Part-time – (approximately 19 hours week)
Salary – Up to £25,000 pro rata (dependent on experience)

Closing Date – Friday 21st June at 17:00

Performance Nutrition are looking for a Digital Content Manager who has a passion for social media and producing engaging nutrition content. As part of the Sport & Exercise Nutrition consultancy, the role will involve ongoing contact with leading organisations worldwide. The successful candidate will be given the opportunity to lead and drive online strategy, within their growing team.

Responsibilities

• Producing and managing online & social media content for the Harley St clinic, and around the new online platform & app, launching later this year.
• Writing engaging applied articles and media comment, specialising in sports & exercise nutrition and weight management.

Skills

• Excellent writing skills – web content/social media content
• Experience of writing SEO optimised copy
• The ability to identify the best social media channels and how best to use them
• Quick to learn new systems and processes
• A genuine passion for social media & nutrition

Qualifications/experience

• Postgraduate or equivalent qualification in nutrition/dietetics or sport & exercise science
• Content management systems/blogging platforms

The position is part time, though flexibility will be required. This would suit a candidate currently working in the field, or undertaking postgraduate research.

To Apply

Please send an email to: info@performancenutritionltd.com explaining why you’re the right person, including links to online work or online community management.

Every year, the great British institution of Gumball3000 turns 3,000 miles of public roads into an international rally course.  The event pits around 120 of the most eye-catching and/or head-turning cars against one another in the ultimate road trip adventure.  This year, Berkshire-based digital agency, Rawnet, have unleashed their passion in designing and developing the official website to the point where you can almost catch the whiff of petrol in the air.

As the Official Digital Partner, they were keen to apply their digital savvy to create a compelling online meeting place for all the participating Gumballers, as well as the hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide.  Among the more high-profile entrants in this special 15^th anniversary rally are David “The Hoff” Hasselhoff, musician and actress, Eve, skateboarding legend, Tony Hawk, bands Cypress Hill and Nero, rapper, actor and TV host, Xzibit and Formula One Driver, Kimi Raikkonen, to name but a handful.

Rawnet are helping everyone to track the Gumballers’ progress en route from Copenhagen to Monaco with their Interactive Live Map.   Gumballers simply capture a picture on their phone, then tweet the photo adding the hashtag #rawnet.  By enabling Location Services on their mobile devices, they can share moments and memories from the rally on the Live Tweet map in mere seconds.  It’s a great way for Gumballers to update all of their followers, fans and fellow drivers on their position while effortlessly creating their own photo blog throughout the event.  Whoever takes the picture that best captures the ‘Spirit of Gumball’ will win a Nikon D5100 along with a signed copy of the winning picture from founder, Maximillion Cooper.

As part of the new website, Rawnet have also built Gumball an interactive Entry Grid for 2013 that allows fans and Gumballers alike to get their favourite team on pole position for the starting grid in Copenhagen by raising money for the Gumball3000 Foundation.  The team that raises the highest amount as of Sunday 19^th May will be leaving Copenhagen first under the chequered flag.

The Gumball3000 Foundation is a non-profit charitable trust that has been established to benefit underprivileged youth through Education, Infrastructure and Environmental projects.

Show your support by donating today as all monies raised will go to this fantastic cause. Just choose your favourite team and click the donate button.  The total raised so far is £49,789 with Team 86 from Italy in the lead www.gumball3000.com/rally/entry_grid

So, get involved and experience a taste of the action at www.rawnet.com/gumball3000 from Sunday 19^th May 2013 where the adventure begins in Copenhagen.  Accompany us on a journey that winds through Stockholm, Helsinki, St.Petersburg, Riga, Warsaw and Vienna before rocking up in Monaco just in time for the Formula 1 Grand Prix on Sunday 26^th May.

This month sees the launch of a new event and it promises to be the best yet!  At the the last UKSN Meetup where we spoke to leading digital leader Richard Ayers and gained some great insights into his career and his thoughts on social media.  Now we are looking at a different topic within social media, one that has really come to the fore this last year….. video.

http://uksnvideo.eventbrite.com

The venue is the fashionable Bar Kick in Shoreditch and we have some great guests coming along to speak. They include;

Mark Coyle - Head of Digital Production, BT Sport
Stephen Nuttall - Senior Director (Sports), YouTube EMEA
Tim Hines - Digital Content Strategist, The Rugby Football Union
Richard Welsh - Creative Director, BigBalls Films & Copa90

This last year we have seen the role of video within social media become more prominent. With Twitter launching Vine, YouTube backing their ‘Originals’ channels and sport starting to realise the potential these platforms offer.  When YouTube worked with Red Bull on ‘Red Bull Stratos’ they proved to the world that they can handle huge amounts of traffic and that live events have a place on the platform. With 8 million people (!) from around the world tuning in at any one time it really was a massive global event.

