 3 Comments

by Ken Troupe – February 2013

What does your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook say about you?

A brand is “a type of product manufactured by a company under a particular name.” But what about your personal brand? It used to be only people like Dion Sanders, Oprah, or Martha Stewart needed to worry about their personal brands. But now, thanks or curses to social media, times have changed.

Colin Faulkner

“Whether you realize it or not, you have a personal brand. Your reputation is your brand,” points out Colin Faulkner, VP of Ticket Sales and Service for the Chicago Cubs.

Your personal brand is just a click away. A ticket sales rep in San Diego can develop a relationship with a VP of Sales in New York via LinkedIn. A marketing manager in Seattle can help develop strategic plans for a team in Florida during a Twitter chat. The ease of digital communication makes it more important than ever to manage your personal brand and what it says about you.

Merrill Dubrow, CEO and President of MARC Research, says “Before I hire anyone, I Google a candidate’s name and do research with the single goal of determining their personal brand and does it fit within our company environment.”

Merrill Dubrow

What are your core beliefs? Personal goals?

With jobs and careers riding on it, you must decide how you want your personal brand to be represented based on your core beliefs and personal goals.

1) Core Beliefs – Define and understand your core beliefs. Core beliefs include (a) how you daily approach doing your job and (b) how you want your co-workers and clients to think of you. For example, when I first started selling, one of my main objectives was to “treat people the way I wanted to be treated.” I wanted to be honest and up-front with clients. What defines you?

2) Goals – Develop goals. Put thought into where you want to go and how to get there. Everyone has been told to write down goals. Do it. It helps. If your goals aren’t important enough to write down, they’re not very important. Write them and put them someplace where you’ll see them every day.

Where you want to be in one, three, and five years is your road map to your ultimate goals. Observe and talk to mentors who’ve been where you want to go. Go to Linked-In and see the paths and timetables of others in the position you seek.

Two Things I’ve Learned Along the Way

First, set lofty goals. I think Bo Jackson may be one of the best athletes I have ever seen play. Interviewed on a late night show (remember Arsenio Hall?), Bo said he always had the goal of playing in both Major League Baseball and the NFL. As he moved up the levels he was always told it was time to pick one. He said, “Why?” His goal was to play both, so that’s what he planned on doing. And Bo knew what he was talking about. Remember you cannot achieve great things without first setting lofty goals.

Second, goal-setting doesn’t mean you’ll get from point A to B in a straight line, but having clear goals let’s you know where you are on the road. Be ready for the curves, adapt as they come, and stay focused on your end game. Remember, “a goal without a plan is just a wish.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900 – 1944)

Now that you have your core beliefs and goals down, you’re ready to work on establishing and extending your personal brand in the digital world. You can go ahead and be working ahead, but next month we’ll discuss how to set up your Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to fit your personal brand.

Special thanks to Jim Peacock for use of the Unique photo!

Using Pinterest, iTunes, and LinkedIn: How to engage fans and increase revenue

kirk_wakefield Digital Strategy, Relate, Social Media, Sponsorships February 1, 2013November 2, 2018AS Roma, creative, fans, innovative, Italy, itunes, linkedin, pinterest, social media channel 0 Comment

by Sean Walsh – February 2013

What do teams in the United States have to learn from Italy’s AS Roma?

In Europe, AS Roma became the first football club to use Pinterest. AS Roma boards include:

Iconic photography from their history
A board with images of every player
Official club videos
Individual boards for merchandise (men’s clothing, women’s clothing, children’s clothing, hats, bags, homeware – all appealing to the “fashionista” community of Pinterest)
Every cover from their official club program

The AS Roma Pinterest board is a fine example for other clubs to follow – it clearly shows they understand the channel. They understand how to use the technology to curate fan content and really get the fans involved. Most importantly, Roma recognizes fans should be included in their official club presence. The team has boards specifically for fan photography, fan videos and even a selection of amazing AS Roma themed cakes. Let’s face it, you can’t avoid cakes on Pinterest!

iTunes Player Playlists

The Italian giants rolled out iTunes playlists from first team players on their official website and can be downloaded on iTunes.

Music has always been a huge part of sports broadcasts and events, including terrace chants and anthems particularly popular in football (soccer). In recent years the image of players equipped with headphones as part of their pre-game rituals has become standard. Why not let fans tap into what their favorite players are listening to?

The latest step AS Roma has taken is harnessing LinkedIn as a way of targeting fans with more business/professional orientated careers. Within the past few weeks, AS Roma announced the launch of their new AS Roma company page on LinkedIn with a specific strategy for the channel.

We have long thought teams should adopt LinkedIn as an official social media channel: By using a shared interest in football, it creates a casual and comfortable first point of contact in which relationships are already created. We all know businesses exploit this bond between fans–just look at the number of corporate hospitality suites and tickets sold every season. The fans use LinkedIn and they clearly want to connect with other supporters, particularly those who may share business interests.

AS Roma appears to use LinkedIn as a way to market corporate-relevant products: premium seats, corporate hospitality packages and even attracting new sponsors. Most of their content revolves around new sponsorship ventures, executive season ticket offers and current corporate partners.

As football clubs look set to monetize social media in 2013, don’t be surprised if more clubs in the UK, Europe, and the US follow in a bid to market corporate hospitality and sponsorship packages to this more affluent audience.