SEO Werkt!

It’s a brave new world my friends.

There were more tweets sent in a single day during the Olympics last week than there were during the entire 17-day competition in Beijing in 2008. In 2010, during the Vancouver Winter Olympics, there were around 307,000 mentions of the term Olympics during the opening weekend of the event, as opposed to 3.5 million this time around. And we may not even be prepared for just how social the 2012 games have been — spectators during a cycling event were asked to halt all tweets unless they were “urgent” as the data hungry onlookers were interfering with GPS equipment.

It’s a truly social Olympics, the first of its kind, so where else would we turn but to the same the real-time social network that toppled a dictatorship, powered a massive American protest, and brought down the likes of Anthony Weiner. It’s Twitter’s time to shine. The communication floodgates are open, and when the entire world congregates around one city, one competition, and (in the U.S.) one broadcast network, there is to be an expected amount of sewage pouring through our social channels.

It’s the first time we can peer directly into the internal world of the Olympics, the world’s most celebrated pop-culture event, and it would seem that it’s not too pretty. Let’s just take a look at what the combination of Twitter and the Olympic Games has yielded:

The Athletes

To be fair, most of our tweeting athletes are only thanking followers and friends for being supportive, or tweeting other mundane, Olympics-giddy type things. But as it’s the first opportunity these champions have had to publicly broadcast their opinion on the Games to the entire world (whenever they want, based on whatever emotions they’re feeling at the time — which are only expected to be particularly intense), we’ve also seen quite a bit of negativity.

Racists

There are, of course, the two Olympic champions who were banned from the games for being racist jerks, the first a Greek triple-jump champion and the second a Swiss footballer.

Even if we put the racism aside, these incredibly hateful “jokes” are very upsetting to the ordinary Olympics fan, and hugely disappointing to these athlete’s respective nations. I remember watching the past few Olympics and being so inspired, so hopeful about the fact that so many countries could come together (despite wars, natural disasters, etc.) and enjoy each other through the art of sports. That optimism is easily broken by talk like this. Sure, shit-talking (laced with racist hate) likely occurred in earlier Olympics, but viewers weren’t subjected to it. Good times.

A Big Brat

Possibly more pathetic, some of our champions are complaining about the quality of sports analysis on their games. Specifically, Hope Solo (the U.S. women’s soccer goalkeeper) went on a rant via Twitter, blasting former player (and hero — remember that shoot out in the 1999 World Cup) and commentator Brandi Chastain.

Lay off commentating about defending and gking until you get more educated @brandichastain the game has changed from a decade ago. #fb

— Hope Solo (@hopesolo) July 28, 2012

Why stoop so low, Hope Solo? Granted, Twitter is built to broadcast your opinions. Everyone should be able to say what they feel — it’s a free country. But this isn’t necessarily a morale-builder for the team or their following. I played team sports for 15 years, competitively from the age of 10, and one of the first things you’re taught is that the team comes first. This rant, even from one player, becomes a representation of the entire team. By complaining like a brat on Twitter, in the middle of the tournament no less, it becomes that much harder to be a supportive fan.

It makes me wonder, why is Hope Solo even listening to Chastain’s commentary? She should be watching the game tape and getting feedback from coaches and teammates. The fact that she’s Tivo-ing (or whatever) the NBC broadcasts to hear what commentators are saying about her is unattractive at best and downright egotistical at worst.

Brandi Chastain, classy as ever, did not rip off her shirt and beat her chest. She simply responded with the following:

My only comment is I am in London to cover women’s soccer for NBC in an honest and objective fashion, and that is what I have done, and will continue to do for the rest of the tournament.

At least we can be proud of our announcers.

Protests

Still disenchanting, but not at all unwarranted, athletes are also enjoying a bit of a protest on Twitter. The Olympics bans athletes from talking about their sponsors via social media until three days after the Games, unless of course they’re sponsored by one of the official partners.

Plenty of athletes, especially track and field stars, are using Twitter to vent their frustration with Rule 40.

I am honored to be an Olympian, but #WeDemandChange2012 #Rule40@nbcolympics

— Sanya Richards-Ross (@SanyaRichiRoss) July 29, 2012

Dozens of other athletes tweeted the same exact message during the course of these games. Dawn Harper took it a step further:

Goodnight World… Can anyone guess what’ll be in my dreams. #Rule40 twitter.com/DHarp100mH/sta…

— Dawn Harper (@DHarp100mH) July 30, 2012

Both sides have a point. As much as we’d all like this to be a Kumbaya, World Peace, love-fest, the fact the of the matter is that the Olympic Games are a cash cow for a lot of advertisers. When you pay a great deal of money for exclusive advertising rights, as Adidas, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Visa, and Ralph Lauren have done, it would seem unfair if other brands were promoted directly by the athletes for free.