Twitter have been pushing new products and making the user experience richer without them having to leave the app. Personally I’ve worked with Livestream to push live content through Twitter that helped launch a new product and it was great. You can also do the same using Ustream and YouTube.

In the football world we’ve seen Man City’s ‘Tunnelcam’, England’s live streaming of training sessions and even QPR using Ustream to connect with fans on a weekly basis. And there is much more besides.  But are we missing a trick? How engaging is video content for fans? And what can we do without using game highlights?

This and much more will be discussed at the event. There are still spaces and you can book at http://uksnvideo.eventbrite.com

The event is being kindly sponsored by Pusher and Somersault Video Productions (it will be filmed and we’ll release edits from the event in the weeks after it runs).

Below is a lovely pic from our last event at the Sports Bar where I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr ‘Datatainment’ himself, Richard Ayers.

Guest Post:  Tom Kelk is a tech/sport blogger and Account Exec at global social media agency We Are Social.  You can find him on Twitter (@TomKelk), LinkedIn and his blog.

Eye of the Fan is a neat campaign run by Turkish Airlines to attempt to promote the basketball Euroleague through social media. Whilst basketball doesn’t have the biggest UK following, it is massively popular in mainland Europe and therefore, Eye of the Fan has received the required interest to return for a second stint.

Simply put, Eye of the Fan is a series of cameras attached to a ‘fan’ who has been given behind the scenes access to basketball matches and reacts to live requests from contributors. The heart of the campaign is its integration with social media. Those following the action can tweet their requests to the ‘Fan Cam’, who will duly oblige to the requests chosen by the ‘Up Team’ in London, and a team in Istanbul which will deliver tweets right to the ‘Fan’ in the O2 Arena. Further to this, these teams will keeping an eye on activity within the stadium and direct the Fan towards events of interest. This responsive caveat brings the fans closer to the game, but also engrosses them in the app.

This a great use of the popular go-pro equipment and fantastic to see it revolving around social media engagement. How well it captures the atmosphere of the stadium and an event is yet to be seen but there is clearly potential. The access to athletes away from the traditional media will certainly attract interest from the majority of sports fans who rarely see players in an ordinary light. The most important aspect to the success of this is the completely free-rein of the Fan who “will be going everywhere cameras normally can’t or won’t go to offer fans and media an exclusive behind the scenes view.” Fans can ask him to joke around with a player, chat with a manger or find the best-looking person in the crowd (see video…).

In my latest blog I spoke about Vine and how it could be used to capture an atmosphere and how clubs were not making the most of their assets and behind the scenes footage; Eye of the Fan manages this with a real-time and responsive element added-on.

Here is the video of the 2012 ‘Final Four’ and this gives an indication of what can be expected this time around. There have been no significant changes since last year’s campaign but the ‘Up Team’ intends to interact with contributors to a higher level than previously:

All the footage will be accessible on a constantly updated website and, once watermarked, can be fully integrated, embedded and shared across websites. Footage of the game itself will not be available due to licensing regulations.

In 2012 the Eye of the Fan Facebook app received 150000 visits; Eye of the Fan posts on the Turkish Airlines received 15000 likes in 3 days. Overall, the 2012 event received 3.7m impressions. It is hoped that the 2013 Eye of the Fan campaign will exceed these numbers by quite some distance.

Regardless of your interest in European basketball, this is a fascinating campaign and should be looked at. Eye of the Fan can be seen from 10-12^th May when the Turkish Airlines Final Four will be broadcasting from the London O2 Arena. The ‘Final Four’ is the culmination of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague – the ‘Champions League’ of European Basketball. The top sixteen teams are currently fighting out to be involved in the ‘Final Four’. Before the Final Four tips-off, you can follow @eyeofthefan on Twitter and see what it has to offer.

It will be interesting to see where Eye of the Fan goes from here. There is a great potential in the idea. At the moment, Turkish Airlines have indicated that they are keen to focus on further communications through basketball and would welcome any opportunity to increase engagement and buzz alongside improving the content output.

