BrianManzullo.com

The importance (and impact) of branding

Tuesday’s big story in azcentral.com sports (where I work) was the unveiling of Arizona State University’s new uniforms, logo and color scheme.

This press conference was built up for some time by the ASU athletics department. This past Saturday, they offered a inside peek at the new identity via invitation only in nearby Scottsdale. And even if you forked over the $125 to go (no pun intended), you had to sign an agreement saying you would not leak it to the public.

So that event drew quite a buzz, yet nothing was leaked until Tuesday. The slogan: “It’s time.” The font: “Sun Devil bold” (see right). The uniforms: The usual maroon and gold… with black as the new arrival. Nike, the same company notorious for the University of Oregon’s athletic look, spearheaded the effort for ASU.

(If you want an idea of how much anticipation surrounded this event, our slideshow on azcentral.com raked in more than 550,000 hits within four hours of the press conference. Insane.)

This might not seem like a big deal to sports fans; a handful of universities and pro teams change logos/uniforms/etc. every year. But for ASU, it wasn’t just about modernizing the look. It was about making Sun Devils athletics an official brand. I mean, they invented a new typeface, for Pete’s sake.

A lot of ASU alumni are upset for the university “changing tradition.” They especially don’t like the mascot, Sparky, being somewhat diminished in the identity, especially on the football helmets. Problem is, this “evolution” of the ASU brand was never about pleasing alumni; it’s about making the Sun Devils brand “official.” It’s about bringing in recruits. It’s about bringing current students and faculty together. It’s about changing the face and developing excitement, especially around the football and basketball programs.

Most of all, it’s about bringing in money — but that’s beside the point.

Point is, ASU showcased a great example of why branding is important. It makes properties “official.” It makes them consistent and credible. It gives them an easy-to-recognize identity. It provides unity. In cases of “re-branding,” such as ASU’s, it motivates and excites the community.

And the branding effort doesn’t even have to be universal; it can be about the little things. Take ESPN, for example. As much as I’ve bashed ESPN in the past, they have branding down to a tee. SportsCenter. SportsNation. Page 2. 30 for 30. Year of the QB. E60. Playoff Challenge. Streak for the Cash. ESPN Arcade. ESPN brands everything, from its shows to its sites, from its films to its games.

If we’re going to optimize this concept to newspaper websites, we have to start with the little things. The universal brand is probably already there – The New York Times (NYTimes.com) is a good example.

What about weekly online features? The Arizona Republic sports section has what is called the “Sunday Showcase” for bigger sports features. What about periodical live chats? Last year, while I was editor at Central Michigan Life, we began the “Digital Roundtable” series. What about sections of your site (lifestyles, photo, video, etc.), outreach efforts or online advertising campaigns? Even give the little Facebook games/contests you host for readers a name and a logo.

Then, when readers see that identity, whether it’s the flag of a webpage or a thumbnail logo on a social media posting… they know what to expect.

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Do you party like a journalist?

A bit of background: About a week and a half ago, I finally earned my invite to try out Storify, a social media storytelling tool that allows you to combine tweets, Facebook posts, videos and more to tell effective stories.

One of my favorite simple examples of Storify’s use is Adam Schweigert’s story of Ted Williams, the homeless man who became an Internet sensation with his “golden” radio voice. Storify helps being a personal touch to many of the stories we tell because, sometimes, the way a story breaks on social media with the actual people involved is more effective than a reporter relaying the information all the time. Here’s a great example of a story told via Facebook posts.

Anyhow, to test out Storify and get a feel for its basic use, I compiled a search of tweets with the hashtag #partylikeajournalist. Hopefully, if you’re a journalist on Twitter, you know what that is by now. The things we do, the experiences we cover are those only a journalist can recall.

Without further ado…

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How to train your Webslinger: A creativity boost through engagement

Sometimes it takes a sitdown with some of the more creative minds in social media and journalism to get your brain into overdrive.

