I’ve spent countless amounts of time discussing sports and social media and how it can help elite clubs and athletes, but what about the other end of the ladder? Can social media help grass roots sports teams and athletes? In my opinion, yes!

Social media provides a massive opportunity for athletes, sports teams and organisations of all sizes and levels and it’s not being utilised by many at the moment.

Last night I released ‘The Essential Guide to Grass Roots Sports and Social Media‘ with the aim of helping people involved in grass roots sports understand what social media is and importantly how they can utilise it.

You can download the eBook for free here. I’d love to hear your thought on it and how you feel athletes, sports teams and organisations of all sizes and levels can use social media?

A few weeks ago Jason Peck invited me to be a part of his ‘Social Media and Sports – Why should we care?’ series on his blog. The series launched last week and features the thoughts of many great sports business and social media people, it’s a privilege to be a part of it. You can see the first eight posts below:

• why should fans care?
• why should teams care?
• why should athletes care?
• why should agents care?
• why should coaches care?
• why should colleges care?
• why should agencies care?
• why properties care?

Thanks to Jason for inviting me to be a part of this project. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the series and why you think we should care about social media in sport?

During the past couple of months I’ve rediscovered my love for the game of basketball. I only started playing when I was about 16, and gave up a year or so ago, after a combination of me snapping my ankle ligaments after jumping for a rebound, (ouch!), and my team folding shortly after my comeback.

Me trying (and probably failing) to dunk when I was younger.

During my year away from basketball I barely picked up a ball, or watched a game. But, a few months ago I took part in a charity game with a few friends and it reminded me how much I enjoyed playing, so I decided to permanently bring my Jordan’s out of retirement, and I’m loving it. The first few training sessions were a struggle, but I’m starting to get back into the swing of it now.

My comeback also got me thinking about a post Lewis Howes wrote a while ago, ‘Don’t Forget What You Are Passionate About: For Me, It’s Dunking!’ See video below. I completely agree with Lewis, it’s important not to forget your passions, during my year out I forgot how much I enjoyed basketball and if it wasn’t for that game a few months I may never have rediscovered it.

It’s not just on the court where I’m getting involved with the game, I’ve also started to think about basketball off the court and I’ve written a couple of articles about the ‘Back British Basketball’ campaign and how the sport can grow in here in the UK. If you’re interested you can read them on The UK Sports Network and SportsNetworker.com.

The responses I’ve had to these posts have engrossed me in the game even more, British Basketball fans are so passionate about the sport, it’s crazy. I already have a couple more basketball articles in the pipeline and it may well be area I write about and aim to work in a lot more in the future.

Whilst I may have made a comeback to playing, I’m pretty sure I’ll never be remembered for what I do on the basketball court but, maybe I can make a difference off of it….

Every four years the World Cup represents an opportunity for countries around the world to unite behind their national football team.

The national anthem is a massive part of the build up to international matches and represents a time when our whole nation becomes united through football, I think Umbro have captured this brilliantly in their “Tailored by England Anthem” advert.

I have always liked national anthems before a football game. I think it gives an additional boost and sets a unique tone for a sport event. This feeling that it’s more than a game and makes you a potential hero after 90 mns. This impulse that transcends you and almost makes you cry. I am not english, but when “God Save the Queen” plays and a whole stadium sings, man I got chill bumps!
-Karl Lusbec

On a side note, as an England fan the World Cup hasn’t started out the way I’d expected and the two performances haven’t been good (to put it nicely). But, Wednesday’s make or break clash with Slovenia is a new game and now is when our team needs the support more than ever, so lets get behind the team and hope they can finally bring football home!

Over the last few weeks I’ve had a few new articles published on The UK Sports Network and SportsNetworker.com, I’ve had football on the brain so you may notice a World Cup theme! Check them out below:

World Cup by Word of Mouth: Looking at how word of mouth marketing was used in the build up to the World Cup.

How to Follow the World Cup: Highlighting some of the best ways to keep up to date with this summer’s World Cup.

The FA and social media – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: In this post I discuss the good and bad sides of the English FA’s use of social media.

As always I’m open to feedback and suggestions so please let me know what you think.

