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in your space and broadcast outward to interested readers. Keep the blog fresh! You can duplicate the same information across all of the SSEs, but add information to each to keep them fresh and relevant, and push traffic to the new content, from news to ticket offers, on your website.
Many sites let you set up social groups. Set up several. You could have a River Cats group, a mascot group, a rooter's group, etc. Giving people more avenues to sync up with you means more opportunities to grab them as fans and customers.
K.I.S.S.
In places like MySpace, where they allow a lot of customization, keep it simple. People spend way too much time trying to customize the pages, only to find out that they are barely readable on a wide variety of computers other than yours.
Each system sets up a bit differently. Some are easier than others. Try to use consistent images like logos and artwork so that, no matter what SSE someone hits, there is a common look and feel to them, and your branding is supported, not distorted.
Digital Block Party
Now that you have built your new space, you need to invite a few friends over for a party. Promote your SSE spaces at your website, to give those who already are on there the ability to jump in with you on their favorite site.
On the other side, at the SSEs themselves, send out one of your employees to make friends. It's a lot easier than the PR/community gigs that you do. Search for friends, and ask them to join you, or your special interest groups that you host. Find other special interest groups, and join them.
Who Should Be Doing This?
The load can be shared or it can be tasked to an intern with some savvy in social search engines. If you are getting out stories from your press release system, and you have a media assistant, it is a reasonable use of their time to place the news in these streams. You can even encourage your players to set them up as a point of fan outreach. It is good for their own career to have a place for fans to reach out to them as they move along and it helps any club that they are on sell seats.
Do SSEs Have Fringe Benefits?
Yes. They pull up the rankings for your websites in general search engines like Google and Yahoo! They also provide dozens to thousands of additional places for potential fans to find your website, or develop an interest in your club.
What Do We Put on an SSE?
News, special events, photos of an event or a player or two. . Announce interesting contests or give aways. Even create special programs that are only available to SSE readers, to drive more of your customers to the SSEs. Social search engines allow you to make contact with your customers in ways that you couldn't before, so bringing more of them online can only help your contact with them. This is really a permission to communicate, which is both a blessing and a responsibility.
Don't Surf in Your Business Suit
Talking with your customers and potential customers over the SSEs is very, very soft sell. If you come at this like a 30 second commercial or a billboard, you're going to wipe out instead of catching the wave.
Provide news and links to the news back to your website. Use conversational teasers to get pepole to make the jump. Talk up a "cool" promotional night, then drop a link to find out more about getting tickets that returns to your website. If your SSEs have a persona, a person or mascot leading them, it puts the message out there in a way that is socially acceptable on an SSE. The people who contribute for your company have to learn to write conversationally instead of promotionally. There is a netiquette to SSEs, and they need to follow the style.
Last Word
SSEs are a powerful tool to develop relationships with your fans and the community. They require more work than traditional search engines, but pay great dividends over time by giving your marketing, community relations, ticketing, and public relations stuff unparallelled penetration into the marketplace, touching those who are most motivated to buy a ticket or gear. The staff time is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of display ads, premiums, or billboards, and delivers more precise returns along with a back-channel to communicate with your customers on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Unlike burst e-mail, or phone marketing, there is no offense here, because you aren't dumping something on them that they don't want. If someone elects to be your "friend" they want the information. They can also look at your blogs and social groups without having to commit, and still drive more business to your park or arena.