At the same time, these athletes are not only fed and housed by their sponsors, they actually believe that their brand helps them perform at their best. As role models to many aspiring athletes, they want to share their wisdom and expertise when it comes to gear. And on their personal Twitter, it makes sense that they should be able to.

In either case, it’s not exactly magical to watch the business of this play out during the Games, as much as I believe that this is an issue that needs to be hammered out.

The Viewers

The Games have also drastically changed for many viewers. Yes, the key demographic of soccer moms is unaffected by Twitter (aside from the Twitter fails that were publicly televised and reported). But this is only the beginning of a massive shift. Look how many moms are on Facebook; as time goes on the younger generations carry this technology further and further into the future.

Guy Adams

Let’s start with Mr. Adams. You likely all know the story by now, so I won’t get too in-depth. But a journalist, Guy Adams, had his Twitter account suspended after joining multitudes of other Spectweeters in criticizing NBC for saving popular events for prime time hours. Drama commenced as Twitter first disclosed that NBC had sent in a complaint about Adams “publicizing” an exec’s email address, and then NBC mentioned that Twitter actually notified NBC of the “offense” before any complaint was filed.

Of course, the inevitable backlash ensued: Free speech! Twitter sucks! You get the gist. (No worries, by the way, Guy Adams is alive and well on Twitter once again.)

There are two sides of the argument, both understanding what Twitter did and abhorring it, but there’s no reason to delve into that. The point is that, no matter how delightfully dramatic, it was equally disheartening (if not moreso).

#NBCFail

The Olympics are about moments. Incredible moments: Michael Phelps winning by 1/100th of a second in 2008, or him becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time, or Jordyn Weiber nailing her floor routine in the women’s all-around, securing a gold for the U.S. We join Visa’s “global cheer” in these moments, and live in them together.

But for the first time, we’re aware of the fact that these magic moments aren’t live. We aren’t in the moment, just watching them. NBC tweets out the results of events before airing them, or we hear about it from other tweeters. And sometimes, NBC blatantly tells you who won the event just before airing it, on the TV, as if this won’t ruin it for us. The network has done this since forever, but only now, with real-time social networking, do we hate it so much.

Combine that with the inability to share anything via social networks, flawlessly streamed ads via the app with mediocre streaming of events, and generally non-existent coverage of some of this Olympics’ biggest moments, and you get one of the most popular hashtags of the whole event, #NBCFail:

Watching Olympics.Commentator:”it’s all upper and lower body”. What else is there?#nbcfail

— Kathy Reichs (@KathyReichs) August 3, 2012

Al Roker just spoiled today’s weather for me! DOES NBC HAVE NO SHAME??? #NBCFail

— Jeremy Bingaman (@iowaradioguy) August 1, 2012

Ryan Seacrest is the high fructose corn syrup of TV journalism.Ubiquitous and without any apparent benefit.#NbcFail

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) August 1, 2012

.@tivo asked if I’d like to add more time to recording @london2012, because it’s LIVE. (Silly TiVo, NBC olympics isn’t live!) #NBCfail

— Brian Burch (@brianburch) August 1, 2012

Dear @nbc: the ratings are good because you have monopolized our access to the #olympics.NOT because your coverage is good.#nbcfail

— Michele (@SiMichele) August 8, 2012

Dear United Kingdom, You can be our colonial masters again if you bring @bbc #Olympics coverage with you. Love, America #NBCfail

— notLikeNormalPeople (@notlikenormal) August 2, 2012

Threats

Tom Daley is a British diver who got fourth in men’s synchronized diving. His father passed away last year, and he has said publicly that he’s competing for himself, his dad, and his country. @Rileyy_69 is some punk teenager in the UK who sent him this tweet after the loss:

After giving it my all…you get idiot’s sending me this…RT @rileyy_69: @tomdaley1994 you let your dad down i hope you know that

— Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994) July 30, 2012

But then it got worse:

@tomdaley1994 sit your ass back down tommy and don’t get on a diving board again my little brother could do better absolute waste of space

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

@tomdaley1994 hope your crying now you should be why can’t you evenproduce for your country your just a diver anyway a over hyped prick

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

Shortly thereafter, this Riley kid turned on the news, and realized everyone in the world hated him, so he started apologizing.

