The TwHEATup Is On!

After writing in this space on April 8 about the San Francisco Giants decision to have a Tweetup at their April 30 game, I mentioned that three of the four local South Florida professional teams were kind enough to let me know they were researching ways to continue increasing their social media activities with their fans in the future.

To that, I wondered aloud as to which South Florida team would be the first to take advantage and hold a TEAM-SPONSORED fan tweetup. (I was reminded two weeks ago some Twitter users staged a small tweetup at a Marlins game late last season but it was not sponsored by the team).

As it turns out, the weight took all of 13 days, as Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel broke the story in her Business of Sports Blog Wednesday afternoon that the @MiamiHEAT (whose Twitter name used to be @MHEAT) were using Game 3 of their NBA First Round Playoff Series against the Boston Celtics to stage the team's first-ever Tweetup.

In fact, they're taking the bold step of branding the event with a special name -  twHEATup.   Kudos to the person in the organization that figured out twHEATup and Tweetup are pronounced the same.

For $50, twHEATup participants will receive:

• Seats in Section 307 (the special twHEATup section for the evening)
• Halftime Meet & Greet with Heat Dancers
• Postgame Meet & Greet with Former Miami Heat legend Tim Hardaway

Although parking is not included, the ticket price for this special event is a savings of between 16 to 40 percent off the normal single ticket price.

Hopefully, our friends with the Florida Marlins, Florida Panthers and Miami Dolphins will follow suit with tweetups in the coming weeks and months now that the Heat has stepped up and determined how to package the event.  I said it was brilliant when the San Francsico Giants did this, and I applaud the Heat for taking a chance on something they haven't done before.

The only remaining decision for the twHEATup may be which hashtag attendees should use at the event, as the ad for the event shows #LETSGOHEAT and #BLACKisBACK.

Either way, hopefully this is the start of a new era in South Florida sports.

Know Your Audience

I was sitting at work today when I received an email from a vendor of ours.  The email template letter began with with three words that caused me to tune out everything else:

Dear Valued Client

In this world where new ways to communicate seemingly evolve each day, to receive a letter with this greeting on it tells me two things about whether you truly believe we're a valued client:


1) You chose convenience over thoughtfulness - Rather than spend the extra 10-15 minutes to mail merge with your customers' last names, to simply have everyone listed as "valued client" makes me feel anything but that way.


2) You chose chest-thumping over caring - Half of the letter from this vendor trumpeted every great thing this company has done during his long and storied history.  Unfortunately for them, I didn't read a single, solitary word once they decided to not identify me by name.

 Now, it could just be I'm overly sensitive to greetings because of the thousands of times in my life I have had people misspell my last name in a greeting (which actually doesn't bother me as much as when people start a letter to me Dear Tony!); however, when I get emails from vendors who have taken the time to learn my first and/or last name, i am certainly going to at least open the email and read it.

The bottom line: If you're calling someone a valued client in your greeting, it's as if you don't know them at all.

Role Model

My father Robert would have turned 79 years old today.  Life has been completely different for me these last 13 months.

This photo is probably my all-time favorite of my dad and I.  On this particular day in March of 2005, me, my brother-in-law Ira and my dad made a journey to Dodgertown in Vero Beach to watch a spring training game.  The tree over my left shoulder gave us shade the entire game, and we liked it so much, my dad had no problem joining us for trips in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (the final year Dodgertown was open before the team abandoned Florida for Arizona).

That's the kind of person my dad was.  If I was interested in something, he became interested in it, too.

He was always a Dunkin' Donuts fan even before I started working with them from a PR standpoint - once I did that, he always made it a point to call me and tell me when he was visiting one for a cup of coffee.

He sat through two heartbreaking FSU losses to Miami in 2000 and 2002 in the upper deck despite being afraid of heights. 

He originally began listening to Meat Loaf and Queen because I liked both groups.

He began using the internet in 2000 while I was still in Tallahassee so he could email me, watch music videos on YouTube and get sports news from ESPN, long past the average age of people who use computers.

He even let me explain Twitter to him, and understood it enough that when I showed him I was quoted in a Sarah Talalay article eight days before he died, he laughed (because the quote was about his short height) and told me he was proud of me.

I miss him the most in the mornings on the way to work - I used to call him religious at 8am to talk about sports, life and whatever else was on his mind or mine.

In short, my dad was my role model and I always try to do everything for my children that he did for me.  I'm happy that my son had a great relationship with him and that he got to spend one year getting to play with my daughter.

Happy Birthday, Daddy. Enjoy the donut!