That’s how I viewed the first meeting of the “Webslingers,” a group of about 15 Phoenix-area journalists, social media gurus and Web geeks (some would classify under all three) formed by Arizona Republic social media editor Chad Graham. Most of us in the group got together Friday night for the first of hopefully many informal discussions of ideas and strategies relating to our work.

This was the sort of thing I envisioned getting involved in when I first came out to Arizona. It’s all too easy to fall into a daily routine of going to work, doing your job and coming home to rest; it can put a real damper on thinking “outside the box.” Which is what journalism needs.

Having these meet-ups helps for a lot of reasons: It’s outside the office setting. It involves people from a variety of professions (one Webslinger works for a construction company). It’s informal. It gives you a chance to hear perspective from the outside looking in on your work. And, of course, it involves appetizers and beer, although the latter of which I couldn’t enjoy; I had work afterward.

My favorite part about the meet-up Friday: Nothing concrete came out of it. As I eluded to earlier, the point is to stimulate creative, critical thinking. The point is to walk out with inspiration; your brain in a rush to experiment, start or finish projects or discuss ideas even further. The point is to break out of the daily mold a little bit with something new. These meet-ups will most likely take place once a month, which is certainly good enough given everyone’s busy schedules… here’s hoping they continue to get better.

Speaker series

Starting today, I have another opportunity to get the creative juices flowing.

Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is hosting a speaker series this semester, at 7 p.m. every Monday, featuring some of the most prominent minds in journalism. It starts with Brian Storm, founder and executive producer of MediaStorm, and will feature journalists from NPR, CNN, The New York Times, The Seattle Times and more throughout the next few months.

I plan on going to all of them. So should you, if you live in the Phoenix area!

If not, a word of advice to fellow young journalists: Check out the nearest journalism school (that is, if you aren’t currently attending one) and see if any events are coming up that are open to the public. Even if it doesn’t necessarily involve your exact line of work, it’s great to network with as many people as possible in media and communications.

And if there are no events? Start them. Start a meet-up. Invite speakers. Make connections. Take initative.

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A quick roundup of online journalism at work during Election 2010

As a journalist, I’ve never been too involved on the politics side of reporting.

With that confession aside — I love election days.

Not just because few feelings compare to the rush of being in a newsroom on an election night, either. I remember working Central Michigan Life’s website in 2008, during the presidential election, constantly posting voting updates whether they be local or national. I also worked a township election night at The Saginaw News as a reporter, although that was a little less hectic.

The main reason why I love election night: Much of what I wish for in online innovation comes alive, if only temporary.

Look, I know a lot of news outlets are innovating on a somewhat daily or weekly basis on a multitude of stories and issues. But on no other day during the year is there such a large plethora of “true” online journalism at work, across all platforms imaginable. It’s like a museum. Sites are going social, going visual, checking in, building graphs and maps, interacting, crowdmapping, crowdsourcing, fact-checking, . Some news outlets are even trending!

Could you imagine if this sort of quality digital journalism and innovation was employed on a much more regular basis? Not just with elections or politics, but with stories ranging across all topics and genres?

I decided to wring together some links showcasing the different examples of online journalism at work from election day (yesterday). Some of these ideas may have been done before, but made better; others are completely original and should be replicated in more markets. Either way, they’re all worth checking out.

