Recruiting Process Advice from Tallahassee.com: Try beRecruited

beRecruited had another great press mention - this time by Tallahssee.com's Corey Clark in "Athletes offer tips on the recruiting process." It is a thorough, encouraging article about the proactive role that athletes and their families need to play in the recruiting process. I could not agree more - and this is the fundamental reason I started beRecruited: unless your name is Carmelo Anthony or Kobe Bryant (both of whom are on my television right now), the recruiting process relies on your proactiveness (even for top rated athletes)... particularly in an economic environment where collegiate budgets are suffering. Furthermore, the most successful beRecruited users are the most active ones (take a look at beRecruited's Recently Committed section):

If you're good enough, they'll find you. That's the old saying about college recruiting, right? It's been repeated over the years so much by sports fans, writers and announcers that it's become a mantra of sorts.

It's a mantra however that is completely untrue for 99.9 percent of high school athletes looking for a scholarship.

Because the reality is this: If you think you're good enough, you need to go find them.

"The best advice I can give is to be active," said FSU softball player Carly Wynn.

This doesn't mean cold-calling college coaches and blindly sending out resumes and videotapes. It means making sure to put yourself in a position to be found....

With websites like www.berecruited.com (which has hundreds of thousands of registered athletes – in 18 sports - and more than 10,000 registered college coaches) , you can upload resumes, photos, videos, stats and any other information about yourself you deem worthy. For free.

NBA Launches Player Cam, Facebook Connect for Conference Finals

The NBA clearly has MLB.tv envy...And it's not a bad thing! (now if only the NFL would start experimenting)

I have written before that Major League Baseball is the only major sports league to grasp the web and really innovate with MLB.tv and their successful iPhone App. Well the NBA is starting to test the waters.

During tonight's Conference Finals, viewers can actually follow the game entirely on NBA.com with:

Four-Way Player Cams - Follow Dwight Howard or Lebron James directly - You can also choose between Robo Cam and Action Cam - Swap audio and customize the tiled screen layout (very much like MLB.tv) - No high definition option - but you can view in full screen

Socialize with Facebook, Twitter & MySpace While watching the in-game player cams, you can login with Facebook, Twitter or MySpace and converse on NBA.com. The integration doesn't look great and is far from YouTube's Facebook Connect implementation, but it's a good first step and, I believe, the first pro league integration of Facebook Connect.

Sponsorship Of course, the experience is ad-supported (by Axe Dry) but the integration is slick and non-intrusive.

beRecruited Hits A Milestone: 500,000 Registered Users

This past Tuesday, beRecruited.com reached a major milestone: we registered our 500,000th user - representing 3x growth in the last year. beRecruited now has: - more than 450,000 are student-athletes - over 16,000 college coaches and 17,000 high school and club coaches - 19,000 high schools have active athletes registered with beRecruited, representing more than 100,000 different high school teams As beRecruited's community grows, so do the number of successful recruiting connections... and as the community grows, beRecruited continues to see network effects and continues to be the best, most powerful recruiting tool.

"Coaches from across the country were able to find me on beRecruited.com. Without beRecruited, I can't imagine having even made half of these contacts. It was a great feeling each time I logged on and saw another coach had viewed my profile," said Caelie Fish, a rower from St. Francis HS (Folsom, CA). She is committed to San Diego State University.

"I cannot emphasize enough how helpful beRecruited.com benefited me to get recognized. The most valuable and significant feature of the beRecruited website was that it enabled me to really put myself out there to colleges. Being able to post photos and video clips enabled coaches to see the skills I possess," said Kaygan Hutchison, a Lincoln County HS (Branchlan, WV) basketball player now committed to West Virginia University Institute of Technology.

