Three Social Media Wishes for the Colorado Rockies on Opening Day

Cross-posted on MGA’s blog

My favorite holiday is finally here! This Friday is the Colorado Rockies Home Opener, and for me, Opening Day is pretty much baseball Christmas. With that being said, here are my three Opening Day wishes for my favorite baseball team.

1) Get rid of the RSS feeds on your Twitter and Facebook accounts!

In social media, transparency and authenticity are valued more than most other things. I don’t want to talk to a robotic “feed,” I want to interact with someone who is connected with the organization. Unfortunately, the Rockies have chosen to resort to RSS feeds on both their Twitter and Facebook accounts to post content.

Their Twitter account is a big disappointment (as noted by their low follower count) because they have nearly 1,000 tweets which have all been automatically fed in to Twitter from a news source. Not one tweet has been sent out by a Rockies representative who has physically typed a message and made it fit within the confines of 140 characters.

While the team’s Facebook page content is about 99% RSS feeds, I find it more successful than their Twitter account completely because of the fan-generated content. The Rockies have nearly 111,000 Facebook fans who show their enthusiasm and support on the page by leaving hundreds of comments and “likes” on each one of the Rockies automatic feeds. But, just because the fans are active doesn’t make the RSS feeds okay.

2) Show Rockies fans you care what they have to say!

With such a high number of Facebook fans, I think the Rockies owe it to them to make more of an effort. Unfortunately, the Facebook default wall view is set to show Rockies posts only (no wall posts from fans are automatically displayed). While fans can toggle through the settings to view fan posts, there is a whole conversation that is happening about the team by its fans which is currently being hidden by the Rockies Facebook settings.

With Twitter, the root of the problem is that there is not a real person behind their account. No one is engaging in any true conversations. They have so many unanswered at-replies, which makes me wonder… are they even listening? Do they care?

3) Don’t be afraid to get a little creative with social media!

A “great” social media program isn’t run by Twitter and Facebook alone. Consider updating the Rockies Web site to show what fans are saying about the team. How about using a part of your site to show as-it-happens discussions about the team by filtering in tweets which contain the phrase “Colorado Rockies,” “Rockies baseball,” or even “Rocktober?”

What about giveaways? Since I go to a lot of games throughout the year, I always buy my tickets in the cheap seats (aka Rockpile). I would love it if I were able to enter some sort of giveaway to win tickets behind the Rockies dugout, or even a Rockies jersey, perhaps? I’m sure all other Rockies fans would feel the same way.

Another idea is to leverage Foursquare, a location-based social network which allows venues to set up specials for the Mayor of that venue, i.e. the person who has “checked-in” more than anyone else. I know first-hand that there is an intense rivalry brewing for Coors Field mayorship. The Rockies could give the mayor of Coors Field a free hotdog, but not just a plain hotdog, one of those fancy hotdogs from the Top Dog stand. Maybe the mayor could get featured on the big screen at special home games!

The Rockies are also missing the boat in taking fans behind the scenes through videos and pictures. We hard-core fans want exclusive Facebook-only interviews, live-tweeting throughout the games, and as-it-happens Twitpics of Helton giving Tulowitzki high-fives after an unbelievable catch.

All that being said, there are a lot of different ways that the Rockies can improve their social media presence. I hope that they’ll take this cue and re-evaluate their strategy to keep their fans in mind. We want more from you, and I know you can deliver!

I must leave you with one final thing: Go Rockies!