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How LinkedIn is helping the NBA sell

L inkedIn is not at the top of anybody’s list when you think about the impact of social media on sports. Even LinkedIn’s own executives say they aren’t particularly active in the sports world.

That could be about to change.

The NBA is setting attendance records this season thanks, in part, to a relationship the league set up with Linked-In to help sell tickets. Last fall, as the league’s season was getting started, NBA marketing executive Amy Brooks credited the league’s relationship with LinkedIn for helping it post a season-ticket renewal rate of between 80 percent and 85 percent. In an October conversation with my colleague John Lombardo, Brooks said 21 teams were using LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator this season, up from just two teams the season before.

LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator tool has been helping NBA team sales execs connect with decision-makers, Weiner says.
Photo by: TONY FLOREZ PHOTOGRAPHY
The NBA’s LinkedIn relationship has progressed so well that Commissioner Adam Silver and his executive team traveled to the company’s Mountain View, Calif., offices in recent months to learn more about how the league can use the social media network more effectively to sell tickets and sponsorships.

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner shed some light on that relationship during a talk at the IMG World Congress of Sports earlier this month. Weiner said the NBA has been using LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator tool for about a year.

“The NBA has been very forward-thinking with regard to how to leverage LinkedIn as a platform,” Weiner said. “It’s no different from the way any company can benefit. Sports leagues and teams are businesses, too.”

LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator allows team sales executives to find the people in their networks who can introduce them to the people most likely to buy ticket plans or suites.

NEWS MEDIA

A worthy competitor

I was disappointed to hear that longtime media reporter Mike Reynolds lost his job at Multichannel News, a victim of cost cutting. I like Mike a lot, having competed with him for 17 years during his 14-year stint with Multi and three-year stint with Cable World magazine. He’s a good guy with a wealth of knowledge about the business. I’m hoping he lands on his feet soon.

— John Ourand

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“That warms up the relationship in a way that just blows cold-calling out of the water,” Weiner said. “We hope to make cold-calling obsolete through this kind of approach. … Historically, a lot of sales forces have allocated books of business based on geography or industry. We think increasingly those books of business will be based on who your sales team knows.”

LinkedIn’s growth prospects encompass more than helping leagues and teams sell tickets and sponsorships. Like other social media companies — Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat — LinkedIn is investing more in publishing media and plans to make more video available on its site.

“All of these social platforms increasingly understand the value of content and how they can differentiate that content to create even more value,” Weiner said. “If you’re talking about longer-term trends, I think you’re going to see the social platforms continue to invest in relevancy and understanding who you are, what you’re interested in, and making sure that we — collectively as an industry — can get the right content and the right assets in front of you at the right time to maximize value.”

John Ourand can be reached at jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ourand_SBJ.

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