As some of you may already have noticed Oliver Williams (he will eventually start Tweeting) and I launched a new site late last week aimed at making it as easy as possible to keep up with the latest news from this summer’s World Cup.

We’ve selected some of the best feeds from around the globe to bring you the latest news, views and images from the tournament (if you think we’ve missed any please let us know).

Supporterz.com is the starting point of your World Cup journey, we want to enhance your experience and make it as easy as possible to get all the latest news.

Ultimately, our goal is to make following the World Cup as easy as possible for you!

Feel free to send us your comments and ideas for the site. We’ve got some interesting guest blogs lined up and if you’d like to share your views about anything World Cup related please get in touch.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been meaning to change the design/layout of this site for a while now, and the bank holiday gave me the perfect opportunity to do so.

As most of the content I write goes out on sites like SportsNetworker.com and The UK Sports Network I felt it was better to have a site that could easily link out to these articles and also let me post short updates, videos, images etc.

I really liked my old site design and layout, but I feel this one works better.

Feel free to let me know what you think of the new site.

Ash.

I was recently hired by Bellator Fitness to design some materials for their new Transformation Programme.

Bellator Fitness are a start up company based in London and it was great to work with people who are very passionate about what they do!

Below is the eBrochure I designed for them:

Bellator Fitness eBrochure

“Ash is a true proffesional. We contacted Ash with a rough idea of what we wanted to achieve. By the end of that same day Ash had set up a plan of what would work for our project and a timescale that he would achieve it by. During the construction of the project we took many different courses and added several new ideas to it. Ash took all of this in his stride and still met the agreed deadline. Ash is one of the primary reasons why our business is where it is today. We would and have recommended Ash to anybody looking to facilitate their business. Thanks Ash!”
– Greg Duggan, Bellator Fitness.

This article was originally posted on The UK Sports Network – May 2010

David Haye

David Haye doesn’t struggle to get coverage and let’s be honest, he’s doing just fine without social media, but, I feel if Haye was to utilise the tools at his disposal he could become one of the world’s biggest sports stars.

Online presence.

If you take a look at Haye’s official website you’ll notice that under the Hayemaker videos section only one of the six videos shows highlights of Haye’s boxing, the others are interviews on chat shows and TV appearances – to me this highlights that Haye and his team want to show his personality to the fans.

Another thing you’ll notice on the site is social media links to Haye’s Twitter, Facebook and MySpace pages, this shows he’s interested and keen to utilise social media. I follow Haye on both Twitter and Facebook, and his updates tend to come mainly when he has an upcoming fight and for me aren’t frequent enough.

Haye has nearly 25,000 followers on Twitter and around 72,000 fans on Facebook – a combined reach of nearly 100,000, without posting much content and little interaction.

How can Haye better utilise social media?

Here are my suggestions for Haye on how to utilise social media to grow his fan base and the Hayemaker brand.

Blog: Include a blog section on hayemaker.com, this would allow Haye to keep fans up to date with what he’s doing and what’s going on behind the scenes. A blog doesn’t have to be written either; Haye is comfortable and confident in front of a camera so my suggestion would be to video blog for fans once or twice a week

The video blog would provide great content and give fans a reason to visit Hayemaker.com, it would also increase website traffic and fan engagement, which in return could increase merchandise sales, ticket sales and pay per view subscriptions in future fights. He could even open up an “Ask the Hayemaker” section where fans could use email, Twitter and Facebook to send questions to Haye and he will answer selected ones in his blog.

Live streaming: When training for his next fight I’d like to see Haye utilise live streaming to give fans a piece of the action during training, live streaming nowadays couldn’t be easier with tools like Ustream and Livestream.

Obviously there will be sections of training that Haye won’t want to broadcast to the world, but showing fans a bit of pad work would be provide them with an awesome insight.

Twitter: Haye mainly uses Twitter in the build up to his fights, I’d like to see him update on a more regular basis, and posting updates a few times a day to keep fans engaged even when he doesn’t have a fight coming up. It would also be great to see Haye posting behind the scenes images and video to Twitter, fans love multimedia content and this type of content usually sparks the most conversation.