• In social media: To track users who voted on election day, Foursquare encouraged users to check in and use the hashtag #ivoted, using this information to map out every voter via state. Using #ivoted on Twitter generated a graphic, much like we saw during the World Cup. (Speaking of Twitter, the Washington Post attained a promoted hashtag, #election, for its coverage) Finally, Facebook is tallying users who voted, much like it did in previous years, while also helping you find your polling place.
• MSNBC.com is featuring just about everything on its election page: From blogs to maps to graphics to indexes to hashtag art, even. It also offered readers a chance to join the election conversation.
• The New York Times created a Twitter visualization that tracks the number of tweets regarding political candidates over time. The coolest part is watching the visualization play out over time.
• TBD.com employed reader engagement by asking them to help track voting problems throughout D.C. using Crowdmap. This allowed other users to take a look at what could arise at their local polling booth.
• Many newspaper websites have been using Storify to embed voters’ voices to their sites during the elections.
• The Washington Post, as expected, has put together a ton of interactive maps and multimedia for the elections. One example: The live results map for the House and Senate, which goes from county to county.
• For being in a new state, azcentral.com has been helpful in making information convenient to find for this year’s election (Disclosure: I work here). My favorite part is the Fact Check tool, which helps hold Arizona politicians accountable for their claims. A great way to find out who’s honest.

More roundups (with even more links!):

• The multimedia blog 10,000 Words (now with multiple awesome writers, by the way) featured 10 exceptional election front pages. Every example employs a diverse range of multimedia coverage.
• Nieman Journalism Lab put together a roundup of what several news organizations had planned for election coverage.
• DNAinfo.com offers another roundup of election coverage links, although many of these I already have listed above.
• The Society of Professional Journalists’ Toolbox offers a huge list of election resources.

And last, but not least: Some election night visuals from newsrooms around the country, courtesy of Robert Hernandez, a professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. I miss that rush of being in a newsroom during a big news day such as an election night. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Have more examples/links to share? Use the comments below. I’d love to see them.

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Establishing a true online, real-time mentality as a web producer

Last week marked the one-month mark of my job at the Arizona Republic. And with this being my first foray into the web realm on a professional level, I wanted to take time and write down my thoughts on thinking in real-time as a gatekeeper of the Web. Because we’re definitely entering an age of real-time information. Even Google these days is conducting search in real-time as you type.

When you grow up during a time where news is dominated by newspaper monopolies, it’s difficult to think about how to translate that work online without wiping the slate clean. You can’t just put a cast on the problem and let it heal. You have to rethink the business model. You have to rethink the newsgathering process. You have to rewrite job descriptions, reorganize the newsroom structure and, most of all, start with the web, not the print. That’s the future of the business.

But I don’t want this thread to envelop into a notebook about “online journalism” — that could be made into its own hardcover. I just want to encompass what it’s like to think real-time when you’re working as an online producer. As a gatekeeper of the Web. Mainly because this is the sort of real-time thinking that should apply to every job in the newsroom. Much of this tailors toward what I’m doing at The Republic, but I’m also writing on-the-go about things I’ve learned at Central Michigan Life and from observing other news companies such as the Grand Rapids Press (where I interned twice on the copy desk).

1. Constantly cycling content

I start with this because, essentially, it’s the most important part. When you’re thinking online, you constantly have to think about the viewers’ experience. Don’t think about what you want to see; think about what your reader wants. How do you keep them coming to you for the news they want? This isn’t always easy.

The newspaper mentality was much different because newspapers, essentially, were meant to be read once per person per day. They’re picked up once and either thrown away or left somewhere for someone else to read. Once. The online mentality obviously doesn’t work that way. As consumers in 2010, we are now wired to consume information multiple times a day and expect something new every time we look something up. We check our computers and our phones throughout the day, checking in on all our favorite websites to consume information, either in the social realm (Facebook), news realm (New York Times), or anywhere else. Newspaper sites should strive to be one of those “favorites” that we bookmark, and they get there by constantly updating and cycling content. Staying on top of the ball.

One of my duties as night producer at the Republic is to keep the sports site fresh with content, including each of the team sites. While I’m not constantly posting new things, I will cycle content into different spots to give them a share of play on the site’s “hot spots.” And they’re not just stories, either — I’ll use slideshows, blog posts, videos and more. It’s all content. And it’s not going to flow in like a river throughout the night; sometimes, you have to cycle different things you’ve posted in conjunction with other content and keep your site looking fresh. Or just create new content. Which brings me to…

2. Content generation on the fly

As a producer, there are going to be times where everything you can post is posted, and each of the indexes on the site are as updated as can be. This is probably my favorite part of the job — because it allows me to be creative and work on “projects.”