Proud Papa

Today was my father's unveiling.  It was nice to see so many friends and relatives come out and make it a point even 13 months after his funeral to be part of this solemn occasion.

Sometimes there's things your children do that you will remember for a day or two but quickly forget due to other great memories.

My son did something at the unveiling that 20 years from now I'll remember and still be as proud of him then as I was of him at the ceremony.

When my mother asked if anyone wanted to say any words about my dad AKA Robert AKA Bobby AKA Bob AKA Grandpa, my son raised his hand and walked over to the shiny new headstone which showed my dad was a beloved Son, Father, Grandfather and friend to all.

My son looked down at the headstone and said he misses his grandpa and he will always think of him whenever he watches a New York Jets game.

Then, he did the thing I'll never forget.

He sang Take Me Out To The Ball Game, and even as a six-year-old, not only did he get all of the lyrics right, he changed up home team to "Tigers", my dad's favorite baseball team.

When he concluded, the people that were there with us clapped while I welled up with pride.  Thought my son only knew my dad for five years, they were a great five years.  My son lost his grandpa at the exact same age I lost my grandpa (my dad's father).  The difference is, while I wasn't close to my dad's father, my son enjoyed hanging out with my dad.

When we left the cemetery and got into my wife's car, I told my son how proud I was of him.  He smiled and asked me if I could hand him his Nintendo DSI.

Kids!

A Giant Step

First and foremost, I'm back.

I can't believe I haven't blogged since January 2009. I thought about deleting that entry after reading it over, but I figured that would be wrong.

Why did I stop blogging? Many reasons. My father passed away in March of 2009 and I went into a funk. When I'm at work, ideas come to me without much problem, but at home, the few times I tried to blog, I just couldn't come up with anything to say.

Then it hit me - I'm overthinking.

Some of my friends (@carrieimpactpr, @agustinap) challenged me to get it going once again. One of my friends (@jarret23) started his blog a week ago and has cranked out about one entry a day and is doing great coming up with ideas.

So I decided it's important for me to do this for myself and not get hung up on whether I have the perfect topic.

Which brings me to the San Francisco Giants and their April 30 Tweetup.

Surfing the internet this past weekend, I stumbled across the ad to the right. For $20 on April 30 in San Francisco, a fan would receive:

• Panel discussion with social media experts (which, it turns out, one of whom is one of the Twitter co-founders)
• First 1,000 fans receive official "Follow Us" Tweetup T-Shirt
• Private pre-game Tweetup Party
• Seats in the special Tweetup section
• Partial Proceeds go to a local non-profit

When I saw this, the first thought that came to mind: BRILLIANT.

Finally, a sports team came up with a way to marry two things that benefit them in the long run: Putting a fair value on a package that would cause them to make money, and reaching out to a community of passionate fans who probably follow the Giants online, like I do with the #Rays.

The full details: http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/sf/ticketing/special_events/tweetup.jsp

What struck me as interesting about this is that Sarah Talalay, the talented Sports Business Writer from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel writer, wrote a front-page sports story about our four local South Florida sports teams in March 2009, and the only team at that time with any true social media presence was the Miami Heat.

It's 13 months later, and when I reached out to all four sports teams (@MHEAT, @Marlins411, @MiamiDolphins, @FlaPanthers), three of them were kind enough to let me know they are researching ways to continue increasing their social media activities with their fans.

The bottom line: Anything that makes people feel part of a community and creates goodwill between a sports team and its fans is greatly appreciated.

The race is on - which South Florida team will be the first to take advantage?

New Year's Resolutions

Once again, a few weeks go by, and I become entranced in updating what's going on in my life. Since last I wrote:

• I finally met my cousin Kenny's wife in person
• I attended a fun reunion of old high school friends at Howl at the Moon in Ft. Laud
  
• I saw the Seminoles win the Champs Sports Bowl in person in Orlando
• I saw the Seminoles defeat Western Kentucky in Basketball in person in Sunrise, where I grew up
• I saw Virginia Tech defeat Cinncinnati in person at the 2009 Orange Bowl, where I hung out with old friends Drew and Dave
• I saw a couple of great movies
• I had fun with Orange & Blue Donuts (which I never thought was possible)
• I went to a couple of birthday parties with Bailey and Riley
• I have yet to watch a complete NFL playoff game this season
• I have continued working hard at my rehab on my left achilles tendon

With so many things over the last few weeks, I decided to sit down tonight and talk about my 2009 resolutions:

1) I intend to update my blog on a more consistent basis. With so many crazy things going on in my life at different times, I should always take a moment for myself and write.

