In my recent SportsNetworker.com post ‘From Sports Team to Social Experience‘ I said I don’t totally agree with the social media cliché ‘content is king,’ and I’d like to explain that statement.

In my opinion community is the most important factor in social media, and content, in most cases, is an indispensable stepping stone to building community.

if content is king, your community is GOD!
Gary Vaynerchuk

For me it’s the engagement and conversation around content that brings social media success and builds community. Constantly pumping out content is great, but engaging with the people who view and discuss it is often the difference between success and failure. This engagemnt is where relationships are built.

There are  people out there who are at the top of their industries but aren’t necessarily the best at what they do, they just know how to market themeselves. The same goes for many products and services. Content is of course a big part of their success but the community these individuals/brands build is what drives the sales and positions them at the top.

What do you think, is content really king?

Check out the full article over at Hoopsfix.com

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.

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.