5 Ways Sports Agents Can Get More Value from Twitter

Last year in The Sports Resource Newsletter, we detailed why Twitter is awesome for agents. Since then, many more agents have established a Twitter presence. 

If you took that step, how can you get more out of Twitter? Here are five ways for sports agents to build value with Twitter for both your agency and clients. 

1. Make it visual. Twitter changed its profile format to make it easier to display photos. It’s also great for sharing links to YouTube videos. Why not post a video on your Triple-A closer mowing down a batter? Infographics are  big now as well. They are ideal for sharing stats on your clients, which leads to…

2. Share your own content. Many agents use Twitter to share links on their clients from popular sports websites. While this carries some benefits, we recommend an approach that builds your brand and your clients’ brands far better. Since agents have insight into their clients like nobody else, you can provide insight without needing the media.

3. Tell your agency and client stories. Can you tell a story in 140 characters? It takes time, but it can be done. Share information gradually. What do your players do better than anybody else? With tools like advanced metrics, Pitchf/x, and SportVU, there is plenty of information to create interesting posts. 

4. Timing is everything. Sports insiders, athletes, and fans all engage on Twitter most when games are going on – the bigger the event, the greater the engagement. If you can’t post during games, you can easily schedule key tweets in advance as explained below.

5. Leverage technology. Free tools like Hootsuite make it simple to schedule posts in advance. It’s also a great way to program tweets you want to repeat. This is valuable because – given the amount of Twitter traffic – it’s unlikely anybody will notice that you repeated the same tweet. If it’s a key message, your followers are more likely to see it.  

Building value with Twitter takes consistency and volume. One tweet a week won’t do  it, so tools like Hootsuite become valuable.

For agents and sports businesses just getting started or yet to establish a Twitter presence, we offer a free 15-minute consultation to get you started. Sign up at marketing@sportsresource.net.

It’s All about Content, and Agents Can Cash In

Five current trends add up to an amazing opportunity for sports agents, which can have a huge impact on their bottom line.

·         Sports fans continue to crave more specialized content.

·         Search engines now value interesting, original content.  

·         Sports agents have unmatched access to their clients.

·         The cost of production – to put quality content out to the public – is lower than ever.

·         Innovative sports metrics and data make stories on players even more compelling.

As detailed in February’s Sports Resource Newsletter, today’s younger athletes grew up with technology. They find information – like identifying and comparing sports agents – with Google and online tools. So a high search engine ranking is solid gold territory, yet few agencies have claimed it.

The solution is to generate original content on your clients. The common practice of linking to articles on ESPN.com and team websites is a big negative with search engines, not to mention that it builds their brands instead of your agency’s brand.  So why do it? Nobody knows players like their agents, and nobody can tell their story better.

When you combine this insight with the power of sports analytics and technology, you’ll have an edge when recruiting players – and promoting current clients – that few can match.

The Sports Resource consulted on more than $1 billion in player contracts since 2010. Our data-driven digital solutions combine the power of sports analytics with web development and content creation. Contact Steve Fall at 404-447-1861 or steve.fall@sportsresource.net for a free 15-minute consultation.

Valuable Takeaways for Sports Agents from the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

It’s fascinating to hear how analytics is shaping the sports industry. However, the key question we ask after the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is: what can we do with all this great information? With that in mind, this post identifies actionable information that sports agents can use with minimal investment in both time and money.

First of all, I believe the conference gets misunderstand. It’s not only about the benefits of sports analytics and how teams can gain an edge. It features as much content on sports business and technology as statistics.

Here’s how one sports agent from the past could leverage today’s technology, if he actually existed. Back in 1996, Jerry Maguire had it rough. After SMI fired him, he faced a huge challenge competing with agents like Bob Sugar. Here are three problems he encountered, followed by solutions that didn’t exist 17 years ago.

On a shoestring budget, Jerry found it nearly impossible to generate a positive image for his client Rod Tidwell. Today, Maguire could easily build a website with dynamic content and blog posts that provide insight into the real Rod Tidwell. Jerry’s Twitter account (and Rod’s as well) would link to these updates and share details that never find their way into the mainstream sports media. Best of all, Jerry could automate his tweets with a tool like HootSuite. So he could enjoy a night out with Dorothy while his tweets reach thousands of followers and build Tidwell’s brand.