2) I want to keep my house more clean. It has been a battle for 4 1/2 years now and hopefully one we start winning this year.

3) I want to earn my APR certification in PR. I have belonged to PRSA for over 7 years now, and finally feel like I have time to commit to going for it. This is one of those personal achievements that I will be quite proud of when I can have those letters next to my name.

4) I want to spend more time seeing friends and fraternity brothers in person. Over the last month, I have already seen more people from the old days and current friends than I can ever remember, so my hope here is to keep doing what I'm doing.

5) I want my wife to know how proud I am of her for her dedication to going to the gym, which in turn has made me have to commit to waking up earlier to dress both kids long after she's gone in the morning. So far so good!

6) I want my rehab to be over soon, not because I don't like to go (my PT is a great guy and very funny), but because once I do that, I can start walking again (like I used to in Tallahassee), which will then hopefully spur me to follow my old eating ways rather than getting off course (which is easy to do when you're on your back for 3 weeks and unable to walk long distances for almost 3 months).

7) I want the Seminoles to beat the South Florida Bulls (my wife's alma mater) in September 2009, so she can't go on and on and on about it for three years (when they have their rematch in 2012).

8) I want to keep expanding my horizons with Social Media - A lightbulb went off in my head back in late-August and I have been fiercely active ever since. Twitter is my favorite and I want it to keep taking me to heights I never imagined.

9) I want to hold my emotions in check this August when Bailey starts Kindergarten on his first day of school. Boy, that will be quite a day. At least his mom will be down the hall!

10) Finally, I want to try and read one book a month. I have ALWAYS been a terrible reader. I would like to try to stick to this plan, so if anyone has any books they recommend that they think I would like, I'm all ears.

Happy 2009 to all!

Life is But a Tweet Away

Let me begin by saying I can't believe it's been over seven weeks since I last updated my blog. When I first started it, I fully intended to do it 2-3 times a week. However, between tearing my achilles tendon in mid-October and simply having other interests these days, I haven't found the time.

It's been quite an interesting year on many levels for me. I've had some rough patches but found a way to work through them. I feel more in control of things than ever before. I am not shy to voice my opinion and I've decided life is too short for games and drama.

I've got a beautiful wife who I first wrote to via http://www.jewishsinglesconnection.com/ (the predecessor to J-Date) on December 23, 1998, which means we have been together for 10 years now. She is my rock and my strength and I love her more than words can say. I'm trying hard to help keep the house clean and help more and more with things I used to put off.

We are fortunate to be blessed with two beautiful children - Bailey, our 4 1/2 year old son, and Riley, our daughter who turned one this past Sunday. They are both amazing children, and after so many difficulties trying to have both of the, we feel fortunate to be blessed with such wonderful kids.

My job at Tilson Communications is going well. I've been there for a little over 2 years and am enjoying the versatility of our clients. I am also speaking up a lot more and not shy when it comes to my opinion.

One discovery I made this year that has changed the way I approach everything is a micro-blogging service called Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/). In 140 characters, you tell people what you are doing, answer questions, and basically communicate with people of similar interests. I first discovered the service in late-August through a tele-seminar that I wasn't expecting to learn much from.

Then, a lightbulb went off. I immediately understood how great this service was. I saw it as a tool for personal and professional use. I try to integrate a little humor into my tweets whenever possible.

In almost four months' time, I have tweeted from events such as Dunkin' Donuts grand openings, Alan Snel's Tampa Bay Rays celebration ride, an FSU-Miami Football Game, Dania Jai-Alai, Pompano Park at The Isle Casino, an AC/DC Concert, the launch of @TrulyNolen on twitter, rehab appointments for my left ankle, and much more.

I have also discovered the power of people, as a Chicago-area PR professional named @PRSarahevans created a weekly group discussion at http://www.journchat.info/. Created as a way to bring PR professionals together with journalists to discuss relevant topics to each profession, it has caught on like wildfire and I have met so many great people over the last two weeks. In addition, I'm always taking the principles I learn in the discussions back to the office where I work and sharing with my great colleagues.

The way I have my Facebook account set up, my Twitter updates often reset my FB status. I have had friends make snide comments about the amount of updates I do.

You know what? If it makes ME happy, I'm not going to let others bring me down. If I want to tweet a set list from AC/DC, that's my choice. If my friends don't want to read it on FB, they can skip my page that day. If someone on Twitter doesn't like it, they can unfollow me.

So, fair warning to my Facebook friends - I'll be tweeting from our Nova High Class of 1990 (and other classes) reunion at Howl at the Moon this Friday night. Know why? Because I want to. Period.

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to all and too all a good night!