For example, on Sunday nights, one project I will do is “A look at the next opponent.” I’ll do this for Arizona and Arizona State’s football teams. I gather 10-20 images of their next opponent in game action throughout the season, gather their captions and provide extra information about the team in each caption – for example, player stats, coaching history, team history and the team’s success with UA or ASU. Here’s a quick one I did last week for UA’s opponent that weekend, Washington State. It’s a bit smaller than usual given time constraints, but you get the idea.

Another idea I came up with a few Sundays ago was a small slideshow on the Phoenix Suns’ preseason roster battle. One story I had to post was on five players battling for two open spots on the team’s regular-season roster. While reading it over, I thought it’d be a cool idea to put some images together and provide background information on each player. This was the end result (the final slide is since removed because of that player being waived).

These projects are by no means comprehensive. But they offer something new and give readers something visual to look at while consuming information, piece by piece, in a more convenient matter. More stories could be told like this, and they should be.

3. Taking a written story in print and telling it visually online

For many newspapers, this isn’t really a new concept but, for a lot of others, the process from print-to-online is still very routine: Take a story from print, post it online, give it a better SEO headline, URL and attach an image. And move on.

It’s not that the process is wrong — it’s definitely not. You want to tell stories this way, particularly for current mobile platforms. But there are a lot of times where I’ll read stories online from various news outlets, big or small, and think, “It’d be great if this story could be told more visually.” As an alternative, of course.

There are examples all over the web of content told visually — video, audio slideshow, Flash, interactive presentations (one of my favorites here). But there are times where content goes all the way through the process — where it is written, edited and ready for online posting — and it can still be told in a sexier way. One example from azcentral.com, although I can’t take credit for this one: Republic columnist Bob Young writes “The Heat Index” several times per week on random topics in Arizona (or national) sports, and he wrote a column recently on Arizona Cardinals quarterback Max Hall, on how he was undrafted and has a chance to follow in a line of successful undrafted quarterbacks. A producer on staff came up with the idea of telling this visually, showing each of the undrafted quarterbacks and separating the story into chunks with each image.

Compare the slideshow here with the original text here. Which would you rather read? (UPDATE: I actually got to do something similar Sunday night with a general story on ASU football. Here’s the print, here’s the slideshow I created.)

There are many other ways to tell stories than with slideshows or videos — Flash, maps, social media, geolocation, etc. But slideshows are the most basic and generally effective way to tell a story differently, especially in sports. And you can do it on the fly as a producer when nothing else is planned for the web.

4. Using social media to connect rather than spoon-feed links

I’ve written about this sort of thing before (See #2 here). For example, most newspapers do have Twitter accounts to their credit, but most of them don’t use them optimally. The point of Twitter, in a nutshell, is to connect with others, not use it as another outlet for links to your stories and features. That’s what an RSS feed is for!

Use Twitter, Facebook and any other social media platforms in a variation. Link to stories, but do other things, too. Talk to others interacting with your account, post developing story updates, occasionally ask for feedback, retweet your writers’ tweets and promote new sections/presentations on the site. Constantly ask what readers think, and make them heard.

That just about scrapes the surface. You also can use a site like Twitter to crowdsource news events and festivals; live blog; develop working relationships with bloggers who provide similar coverage; provide lists of important area users; the list goes on and on and on. You do these things on a daily basis, you earn more “quality followers” — those who will not just follow you, but click your links and interact with you. It builds your brand, your reputation and, ultimately, your overall online product.

Opening the discussion to the floor

Like I said, this is not meant to be comprehensive. These are simply the ideas I’m developing as I go, whether on the job or reading my RSS feed at home. The beauty of the information age is everything that goes into supplying the optimal product for the consumer when you’re working in the real-time information business. It’s not just about what you can provide differently from print.

