What do Michael McCurry and OchoCinco have in common?
Sitting down doing my morning meeting production work. Billing for last weeks show and I saw a shiny object that caught my attention on my tweet deck. (tweetdeck is a twitter desktop client I use) It was Jeff Hurt pointing out a Michael McCurry posting on ASAE which is going on right now. His post was about virtual access to the ASAE conference in Los Angeles. Pretty interesting take on the emergence of virtual access for people who cant make it to the conference. The price for the access was pretty spendy. $795 dollars.
I also saw a news post about OchoCinco the football player who was fined 25K by the NFL for tweeting during game time.
“Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver and conductor on the ego train Chad Ochocinco faces a hefty $25,000 fine for tweeting during a game. Rules laid out by the National Football League prohibit the use of cell phones, computers, or other gadgets by players and coaches from 90 minutes before kickoff to the end of the game.
Ochocinco took to his Twitter account to post a response, tweeting, “#OCNNnews I’ve been fined by the league a substantial amount of money for tweeting, 1st time twitter hasn’t made me money but cost me money.” He followed up the “news alert” with an apology of sorts to the NFL: “Dear NFL I apologize for tweeting during the game but that was 2 monthsof my Bugatti payments you just took from me,I won’t do it again.”
In both instances the associations and the league don’t get social media and the interwebs. Both Michael McCurrys post and OhcoCinco, understand personal branding and the importance of networking. To make something cost too much or keep people from hearing from a star, both are idiotic in my mind. Marketing 101 is to try and get people to your events or watch it, so you can collect fair revenue.
If ASAE wants someone like me to attend their live event they should make the virtual access free, or affordable, or get it sponsored. Show people your cool content and fun hallway conversations. Make people want to attend. (Production can be expensive but not ASAE expensive)
The NFL should be rewarding OchoCinco (full disclosure I think he is an ass) to build the NFLs brand and get people talking about it- interacting and ultimately get people to watch and go to the games. He is promoting himself and the league.
Now- I head back to my daily work!
Question? What is the most you have paid for virtual access to an event?
What is the most you have been fined for Tweeting?
Related articles by Zemanta
- NFL fines Ochocinco $25K for tweeting (holykaw.alltop.com)
- Ochocinco Hit with Massive Fine for Tweeting on the Sidelines (appscout.com)
- Chad Ocho Cinco Official Website – Chad Johnson 85 Cincinnati Bengals (ballhype.com)
As both a Mike McCurry and a Cincinnati Bengals fan, I love this post! There’s been lots of discussion about the quality of the ASAE education sessions. The general sessions were mediocre at best and the learning labs were hit and miss (as most usually are). It’s really hard to justify the requested price tag that ASAE charged. Live streaming should be viewed more as a marketing strategy vs. a product that needs to be monetized.
Hey Dave thanks for the comment. it has been interesting to me to learn about these types of conferences. I do think things are changing at a snails pace but sometimes I feel I am in a different bubble than the conference organizers. Sounds like the networking at ASAE was pretty top notch though. All the social media heavy hitters were there.
mike