Of football, hashtags & NFC Championship games #BeatTheNYGiants

I am a huge 49ers fan…and while it wasn’t pretty the last decade, I have maintained my love for the red and gold.

Needless to say, I was jumping around my living room, more than a little excited on Saturday afternoon.

This morning, I checked out their website to see what they had done since they clinched the spot in the NFC Championship game. I was pleasantly surprised…not only did my boys rock out with a fabulous new landing page, it is a totally social new lading page.

Look at all the pretty hashtags! And the one you can’t see in the picture, but is even more awesome, is the one that shows in the bar above the navigation…where the page name has shifted from ”San Fransisco 49ers Football” to “#BeatTheNYGiants”!

What makes the social-ness of the page even more incredible to me? Check out the NY Giants page. Not a single hashtag, no social promotion and only minor changes to the website itself. Apparently the 49ers have a better defense and marketing department

So, what can you learn from the 49ers prowess in the social space?

1. Big events need to be spread to stay big! Give your fans an easy hashtag to share and get your event pumped up – and make sure it’s easy to find on your site. Then spread it like wildfire! Of course, this is always a little easier when your competition drops the ball.
2. A website change has a strong effect! If you’re planning a big event, make sure it’s the number one focus of your website as it gets closer. Don’t make people hunt for the details. Designing a landing page like this is effective and if your site is built using wordpress (which I almost always recommend), can be very simple to create as well.
3. Find other ways to get your name out there. The 49ers social accounts changed their avatars to the image on the right – and made the image readily available to all followers and fans to use as well. Now, all over twitter and facebook you can see the 49ers nation showing their support by changing their avatar to match the team.  Remember, it’s all about cross promotion!

 

Okay, so now on to the most important part of the post:

Who are you rooting for this Sunday and who do you want to see in Superbowl XLVI?

Me? I’d like to see 49ers vs Patriots on February 5th.