They have already done a Cash For Gold Night that gave local jewelers a chance to earn some money and drive traffic, they give away food for kids on Monday nights, and now the Lakewood, New Jersey Blue Claws have effectively used their Facebook and Twitter feeds to give their fans a special pop and move distressed inventory. The Phillies South Atlantic League farm team took their party deck on a recent weekend night, and went directly to those who subscribed to their Twitter and Facebook pages with an immediate call to action…an online response within a requested period would net those followers access to the party deck and all its free food and drink for the cost of a regular ticket. It also gave those subs a chance to do something oh so rare…meet face to face with others who used the medium and had a common interest…following the Blue Claws. The result was a 100% response rate that filled the deck and rewarded the social networking followers for their diligence. The promo was done without warning or reason for a signup, and the plan is to replicate the move again for future games when inventory is available. The potential resul. Word of mouth drives new signups, which can now be captured for traditional e-blasts and other data mining. Those who subscribe and didn’t check now will have a much more frequent reason to check the pages and tweets for info and offers. More interestingly is it opens up potential sponsorship, not on the Facebook or Twitter posts, but to the Party Deck nights to brands that are looking to target first adopters and social networking fans who are also avid sports fans. It is a great example of how teams can use the platform to instantly drive revenue, create buzz and fill distressed inventory while sending people back to the social networking sites and looking for deals. Next potential ide. Twitter only or Twitter free zones at the game. Or speed twitter replacing fan trivia as a promotion.
Some other good reads…Peter King's Monday Morning QB on si.com always has lots of great info, but the story of Texas pitcher Austin Wood and his perfect game and then some is a great interview…ESPN.com's Jake Rossen starts his well-researched series on MMA fighters and how the small can beat the tall…and Yahoo's Dan Wetzel has an interesting take on the NBA age rule and the issue that arose last week with regard to the Bulls Derrick Rose and alleged SAT scamming prior to him going to the Univ. of Memphis…
