The Chicago Cubs on Wednesday will hold their first Social Media Night, and the club will try to add a new wrinkle to an increasingly common event by issuing Twitter-oriented baseball cards.
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The Cubs’ cards feature their active tweeters.
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The Cubs will distribute a six-card set of Social Media Series baseball cards featuring such players as pitchers Kerry Wood and Paul Maholm, each prominently displaying the players’ respective Twitter handles. In addition to traditional statistics and background data, the backs of the cards include comments on the players’ personal histories on Twitter and how they typically participate on the platform.
The Cubs will sell a $27 ticket to the Social Media Night that includes a general admission ticket to the Wrigley Field game against Philadelphia; access to a pregame social media panel featuring club officials, reporters and Chicago Bears kicker Robbie Gould; the baseball card set; and several other gifts, including social media-themed Cubs T-shirts.
The Cubs’ Social Media Night, and the baseball cards in particular, represent a move by the club to extend its online social media efforts into offline environments.
“The cards were an idea that initially came from our ticketing department,” said Kevin Saghy, Cubs public relations and marketing specialist, and the point person on social media efforts and the official team Twitter feed, @Cubs. “We spent a lot of time looking at other clubs in social media and our efforts and seeing how we could try to go further.”
A second Cubs Social Media Night is slated for Sept. 17, and a second series of baseball cards is under consideration for that date.
