Jim Harshaw » Twitter for Coaches: Waste of Time?

Uploaded by Jim H. & Riot Staff | on Riot Sports Marketing | March 14, 2011

http://www.riotsportsmarketing.com Urban Meyer, Pete Carroll, Pat Summitt, John Calipari, Jay Paterno, are all high profile coaches in high profile sports with high-paying, high-stress jobs. They are all excellent leaders as evidenced by their having reached a high level of excellence within their respective sport. Every coach could all learn a lot by observing their actions and taking a few notes.

These coaches work insane hours and, in order to be successful, they must spend their time wisely. The last thing they need to do is to focus on social media, let alone be active on Twitter. It's a big waste of time. They work for athletic departments who have full-time marketing and promotions staff working to drive attendance, sell more tickets, connect with their fans, grow their fan base, increase value to sponsors, and bring in more money.

But...what if I told you that all of these highly successful coaches are active on Twitter? What if I told you that they see Twitter as important because they understand the value of having fans. That they understand that fans are the lifeblood of any athletic program?

"But they need the fans more than we do so that they can support their huge budgets," you say.
Are you somehow different? Do you not need more fans to support a larger budget? Is it somehow ok for you to ignore your community of followers while complaining of not having enough money to reach your goals?

If you are not convinced of the value of building your fan base through social media, learn from those who are doing your job at a very high level.

Download our free social media sports marketing Quick Start Guide to learn more about building your fan base through social media.