There must be opportunities to translate this forward thinking approach over to other sports and hopefully brands will take a close look at the ideas behind this campaign.

It has been a little while since our last digisport interview on UKSN.  We’re delighted to welcome Jim Lucas, Communications Officer at Premier League outfit Southampton.  The club is settling well into the top flight of football here in England after a break of a 7 years, a time that saw them go as low as the League 1 before two successive promotions saw them back with the best last summer.  Jim’s answers give a great insight into how football clubs use social media and what they see as the future of the industry.

Hi Jim. Thanks for taking the time out to answer a few questions. Be great to start with a quick overview of your role at the Saints, who works with you and and what it involves?

I’m part of a small media and communications department, which consists of two communications officers – of which I am one – plus two audio-visual officers, all working under the club’s head of media. We are responsible for all content output and media management/PR. I personally have taken on responsibility for the club’s social media presence, and as such have dedicated quite a lot of my first year at the club to improving and developing our work on those platforms.

All five members of the media department contribute to our social media platforms, but I have taken the lead on that front over the past year – particularly since our promotion to the Premier League. We don’t have a dedicated social media manager, but we haven’t let that stop us innovating and searching for ways to strengthen our social presence. We’ve sensed huge value in engaging with our supporters that way, so we’re determined to keep working on making our social presence even better. We’re now active on Twitter, Facebook, Vine, YouTube, Instagram and Google+. We’re also looking into using Foursquare.

What does a typical day entail for you at the Saints?

As anyone working in football will tell you, no single day is the same as another – I can be writing reaction or preview pieces for our official website, interviewing a player on camera, working on our next matchday programme, liaising with the external media or dealing with anything else thrown at a football club press officer. The one constant, I suppose, is that I am always keeping a close eye on updating Twitter and Facebook. I try to ensure we’re as responsive and informative to our fans as possible, and that we give our content the best possible platform to be seen by the people who matter most to us – our supporters.

How would you describe Southampton’s approach to social media and digital in general?

We’re extremely keen to innovate and be the first to do things. For example, we were the first Premier League club to use Vine. Throughout the club there is a mantra of never happy to stand still, so we’re always looking for ways to be the best we can possibly be. That attitude very much applies to our social and digital strategies.

And do you have specific set objectives for what you do?

We don’t particularly set any numerical targets or anything like that. We simply want our content to inform and engage our supporters as well as possible, and we will always look for more – and better – ways of doing that.

The club have been on Twitter since 2009, that’s almost 4 years now, and gained close to 100k fans. What have you found works best on the platform when it comes to engaging with fans?

Without a doubt, it’s the exclusive, behind-the-scenes content that particularly gets our fans going. Something seemingly so trivial like tweeting an iPhone photograph showing a couple of the players at the training ground can be stunningly well received. We are always looking for opportunities to demonstrate our players in their natural surroundings and at their most human.

As you said before, the club has a presence on different platforms, Facebook, and YouTube especially.  How does your approach differ depending on the platform?

We know we have different types of supporter on each. We tend to be more conversational on Twitter, but Facebook’s introduction of the ability to reply to individual comments has prompted something of a rethink. Overall, though, we believe that our content is valued by our fanbase across the major social platforms, so it’s about how best to promote that and how to generate the best-possible level of engagement.

Players have been both praised and vilified for how they use Twitter. Do you as a club either support or help train your players in its use?

We don’t have a social media training programme, although it’s something we have discussed. We don’t have many first-team players on Twitter, but we’d like to encourage more to join in the future so we’re looking at ways of offering them support in doing so. It’s fair to say, then, that some sort of training and support network is something we’d love to implement as we move forward.

What would you say has been the clubs most successful digital campaign?

I can only really comment on the past 12 months, which is how long I’ve been with the club. Our recent #saintsfc100k campaign was a relatively simple one, but it generated fantastic engagement levels. Shortly before breaking the 100,000-follower mark, we generated a list of our most engaged and loyal followers. We then printed each of those onto an individual sheet of paper, with their picture and username on one side and their actual name on the other. We then asked a selection of first-team players to say thank you to those fans on camera, and produced a short YouTube video compilation of those messages.