Maguire struggled to land quality endorsements opportunities for Tidwell. He even placed him in one ad that required sitting atop a camel in the desert. Today, Jerry could use exciting technology like BrandMatch Score, which enables companies to identify their best potential endorsers by measuring campaign specific data, athlete statistics, and consumer perceptions. Representatives from BrandMatch Score explained their tools could also be used by agents to find sponsorships for their clients. 

Unlike larger agencies like Sugar’s SMI, Maguire could not afford to hire experts in areas like sports medicine. Fortunately, tools like Dartfish make it possible for him to compare arm angles for his baseball clients and/or quarterbacks, using nothing but a Smartphone and $5 iPhone app. Future Hall of Famer John Smoltz studied his pitching motion with Dartfish, which helps analyze performance and avoid injuries.

Of course, large sports agencies can also gain an edge technology. The difference today is that all agents can take advantage of these and other amazing tools to even the playing field.

Time to Move On

If a point guard had these averages after his name (3.6 PPG, 1.9 APG), most people wouldn’t think much of him. But if you change them to 21.3 and 11.3, that’s a different story. These stats are actually for the same player during the same timeframe. They show Jeremy Lin’s production in his first nine games this season before he saw regular action and exploded on the scene. The second set of numbers reveal Lin’s numbers per 36 minutes of game action. He began his strong performance before Linsanity, although few noticed.

Once some ideas become entrenched in sports, it’s difficult to change. I have no idea why basketball started using per game statistics, but it’s time to stop. NBA players – even those that we call regulars – vary widely in minutes played per game. We already saw how useless they are for bench players. Per game stats cause misconceptions about performance, and hamper the ability to identify breakout players. We should evaluate players per minute or, better yet, per possession. But the latter concept is too great a leap for the mainstream.

In the meantime, here’s an alternative to points per game. True Scoring Rate (TSR) is simply a player’s points scored per 36 minutes. Why 36 minutes? That’s the approximate average for a top NBA starter. This way we find out who scores at the greatest rate, something points per game has never done.

Points per game shortchanges players like Kyrie Irving, who had played just 31 minutes per game (through February 23). Irving ranked 23rd in points per game (18.1), but his 21.1 TSR placed 15th, ahead of point guards Tony Parker (20.3) and Chris Paul (19.1). Both surpassed him in points per game, largely because they saw more minutes.

True Scoring Rate is not really new, just a way of simplifying per minute rates. It’s easy to understand and calculate. Most importantly, it adjusts for the large discrepancies in playing time.

The next Jeremy Lin might be sitting on an NBA bench right now, and TSR can help find him.

We Can Do That

Critics like to point out the shortcomings of sports statistics. There are areas where the numbers have minimal impact. But much of the criticism comes from misunderstanding what analytics do best.

A recent article stated that statistics do a much better job of describing the past than predicting the future. While there is some truth to that point, the predictive power depends on what you’re measuring.

The article states that no stat could have predicted that Mark Whiten would have the greatest one-game offensive performance ever. That’s true, but it’s also an impossible task. On the other hand, metrics like batting average on balls in play and home runs per fly ball can identify which hitters should break out after slow starts. Remember Dan Uggla earlier this season?

The real power of sports analytics is what they can do now and will do in the future, especially when combined with technology and/or social media. Last week, I learned about an Austin startup which built an algorithm that measures the level of excitement in sports games. Now fans know immediately if their favorite team is headed for a thrilling finish and whether to watch the game or not.

Several years ago, while struggling to learn a new computer program, a colleague offered invaluable advice: write down everything you’d like the program to do, because it probably has that capability. Turns out that it could do everything I thought of and far more.

I believe analytics and technology can solve many of the problems agents and other sports insiders face. In general, sports analytics can do much more than we realize.

What is your greatest challenge? Analytics may have a solution.

The Other Side of Twitter

I’ve built a sports news gathering organization comparable to ESPN. There are 640 correspondents everywhere from Rio de Janeiro to Rochester, New York to Vilnius, Lithuania. Twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week, the news keep flowing directly to my phone. And it costs absolutely nothing.

Some view Twitter as a way of reaching out to others, which is absolutely true. But there’s another huge component that rarely gets mentioned: Twitter enables you to customize the news that comes to you. Whether I want to learn about a hot high school basketball prospect in New York City, track a minor leaguer in Williamsport, Pennsylvania or learn about emerging sports research or technology, I have a source.

