140 Reasons Sports Teams Should Use Twitter

The SF Giants Take Tweetups to the Next Level

Are you looking for new ways to attract and reward your social media followers? Are you looking for ways to capitalize on social media in the sports marketplace?

Considered leaders in the sports technology/social media space, the San Francisco Giants recently continud their charge by hosting a terrific first official SFGiants Tweetup. The team collaborated closely with Twitter and Room to Read to put on the exclusive event, offering the team's avid social media followers an opportunity to experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at AT&T Park.

For just $20, the team offered 600 fans a chance to attend a game, receive a limited edition "@sfgiants follow us" t-shirt, listen to a host of influential guest speakers, and enjoy exclusive access into the new Triples Alley space, a behind-the-scenes lounge area of AT&T Park that is not open to the general public. The team promoted the event via Twitter using the hashtag #SFGTweetup.

The Giants entertained their Twitter guests in attendance with a terrific panel of speakers, including:

• Erin Ganju - CEO of @RoomToRead
• Brian Murphy - Moderator (@KDBRMurph)
• Jeremy Affeldt - San Francisco Giants Pitcher (@JeremyAffeldt)
• Biz Stone - Co-Founder of Twitter (@Biz)

The event also featured a surprise guest, @Jack, Co-Founder of Twitter and the CEO of Square, who spoke about his new product, a revolutionary new tool that allows you to accept credit card payments via a 'square' device that plugs into your headphone jack to your iPhone.

The event turned out to be a huge success for the team:

• The Giants sold out all 600 reserved seats for the tweetup a few hours before its scheduled start at 5:15pm
• The Tweetup generated thousands of #sfgtweetup specific tweets and photos, with 99% of the comments posted being positive (a very rare result in the social media landscape)
• A portion of the @SFGiants Tweetup proceeds went to @RoomtoRead, a Twitter supported charity

Check out some photos of the event below:  

Check out the Official Event Invitation below:

A special thanks to Garrett McManus of the San Francisco Giants for his insights and contributions to this column!