What are your thoughts on developing a true online mentality? What else do you think goes into the process, and what’s to come in the months, even years, that follow? Comment below!

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The ups and downs of geolocation tools, and what we can learn from them

It seems many people are looking toward geolocation as the future of social media — that is, if it isn’t already “here” now.

The evolution of online networking has taken big steps the past few years. We’ve already nailed down connecting with friends and family (MySpace, then Facebook). We then nailed down connecting with random people and professional types (Twitter). Now we’re in the business of showing people where we’re at and where we’ve been (Foursquare, Gowalla, BrightKite, etc.). Twitter allows us to do this, and Facebook will, too.

Many people I’ve talked to think these geolocation apps are gimmicks — games that some people, especially social media hounds, will drool over, while others will stay content chatting on Facebook and Twitter. Fair enough. But like it or not, there are benefits of geolocation to journalists — although not without ethical and safety issues.

Developing technology

This past #wjchat, on Wednesday, was one of the better ones in terms of covering an issue from every aspect. The guest was Chad Graham, social media editor at azcentral.com (Arizona Republic), and the topic was exactly this: Geolocation. What are its benefits? How can journalists use it? What ethical issues surface from its use?

The reason why, in the first line of this post, I said if it isn’t already “here” now, is because in one sense, geolocation isn’t really “here.” Few people are using it right now outside of tech-savvy, public relations types and social media enthusiasts. Why? Besides the fact that this concept is still quite young, it doesn’t present the wide array of benefits that Twitter and Facebook did when they came along. Apps such as Foursquare can certainly connect you to people based on location, but most people ask, “Why should I make this effort to ‘check in’ to places?”

That’s a good question. Foursquare answers with the mayor label and an array of badges. Incentives (More on this later). So in a sense, geolocation is still developing, and it’s only going to go as far as its popularity. Unless people are given a reason to use this technology now, it’s going to grow slower than the wildfire growth we saw with Twitter and Facebook.

That isn’t to say geolocation will never fully catch on. It is right now, among a few demographics. And it is giving journalists another element to work with when covering stories.

Geojournalism

Graham pointed out several benefits of geolocation Wednesday, including an example on how a tourism reporter can use it. In essence, it allows journalists to easily find people who frequent certain places without having to perform trial-and-error on location.

Another great use of geolocation: Building your brand. Some news organizations, including the Grand Rapids Press (where I currently work), are working to geotag stories with locations, perhaps as “tips.” Therefore, when people are using Foursquare and are looking up places to eat, drink, dance, lay on the beach, etc., they will find written stories (or, even better, summaries with links) about those places. Foursquare organizes tips based on your proximity, so getting as many stories filed onto this tool (and hopefully linked to), the better.

What parts of the newsroom benefit most from geolocation? In my opinion, it’s cops and courts. The most underused element of any news site is the police log. One of the new features of Central Michigan Life’s Web site when it debuted last August (I was editor in chief at the time) was a Google Map embedded into a page that marked critical arrests and incidents based on data from several police departments. This is, by far, the greatest way to present police data to readers, especially if it can be mobilized and track recent crimes based on where the user is at. How many news organizations are still not utilizing this is beyond me.

The Mashable story I linked to above provides more ways of using Foursquare as a journalistic tool. You can use it to source information from tips, crowdsource news w/ badges, etc.

The “dark side” of geolocation

As to be expected, however, there are several ethical and safety concerns that arise when dealing with, you know, showing people where they’re at and when.

A PCWorld story I read recently gave some great reasons what companies can do with your data. The biggest concern? Having Foursquare bought out by another company and having the privacy policy you originally agreed to get thrown out the window. “Imagine the wealth of location data available to legal authorities now,” Dan Tynan writes.

The other great concern, obviously, is safety. Graham pointed out during #wjchat that safety comes first. I completely agree. Geolocation is not enough of a necessity in journalism, and is not recommended for people, including journalists, when there is a concern of safety. One way you can reduce the risk of stalking is by “checking in” to places right before you leave, but the obvious remedy is not using geolocation altogether. People choose to share location-based information, after all.