Twitter has major advantages over more traditional ways of gathering information, even Google:

1) Getting the jump on real-time sports information. If there is a big trade brewing or other breaking news, you’ll see it on Twitter well before it hits the major sports websites. Why? Writers like Buster Olney or Ken Rosenthal will usually tweet before they post a story. It takes far less time to blast out 140 characters than an entire article that needs to pass through editors before reaching a webpage.

2) Everything comes to you. The mindset has always been to seek out topics which interest and have value to us. Since Twitter enables you to select followers and subjects that provide news you care about, there is no effort or energy required to find it. Whenever you want it, specialized information is there waiting for you.

3) Going beyond Google. For all its strengths, Google requires multiple steps to finding great sports info. You need to first find the right search terms. When you do, there’s no guarantee Google will have what you need. Even if it does, you may waste time sifting through meaningless links. With Twitter, the posts and links come to you. Your trusted followers do the legwork!

While negative tweets have come back to haunt athletes and other people in sports, it’s not very common. Besides, interacting isn’t necessary. It’s possible to build your news gathering organization without ever posting.

I’ve heard skeptics say “I barely have time to check email, why do I want to get on Twitter?” Unlike email, Twitter isn’t something you need to respond to. I’ll avoid reading Twitter for several days during baseball arbitration season. If somebody wants to contact you via Twitter, they’ll use one of its methods that directs correspondence to your inbox, just like an email.

For sports agents, the other side of Twitter can have tremendous value. And it will only get bigger and better.

Properly Valuing Hit Types

It seems logical that a double is twice as good as a single, a triple three times as good as a single, etc. However, the run values for offensive events vary tremendously from those figures. And they also change over time, depending on the level of offense in the Major Leagues.

Making use of a statistical technique called regression analysis, The Sports Resource calculated run values for five offensive events over two different time frames. Run production dipped from the first timeframe (2000-07) to the second (2008-10), which impacted the results.

The value for triples stands out more than anything else, especially in the more recent timeframe. There’s a large gap between the value of doubles (.75 runs) and triples (1.28), and a much narrower one separating triples (1.28) and home runs (1.42). Common sense would assume that a hit covering 4 bases would carry 33 percent more value than one for three bases. But the actual difference is just 10.9 percent.

What does this mean for agents? Players who hit lots of triples and relatively few homers – such as Jose Reyes and Dexter Fowler – produce more runs than many would think. For example, Reyes' three homers and 11 triples (through June 13) are equivalent to 13 homers and 0 triples.

The other interesting change is the drop in run value for singles. The best possible explanation is that with less overall offense, it’s harder to bring home runners from first base (especially due to the dip in home run rate). In addition, there tends to be fewer runners on base when singles get hit than from 2000 through 2007, further decreasing their value.

Sports Statistics as a Marketing Tool

Politicians discovered the power of numbers long ago. One might say “my administration created one million more jobs than any other in history.” Of course, it only takes a few minutes to pick that apart: How many jobs were lost? What was the net increase? What was the percentage increase? What was the average salary of these created jobs? But by the time his statement gets scrutinized, the politician moves on to the next talking point.

The same thing works in sports. In 2009, when Colt McCoy was a top Heisman Trophy candidate, the media repeated this statement over and over: “McCoy has won more games than any quarterback in college football history.” Wins are powerful, the true currency of sports. The stat spread everywhere and stuck in people’s minds, even though it was not a particular good statistic.

McCoy won more football games partly because he played in so many. Longer seasons and conference title games gave him more opportunity to record victories. Yes, he won the most games of any quarterback, but he was one of 22 starters. And many of those former teammates have joined him in the NFL.

Obviously it took a great quarterback to win that many football games. McCoy had to earn the starting job and keep it four years; no easy feat at a top program. He had a major role in 45 wins. Nonetheless, teams win games, not quarterbacks.

The McCoy stat still got extensive airtime on sports talk radio, highlight shows and game broadcasts. As with a smooth-talking politician, there was little opportunity in those settings to contradict it with objective evidence.

This demonstrates the power of numbers. Since few people effectively use sports statistics as a marketing tool, they present a blank canvas to work with. And the timing couldn’t be better with the rise of social media, when you may only get 140 characters to send a clear powerful message.

If even bad stats have value, can you imagine the impact from innovative statistical content? Finding this isn’t easy – as the best information lies beyond the core stats that dominate the mainstream sports media – but it is well worth the effort.