In order to better conceptualize the situation, it is important to note that MLBAM is it’s own entity. MLB Advanced Media controls everything digital for MLB. This includes mailing lists, iPhone applications, team websites, specific Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and the list goes on. In order for a club to get any interactive marketing campaign going, it all has to be approved by MLBAM. This creates a bit of a challenge when it comes to credentialing bloggers as members of the media. This new understanding of what is required behind the scenes puts things into a whole new perspective.

I would personally like to thank the Arizona Diamondbacks and their Marketing Director Karina Bohn for taking the time to communicate this to the audience at the AZIMA event. There is no doubt that this was a difficult item of discussion and their presence and candid response is invaluable to enthusiasts and bloggers. I, for one, will continue to blog and pledge to continue to keep my posts within the highest regard of MLB and it’s clubs in an effort to keep the community properly informed.

Having key words in your domain name that have to do with your content and that are prevalent in the copy really help out in search. Never have I stumbled upon a better case study than azfallball.com. Without going into too much detail on the stats, the particularly interesting statistic is the fact that the site has not been up that long and it gets heavy search engine referral traffic. I guess that would make sense but, actually seeing the different variations of “rangers fall ball”, “peoria az fall ball”, “az fall ball schedules”, etc. kind of blew me away. Quite honestly, this site has been up shorter than it’s parent and had more traffic in it’s first four weeks of existence than most of the Fall League of 2008.

Sorry for the rambling. It’s late, I thought that it was worth mentioning and I thought that I would share. Have you ever stumbled upon something on the web that has greatly benefited your traffic? Someone else’s bad links or similar domains?

Enough about my running but, that’s the back-story. Nike has always done a wonderful job of delivering highly compelling, visually pleasing advertisements for a number of years. This past year was no different with the unique and funny Kobe and LeBron Puppet Series for the NBA Championship series. Nike is also pretty well known for how they are handling the social media aspect of their campaign. Among the large corporate heavyweights in the Social Media area are Starbucks Coffee and Nike.

I can write forever on the organization’s Social Marketing efforts but this is really only an analysis of one of their email marketing campaigns. With the email below, there are many awesome aspects to it that make it effective.

• First, it is visually compelling.
• Second, the fact that it identifies that it is one of four tells me that they are going to follow up with a few more.

Now the content of the email was really a welcome email that welcomed me with some calls to action. Set a goal, meet some friends, track your runs and so on. It was also followed up by a brief survey at the end. I must admit that I have not filled it out yet but I definitely will.

Below, you can check out an excerpt from the survey.

Here’s the thing: regardless if I do any of the calls to action Nike as made it extremely easy to provide feedback by putting the survey in the email. The fact that they have made it so easy to respond makes me want to. I was so blown away by the email that I had to write this post before I answered the questions on the survey.

Additionally, the fact that they yearn for customer feedback sends the message that they care about their consumers. This makes me want to learn more about their new products. In closing, I did do some more research on their products and found a shoe that is right for my feet. I will buy them and return to Nike and may even be a long time/ repeat customer. Brands take note.

Well, Twitter has done it again. While many skeptics doubt the life-span of such a useful tool, another use case in practical application surfaces in the DJ world. Richie Hawtin, an English-Canadian electronic musician and international DJ, has launched a Twitter application that integrates with a DJ tool by the name of Traktor.

Traktor is a tool that helps to create mixes for DJs while they are doing their thing at some of the largest clubs. The exciting thing about this application is that it enables the DJs to broadcast their sessions in real time while they are playing a set. This is a really exciting functionality for those of us who enjoy music and are always seeking ways to find out what track has just been played.

Simply follow the DJ’s Twitter stream to find out either what they are currently playing, or go back to it later to check out what was in the mix for last evening. There are other tools that allow a user to share what they are listening to with their friends on Twitter but, this is one of the first integrations of such an application with a DJ tool.

This is just another exciting example of how Twitter is making it much easier for you and I to get the information that we are seeking. I know that I am excited to see what else comes out of the powerful tool Twitter.

We all have music that motivates us. Charlene Kingston of Crow Information Design wrote a great post on how everyone needs an Anthem/ Theme Song. I thought that I would share some of the songs that help to motivate me at the gym.

Song 2 – Blur

High Roller – The Crystal Method

Right Here, Right Now – Fatboy Slim

Ocean Avenue – Yellow Card

The Power – Snap

Downfall – TRUST Company

Never Gonna Stop – Rob Zombie

Lift Me Up – Moby

Die Another Day – Madonna

Numb/ Encore – Jay-Z/ Linkin Park

Good Vibrations – Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

Sabotage – The Beastie Boys

Remember the Name – Fort Minor

Down – Blink 182

Block Rockin’ Beats – The Chemical Brothers

Runnin’ – Pharcyde

Movies – Alien Ant Farm

The Energy – AudioVent

Flash – BK & Nick Sentience

Nucleus – Jam on It

What my thought is that there is a fine line between proper ad placement and too many ads. If ads are not placed properly, they can take away from the experience. Several thousands of hours go into site usability studies that show that the same number of ads, if not placed properly can seem to be too many.

