The slow death of traditional media is chasing a whole group of people to the online space, who have no idea what the hell they're doing. This video-blogger refers to sports marketing workers, that particular breed of person who hawks everything from "We're Number One" giant hands, to whatever kind of hat they can stick a logo on. The vast majority of sports marketing workers are totally out to lunch when it comes to New Media, and the Sports 2.0, Sports Marketing 2.0...whatever..is an example.
This all started when this blogger happened upon a tweet about a planned San Francisco sports marketing summit called Sports 2.0 by Sports Marketing 2.0.
The San Francisco event seemed interesting enough to cover, because I wanted to see what they were talking about with respect to New Media. After all, it's good to have one's perspectives challenged.
The view this blogger holds of sports marketing and sports marketers is that it and they are trapped by an outdated culture. Sports marketing is not a tech-dominated profession; it's ruled by sales people, many of which have no understanding of the Internet and are so impatient, they don't seem to want to learn what they're doing wrong. That's my experience with most sports marketers. Maybe Sports 2.0 was different.
Ha.
There's a rule in New Media; one I created. It goes like this: online, everyone matters at every time. Thus, if you're trying to sell something and happen to be communicating with a blogger, especially on Twitter, you encourage the blogger to blog something positive about your product, because you know that blog post is going to come up under a search for your product or event.
Right? Well, check this out.
First, i inquired about attending the Sports 2.0 after accidentally learning about the event on Twitter, with this tweet:
This was their response:
sports20 - @zennie62 I think we're covered as far as sports media is concerned. Let me know who wants a credential. Needs to be sizable audience.
8:21 AM Aug 9th via web in reply to zennie62
Me - @sports20 Me. I'm at SFGate.com, Zennie62.com, YouTube.com, and reach an average of over 60,000 people each day.
sports20 - @zennie62 pardon my ignorance. Is your focus on business side of sports? We are a rather narrow niche...need help pre show, not post
10:20 AM Aug 9th via UberTwitter in reply to zennie62
Me - @sports20 Yes. Attended every NFL Draft as press since 2005.
11:38 AM Aug 9th via web in reply to sports20
(I forgot to mention that my Zennie62 blog network has six sports-related blogs, including our NFL Business Blog.)
So I figured that this was all a no-brainer. I wasn't hyped about going to this deal, but it seemed interesting, that is until things got weird:
sports20 @zennie62 just seems like your audience is much broader (not targeted for what we do). Maybe I'm missing the fit? http://myloc.me/an6HJ
My response:
@sports20 Never knew a organization that claimed to be digital marketers to turn away online media; that will make a good blog post.
@sports20 Or to clarify, good luck, but I'm not interested in it after this. But I will blog about it as a "don't do."
August 10, 2010 12:25:33 PM PDT via web in reply to sports20
@sports20 I mean. First you tweet the audience has to be sizable, then when I prove it is, you say "seems audience is broader".. I punt.
So this other guy chimes in, Mike Mahoney, also a sports marketer, more specifically a sports sponsorship sales person, and apparently connected with the event. Out of the blue, Mike Mahoney sends a set of tweets that's telling.
mmahoney13 - Methinks @zennie62 protests too much re: not getting free pass to the @sports20 conference. Someone's trying to make a living. #buyaticketSo. Let me get this straight. This blogger's supposed to pay $250 for some garbage sports summit just because some guy in Indianapolis, Indiana needs the money? Oh, and then I'm supposed to blog and video-blog about it?
No thanks.
Readers of this space know how I've been on a rant against these "panels on pedestals" of people who are presented as if they know more than the people in the audience. In a New Media culture, often the most-informed person's watching the panel either in person, via live stream, or as a video-viewer. Here's my SXSW rant asking why I should attend:
I then followed up with this tweet:
@mmahoney13 Methinks too many "expert" sports marketers just take the patrons money #dontbuyaticket - media should not pay period.
Now, if you're about to respond in the negative, before you do consider that this blog post hit the very keywords that the Sports 2.0 summit is concerned about.
The problem with sports marketers and marketers in general who don't have a digitally-emerced background and practice, is they think they can control their message. Because of this, they miss the number one fact that whatever's written about what they do comes up under the keyword they're involved in.
But what gets me, beyond the lack of knowledge of New Media, is this explosion of conferences on PR, media, and marketing by people who have no demonstrable platform of performance online, yet claim to tell you how to be more effective online.
It's really disturbing because many people don't know how to evaluate what's presented to them because they know they need to be in the Internet space, and will listen to anyone. So, that's the climate that allows someone who's New Media expertise is questionable to dare charge $250 per head for a sports marketing "summit."
Moreover, this idea of the expert-on-a-pedestal is not only just ego-stroking but a way to make money off the ill-informed in a bad economy. $250 for a sports marketing summit? That's highway robbery. Pat Coyle, who's formed the Sports 2.0 event, and has the website Sports Marketing, should know better.
One thing this blog post will do is bring attention to his event. It's not the kind of attention he wanted, but then he totally belittled the impact of a blogger.
I didn't think anyone would make that mistake in the year 2010.
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