MLB Giants President & CEO Larry Baer "emphasizes cooperation and character" in running the franchise, according to a C-Suite Strategies Section profile by Brian Costa of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Baer said, "We’re in other businesses besides the business of winning baseball games. That means having an extreme focus on customer service, an extreme focus on community service, a focus on the entertainment aspects in the ballpark, and delivering all sorts of experiences through technology. ... We’re a media and entertainment company, not just a sports team." He added of keeping 35 team investors happy simultaneously, "The way I try to do it is to simulate a public company. We have quarterly board meetings, talking about where we’re going to find growth. It’s as if we have a stock price to deliver to investors quarterly." Baer said of hiring new employees, "We really do a deep dive into the character and values to see if the values are a match. If the values are a match, that’s probably the most important thing. And I’ll tell you a good way to do it: About 70% of our new hires have come through our internship program" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/23).
THE SOCIAL NETWORK: RE/CODE's Kurt Wagner wrote with the fourth-most Twitter followers of any MLB team and the third-most Facebook fans, the Giants are "one of the best in the league at utilizing social media." Giants Digital Media Dir Bryan Srabian "is using every social media service he can think of -- from Pinterest to Tumblr to LinkedIn -- to keep fans in touch with the team." Srabian said, "I think the challenge is that fans are so active and there’s so many different channels. Why should they follow the Giants versus the (San Francisco Chronicle) or ESPN or the writers for those. We’re trying to connect differently than those media outlets are. We’re not going to break stories most of the time because being the official team we don’t announce things until everything is signed and sealed. So how do we present something that’s (different than) the rest of the stories and tell it better than the others?" He added of dealing with unruly fans, "I think it’s important for you to understand what your fan base is going through. Obviously when you lose, they’re going to be a little angry. You also want to know the sentiment because that dictates your strategy. After a four- or five-game losing streak, you probably shouldn’t be tweeting 'tickets on sale.' You need to know the room, as they say" (RECODE.net, 2/21).
