Dan Harbison turned his long-standing love of professional sports into his current position overseeing the online marketing and branding initiatives for the Portland Trail Blazers. This includes the Official Site of the Portland Trail Blazers: trailblazers.com, the first social networking site launched by a professional sports team; IAmATrailBlazersFan.com, direct email marketing, and a myriad of Web 2.0 applications including blogs and podcasts.
1) Please give me an overview of your Searchfest Presentation.
The Trail Blazers saw they had a problem, a disconnected brand. Three years ago the organization realized this problem and began to turn it around. About a year and half ago we began to really use Web 2.0 methods to connect to fans by giving them relevant information to consume and the ability to give feedback through our blogs. We continued to expand the way we presented information through RSS and Podcasts. We then began to embark on a project to become the first professional team (the NHL was the first as a league) to launch their own social network. On February 9th we launched publicly iamatrailblazersfan.com. Through these means the Trail Blazers have been able to connect, communicate and educate with the fans on the changes that been made and future changes that are desired.
2) What are the aims and objectives of the Trail Blazers foray into Social Media?
I believe that our business has always been a social one, it is just harnessing that power online and pushing the envelope on how our fans become more enthusiastic about us and therefore find it easier to spread that enthusiasm. Whether that’s through YouTUBE, MySpace, iamatrailblazersfan.com or blogs.
3) How do you communicate to people that Social Media isn’t just unsavory characters cruising MySpace?
First off, MySpace has 120 million+ users. Think about that… Over 120 million users. Think about the size of Los Angeles… How many creepy people live in LA. You get that amount of people together, there are bound to be creeps. Educating your kids about where those creeps hang out is the problem, not MySpace. When we were kids, we were told not to take candy from strangers or get into a car. Those guys hung out by playgrounds and schools. The same holds true for social networks. In the short amount of time we’ve been live, I’ve seen information spread rapidly through the social network much faster than through traditional email campaigns.
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.