Among the selected followers, we included a couple of celebrity supporters in singer Craig David and athlete Iwan Thomas, who both commented on the video. Overall it was incredibly well received by our fans, and it was picked up upon by certain digital media websites and at Twitter HQ. We’re really happy with the level of engagement we got from what was an incredibly simple and cost-free campaign. We’ve also run a good April Fools’ campaign involving Rickie Lambert, behind-the-scenes YouTube features from home matchdays and player Q&As, all of which have been massively successful.

Which clubs/sports do you think do a great job in social media?  Who do you look to follow?

We try not to ‘follow’ anyone in terms of how we do things because we’re determined to carve out our own reputation. However, when it comes to being the kings of social media, it’s hard to look beyond Manchester City. They just ‘get’ it – their content is thoroughly compelling and engaging, and I think that’s what any football club is looking for when it comes to this sort of thing. Chelsea are also pretty good, as are a few overseas clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and Barcelona. Outside of football, the NBA is doing some pretty impressive stuff. There’s a lot of inspiration to be taken from the way teams and leagues are doing things in the States, I think.

We’re going to be running our next UKSN event around the use of video – how do you see using YouTube can benefit the club and what opportunities do you see for the platform?

Video is huge. Few clubs of our size have dedicated video editors, but we’ve always known that visual content is such a huge winner with our supporters. As part of the FLi network, we have a subscription-based video service but this season we have really stepped up our YouTube presence as well. We love how easy it is to share our videos via Twitter, Facebook and Google+ and it’s great how quickly they can generate a buzz. Vine is great, too – we get a lot of engagement there. Going forward, we’d love to be able to stream press conferences, events and even non-rights-managed matches via YouTube’s live functionality. Clubs are going to be using YouTube more and more over the next few years, and I’m really glad that we’re ahead of the bunch on that front.

With all this content creation and use of platforms.  How do you measure its success and what tools do you use to do so?

We use the standard insights and analytics provided by the social networks themselves but, as we grow, we would like to look at ways of peering even closer into our statistics. It’s something we’re working on.

Finally, what are your plans (that you can divulge) over the next 12 months in terms of use of digital?  and where do you see opportunities for football clubs?

We’re keeping a particularly close eye on how to implement a multi-lingual social presence. We already have a Japanese-language Twitter feed with over 4,000 followers, and we’re planning to start a Spanish feed in the near future. We’ve also identified our Indonesian and Malaysian fan-bases as ones we should look to cater for. I think there’s a real opportunity for clubs to bring their global supporters closer together with well-run multi-lingual Twitter and Facebook accounts. Speaking more generally, I think making the most of the level of access you have within your own club will continue to drive how we operate. We’re in a privileged position to be as close to the action as we are, so why not make the most of it by generating insightful and engaging content?

Thanks for taking the time out to speak to us Jim.  Best of luck for the rest of the season and look forward to speaking to you again soon.

Recently I wrote about the use of new camera angles in rugby with ‘Ref Cam‘.  This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how platforms and brands are encouraging the use of video within their strategies.

If you are a basketball fan, or been keeping an eye on digital sport trends, you will have noticed the coverage that March Madness has been gaining.  It is a massive event in the US and sees Twitter light up with new content, hashtags, promoted tweets and updates from the games.

This year they have taken it to another level by releasing game highlights in 15 seconds snippets as close to real-time as they can manage. This means that fans who dont have access to watching the game and are predominately on their smartphones can not only keep up with scores but also watch the action.

Allowing fans to watch video within Twitter isn’t anything new and many have done so with YouTube embeds and phone videos.  But the capabilities have been constantly pushed by the platform developers.  Last year I travelled to New York to put into action an idea that was developed only a few weeks earlier.  The plan was to Livestream a press conference directly through Twitter but using a pinned Tweet for fans to follow the announcement as it happened.  It helped turn a B2B presentation into something different and it  gained extra traction because of it.

The idea for March Madness is different.  Turner Broadcasting, who own the TV rights, teamed up with Twitter and Snappy TV on this occasion.  Their joint aim was to give fans quick highlights that they can access where it had not been possible before.  The added benefit is that the clip is easily shared and many more people will get to see it than may have otherwise.

Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

So what does the future hold?  Twitter is rapidly moving into this space with the launch of Vine and now this partnership.  For other sports it offers some amazing possibilities.  Imagine if SkySports tweeted out goals as they happen from important games, or the BBC show a wicket going down in the Ashes this summer??