@tomdaley1994 I’m sorry mate i just wanted you to win cause its the olympics I’m just annoyed we didn’t win I’m sorry tom accept my apology

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

@tomdaley1994 please i don’t want to be hated I’m just sorry you didn’t win i was rooting for you pal to do britain all proud just so upset

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

@tomdaley1994 to be really honest tommy i wish i had a talent like you and that’s the reason why I’m jealous just sorry again #TeamDaley

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

And then, the kid lost it:

@tomdaley1994 i hope you lose on the individual event aswell because your shit

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

@theroycropper tell me where you live you cripple i’ll knock you out with norris and sniff emily’s gash all night long say something

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

@_ollyriley come on then you cunt i’ll stick a knife down your fuckin throat now comeback and stop hiding from me

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

While basking in the glow of his 15 minutes of fame:

how am i trending worldwide?

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

I’ve got 34,000 followers retweet that and if you match it I’ll leave for good

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

I’m in the fucking newspapers omfg

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

Then he got arrested:

I’m going to the fucking police station now to sort this i will be back

— ?I??Y J??I?? (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012

I’m all for Twitter and social networks and the general progression of humankind into the digital era. As I mentioned before, Twitter is far more of an asset to us than a problem. But during the Olympics, a time when we can forget what a pile of rubbish this world is and enjoy an international showcase of the world’s greatest athletic talent, 140 characters can really put a damper on things.

Increasingly, it’s becoming a necessity for people to watch their favorite sports beyond the confines of a traditional TV set, which is why this year’s Wimbledon tournament is doing just that for its championship matches with the help of Ooyala.

Today the company announced a partnership with The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and The Championships at Wimbledon to bring the popular tennis event to a variety of platforms, including web browsers, iOS and Android devices. On each day of the event Ooyala will deliver on-demand video highlights from matches, exclusive interviews, special features, and more. The company also powers online video for Tennis Australia as well as live video streams of the Australian Open.

Ooyala hosts promotional and brand-focused videos that can be monetized and tracked using the company’s analytics tools. The company also works with television providers to put broadcast shows on the web through its digital TV solutions. It’s also been quite busy over the last few weeks. Ooyala closed a $35 million late stage funding round last week. It also debuted its Chartbeat-like real-time video analytics tools.

Founded by former Googlers, the company is based in Mountain View, Calif., and has raised a disclosed $79 million in funding to date.

Photo via Wimbledon

Filed under: media, mobile

Gotta hand it to Laura for picking up on my intrigue.

She and the kids surprised me with a trip to Medieval Times for a Fathers Day dinner and joust.

How could this not be a blast?…

Surrender to an age of bravery and honor and witness epic battles of steel and steed. From ringside seats, discover a feast of the eyes and appetite with more action, more fun & more excitement than ever before. As you thrill to a rousing live jousting tournament, marvel at awe-inspiring horsemanship and falconry, Medieval Times serves a four-course meal fit for royalty…Our Knights’ dazzling displays of skill and athleticism demand the same respect as any on-field heroics as nearby Giants Stadium.

First, we crossed the George Washington Bridge “way over yonder” to Lyndhurst, New Jersey, to arrive at a big boxy white castle. It stood proudly in a light industrial area adjacent a big parking lot for all the attendees.

We arrived early to take advantage of preferential seating in the ring. Like a trip to Disney World, we witnessed the parking lot fill rapidly with a high density of older-model minivans and families from all walks of life.

We then were greeted in the parking lot by a cast of about 20 Medieval Times actors and staff, who escorted us inside to pick up our paper crowns, whose colors corresponded to the knights we were to cheer on during the dinner joust. I absolutely loved how all the servants addressed me as “my Lord”.

In the entrance hall, there were all sorts of attractions where you could easily drop hundreds of dollars — pretend medieval weapons, costumes, face painting, novelty photo-booths, dragon and knight figurines, crystal balls, a dungeon museum of “authentic torture devices”, and bars at every corner.

A few Coors Lights later — plus a daiquiri for Laura, a knight costume for Julian and a princess figurine for Celeste — we entered the ring for dinner and the tournament.

The knights battled it out on horses and with swords, while we feasted on tomato soup, garlic bread saucers, baked half-chickens, pork ribs, baked potatoes, apple pastry and Diet Pepsi.

Our assigned “Blue Knight” turned out to be a loser. He broke down in almost every challenge and was carried out early. It reminded me of the WWE, when the script simply calls for your hero to stumble and fail without reason.

Anyway, it was an awesome Fathers Day gift — a fun, odd and very middle-American experience.

That’s my kind of day.

Three weeks, 16 teams and millions of fanatics; that’s Euro 2012 in a nutshell. And with media and commercial rights making up over 80 percent of UEFA’s €1.3 billion tournament earnings, the stakes are as high for sponsors as they are for the teams.

And we’re not just talking about the digital signage lining the pitch. Here are two brands that have found creative ways to get noticed.

