Oral histories have provided evidence of an ancient hockey-like game played among the Mi'kmaq First Nation in Eastern Canada. The NHL was formed in 1917, and this year marks the 30th Anniversary of the Flames in Calgary (they originated in Atlanta). Going into the upcoming season the Flames are also considered one of the top contenders for the Stanley Cup, hockey’s championship trophy, which is largely considered the most beautiful, the most prestigious and hardest trophy to capture in all the major North American sports.
To show you a bit about what hockey is like, here’s a quick video, note the difference between professional hockey rinks with adverts on the boards, and recreational hockey without...Though it is played across the globe, hockey is firmly ingrained into the Canadian identity; ‘The Hockey Sweater’ is a story that has been shared by families and in schools for decades. Boys and girls of all sizes and backgrounds are encouraged to embrace hockey at a young age. Unfortunately the cost of playing hockey for children can be very prohibitive, but understanding hockey as a key tenant of Canadian culture is encouraged in most circles. The Canadian National Men’s Hockey team, composed entirely of NHL players, is arguably the most unifying source of pride that exists in our nation today.
Calgary as a city is no different, the team has firmly entrenched itself into the very fabric of our community. Interestingly and uniquely, the Flames hockey operations are run by an Alberta farming family, the Sutters, of who all but one of is involved in professional hockey in some capacity. The team’s general manager Darryl Sutter has enforced a mandate of pursuing primarily, but not solely, Alberta-born, and western-Canadian players. He also hired his brother as head coach, has two other brothers who work underneath him, and drafted his son into the organization.
Hockey itself is just a game, but professional sports are an experience. What we try to do at calgaryflames.com is enhance the audience’s experience, both by providing extra content, and also by giving the perception of closed proximity to the players they revere. The more content thing is easy; you can access highlights, audio/video interviews, statistics, articles, features, contests through the website. Increased content also helps with the closing of proximity, but that also happens due to the nature of the web, where fans can interact and comment back to the site. Even though my boss and I are the only ones who end up reading them, it lends to the perception of closed proximity.
What makes the Flames unique is that we are testing a newly developed social media site that will eventually be used by every team in the league. It’s called the C of Red, which is also the nickname for the collection of fans at Flames home games, as everyone is expected to show up dressed in red. What I’ll go over with you today is the unique nature of social media sites, along with how I believe they benefit professional sports organizations like the Flames.
What is Social Media?
Social media is an all-encompassing term that refers to websites that enable and enable and encourage interaction and the sharing of information and content between people online.
The Biggies:
MySpace
Youtube
The C of Red combines elements of most of these (not Twitter) into one site, where Flames fans can meet and exchange.
Web Audience = Target Audience.
Why? Because they have the money to afford a computer and internet access, meaning they have money for tickets, jerseys, etc.
And the best part is, online, the audience comes to us. We don’t compete above the fold, or accommodate TV attention spans. In order to get to us people have to click or type in our name, and that’s why we know we have them.
Social Media users = Target Audience
Why? Social media harnesses the collectivity of users as they are all linked to each other. This also allows targeted messaging to reach marginal users unobtrusively. These sites link people, and have transformed individuals from consumers of content, into self-publishers of content. Individuals are able to create, share, and access content.
Benefits of Social Media to the Flames
Social media has a number of benefits to cultural industry organizations like the Flames:
More trusted- People simply do not trust mainstream media as a reliable information source. They trust what they hear from friends and family. Social media directly messages friends and family, who can pass information on painlessly online.
Direct, Immediate to Audience- With one mouse-click, friends, followers etc. on social media sites receive your message directly. Since they’ve chosen to follow us, be our friends etc., we already know they’re interested, so we’re avoiding people who have no interest.
Messaging under our control- Rather than have to battle the columnists and TV talking heads for audience opinion and mindshare, our message, word for word, is delivered directly and immediately to our audience.
Growing, and not stopping- Not only in number of participants and users, but in the available applications. Open source software design means that anyone with the knowhow can adjust, improve, or invent new ways to use the existing social media technology. The only limits now are individual’s imaginations.
Produsage: Content production through audience use/participation.
By engaging in online activities like creating videos, blogging, message boards… users are creating content that draws in more audience who in turn create more content themselves. Social media and Web 2.0 are both built on produsage.
To the Flames, produsage has immeasurable intrinsic value in developing ethos with our audience. Acknowledging their efforts brings them closer to us; it engages and entertains them on a whole other level by making them active participants. Acknowledgement of audience efforts allows us to appear closer to the audience, community, more authentic= more trusted.
My goal with the C of Red is to merge the offline and online communities. It should be where you can get psyched with fellow fans, find out a cool place to catch the game, share your opinions and express your creativity. I want Flames fans to feel as though they’ve missed out if they didn’t participate in the online community around the games. How do you propose I begin to do that?
Note: This is the text for a presentation I made for COMS 627 - Identity and Politics in the New Media Age
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