Fans like to have access to key moments as quickly as they can.  We’ve seen from the success of the ESPN Goals app that it is all about speed and relevance.  It is most certainly one of my favourite apps and has almost made Match of the Day redundant to me.  I get to watch all the goals by 5.15pm and saves me having to listen to Lineker, Hanson and company (dull).  Not to mention no longer having to worry about recording it or getting home for 10.30pm and staying up until midnight.  We, the fans, now gets to control what we watch and when we watch it.  And this is only the start.

How broadcasters react to the constant changes in technology and the development of platforms such as Twitter is now key.  Will they see it as a threat putting this content out there for all to view (though you can still geo-block the video content so rights issues won’t be affected) or will they embrace it and give the fans what they want?

This opens up so many new doors but who will be brave enough to step through them?!

Video, as per my last post, is becoming even more prevalent   YouTube is pushing the production of unique content of a professional quality with it’s ‘Originals’ programme.  This article may not be about social media but it’s certainly a digital advancement.

Broadcasters know the power of this medium but it can be difficult to offer much more to fans than has already been done.  We see new innovations in how fans can join in with live broadcasts, the likes of Mass Relevance and Pulse have been at the forefront of this.

But in Australia they have taken things a step further.  Last month Fox Sports took the brave step of bringing fans a new angle they probably never thought they would have during a Super League Game between the Reds and Waratahs.  A referee’s point of view!  This is also a REALLY brave move from the referee’s as they are really opening themselves up with no hiding place.

Not only has it happened in Australia but, in a world first, the RFU and SkySports led the way by pinning a camera on the refs shirt for a Premiership game between Newcastle Falcons and London Irish.  That was in December was certainly an exciting development.  The Head of Professional Referee Development Ed Morrison said;

“This is an exciting development and one that we’re excited to trial. Not only will it offer a new perspective for viewers but it will also provide us with an additional tool which can be utilised within the on-going development of our referees.”

It takes place within rugby union, a sport which has given broadcasters access to what the referee’s have been saying for some time now.  The language used by the officials and players a like is very cordial and a swear word is a rarity – shame we can’t the say within football.

From the dawn of time, or so it seems like, us fans have been critical of refereeing decisions.  ”How did he miss that!” is something we regularly utter and hear on the terraces and at home watching on the TV.  Well, now you can get that very view and find the reasons why he gave the decisions he has.

I can’t really see this happening in football.  The test with microphoning referees during a match many years ago was a disaster.  The language from all sides would be unbroadcastable!  But other sports may benefit if it could be of benefit to fans watching.  Rugby is the perfect one to start with.

Which other sports would you like to see it used in?

Here is a video demonstrating the technology being used.  It’s a real eye-opener and great to watch.  Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of Ref Cam in the coming months and years.

Enjoy!

Our friend, and guest speaker at the last UKSN event, Richard Ayers, has announced that his growing sports digital media company Seven League has partnered with leading sports law firm Couchmans. Richard has been keeping very busy as a leading adviser to clients including BT Sport, Manchester City FC, Harlequins RFC, ECB, RFU and MLS.

The two businesses will be pooling Couchmans’ sports and digital legal skills with the commercial , strategic and operational expertise of Richard and his team.

Over the next few years there are going to be fascinating, challenging and complex developments in sport around the use of social media – whether at fan, player, club or governing body level. This collaboration will enable Seven League to enhance their offering to clients by pooling their commercial, strategic and operational skills with Couchmans’ legal expertise.

Nick White, head of Couchmans’ sports digital practice, said:

“We are delighted to be working with Richard and his team at Seven League, who really ‘get’ the sports  digital space. This collaboration will be available to our respective clients on a ‘horses for courses’ basis. Some of them will need Richard’s expertise primarily and some will need ours. The idea behind the tie up is that it will be easier for clients to get integrated and complementary commercial and legal advice on their digital media projects. It is innovative and we think it is a winner.”

Richard Ayers, founder and CEO of Seven League, said:

“Finding enlightened lawyers isn’t always easy and with Nick and Couchmans I think we’ve got a team that understands very well where sports law and the digital realm intersect. Too often we hear evangelists getting over-excited or naysayers prophesying digital doom  – neither have a sense of what’s practical, legal and commercially sensible. That’s where this collaboration comes in, and we are very pleased to be part of it.

Well done Richard…

In this economic climate you may think it’s the wrong time to be on the lookout for new roles and that when something does come up that everyone will be after those few.  In the case of digital roles (including social media) the landscape is slightly different.