Paddy Power “Vuvuzela Truck”

Thought Euro 2012 would be free from the eardrum-shattering instrument from hell? Not so. Turns out the Irish love the vuvuzela!

At least that’s what Ireland’s biggest online gambling company, Paddy Power Poker is betting on. The campaign involves driving a truck across Europe with a giant vuvuzela strapped to the roof, in a playful response to UEFA’s decision to ban the much-maligned noisemaker from the tournament.

Who, you might ask, was behind such a crafty prank? As the ad reveals, it came from a fan on their Facebook Page.

But it’s not the ad that’s given the domestic brand international notoriety. In an ambush marketing stunt, the brand was emblazoned on a pair of skivvies worn by Danish player Nicklas Bendtner, who showed them off after scoring against Portugal.

Paddy Power Poker wins points for creativity, but such antics have consequences.  Because the brand isn’t an official sponsor, Bendtner faces disciplinary action by UEFA, the tournament’s governing body.

Nike’s “My Time is Now”

Perhaps no other brand has consistently produced quality star-studded ads that capture the passion and sense of play that the beautiful game is famous for. This year’s Nike Euro ad is no exception.

Combining the sports’ biggest stars (Mesut Ozil, Cristiano Ronaldo, Andres Iniesta, among others) with a massive budget, this sprawling 3 minute spot has garnered more than 17 million YouTube views in less than a month.

The ad is reminiscent of Nike’s equally epic World Cup 2010 ad, “Write the Future.”

But the Euro 2012 ad takes the content to another level.

When watching the video on YouTube, viewers can click a link to “find the hidden tunnels” in the film they may have missed the first time. What’s more, the Easter egg hunt is framed as a contest, which makes the content even stickier.

Adding a final dimension to the campaign, Nike uses the ad as a platform to popularize “The Chance” – a global contest that aims to find the next generation of young players.

Grantoo provides an online gaming platform where students can complete games and are rewarded with educational grants or donations to a charity of their choice, sponsored by brands. Recognizing that many students use the world of gaming as a release from academic pressures, Grantoo founders Dimitri Sillam and Mikhael Naayem wanted to put this relaxation time to good use. Previously, Dimitri studied Economics and Business Administration at Brandeis University, and Negotiation and Strategy at Harvard University. He also founded Oriental People.com, an online dating website geared towards Middle Easterners which he later sold having acquired over two million users, and Lazeo, a laser hair-removal business.

Grantoo is brand new, with their website still in beta testing and the first tournament hosted at the beginning of this month. We caught up with Dimitri to find out how he was finding the initial stages of launching the business.

1. Where did the idea for Grantoo come from?

The idea for a social gaming website that helps students with their tuition bills goes back to 2007. I was a student at Brandeis University when most on-line poker gambling sites were shut down in the US. A lot of my classmates had been playing a lot of poker, for better or for worse, and there was a demand for a similar, legal product. I got to thinking that the hours students spent on gambling sites might be better channeled into something positive and productive. When I ran the idea past a friend of mine, he told me that the money should also go toward charities. He was worried that a whole generation of college students were coming of age in hard financial times, and so they weren’t developing good charitable habits. If a student shares her prize with a charity, she is going to feel a connection to that charity, and to the company that sponsored the tournament. Some day, our users will graduate and become working adults, and we hope to instill in them the idea that all of us can do good.

2. Have you experienced any difficulty gaining endorsement for a model that awards grants for gaming, rather than academic, prowess?

None. We just finished up the NCAA basketball tournaments in this country. Most of the Division I basketball players get tuition assistance for their gaming prowess. We’re making that model accessible to far more students.

3. Can you describe a typical working day?

Every day is different. Grantoo is a hugely ambitious concept. It’s easily the biggest, coolest challenge I’ve ever taken on. We have developers in Switzerland and Russia, so I’m up early to talk to them about coding issues. Our business team is in New York, so I spent some time each day making sure she has what she needs when she rounds up sponsors for our upcoming game tournaments. And then I come to work in San Francisco, where we do the design, sales, strategic partnerships, and marketing. There are startups out there who are trying to do an app. We’re trying to launch a gaming company, a social network, and a revolutionary advertising platform. We’re trying to change people’s minds about brands, charities, and computer games.

4. How do you unwind or relax when you’re not working on Grantoo?

If I ever do, I’ll let you know! Seriously though, I got married this winter and my wife, Caroline, keeps me centered and calm.

5. What’s the secret ingredient to success as an entrepreneur?

Believing in something beyond dollars and cents. This weekend, our tournaments raised enough donations for Partners in Health to have them vaccinate 80 people against cholera in Haiti.

