First, a disclosure: I’ve been a Phoenix Suns fan since the mid-’90s, the days of Charles Barkley, Dan Majerle and Kevin Johnson. So I’ve been following them a long time, and especially now, since they’re in the Western Conference Finals.
The Suns also reached the conference finals in 2005 and 2006, both losing efforts — but this year has been a particularly interesting experience. On the sports side of it, it’s because when this team is doing well (I say that because this series hasn’t exactly shown much of it), it is contagious to watch. The Suns play at a fast pace and with some of the best chemistry I’ve seen in a long time out of the NBA.
This year, there’s another side to it: The networking side. The Suns, from the organization down to the players, are showcasing a great use of social networking and communication.
I’ll explain, starting from the top.
The organization
Every team in the NBA and other major sports has a Twitter account they use to link to stories, provide updates and sometimes retweet players and fans. The Suns organization uses theirs better than most. It uses a universal account, @PhoenixSuns, and it doesn’t just use it to spread team news. It regularly does promotions, holds contests for tickets (even to playoff games!) and retweets its fans, among other things. There’s no face to the account, but the organization still gets on ground level and interacts with its audience — a lot. 
The Suns’ vice president of interactive services, Jeramie McPeek, explains on Twitter interaction (watch the entire video, it’s a great peek at what they do):
Be relevant, be transparent, give them sort of a behind-the-scenes look into your world … and after awhile, they’ll start to appreciate that and feel connected to you and want to follow you and tell their friends about you, and it just kind of spreads virally from there.
Another thing I love: The Suns organization gets its employees involved, too. Have them be “brand ambassadors,” as McPeek says.
All of this needs to apply to more organizations, particularly in news. When I look at a newspaper’s Twitter feed, I don’t want to see a rehashed RSS feed of headlines. If I want today’s headlines, I’ll go to your Web site. What makes Twitter so useful, as we’ve established, is how it allows us to connect with millions of people on a simple interface and interact with them. Mix in some news headlines every now and then, especially breaking news as it develops, but get your followers involved by talking with them, retweeting, holding promotions/contests, etc. Easy.
The players
Another dynamic to the 2010 Suns’ playoff run: Now I can follow players on Twitter, such as Steve Nash, Grant Hill, Amar’e Stoudemire, Jason Richardson (who’s from my hometown of Saginaw, Mich.) and Jared Dudley.
Typically, players will use their account to interact with friends, other players and sometimes talk to a fan or two. But I was really impressed by one of Jared Dudley’s tweets Friday night (right).
The Suns, down 2-0 after two tough losses in Los Angeles, were basically back to the drawing board last week. They had little success in shutting down Kobe and the Lakers’ big men (Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom), and their shooting rarely got going, except for a run in the third quarter of Game 2 that tied the game entering the fourth. So they went to work in the three days between games.
Dudley comes off the bench for Phoenix, but he has quickly become one of my favorite players, in part because of his interaction in interviews and with fans. Most professional basketball players wouldn’t think of asking fans what they think their team needs to do to win. Not only did Dudley do that, but he retweeted several responses. He said he received more than 600 replies and said his teammates would read them as well. The adjustments they made, whether influenced by fans, seem to have paid off so far — the Suns won Game 3 and have a chance to even the series Tuesday.
Interaction is key
Newspapers around the country are trying to find ways to better connect to today’s audience. While some are having success at using their Twitter account with some versatility, many really should take a page from the Suns’ playbook.
What they are succeeding at is bridging unity between the organization, the players and the fans.
The Suns are closing the gap between themselves (including the players) and their audience, the same sort of gap that is ever so wide between news companies and readers. And the timing, with this being playoff season, is impeccable. While reaching the Western Conference Finals certainly helps liven up a fan base, so does reaching out to them and listening to them. The more connected the fans feel, the louder they’ll scream at games, the more loyal they’ll stay to your organization.
The Phoenix Suns — from the top of the organization down to the beloved players on the court — are setting a standard news companies should achieve.
Oh — and to the team — good luck the rest of the series! I’ll be watching a couple thousand miles away.
Posted by Brian Manzullo at May 24, 2010
Journalism, Social Media