For many fans, Major League Baseball’s annual mid-summer home run derby and all-star game are enough excitement on their own. This year, however, MLB is trying to increase the fun by making them what it says are “the most social events in baseball history.” How? A combination of in-game player tweets, curated content and social rewards for fans. During Monday night’s home run contest, players tweeted and posted to Facebook from special social media stations as well as shared video and photos shot from their own smartphones. Fans who checked in to the home run derby and contest using the MLB at the Ballpark mobile app were entered for prize drawings, and MLB featured fan tweets using the #HRDerby and #ASG hashtags online and on TV. Read the full story at Mashable.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.