By The Price of Business (1110 AM KTEK, Houston, TX is the sister radio program of US Daily Review and is Hosted by USDR Publisher and Managing Editor, Kevin Price). These are interviews Kevin Price had with his contributors and guests. *Sponsored
Founder and President of US Sports Advisors, Ken Ungar recently joined Chris Kidd, and Kevin Price for a couple interviews on the Price of Business on Business Talk Radio 1110 AM KTEK (Bloomberg’s home in Houston). Ken Ungar is also author of Ahead of the Game: What Every Athlete Needs to Know About Sports Business.
“I didn’t have the skill to grow up playing sports, but I grew up loving sports. When I had the opportunity, I jumped at the chance to get into the sports industry. You get to watch people fulfill their dreams and strive to be better than they thought they could be.”
Ken saw a need for athletes to understand the business side of sports. “The book, Ahead of the Game, was born from the fact that I had worked with a lot of athletes who were expected to be the best on the field and spent their entire career training to excel on the football field, or the track, or the baseball field, and once they got there they were hit with all these expectations that they would know how to manage their career, and deal with the media, sometimes find sponsors, and do all those things that a business person would be capable of doing but they were never trained to do,” he said. So Ken wrote a book that would teach athletes things like how to find sponsors, speak to the media, and how to use social media to connect with fans.
Whether it is a professional athlete, entertainer, politician, or a business owner or executive, it is important to be smart when using it. Social media can be an asset or it can be detrimental, especially to those in the spotlight. Ken Ungar cautioned, “You can get in trouble real quick on Twitter, 140 characters you can kill your career. We often tell our clients, ‘When in doubt, DON’T.’”
Following up on the social media conversation, Ken Ungar was back for another segment the following week to talk about the Super Bowl and how newsjackers use big events and news stories to their advantage. “Newsjacking is when a brand takes advantage of a popular story or some popular topic in the news, and inserts itself in the news cycle.” There are brands out there taking advantage of free social media to take some of the attention off the Super Bowl and aim it their way. There are good examples and bad examples of newsjacking, and as Ken warns, “If you don’t pick the right issue, if you don’t have something that is authentic to your brand, you’re going to see a pretty big backlash.” One great example Ungar referred to, JC Penny newsjack during the Super Bowl in 2014. JC Penny was the seller of US Olympic official team gear for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Ken recalled, “During the Super Bowl they sent out a tweet using the hashtag of the Super Bowl and it was filed with typos. And so when people called them on it and said, Hey can’t you guys do something without typos? They tweeted back with the hashtag #TweetingWithMittens. Now of course they were selling the official mittens of the US Olympic team.”
Listen to Part 1 of the interviews
Listen to Part 2 of the interviews
* Sponsored by the Price of Business on Business Talk 1110 AM KTEK.
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