Sports Get Social

Where digital meets travel + lifestyle … A collection of can’t-miss news from this week. Sign up to get the TURNER Weekly Download in your inbox every Friday.

Foul Play

Like everything else, social media has revolutionized the sports world – in ways both positive and negative. Now, sports brands have to be on top of an ever-changing, fast-moving digital landscape, in addition to, you know, just winning games. Forbes to the rescue! The publication has begun a multi-part series aimed at navigating this thorny new approach to brand management in sports. “Everything is evaluated—every season, every game, every practice, every workout, every set and every repetition,” writes Zac Glover. A great read – and with tips that apply to realms outside of sports, too.

Streaming Sports

Watching sports used to be a fairly straightforward affair – either you could find a game on TV or you couldn’t. But now fans are faced with an array of streaming options for their sports needs. Facebook just announced that it would stream more than a dozen matches from the Champions League, the top European soccer tournament. And many major sports brands are joining forces with social media companies, too. ““Many of the major sports leagues are encouraging users to download their apps for exclusive owned content, but often users hesitate to add yet another app to their device,” says Darryl Villacorta, Social Media Manager at Sprout Social. “Partnering with social platforms that are already known and beloved by fans gives brands the opportunity to reach a wider audience while demonstrating the value of their content.”

The Panthers Get Fresh

And the award for The Most Ridiculous Social Media Prank Pulled By An NFL Team goes to … the Carolina Panthers. The team’s social media crew spent three days this month building up a covert operation filled with tweets that referenced the lyrics to the classic Will Smith sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” It wasn’t until a few days later that their secret was revealed. Why do it? Hey, sometimes tweets can just be for fun.

Teams on Twitter

Need a new favorite baseball team? Take it to Twitter. When his beloved Toronto Blue Jays sunk to last place this summer, Miguel Montero started a social media search for a new team to root, root, root for, tagging 29 other Major League ball clubs. And many of those teams responded in entertaining fashion, in an attempt to woo Montero over to their side. The winner? It appears to be the Miami Marlins – though the Cardinals haven’t given up: “If you find something fishy about the Marlins, we’d love to have you!” the team wrote.

Fresh from the Spin Kitchen

• An Art Museum Beneath the Waves in South Walton
• Total Eclipse of the Sun: Best Places to Watch
• Powerdot's Stimulating Solution to Fitness

Weekly Moment of Zen