As for an ethical issue, here’s one, via Graham: Would reporters checking in to places be seen as an endorsement? A former colleague of mine, Chad Livengood, a reporter now with the News Journal in Wilmington, De., addressed a similar issue — “liking” pages on Facebook — by writing this:

NOTE: Because I am a political reporter, I sometimes will become a “fan” of a certain politician, just to see what he/she is writing to constituents and voters. In no way does it mean that I endorse or support any politician or public official. It also does NOT mean I am necessarily a “fan” of them — or vice-versa.

Perhaps a note such as this would quell that issue on Foursquare? It’s an interesting dynamic, for sure. Feel free to comment if you have a take on the matter.

Conclusion

Like it or not, geolocation is going to play a part in the future of social media and journalism. The future of news is hyperlocal and personalized, both of which geolocation plays a part in. Whether apps such as Foursquare or something down the road catch on like wildfire or not, we need to acknowledge that proximity plays a factor in news and what’s going on around you. It always has, in some sense.

There are other little things we can learn from these tools, too. For example, Foursquare’s incentives idea (mayors, badges) should be applied to other areas, such as comments sections (I’ve talked about this before, with Huffington Post’s use of it). It’s a great way to get people a little more motivated to participate in conversation, and it also can allow people to self-moderate the comments area for you.

My hope is that every news organization is experimenting with geolocation and, if it isn’t, it should start as soon as possible if it wants to remain relevant among its readership. After all, if you’re not trying new technologies and staying ahead of the game, you’re falling behind and quickly losing relevance. Just be wary of the safety and ethical implications that arise with this new technology.

One final thought, thanks to Dorrine Mendoza, online content producer for North County Times: Geolocation tools are “like finding a $5 bill, you get unexpected rewards.”

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Michigan news media aggregating an unlikely earthquake

A little before 2 p.m. today, an earthquake (epicenter near Ottawa and Montreal) seemed to shake Michigan, mostly the eastern side of the state. That’s where I happen to be right now, visiting family.

I didn’t feel it, probably because I was driving home when it supposedly happened but, as soon as I read about it on Twitter, I looked for more information.

Here are some of the things I found, mainly from Michigan media, within a span of 40 minutes following the tremors:

• AnnArbor.com was among the first on it. Along with updates on its Twitter, it posted a story and a map of the epicenter, but also incorporated a Twitter feed searching for “earthquake.” That’s a great way to centralize content and conversation on its site.
• The Detroit News Twitter account started simply with this: “Did anyone else feel that?” It would be retweeted nine times (as of me writing this post). However, its site update doesn’t link. (At least not as of 3:07 p.m.)
• MLive.com, initiated by the Grand Rapids Press, posted a story with a lot of aggregation. One of my first thoughts following the quake: Does that happen a lot in Michigan? They were right on top of it with a link. (Michigan’s earthquake history here, thanks to a good friend of mine, Justin Engel)
• The Detroit Free Press had a story online with some aggregation at 2:07 p.m. It would later update on Twitter and Facebook, asking followers what they felt.
• The Globe and Mail in Toronto is all over it, too. There’s a story, a Twitter feed, a live blog and even a Google Map with the epicenter marked. (Have I ever mentioned that Google Maps is still one of the most underused widgets on news sites?)
  
  My favorite part: in the live blog, someone posted a video in the aftermath of the quake, from Ottawa. That happens when you build a strong community around you.

Overall, despite the earthquake being such an unexpected event, it’s nice to see a lot of media around me pick up the story, run with it and think of other ways to incorporate reader discussion. We might forget about this quake a month from now (assuming nothing else happens), but the important thing is readers were talking about it. And they probably will throughout the rest of the day. Progress!

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What reporters and newspapers can learn from the Phoenix Suns

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.

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