Social Media At The Right Time: “The Love for Basketball and The Internet Nuptial”

To start off, social media must conceive with a concept…

We watch the UAAP and the NCAA basketball games. We analyze who the strongest team is in the upcoming season. We talk about the players who are coming in and graduating from the leagues as well as the coaches who are in red alert and have to start looking for options. Without having to consider bias with our alma mater and to be fair to everyone, we also praise the team we hate and the player we know who guns everyone but you can’t hate. It’s how we got the idea of putting all the intrigues and facts on the web.

Instead of the politically correct inbounds pass, I registered the domain name inboundpass.com to intentionally rectify the correct term (instead of correcting the wrong). I knew it would feel awkward to basketball analysts or commentators who are used to saying inbounds pass and may feel guilty that it’s grammatically incorrect. Yes it “was”.

Founded in 2005 by Mike Abasolo, Dave Quitoriano and myself, when Seattle’s Best Coffee in Powerplant Rockwell in Makati used to be our favorite place for breakfast meetings, the most controversial online source of college basketball leagues, Inboundpass, has already been doing the viral even before Facebook and Twitter were felt in the Philippines. From recruiting a photographer who just finished college to convincing the credible writers while we were developing the website, we officiated the wedding of the love for basketball and the Internet in 2006.

It did not become so easy even if we keep innovating and conjuring up the website. The content was just as powerful as it resided in the site. We have done the traditional presentations to potential sponsors and the assertiveness of emailing the old way to justify the worth and value to support our beloved.

Inboundpass turned out as an example, a case, and a testimony to other companies who would like to make their own for their products in a different way until social network was recognized.

We thought that the power of the Internet and technology (i.e. optimization, apps) could alone push this idea turned into a product and business. Then the rich content helped evolved by creating other features including Inboundpass TV. Thanks to all the people behind this kind of marriage.

But along the way, a “third party” is sometimes needed to see the differences and fulfill the progress – living happily ever after. It’s how and when the “social media” covets.

Earlier, we started figuring out using social networks in evangelizing. Furthermore, the dependence on technology strengthens the objective. The data we capture and the analytic tools we use may be technical to understand yet very useful.

But here’s the thing when presented the same concept and objective, most of the (old) clients are intimidated with the technical jargons. Some could hardly figure out the result and its effectiveness. They are also afraid of the cost, instead of braving to look at the cause.

Later on, I began researching about the connection that may be missing in the social media process.

Citing Inboundpass (as an example) to be your window or model to start something online that leads to help you comprehend that your passion for sports like basketball or any interests can be coupled with technology, specifically the Internet.

How to connect your enthusiasm with technology is now easy. But how you would like to send the message across the right audience is challenging. Technology and content are not enough.

There has to have a relationship in between. And it happens at the right time.  The time that the social media effort can be effective in any purpose-driven campaign. Just like what happened to Inboundpass where the people behind have been inspired and promoted. Its contents are provided and sometimes, requested. The infographics assist the basketball analysts. And the presence of social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like can be utilized vis-à-vis the advertisers need to cascade their messages – generally, the social media.

To continue, social media must generate contents and reproduce them with a campaign…