MLB Makes Opening Day 2012 a Social Media Experience
Yesterday, as the 2012 season officially began, Major League Baseball turned to various forms of social media to reach their fans, creating a social media blitz that could possibly set the precedent in the way that fans view and participate in their favorite sports from now on.
With fourteen teams taking part in the 2012 Opening Day ceremonies yesterday, MLB turned to Twitter, Tumblr, and Pintrest to get fans involved in the festivities.
In an attempt to launch their new on-line streaming service, the MLB’s official Twitter account sent out a variety of trivia questions, followed by the hashtag #MLB.TV. As followers tweeted the correct answers in response (thereby increasing MLB’s reach), they were given prizes, such as iPads and video game consoles. This brilliant marketing ploy resulted in over 57,000 responses, and had MLB.TV trending for hours, both nationally and globally. The longer it remained a trending topic, the more prizes were given away, giving baseball fans more incentive to keep it going even longer.
In addition to Twitter, the MLB set up Tumblr and Pintrest accounts for each major league baseball club. These sites include team pictures, rosters, news updates, merchandise sales, and even photos sent in by fans themselves.
Major League Baseball also sent social media correspondents to each of the ballparks, something they plan to continue throughout the season. But these aren’t your regular media guys; they will specialize in recreating the game-day expereience through social media outlets. Not only will they keep fans updated with line-ups, pre-game news, and game updates, but instead of sitting in the pressbox delivering news, they will head into the crowds to bring social media followers the true, game-day experience from the stands.
This is an absolutely brilliant marketing strategy by the MLB. They could change the way the social media game is played as it relates to sports.
They have set the bar high for their fellow sports organizations, and helped truly create a new kind of experience for their fans.
Brilliant.
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