Coming last doesn’t always make you the loser; the NHL joins other major sports franchises and creates a social media policy.
NHL Creates Social Media Policy
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Mediabistro Events
Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.
Use Social Media to Market Your Business
Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews. Hockey Night in Canada Shoots and Scores with Social Media
If you’re Canadian, you know the tune better than the national anthem, you idolize Don Cherry, and you would never feel weird staying you stayed in on a Saturday to watch it. Hockey Night in Canada is as much a part of Canada’s past as maple syrup, but with a new social media strategy, Canada’s favourite television program is moving swiftly into the future.
Washington Capitals Fans to Owner: Bench Twitter
Fans of the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals have emailed owner and former AOL president and vice chairman Ted Leonsis and suggested that the team’s players spend more time worrying about the 200 feet by 85 feet in the hockey rink and less time fooling around with the 140 characters on Twitter.
NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs Heat Up on Twitter
The first round of the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup Playoffs is in full gear, and Jenna Dawn of Twitter posted a guide on the Twitter Blog so that hockey fans who use the microblogging network aren’t left in the penalty box.
YouTube In Talks With NBA & NHL For Live Streams, NHL Denies
YouTube is currently in talks with both the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Basketball League (NBA) about streaming live shows. But will the big leagues bite?
NHL New-Media Properties Named Star of the Game
As the National Hockey League season reached its approximate midway point and drew closer to its All-Star Weekend, the league took the time to skate a victory lap while boasting about its online accomplishments.
Unique visitors to NHL.com are up 25 percent versus the same point last season, while video starts are up a whopping 128 percent. And average monthly unique visitors to NHL.com and all 30 team Web sites reached a record 21.2 million.
Subscriptions to the broadband version of NHL GameCenter LIVE were up 24 percent compared with last season. And e-commerce was strong, as well, with gross sales on Shop.NHL.com up 12 percent versus the previous season and the site posting its second-highest gross-sales day ever on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, with Black Friday sales up 153 percent compared with last year.
As far as social media, Likes on the NHL Facebook page were up 633 percent compared with last season, reaching nearly 1.3 million, and the league’s Twitter followers totaled 483,000, up 133 percent. The NHL said Facebook is the No. 1 source of referrals to NHL.com (excluding search engines), and Twitter referrals were up 271 percent. The NHL Winter Classic annual New Year’s Day outdoor game reached No. 6 in global trending on Twitter Jan. 1.
On the mobile front, the league has seen more than 1 million global mobile downloads this season, and NHL GameCenter is the No. 1-ranked sports app in the United States and Canada.
NHL, NBC Sports, Facebook Set NHL Winter Classic Challenge
The National Hockey League and NBC Sports will team up with Facebook to give away prizes including a Honda CR-Z sport hybrid coupe and trips for four to Universal Orlando Studios and the 2011 NHL All-Star Game during the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, in which the Washington Capitals will travel to Heinz Field in Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins New Year’s Day at 1 p.m. ET, airing live on NBC.
Fans who visit the league’s Facebook page and click the Watch and Win tab will automatically be entered in the NHL Winter Classic Challenge, and Facebook messages will appear on-screen during NBC’s telecast of the game to alert winners, who will then be called by NHL representatives and asked questions related to the game.
Social-media-marketing agency RocketXL helped develop the campaign.
NHL New-Media Properties Off to Strong Start for 2010-11 Season
The National Hockey League may contest its games on ice, but its new-media properties are red-hot, as the league issued a press release touting its accomplishments thus far in this young season.
The NHL said that through the first 24 days of the 2010-11 season, compared with the same period in the 2009-10 campaign, unique visitors are up 29 percent, page views 27 percent, visits 15 percent, video starts 155 percent, and articles read 77 percent.
Subscriptions to NHL GameCenter LIVE, which allows users to watch live, out-of-market NHL games via the Internet, are up 25 percent versus the same point of last season.
On the mobile front, NHL GameCenter apps have been downloaded more than 500,000 times during the first month of the season, and page views for the league’s mobile site were up 48 percent in October compared with October 2009. The GameCenter iPhone app is currently the No. 1-ranked sports app in Canada, and its iPad counterpart is No. 1 in Canada, with the free version in the United States coming in at No. 4 and the paid app at No. 5.
NHL Touts Digital Growth During Opening Weekend
The National Hockey League dropped the puck on its 2010-11 season with reports of strong growth in its digital distribution platforms.
The league said NHL.com totaled its second-most regular-season video starts ever this past Sunday, adding that unique visitors to the site were up 19 percent compared with last year’s opening weekend, and opening day saw a 13 percent gain versus the 2009-10 opener. Video starts were up 131 percent on opening day and 209 percent on opening weekend compared with last season.
The NHL’s online success is taking place globally, as its top 10 countries in terms of gains in unique visitors versus the 2009-10 season were: Finland (up 68 percent), the Russian Federation (58 percent), Slovakia (Slovak Republic) (53 percent), Germany (42 percent), the Czech Republic (37 percent), United Kingdom (35 percent), Switzerland (33 percent), Sweden (27 percent), Canada (15 percent), and the United States (12 percent).
NHL GameCenter LIVE, which allows fans to watch live games online, posted a 30 percent increase in subscriptions when compared with the same period last season, and the first day of the season brought with it the highest single-day subscription total ever.
And the league reported hundreds of thousands of downloads of its mobile applications for the Google/Android, BlackBerry, Nokia, and iPhone platforms.
NHL Reaches Deals with foursquare, Stan Lee
What do location-based mobile app foursquare and comic-book legend Stan Lee have in common? Why, the National Hockey League, of course, as the NHL announced a full-time, dedicated presence on foursquare and the formation of Guardian Media Entertainment with Lee’s SLG Entertainment.
Fans attending the NHL Face-Off event at Dundas Square in downtown Toronto Thursday night can check in and receive insider information and secret locations where NHL representatives will give away prizes including free subscriptions to NHL GameCenter LIVE. Swarm badges will be issued after 50 check-ins and SuperSwarm badges after 250. NHL Face-Off will also feature performances by Hedley, Down with Webster, and Hey Rosetta!.
And fans who check in at games throughout the league’s season will receive tips and facts about memorable moments in NHL history, as well as unique content, discounts, incentives, and rewards.
As for Lee, Guardian Media Entertainment will create 30 Guardians, or superheroes, one for each NHL team, boasting special powers representative of each team and city. They will be unveiled in a special presentation during the 2011 NHL All-Star Game Jan. 30 in Raleigh, N.C.