"Every feature on beRecruited helped me out in some way. I came from a small town, so I had to put myself out there and basically help myself get recruited. My advice would be to do anything you can to help yourself out. And beRecruited will help you out," said Alex Valdivieso, a football player from Braxton County HS (Sutton, WV) who is now committed to Glenville State College.

beRecruited Connects $90,000 Scholarship: From Bath to Mississippi

The best advice I can give to entrepreneurs: create value. If your tool, service or product creates value for its users, it will be successful. It might not be instantaneous. It might take time to arrive upon the right business model. And there might still be growing pains... But by creating value for your users (whether a service, product, content, etc), they will make sure you succeed.

beRecruited as always been focused on a very particular goal: improve the recruiting space by effectively connecting high school athletes and NCAA coaches. There have been opportunities to venture in other directions (related and unrelated) - but we have always been driven by that initial goal. And that focus has enabled us to create the best recruiting tools and community... and thus become an essential, valuable service for our users. The most satisfying press is when the story focuses on the athlete and how they used beRecruited to successfully find a college and/or scholarship. Tonight's Bugle-Observer ran a story of Jocelyn Lockhart of Bath - a college-bound track-and-field athlete who will be attending Southern Mississippi on a $90,000 scholarship thanks to beRecruited:

Jocelyn Lockhart of Bath, one of the Atlantic Provinces' top short- and long-course runners, will be heading south in the coming weeks to continue her top-flight career in track-and-field.

The elite athlete, who is currently a Grade 12 student at Carleton North High School (CNHS) in Florenceville-Bristol and a member of the highly-regarded ASEA club out of Moncton, has been awarded a $90,000 scholarship to attend Southern Mississippi on a four-year deal at the prestigious NCAA university...

"The main part of this process which led me to receive this scholarship started when I was made aware of a recruiting website for high school athletes called berecruited.com," she explained.

"I signed up there, but I also sent out letters to schools I was interested in. I eventually narrowed down my choices to Southern Mississippi, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Maine at Orono."

Congratulations Jocelyn!

ESPN Takes Over Homepage to Promote Taken

Yet another aggressive, interactive ad campaign that has taken over ESPN's homepage. It is perhaps the most aggressive campaign that ESPN has run... and they have run several rich media campaigns recently:

Last week, Apple took over ESPN.com to attack Microsoft's latest campaign. And two months ago, they shook up ESPN.com with a terrific iPhone ad. ESPN reminded us all that Valentines was approaching with a huge JC Penny takeover. ESPN promoted the Star Trek movie... back in late January.

Now, ESPN has used all available real estate other than the headline box (300 x 225) to promote the DVD release of Taken. I like integrated campaigns (in moderation). I like when ad units expand on interaction. But this, frankly, verges on being too much. The only saving grace is that you have to interact with either ad unit to turn the video unit on.

David Ortiz on Facebook Shows Why Some Are Afraid of Social Media

Despite the big traffic and abilities to engage with consumers, some brands are still afraid of social media. Most grasp the power of social media (from blogging to widgets and from Facebook to Twitter), but many are still afraid of what user interactions can lead to.

On Twitter, those interactions are less scary because bad behaviors are often isolated and not tied to the brand itself. For instance, if Ashton Kutcher Twitters about his new movie, negative reactions are not directly connected to Ashton... in the world of blogging, it is akin to turning off your comments (activity can still occur - but not in your stream).

On Facebook, the commentary is directly associated... as David Ortiz and Reebok found out today. Ortiz used Facebook to promote his new auction supporting breast cancer. Within 5 minutes, he got the following reaction:

"Now that you are not doing steroids would you please hit the ball opposite the shift. .220 average is not cutting it for me."

It is unfortunate... but you wonder why fear still exists?

Marketing Case Studies: Manny Ramirez & Dodgers; Mexico & Swine Flu

Thursday's New York Times profiled two messy and complex marketing cases that remind us how quickly things can change and how dangerous relying on any one revenue-stream or person can be:

1. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Manny Ramirez

The Dodgers entire marketing and merchandising campaign was centered around their best player, Manny Ramirez - whom they just signed to a two-year, $45m contract. On Thursday, Manny was suspended for violating MLB's steroid policy and will miss 50 games... not only paralyzing the Dodger's offense, but crushing the organization's marketing campaigns.