There are currently fewer qualified people about than there are jobs.  Certainly not the way round you may have thought.  Competition for the starter level roles are as competitive as ever, as graduates are keen to get involved in this exciting and growing sector.  I have been one of the lucky few who broke into the sports industry first and then into social media, just as it started to gather pace and the demand became what it is now.

So I wanted to write something that would help as many people as I can out there.  Step one was to start showing the types of roles out there; recently I’ve written articles on jobs at Man City, Chelsea, BT Sport and Man United.  The next step was to start a ‘jobs board‘, that has now been ticked off and will hopefully grow.  Now it is time for something more personal, more long form advice.

What I’ve done is broken down into 5 sections what I believe are the most important areas to consider.  It is not a failsafe method of landing a role but hopefully will give you a nudge in the right direction.

1. More than just a passion for sport

Everyone writes “I love football’ at the start of a covering letter for a football related job.  But how can you show that these are not just futile words written to show the interviewer that you will be ‘the one’ for them?  Go into more detail as to how and why you have this passion.  It should show through on your CV (or LinkedIn profile) with volunteer work where you’ve been able to do some and responsibility you have taken on over the years.  This could have been as captain of your local team or scorer at the cricket club.  Something that demonstrates what you mean.

Employers are interested in not only what you do, and have done, in your career so far but also what you do outside of it.  This gives as many clues to them about your personality and passions than anything else.  For me, I worked as a volunteer when I wanted to get into event management at the All England Badminton Champs and the World Badminton Champs.  This as well as my role as captain of my college football team showed that I really wanted to work in the industry and have what it takes.

2. Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk

Many people these days can use Twitter and Facebook and have heard of Pinterest, Tumblr, etc.  If that is the level of your knowledge then you may have to think again and do some experimenting before you start putting pen to paper.  It is all very well having ideas about how social media can best be used, but how will people find this out and how can you show it?

I hear quite a lot that people are applying for Social Media Exec and Community Management roles, yet have no social presence at all.  I know it doesn’t mean that they can’t do the job but they need to get involved and get their hands dirty to really understand how it works.  I know many a colleague who has set up a Facebook page so they can test out new ideas and posts before placing them on brand pages; a great way to experiment without the dangers of blindly posting.

Depending on the level you are looking to go in at, having a knowledge of areas such as; Content Calendars, Crisis/Reputation Management, Blogger Outreach, Social Media Measurement, Advertising and Analytics can all be useful.  There are speciality roles within all of these skills and you don’t need to know all of them in-depth.  But showing a knowledge of them and how they work can show your worth to a business.

I started out by putting my thoughts out there for people to read.  3 years ago I started this blog up with the intention of helping people in the industry find out the latest information/trends.  It has been a crucial element in helping me get where I am today (which is nowhere near where I’d like to end up, but I’m getting there).  I also have a personal and business Twitter accounts, both of which are well used and give me an understanding of not only what is out there but also the latest news.  I use Twitter as one of my primary news sources for the industry.  What do you use yours for?

It is important to me to keep these activities going, no matter how busy I am in my full-time role.  It is tough but keeping my profile ‘front of mind’ is important to me.  Even more so now that I am self-employed in a fast moving industry.

3. Network, network, network

“It’s not about what you know but who you know” – how many times have you heard this phrase?  Most of the people I now know in London are through my work.  If I had just settled down at Carat or We Are Social then I would not have met most of the people I can call friends now. You still need to ‘know your stuff’ but having good relationships with these people can prove to be invaluable at different times.

They can help me keep an eye out for potential roles.  I meet CEOs of agencies and businesses, not necessarily for a role that they have now but if they do in the future then I have a better chance than if I didn’t know them at all.  It’s also not just about what they can do for you, think about what you can do for them.  Everyone has a time of need and being there for your friends/colleagues can be invaluable.

One of the reasons I started running events under the UKSN name was because I am quite shy and don’t network very well.  Put me in a room full of people and I may only speak to a couple of them.  But if I run an event and speak at it then automatically everyone knows who I am.  It takes away one of the biggest barriers I faced and helped me speak to people I would never have had the chance to meet.

4. Learn everyday

It is really important to stay on top of the latest trends and developments if you are to succeed in this industry.  The pace of change is scary with new innovations and platforms being brought to market by the day.  I always make sure I read articles everyday, not just once in a while, but everyday.