6. What drove you crazy when building your business?

A lot of people saw the poker cards and just decided that we were secretly a casino. We accept no money, ever, from our players. You could play Grantoo games 24/7 and it wouldn’t cost you a cent. But some people see a poker deck and they refuse to see anything beyond it.

7. What motivates you to keep going?

There’s that old cliche about “doing well by doing good,” but it’s true. We know that our focus on helping students and charities will keep us moving in the right direction as a company.

8. If you were to start again, what would you do differently?

I’d have caught up on my sleep! I miss it.

9. Where do you see your business in five years, and how will you get there?

Grantoo will be on all major college and university campuses starting in May. In five years, we want to be a major source of donations and scholarship aid. Next semester, we’re also going to roll out coupons and in-game rewards for local businesses. College towns are the last bastion of so many great, quirky, Mom and Pop stores. We want to offer them marketing solutions that let them reach out to college students while giving back to that same community.

10. If you weren’t working on Grantoo, what would you be doing?

Sleeping, eating, calling home more regularly… Seriously, though, I’m in my element. This is my third startup; I deferred college for a year when I was 18 to start my first company: the first major internet dating site for the Middle East and North Africa. After college, I started another company, Lazeo. The rigor of those environments informs everything I bring to Grantoo. I’m really grateful to have had those experiences. Grantoo would be far too ambitious for a first-timer.

11. Tell Springwise a secret…

I staked Grantoo with money I got from that second start-up, a laser hair-removal business. People laugh, but it’s what got me here to pursue my dream!

12. Any final words for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Want it, work for it, but want it for something beyond yourself. Because there will be dark moments when you personally don’t want it anymore. Those are the moments when your friends and your causes carry you. Some of my employees have been my friends since we were teenagers. No matter how hard it gets, there’s no way I’m going to let them down, and I know they feel the same way about me.

Thanks Dimitri!

You can read more about Grantoo in our article here or visit the Grantoo website here.

King.com is launching its Candy Crush Saga game on Facebook today as part of its bid to capitalize on the shift in audience tastes toward increasingly casual games. Since debuting its first social network game last fall, King.com has become the fourth-largest game publisher on Facebook.

In the past, social network players have been in love with Zynga’s simulation games such as FarmVille and CityVille. While those games appeal to casual audiences, they often consume an increasingly large amount of time as players create their dream cities or farms. King.com, on the other hand, has launched six Saga games that are appealing because they can be played in a minute or two. The trend is so strong that now King.com’s Facebook gamers are playing 2.5 billion matches a month. A year ago, that was just 300 million matches a month on King.com’s web site.

The Candy Crush Saga is a “match 3″ game like PopCap’s Bejeweled, where you line up three matching colored jewels within a larger patchwork puzzle. In that sense, the game competes with rival Wooga’s top game, Diamond Dash. King.com has 36.7 million monthly active users on Facebook, making it the fourth-largest on Facebook. But in daily active users, King.com has just edged out Electronic Arts with 9.44 million daily active users, compared to EA’s 9.40 daily active users. That makes King.com the third-largest game maker on Facebook in daily active users. That is a big change from a year ago, when King.com wasn’t even on Facebook.

Both King.com and Berlin-based Wooga are out to prove that Zynga does not in fact own the entire market on Facebook and that the market is in fact a lot more competitive than others would have you believe.They are both jumping on the casual trend. Back in January 2010, there were no casual game titles (where game play was focused on a minute or so) on Facebook’s top ten list. In January 2011, there was one title. And in January 2012, there were five titles, said Alex Dale, chief marketing officer at King.com, in an interview with GamesBeat.

Founded in 2003, King.com has had big advantages because it has had long experience running its own casual games web site. Only recently has it adapted its strategy to cross over from the web to Facebook. It started last September with the launch of Bubble Witch Saga, King.com’s most popular web site casual game. Now King.com has a total of eight games on Facebook, and each game is generating more usage through strong cross-promotion, Dale said.

Compared to Wooga, London-based King.com’s business model is a lot different. At its main web site, King.com has tournament games where players put some real money down to enter tournaments. Its games monetize through both the tournament fees and through advertising, whereas Wooga’s games monetize mainly through virtual goods sales, said Dale. King.com also monetizes through virtual goods sales, so it has more ways to make money.

“Our engagement numbers are high in both the U.S. and Europe,” Dale said. “We’re very bullish on Facebook.”

Riccardo Zacconi, chief executive of King.com, said in an interview with GamesBeat earlier this year that the company’s rollout on Facebook has been slow and deliberate. Now Zacconi is rolling out more and more of King.com’s 150 titles and in the past nine months, King.com has doubled its work force to more than 200 people. It is hiring more than 100 people this year and will likely expand to mobile as well. It has already expanded to Google+.

