Two weeks ago 58th of All Star match has been played in Phoenix. The match won by West Conference with 146-119 score an it brought a very good match and lots of fun. I would like skip the fun part of the match and talk about the efforts of All Star players before the match in order to be selected.
Every year, All Star team line up is selected according to voting among fans. In previous years, we had seen foreign players to boost their votes by mobilizing their whole nation. Especially Yao Ming which has a 1.5 billion Chinese population as a support, is the luckiest guy in All Star selection. The American players on the other hand, are trying new methods to get fans’ votes. The most interesting aspect of this year voting campaign is increasing social media tools usage among NBA players.
Chris Bosh’s funny video on Youtube which make him get selected in the first line up,influenced other players as well. Before All Star 2009, some of NBA stars turn to web and used networks like Facebook, Twitter and My Space to get more votes. This years winner on social media usage is Amaire Stoudemire who tried everything in order to get selected to the All Star will be played in his home. Amaire Stoudemire not only used social networks like Twitter, Facebook, but also used website devoted to All Star voting Vote4Amare.com and Youtube where he posted 5 episode vote for Amare video series. Amare Stoudemire’s this social media campaign worked very well and Amare got enough votes to make him start 2009 All Star line up.
Besides players companies and NBA itself seized the potential in social media platforms. For example Adidas, created a section for fans to follow Dwight Howard during the All-Star Game. Dwight Howard was the most voted players during the All Star selection with 3 million votes. Adidas used this opportunity and did a good job in promoting it. But Adidas biggest success in All Star come along with the branded Youtube Channel dedicated to Dwight Howard. This channel has been viewed hundreds of thousand times by fans. Of course popular social media tools of today, Flickr and Twitter has been used during the campaign.
NBA, along with TNT also benefitted from social media and integrated the Facebook Connect application in the official All Star website. NBA, live streamed the NBA All-Star Game online and pulled in fan conversations in the same page via Facebook Connect. Fans could watch the game and while they were watching online, all the conversations from Facebook from the other people and friends who were watching the game were displayed in to the page on the right side. Since this kind a platforms create a unique opportunity to reach the target audience and to advertise them directly, many companies are involved in this. Kia, Sprite and Play Station are among the brands that used this opportunity.
Lately where are used to see politicians’ good and abusive usages of social media. In this respect, All Star game setted a good example of how effective promotion and communication tool can be social media when it’s used properly.