Facebook: Again I’d like to see Haye posting updates more regularly on Facebook. The official David Haye Facebook page is an extension of his brand and a great opportunity to build up a vibrant community. However, to build up a real community he needs post relevant and compelling content on a more regular basis.

I’d also add a custom lading tab to his Facebook page, something to really make it clear that this is his official page – something the New York Jets and New Jersey Nets do well. A custom landing tab would provide Haye with a great opportunity to present visitors with engaging content and grab their attention as soon as they arrive on his page.

Conclusion.

The heavyweight boxing world has been crying out for an exciting, charismatic fighter for years and Haye is just that, he has a massive opportunity to become one of the world’s most well known fighters, and social media can help him along the way.

The tools and ideas mentioned above are just scraping the surface of what can be done with social media and I truly feel that with the right strategies and content Haye could become one of the world’s most popular sporting figures.

Utilising social media won’t only help Haye to grow his personal brand, it would also help to grow the Hayemaker Boxing/Hayemaker Promotions brands too, and give him the platform to promote any up and coming Hayemaker fighters, such as George Groves.

What do you think about David Haye? Would you like to see him utilizing social media? And how do you think other boxers could utilise social media?

Everyone gets their inspiration from different places and often it comes at a time when you least expect it – if you haven’t already guessed the inspiration for this post came from my DVD shelf.

In this post I’m going to relate one of my favourite series’ of films to social media – whilst this may have started out as a bit of fun, I genuinely believe there are some things the Rocky films can teach sports teams, athletes, brands and all of us about social media.

So without further ado here’s what I feel we can learn from Rocky:

Storytelling is everything:

First and foremost we all love Rocky because it’s a great story – a story of an underdog who would become champion (I’m sure I didn’t need to remind you of that). But, would we all love the films so much if we didn’t see what went on behind the scenes? If we only saw Rocky’s interviews with the press, and not what he’s like away from boxing?

Probably not.

Storytelling is the backbone of social media, films, marketing and music (the list could go on). Check any advert – printed or on TV – and it will be telling some kind of story, music is the same, listen to your favourite song and there’s a story in there somewhere.

With the advances of social media it has never been easier for athletes or teams to tell their stories. Whether you’re a bench warming college basketball player or a superstar in the NBA there’s an opportunity and a place out there for you.

Whilst some teams and athletes will have loyal fan bases without the use of social media, it can play a huge part in bringing fans closer to their brand. Many teams and athletes will release news stories and press releases almost every day, however, it’s what goes on between those press releases that many fans care about.

Social media is about telling your story not just when something big happens, but all the time – rather than painting one big picture through the press and traditional media, social media allows clubs and athletes to create thousands of smaller pictures which makes the fans feel more involved.

Connecting with your fans and sharing your story constantly has a far greater effect than sharing it once or twice a week through traditional one way media, such as newspapers and magazines.

Patience is a virtue:

In the films Rocky wasn’t an overnight success, to become champion it took him years of hard work and hustle.

Success doesn’t come overnight online either, just because you’re a pro athlete or a well known sports team, this doesn’t give you a divine right to get a huge social media following without putting in the work (unless your name is LeBron James).

It will take time to build up your social media following, but, once you’ve built up your community and fan base you’ll reap the benefits (with the right strategies of course).

Let your true personality shine through:

Throughout the films we get to know Rocky personally, we know what he’s like away from boxing and his personality is part of the reason he’s such a popular character.

Social media gives athletes and individuals the opportunity to show their true personalities to fans. A few years ago if an athlete wanted to reach out to fans and show their personality they could do it through a television appearance, or a magazine interview. Now, it can be done at the click of a button, the opportunities to engage with fans and let them get to know the real you are endless.

Play to your strengths:

No Rocky film is ever complete without a montage, and if I’m being honest I wanted an excuse to fit one into this post, but I wanted it to be relevant – in the clip below Rocky’s trainer explains the fighter’s long list of weaknesses and then states that they will play to his strengths in the upcoming fight.

Social media is the same, when choosing a platform and medium athletes should make sure they play to their strengths and utilise what they’re best at. Some people are good at writing others may be better at video blogging, it’s all about finding the medium you’re comfortable with and making the most of your strengths.

Enjoy!

As always, let me know your thoughts. What other lessons do you think we could learn from Rocky?