“We had a disadvantage at the beginning because we had to figure out Facebook,” Zacconi said. “But now we understand it and we can bring our assets from 150 games in eight languages to bear.”

Candy Crush Saga is a candy-themed match-3 switcher game and one of King.com’s most popular to date. The game has 65 levels and provides several modes for gamers to test their skills against time, limited moves, collecting objects and removing jellies. Your goal is to help Mr. Toffee and his daughter Tiffi to travel the world, meet fun characters, and get around “blockers.”

King.com recently expanded to Google+. Zacconi will speak at our upcoming GamesBeat 2012 conference in a case study on a crossover strategy, or moving from the web to Facebook.

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your early-bird tickets here.

Filed under: games, social, VentureBeat

I recently met an owner of retail stores in the Greater Boston area. Having successfully implemented social networks and mobile platforms for her stores, I asked if she planned to create an Instagram account for the brand.

She said that she’d considered it then asked, “Why should I?” My initial response was “Why not?” When she couldn’t immediately answer, I seized the opportunity and outlined why it made sense for her to try out Instagram.

The reasons to consider trying Instagram are the same reasons to consider trying almost any shiny new social media platform that emerges. Here are a few reasons for exploring new platforms.

1. Just because

Each business is as different as its audience is. Discovering which platform (be it Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, or Foursquare) best lets a company or brand speak to its target demographic is a process of trial and error. That shiny new platform you keep reading about—and secretly keep hoping is a flash in the pan—just might be incredibly beneficial. So, why rob yourself of an opportunity to improve your business’s bottom line? Put another way: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

2. Not everything worth using requires a lot of your time

As you read this, you may be asking yourself where you will find the time to explore these new platforms—especially when you’re already spread too thin. One of the biggest obstacles I face in convincing clients to adopt new platforms or channels is time, which is in short supply for most small businesses. A business’s primary social networks (Twitter and Facebook) bring with them weighty and time-consuming expectations regarding the frequency of posts and immediacy of response.

I have good news for you: Many other popular platforms don’t require heavy demands on your time. Consider Instagram, the enormously popular photo-sharing app, which has more than 27 million registered users. Instagram requires very little time, yet it can be an effective marketing tool. Similarly, Pinterest can be managed without a significant time investment.

3. Cut through the clutter

Your customers are overwhelmed with a ridiculous amount of messages every day. Even your biggest supporters, who follow you across various channels, can miss an update due to the tidal wave of communication crashing upon them daily.

People don’t follow a huge number of accounts on new networks, however, so it’s easier to have your message heard on them. Some folks say your approach to social media interactions should be like how you’d act at a dinner party. If that’s so, then adopting newer platforms is like taking a break from the oversized dinner party—where everyone is shouting over each other—and making an appearance at a smaller gathering, where each guest can be heard.

4. Tell your story in a different fashion

Sometimes, forms of communication can lose their effectiveness over time. An audience (even an engaged one) can grow too accustomed—and immune—to your regular updates.

Awareness may not necessarily be the issue. Instead, catching your target audience by surprise and showing them something unexpected can effectively reach them. I’ll give you an example from personal experience. Although I’m a hockey fan living in Boston and had received countless notifications about the annual Beanpot tournament through various channels, I didn’t take action. Shortly before the Beanpot, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and saw the following picture from the TD Garden account (the host of the tournament).

The picture made me stop and look closely at it. The photo was outside my expectations about messages regarding the tournament, and it compelled me to take action.

Though the adoption of a new platform won’t always be the driving force behind moving the needle in your social media efforts, a new platform lets you speak to your customers in a  new way, which may resonate strongly with them.

Remember, however, to maintain a consistent message. You have the opportunity to tell your story in a different fashion, but be sure that the story remains the same.

5. Fish in a different pond

Don’t assume that active users of one social network are also users of another channel. Some folks prefer one network over others. So, while you may successfully engage with prospective and existing customers on Facebook or Twitter, you may be leaving money on the table elsewhere. Don’t be afraid to take your fishing rod to a different location. You might be surprised by what you’ll catch by using the same bait that left you empty-handed on another network the day before.

Just the other day, I was doing research on behalf of a food brand and discovered that its biggest advocate had posted dozens of pictures of the company’s products and talked about them a great deal on Instagram. We sent the fan a box of free samples as thanks for being such a great customer and promoting the product. He shared a picture of the package, which drew the attention of his many followers, who became interested in learning where they could order some of their own. We began interacting once I created the brand’s Instagram account. Then I asked the fan for his Twitter handle to acknowledge his efforts. He informed me that he didn’t use Twitter. This is just one example that illustrates the potential for missed opportunities should you choose to ignore the shiny new platforms.

