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Social Studies: Adidas U.S. PR Dir Michael Ehrlich On Authenticity, Noteworthy Trend

After spending nine years climbing up the ranks within adidas, Michael Ehrlich (@adidasUSPRGuy) is currently the Dir of PR in the U.S. Ehrlich leads the public relations department and works closely with everyone on adidas’ social media, community management and analytics teams. Ehrlich: “We’re all under the same roof and all working together on all of our planning and execution and strategy.”

SOCIAL SNAPSHOT
Must-follow: I really like MVPindex, which highlights athletes’ social media growth and trends.
Favorite app: Definitely Twitter. It’s where I interact with the most people. It’s where I learn the most on a daily basis..
Average time per day on social media: Every free minute that I have and also on occasion some not so free minutes.

Keys to establishing/maintaining authenticity on social media:
For us, it's really about always being on, and in addition to our planned content and planned storytelling, being keenly aware of whatever else is going on within the sports industry, within the sports news cycle, but also cultural moments overall and how we can infuse our brand and more importantly our brand messaging into everyday stories that break every minute of the day.

Brands who use social media particularly well:
I love The Players’ Tribune, both from a personal and professional perspective. Giving athletes their own voice on their own platform is incredible, and from a storytelling perspective, being able to craft their own narrative in an authentic way, but also control the message is really important. And obviously it’s such a huge platform and such a unique proposition.

How social media has changed the way you do business:
It’s changed everything about my business. I’m in the storytelling business, so obviously social is the platform today and it will continue to evolve and it is the platform for storytelling, both in real time and also in a reactionary basis. Social has influenced the way we communicate, it’s influenced our voice, our vernacular, our strategies, our execution, and really the professional world overall and really always being on and continuing to follow the news cycle 24/7 and looking at react moments as well as great opportunities to insert your brand or insert your messaging or your partners to conversations that are going on around the clock and around the calendar.

Favorite part of social media:
I really enjoy learning and interacting with influencers in the industry, interacting with students, with professors, with athletes and really gaining knowledge from so many different sources. That’s what’s so great about social as a networking device overall -- there are really no walls anymore. You have unlimited access to resources, to professionals, to educational sources. Just gaining knowledge each and every day, and in turn, I strive to impart knowledge as well on others and make it a two-way street and learn from the best practice both from a social perspective and a storytelling and communications level overall.

A frustrating aspect of social media:
It’s a double edged sword, the unlimited access, the 24/7 news cycle. You need to educate young professionals, but also your brand partners to use it correctly and use it intelligently and preach best practices and continue to educate on the best ways of using it and to build your personal brand, but also at the same time to continue to be authentic and use it to the best of your abilities.

Social media trends worth paying attention to:
The current trend I’m super excited about is live streaming video. A couple weeks in with the NFL seeing a few of the games live-stream on Twitter has just been incredible. I’m always watching sporting events with the TV, the laptop and the phone, and to be able to combine it all into one screen is pretty exciting and an excellent opportunity for social media, for communication professionals overall to continue to leverage the social platform. I’m curious to see how it extends beyond just football right now.



If you know anyone who should be featured for their use of social media, send their name to us at jperez@sportsbusinessdaily.com.

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