The course is over but the blog is just beginning

12 weeks have gone by fast. When I started this blog 12 weeks ago I was trying to discover my identity. I wrote passively, was long winded, and my words were cluttered. Over the 12 week span i've cleaned up some of these problems but I am still a work in progress.

In ICM 501 we were required to have a blog. At the time I wanted to write an NFL blog. However, it was the first course in the ICM masters program. I felt writing a sports blog would be considered very cliche. Instead I chose to write about traveling. At the time I was commuting over an hour a day by car to work. Quickly I discovered this was not a topic I could sustain a blogroll for 12 weeks. The blog ended up being lackluster and I felt defeated.

This course gave me a second chance at writing. I chose a topic I was passionate about and built a persona around it. I'm still building that persona but I'm happy where I am right now. Writing about the NFL is something I have always wanted to do. It is the one thing I am truly passionate about. Although i'm writing for an audience, i'm really writing this blog for me. I love talking about this league. Sometimes I have no one to talk about it with. This blog has proven to be my conversation about NFL. I thought I would have struggled since this course occurred during the NFL offseason. I think that helped me. My writing was not about games but about deeper issues affecting the league.

As I continue working on this blog I will probably remove my pseudonym. Throughout the course I never shared my writing with anyone on Facebook. I only shared my posts on twitter with the professor and my group-mates. I was afraid that people would criticize my work. Now I don't care. People will either like it or they won't...and I am ok with that. I'll let my work speak for itself.

I enjoyed this course overall. The assignments were interesting and made me brainstorm when thinking about posts. Luckily I was able to adapt all the assignments to my niche. I never was sure where I stood in this course, but quite frankly it did not bother me. I made the decision when enrolling in this masters program that I could care less about grades. I'm doing this program for self happiness and getting 100% on everything is less important actually learning something new. I liked that we were split into groups. Sometimes in large classes it is hard to follow all 25 people on a message board. If you miss a day on the message board you are behind. I liked being able to follow 2 other blogrolls and give them the attention they deserve. I wish we did a google hangout at least once during the semester. I would have liked to put faces to names (at least to people in my group).

Going forward I am just "Steve", a passionate NFL fan who is excited for the upcoming season. I couldn't be more excited to reveal myself to the world and to get to work on my writing.

This is just the beginning...

The NFL's Social Media Campaign

If you have been following this blog over the past 11 weeks then you have seen me write about the NFL's relationship with media. Regular season games get monster ratings for the networks. Post season games do even better. The league has learned how to utilize its relationship with the broadcast networks with the newest advances in television technologies (can you say 3D Super Bowl??)

That is why it's no surprise the sport also dominates on the social media playing field. The area of social media the league gets its most attention is twitter. Most NFL websites have blog writers and beat writers. Twitter is a platform for beat writers to share breaking news quickly to fans. If a story is of high priority, there is a good chance it will be written in a blog post. Twitter is the "preamble" to blog post. I follow many NFL writers and insiders on twitter. Half their tweets are about blog posts they are preparing to write. I've stolen their approach this semester and I do the same thing. I use Tiny URL to link followers to my work.

Players are actively involved with twitter. Think about it for one second, what corporate job gives you direct access to high profile employees? The NFL does. You can follow your favorite players on twitter, tweet them, and re-tweat their posts. On many occasions fans have received responses from a player they have tweeted. This is a great way for fans to interact with players and is another way of connecting fans to the sport. The league does have a strict rule prohibiting players to use social media during the games. I think its a smart rule. At some point their needs to be a sense of privacy in a locker room or on a sideline. I comparre this to an employer prohibiting their employees from tweeting in the board room.

The NFL also uses Facebook to connect with fans. Each day, my Facebook feed will show something like this:

The league makes an attempt to share multi-media with its fans. This is a fan driven sport and the more access fans have to its favorite players and teams the better it is for the NFL. By littering these types of posts on Facebook there is a better chance this link will be shared by users (this happens with viral videos all the time). Expanding your audience is always a good thing if you are a growing business; the more eyeballs on your product the better chance it has to succeed and make money for you.

The NFL uses video to assist its social media campaign. Video blogs have become the standard for most reporters. During training camp, fans want to see the newest practice videos and post practice soundbites associated with blog posts. Here is an example of a Jets Blog written by Rich Cimini of ESPN New York. Rich is perfect at writing two to three blog posts a day, tweeting about his posts, and supporting his writing with a video package. 

My original proposal was to move an existing NFL franchise back to Los Angeles, the second largest media market in the country. This is something the league is already talking about and there is an online presence about the subject. If I were to lead up the social media campaign for this project I would create a webpage in conjunction with the league informing fans about the topic. The page would highlight my points for placing a team in LA. I would use twitter to tweet articles from this blog specifically relating to the topic. If the project grew attention I would utilize video platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo to distribute league provided video materials and commercials centered around the topic. If the topic were to be talked about on television, radio, or in print I would direct viewers to those distribution platforms through Facebook and Twitter. 

When proposing a topic the most important component is the credibility of the writer and the source. I would make sure the information being disseminated to the public was thorough and accurate. Then I would take to the social media masses and spread my word. This has become the way of the world on the web and it has been successful so far.

Better Bounce Back Season in 2013?

The video bellow is of a show I produced at my job last week. Every once in a while I get to produce a show on a topic I am passionate about. For this show we argued over which NFL team would have the better bounce back season in 2013, the NY Giants or the Pittsburgh Steelers. You can watch the cutdown version of the show here or go to FanSportsLive.com to watch the full version.

It's no secret, I'm a Giants fan. But i'm going to disagree with the jury here and say the Steelers have a better shot at a bounce back season. I think both teams are talented. Call me crazy, but I think both teams can compete for a Super Bowl this season. But the Giants play in the NFC, which is far more competitive on paper than the AFC. Look at their division alone. The Redskins are a formidable team that won the NFC East last season. The Cowboys are full of talent, despite their ineptitude at the coaching position, and don't sleep on the Eagles, who I think will be vastly improved and could win between 6-8 games this season. The teams in the NFC East are probably separated at the end of the season by a game or two.

Meanwhile, the road to a division title is probably easier for the Steelers. Their main competition, the Ravens, took a hit offensively over the weekend losing Dennis Pitta to injury. I think they will still be a competitive team but miss out on the playoffs in the AFC. Last month I wrote a post about the Cincinnati Bengals and how they are primed to win this season. They are a threat to the Steelers. The Browns are a young team that is getting better but are nowhere near competing with the big boys.

Despite their age, I believe the Steelers have the best Quarterback and coach in the division; two components to a winning team. The last time the Steelers missed the playoffs was in 2009. The following two seasons they went 12-4. They have never had a losing season under coach Mike Tomlin.  Their defense is still a top 10 defense in the league. Plus on the schedule they play the AFC East within their conference. They are better than 3 of the 4 teams in that division. I don't think enough people are talking about the Steelers and they will feel foolish come November.