To be clear, I’m by no means advocating that you adopt every new platform. I’m merely suggesting that you take a closer look at emerging platforms rather than summarily dismissing them. Social media-savvy businesses should always strive to establish a presence wherever their customers can be found and speak to them in the language of their preferred platforms.

(Photo courtesy of Bigstock: Online Chatting)

Eileen Burbidge (@eileentso) is a partner at Passion Capital, a premier early-stage venture capital fund in London. She was formerly the investment director for Ambient Sound Investments and a products director at Skype and Yahoo! after 10 years in Silicon Valley in roles at Sun, Apple, Openwave and PalmSource. She has also created an online petition calling on IBM and Ms. Rometty to pull their sponsorship of the Masters here.

People like to kick up a fuss about sexism in tech and how this contributes to a lack of women in the field, whether that’s through badly promoted “perks” at hackathons, over-abundance of alcohol at events or scantily clad women in promo videos, etc.

But do you want to know why there’s sexism in tech? Because it comes from society at large, and even at the very top, we allow it to happen.

Traditionally, the Augusta National Golf Club has bestowed honorary green jackets representing membership to the club upon the CEOs of its three main television sponsors for the U.S. Masters – except for this year. Virginia Rometty is the current CEO of IBM, and so far has not been given membership – like every other CEO before her, solely because she is a woman.

I appreciate that as a private club it has a prerogative to decide, and am certain that I wouldn’t be able to influence a clearly outdated organization to change its views.

But I would have expected more from IBM — and of us as a tech community to declare this as unacceptable.

So the following thoughts are not directed at the board of Augusta National. These thoughts are directed at Ms. Rometty, chief executive of IBM. I ask simply in an open letter “Why have you not pulled your company’s sponsorship?” And more specifically “Why do you allow them to disrespect you in this way?”

IBM is one of the grandest and most established tech companies in history. Founded more than 100 years ago, as of December 2011 it was the third largest publicly traded tech company in the world by market cap.

It counts more than 400,000 employees worldwide in over 170 countries, has 10 research labs, and among other things invented the ATM (cash point), the floppy disk and hard disk drive.

Its history is full of achievements as a progressive employer and leadership in worker equality. It started offering training classes for female systems services professionals in 1935. It hired its first black salesman in 1946 – 18 years before the Civil Rights Act. Its first equal opportunity employment policy letter was released in 1952 – one year before the US Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1953 when negotiating to open two factories in southern States, then company President Thomas Watson openly established that IBM would absolutely not have segregated workforces, against those governors’ wishes.

It was also the only tech company in 2004 to be ranked in Working Mother Magazine’s Top 10 places to work, and provides same-sex partners with health benefits of employees which is partly why the Human Rights Campaign has scored it 100 percent on its index of gay-friendliness since 2003. Two of its thirteen board members are women (which is a better proportion than Apple and obviously Facebook with zero).

So why does it continue to sponsor a golf tournament held at a private club which does not allow female membership? Why is it sponsoring this year’s tournament when, in contrast to IBM CEOs before her who have been awarded honorary membership, Ms. Rometty is not receiving the same respect and courtesy due to her gender alone?

Date: April 7, 2012
Subject: Why do you permit Augusta National Golf Club to disrespect you?

Dear Ms. Rometty,

Even though I have not had the pleasure of even meeting you, I was pleased when you were appointed CEO in January – expressly because your predecessor and still Chairman Sam Palmisano established that this was because you “earned it; zero to do with any progressive social policies” which is fantastic. I was pleased to see it established that you earned your new position and were given the recognition for your contributions to the company – and expressly not hindered because of your gender. I don’t believe myself to have ever been hindered by my gender in my career, and I’d like there to be more public examples of this.

With all of this and the fact that I have a great deal of respect for you established, I simply want to ask you why you and your company continue to sponsor the U.S. Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Country Club.

In addition to your company’s tremendous history of leadership in establishing gender and social equality in its workforce, your appointment as CEO continued to demonstrate IBM as a merit-led corporation. However, your company’s sponsorship of this tournament – and refusal to comment publicly on its membership policies is disappointing. Your silence is deafening.

It suggests that you feel the commercial benefits of sponsoring this tournament outweigh the matters gender equality and self-respect. Even if you “don’t care much” about golf personally (it has been reported that you do occasionally play), the fact that you will be the first in a long string of IBM CEOs to not be awarded an honorary membership – strictly due to your gender – and are seemingly OK with this, is deflating.