In conclusion, I am fine with the current layout and the length of visits to the site show that the users are too. That been said, I may have an upcoming action item to create a banner management system but, in the meantime, enjoy the site for what it is. There will be no additional ad real estate forthcoming, perhaps only the ability for us to rotate ads more frequently, not to take away from the user experience.

Marketing and ads are what I do, so this is kind of difficult for me to write about. Even more difficult will be the post on the decision for me leaving my prior place of employment (probably will come in another year). If you have any feedback, let me know. I would love to hear you take on my stance.

For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, it is a micro-blogging tool that is a pretty slick idea that has been sweeping the internet and its social circles for quite sometime. Although I do not consider myself to be a power user, there are so many fun applications such as twit.pix.ly the Twitter avatar battle. This fun app is a spin-off of pix.ly a flickr photo contest application built by obuweb superstar and Phoenix internet entrprenuer Joshua Strebel. (cool guy) An interesting article on the business application of Twitter can be found at Creative Ops.

What do the Suns have to do with this? (Get to the point Paul.)

In the social circle meet up better known as “Tweet-ups” have been formed and are sweeping Phoenix among other places. A group of “Twitteratzzi” better known as PFN can be found sharing the 5th largest city’s fun and downtown nightlife online. The Phoenix Suns, thanks to the help of the Suns Director of Digital Media, @PhoenixSunsGirl, as shes known on twitter and @SunsGroupie, the Direcor of Group Sales, have created a Suns Tweet-up for their fans. For those of you that don’t already know, Shaq is on Twitter as well.

The following are some of the exciting benefits of joining us for the Tweet-up:

• At 5 pm, we’re all going to get access to the building early, before the general public, to watch players warm up from front row seats.
• Upon entry each of us is going to receive an exclusive Suns Twitter t-shirt we can wear throughout the game and a Suns player jersey bag.
• During the game we will all have seats in the same section – Twitterville – to get to know one another.
• After the game, we will all go down to the official Suns Practice Court to mingle and possibly even meet a surprise Suns personality.

More information can be found at the official website of the Phoenix Suns.

Suns Tweetup

I am totally excited about the game and I am looking forward to seeing familiar faces and some new. Come join us as we cheer on the Suns as they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Finally, if you are not already, feel free to follow me on Twitter @phxwebguy.

Cheers Phoenix and Go Suns!

One benefit, recently making headlines, is that online video is highly searched. Evidence to that would be You Tube surpassing Yahoo!’s search engine in the rankings. While it may come to no surprise to some, others may prefer more static search results in the form of a list or summary. Being able to visualize something definitely has its benefits. Some may argue that the result of the video search surpassing a traditional engine could be as a result of the current political climate and the ability to be able to recall previously recorded events and broadcasts. Nevertheless, You Tube is the second highest search used next to its parent Google.

When deciding to go the video route, there are some important factors to take into consideration. Most of which, could be considered disadvantages. We have outlined a couple of the most important ones for you.

Bandwidth - My personal favorite for reasons that I will not go into here. If your technology infrastructure does not support it, find someone’s that does. Without understanding the burden of streaming media, many organizations make the mistake of trying to host their own content. The argument is often in regards to who owns the content. Let a service provider stream the media for you, that’s what they specialize in and they have the infrastructure to support it. Rights to the content, more often than not, are identified as remaining the clients’. If not taken into consideration, viewers, will more than likely experience some buffering problems with their user experience.

Time and Other Resources – Rendering a video on a computer takes a substantial amount of memory and can sometimes bring your workstation to its knees. If you have the benefit of a dual-core, or even a quad-core processor, you may notice less of an impact. The fact of the matter is that there are still file fragments than need to be stored in temporary memory when rendering a video. All of the file processing takes time. In some instances, we have seen dedicated machines used for rendering video for this reason. Send your graphics guy to a long lunch if you decide to borrow his box. (This, of course, depends on the size/ length of the video)

Check out AZHardball.com as we kick off our website just in time for the Arizona Fall League. Feel free to provide any feedback that you might have as we work to make this site the premier location for everything Arizona Major League Baseball has to offer.

http://www.azhardball.com

The website will contain information on the Arizona Fall League, Cactus League Spring Training, the Arizona Diamondbacks and some other fun baseball facts and features. I am lining up a list of features for the coming months and since I will be attending games anyhow, there will be much fresh content on the site. There will be some informal game commentaries that should make it fun and interesting. Check back for additional information to be coming soon.