2. Mexico, Tourism and the Swine Flu

"It will take a long time for would-be vacationers to forget those images, but the Mexican government is trying to help them, with a multimillion-dollar campaign to restore Mexico’s brand, as hotels cut rates 50 to 70 percent....

When Mexican officials announced almost $2.1 billion in tax breaks and loans to help the Mexican economy recover from the residual effects of the flu, the tourism industry received special attention — loans for hotels and airlines, cuts in airport and port fees, and tax write-offs for businesses — worth, all told, $450 million. The reason is clear. Foreign tourism earned Mexico $13.3 billion last year. Tourism employs more than two million people and accounts for about 8 percent of the economy."

2008-2009 NBA Attendance: Performance as Important as Market Size

In sports, most people associate a team's financial success with its location: typically defined as either small-market or big-market. But the latest data from the 2008-2009 NBA seasons suggests that it is as much a combination of team success as it is market size.

The six teams with the highest percentage of seats at capacity represent a mixture of market size and team competitiveness:

Dallas Mavericks: 104.3% - mediocre season, strong market Portland Trail Blazers: 102.6% - clinched playoff berth today Boston Celtics: 100% - coming off 2007-2008 NBA Championship Los Angeles Lakers: 100% - best record in the Western Conference Phoenix Suns: 100% - competitive team but unlikely playoff berth Utah Jazz: 100% - one of conference's best four teams

The worst performing teams are also the least attended (no shocker)... but it is not necessarily a function of geography:

Memphis Grizzlies: 69.9% capacity, down 1.6% from last year Sacramento Kings: 71.3% capacity, down 12.4% Minnesota Timberwolves: 73.7% capacity, 3 games above 80% capacity Charlotte Bobcats: 74.1% capacity, down 2.9% Philadelphia 76ers: 75.3% capacity; 2 games above 80% capacity

A few more ways to view this:

Three of the NBA's worst team, including the worst team at 16-59, are the least attended: Sacramento Kings (16-59): 28 games under 75% capacity Memphis Grizzlies (22-54): 26 games under 75% Charlotte Bobcats (34-43): 22 games under 75%

The Washington Wizards are in the midst of a brutal season and have the second worst record in the NBA at 18-60. They represent the second biggest decrease in attendance (-9.2%). The Sacramento Kings are the only team with a worse record; they have a largest decrease in attendance at -12.4%.

Interestingly, Detroit is a bizarre case because they dominate in attendance despite having an off-year (currently in the 8th seed if the playoffs started today): #1 in total attendance by 70,000 (786,591 through March 23) #1 in average attendance per game at 21,850 (league average is 17,385)

Economic Woes Impacting MLB Season Tickets

Wait until the trade deadline approaches during the summer... as teams have battled through poor attendance, dwindling jersey sales, and so forth. Teams like the Detroit Tigers (payroll of $138m in 2008 - third behind the Yankees and Mets) will have fire sales to cope with the economic struggles.

In the last two days, local papers have covered struggling ticket sales for two high budget teams:

Detroit Tigers - 2008 Payroll of $138m, 3rd highest payroll in MLB - Season ticket woes (Free Press):

Last year, the Tigers had sold some 27,000 season tickets at this time. This year, that number has dropped to roughly 15,000. Ron Colangelo, the Tigers' vice president of communications, would not confirm or deny the 15,000 figure, saying: "We're going to let our sales and marketing efforts continue through Opening Day."

San Francisco Giants - 2008 Payroll of $76m, 16th highest payroll in MLB - Season ticket woes (Mercury News):

The Giants say they have sold fewer than 20,000 season-ticket plans, off nearly 25 percent from their All-Star Game season in 2007. But club officials believe they will avoid the catastrophic projections that are haunting other major league cities, and through walk-up sales and promotions, they are hopeful their season attendance will come close to matching the 2.8 million fans they drew last season.

"We're hanging tough," said Staci Slaughter, the club's vice president of communications. "We're in a much better position than a lot of teams."