I suspect one reason you have achieved a lot throughout your career and will continue to do so is because you speak your mind and follow your convictions. I can also appreciate that you don’t need to do anything for the “women in tech” cause, for other women, or just to be a role model. You should obviously do things firstly for yourself or your shareholders, and to that end, I can also imagine that you may not see it as a part of your corporate responsibility to deal with matters that do not have direct impact on shareholder and employee value. I would like to point out that this does. Your shareholders – and surely at least 50% of your workforce (if not more) would welcome your statement on the situation, even an implicit one made by choosing not to sponsor this tournament any longer, and to instead focus your company’s resources and marketing budget on other events.

I humbly submit that you should take a stand for what your company represents and how it represents itself. By being one of three major television sponsors, you endorse this tournament, its host venue and its current membership policies – along with its snub to you personally and professionally. I wish you would make a statement and clarify your own views about this.

I put to you a question that was asked of Augusta National’s chairman Billy Payne: What do you say to your granddaughters? And extend that to: What are you saying to your female employees? Beyond those groups, what do you say to your sons or grandsons when they ask why you didn’t say anything?

Unlike other IBM and major CEOs before you there is no indication that you will be granted honorary membership at Augusta National – on the sole basis of being a woman. Out of respect for yourself, women like you, women like me, women who work in your organization, and men and women to come, please establish that this is no longer acceptable in 2012.

Respectfully yours,
Eileen Burbidge

April traditionally marks the start of the summer sporting season in the northern hemisphere: cricket in England, the Masters Golf tournament in the US, the Paris-Roubaix cycling race. Now that so many sports operate all year, the excitement of a new season risks being lost.

The burden of constant competition takes its toll on athletes too. Rafael Nadal had to withdraw from a semi-final match in Miami last week due to injury; England cricketer Stuart Broad may miss the next match in Sri Lanka; and Tiger Woods pulled out of a tournament two weeks ago. All of them want to make sure they are fit for high profile events coming up in the next few weeks.

There are significant debates going on in several sports between competing interest groups about how to manage the calendar (see, for example, FIFA trying to force clubs to release footballers for Olympic competition; Nadal resigning from the ATP players’ council due to lack of agreement in changing the ranking system to give players more flexibility in their schedules; and proposals to establish a multi-sport European Games). The federations and leagues in each sport all want access to the best players and to stage events in as many markets as possible but the calendar is crowded.

Sports competitions have proved fairly resilient in tough economic times. Although some lower level tournaments disappeared from the calendar in golf, tennis and other sports, the higher profile events have kept going, even if they have had to cut costs. Quite a few world and continental championships rely on a hefty subsidy from host cities but still manage to attract bids from cities hoping to attract other events in future. Commercial considerations therefore have only a limited restraining effect on the ambitions of federations and leagues.

The disputes about competition calendars tend to involve player unions or representatives, leagues and governing bodies. Leagues and governing bodies often have competing interests (such as the “club v country” debate) and resolve their differences through a power struggle. In individual sports, athletes are probably in a stronger bargaining position to determine how often they compete because they are more difficult to replace. In team sports it is of course possible to solve the problem of player burn-out by having bigger squads. The logical consequence of this is that top European football clubs pay some international standard players vast amounts of money to play a handful of games a season.

As interest in professional sport develops in more and more markets, the pressure on athletes to perform all year round looks set to increase. Clashes between competing competitions (such as the Indian Premier League and English domestic cricket or between Olympic football and pre-season tournaments) will become more common. Unfortunately, athletes will sometimes be forced into making a decision which is not in their best interests: playing when half-fit, or choosing one competition above another due to external pressure. Legal clashes are inevitable.

Athletes in spring training are looking forward to the opportunities of the new season. No doubt the sports lawyers are limbering up too.

Round ball and wings. That’s what the “N C Two A” has wrought.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, March is Wild Wings’ busiest time of the year. Last year the Golden Valley-based dining chain’s guests ate more than 63 million traditional and boneless wings during the tournament.

Kathy Benning, executive vice president for marketing and brand development at Buffalo Wild Wings says, “We love tournament time, and our guests do too.”

Despite the obviousness in the data, the brand’s new agency spent several months researching the topic. Rob Buchner, Fallon’s chief marketing officer said Fallon dispatched planners across the Buffalo Wild Wings system to study its customer base.

“We dined with them, we drank with them, we got into their homes,” he said.

For more on this campaign, see Tim Nudd’s story in Adweek. He discusses the portrayal of men as dumb asses, and concludes, A game, some wings, some beer—and ads that don’t worry about offending you. That’s all men really want out of March Madness, anyway.