Twitter is a great source for finding these articles.  Many of them are from personal blogs but a few are from the more recognisable sites such as Fast Company, Techcrunch, Wired, The Wall, Content Marketing Institute, etc.  There are so many sources of news to find (from media companies and blogs) and they are all are speaking about the latest developments and giving insights.  Twitter is a great way of finding the best ones and saving time you probably don’t have.

Dont just rely on Twitter though.  Google Reader, Reddit and many other aggregators help you sift through the clutter to find what you need.  Try a few and see what works for you.

5. Be Different

An employer for a role at a top sports club or governing body is going to receive a huge number of applications from aspiring digital marketers.  How can you make sure you make it in for an interview and not end up in the bin?

People are becoming more creative, using YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and more to set up campaigns with the aim of landing themselves their dream job.  It demonstrates to employers that they have the drive and creativity to develop a campaign off their own back.  These people have a good chance of getting into the companies they are aiming for.

For me it is about what I do with my blog and events that sets me apart from the crowd.  You need to find your own style and skills and make the most of the opportunities they present.

So, find some way in which you can utilise your own talents (everyone has different strengths, it’s a matter of playing to them).  Then decide what you want to do – working in social media is very broad, if you know what role within it you are after then you have a better chance of succeeding.  Finally, look at who you want to work for and an approach of getting to them.

There are of course more tips and hints that are out there and will also work for you.  But these are the ones I feel will put you in the best possible place.  Make sure you keep on trying and your hard work will pay off in the long run (it’s not going to happen overnight).  Trust me.

It’s worth noting that many employers don’t use agencies to hire, especially smaller agencies and start-ups, but if they find the right people and want to work with them, they will find a place within their organisation.  So impress them and show them what you can bring to their business that no-one else can (or very few anyway).

Anything is possible in this world.  Believe in yourself and go for it.  There are many people who have succeeded in the industry and will offer their advice, so don’t be afraid to ask for it.

Good luck…. and don’t forget to keep your LinkedIn profile up to date!

The International Cycling Union (UCI) has had its troubles recently (!) with Mr Armstrong and the constant battle the sport faces with drugs.  To lighten the mood and show that they are looking towards the future and not just the past they produced some interesting news.  This week they announced that, for the first time, it will provide free, live broadcasts of the Cyclo-cross World Championships on its YouTube channel. The World Championships will be held on 2-3 February in Louisville, USA.

The UCI channel will then proceed to provide live coverage of World Championships in the Road, Track, BMX and Cyclo-cross disciplines, as well as the World Cup events in Cyclo-cross, Track and BMX. Mountain Bike and Trials will also be live, with the outlet announced shortly.

The UCI’s live broadcasts will be available all around the world with the exception of those countries in which TV channels already offer the option to view the UCI events live. This new video coverage means that a passion for cycling can be spread to countries that have never before enjoyed such coverage, over all five continents.

It will also provide highlights during the live coverage, offering freeze-frame images of the most spectacular action and most skilled performers. These highlights will be accessible to all Internet users, free of charge and without restriction on location.

You can see more about the event here…

It is a progression in sport that we are seeing more of.  The platform is keen to encourage more unique content, whether that be pre-recorded programmes or live events.  We have already seen the power of big live events – think Red Bull Space Jump – and this can be utilised for more niche events.  The rights haven’t been sold and tend not to be very valuable.  So why not put them up for all to see?

If you draw a decent enough audience in then the future production quality can be enhanced and there are advertising and sponsorship opportunities around it.  With rumours of YouTube introducing a paid subscription model to certain areas then it would make even more sense.  Pay 69p for the ability to watch a tournament for a day…why not?!

Further signs that this is the way the industry is moving, we heard today about SkySports being made available on a pay as you watch service.  This gives fans without a subscription the opportunity to pay £9.99 and watch a full day of sport on all the SkySports channels.  For a Super Sunday or Ryder Cup final day it could pay dividends for the channel.

Anyway, you can catch the action on www.youtube.com/ucichannel
Schedule of live coverage of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships

- Saturday 2 February: GMT16:00 – 17:00 Junior Men – Live
- Saturday 2 February: GMT 19:30 – 20:30 Under 23 Men – Live
- Sunday 3 February: GMT 16:00 – 17:00 Elite Women – Live
- Sunday 3 February: GMT 19:30 – 20:45 Elite Men – Live
(CET is GMT +1)