MyColts.net fans slow to adopt Twitter

Now that NFL camps are open, we’re encouraging members of the Colts Social Network, MyColts.net, to use Twitter to send updates. It’s tough sledding so far.

Interesting the see the resistance from fans. It seems that whichever social media we’re talking about, Facebook, MyColts, Twitter…until you have a real use for it, and try it, you really can’t appreciate it and will resist.

One fan even posted a thread about it: here

This guy hates Twitter

This woman is liking Twitter

I definitely have resisted Twitter, until recently. I don’t use Twitter as a social tool, but I definitely see how others are doing so. Twitter and social nets go together like hand and glove, in my opinion.

And on the biz front, I will say that I am amazed at some of the things that have happened…some of the folks who have found me…because of Twitter. But I do not take alerts on my phone. That’s just too much for me.

Separately, I know there are thousands of Colts fans using Twitter. They’re actively using the hash tag #colts. So we will keep on encouraging Twitter usage, and we’re even planning a contest to get people engaged. We think Twitter will help Colts fans connect with each other, which is what MyColts is also designed to do…so it fits our marketing strategy…and it’s FREE!

An undercurrent to this discussion: sports fans use of mobile. I’ve spoken to a few companies this week who are convinced that sports teams ought set up ways for fans at home to interact with fans at the stadium. For example, allow fans watching on TV to send photos via mobile phones and have those photos appear on the stadium big screen.

While this is a certainly possible, I haven’t see evidence that fans will really care about this feature. Yes, a sponsor might sponsor the feature, but on the surface a promotion like this doesn’t do much to add value to the fans’ experiences.

Because the people in the stadium, demographically, tend to be older and more affluent, I’m not sure mobile applications will gain widespread adoption in the short term (as evidenced by the MyColts.net members reactions to Twitter. These folks tend to be 35+).

I think we need to keep trying new ideas, but we can’t expect fans to adopt everything we through at them. Just because the technology makes something possible, doesn’t mean fans will understand it or care enough to engage.

Also, the excerpts above remind me that not everyone engages with media the way I do. Both quote above mention MySpace. I haven’t heard ANYONE mention MySpace in months. But apparently there are still MILLIONS of people using it. It’s easy for those of us in the social media biz to get ahead of the mainstream and forget to look back and see what the people are actually doing.

Remember what happened when product placement in TV shows was supposed to be the next big thing? Nobody wanted to buy the furniture they saw in the “Friends” apartment. On the other hand, American Idol helped get America using text.

This just came across my desk:
Ironically, the news media, who want to Tweet at Camp, are prohibited from doing so. Read more

So my advice is, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming..swimming, swimming swimming…”