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Interview: How Ironman Champ Chris McCormack Uses Social Media

Chris McCormack, aka Macca, is one of the best-known triathletes in the world. He won the 2007 Ironman World Championship after six attempts, gaining notoriety as perhaps the hardest working and most singularly-focused athlete in triathlon.

In addition to his Ironman glories, Macca is well-known on the social media scene. He’s an active Twitter user and will soon be launching MaccaX, a Web-based community and training initiative. In this interview, the Aussie talks about his use of social media and how it helps him professionally.

Macca finishing 4th at the 2009 Hawaii Ironman World Championship. "I have probably not ever raced a better Ironman in my life."

b.0: What social media channels do you currently use? CM: I use a Web site, blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

b.0: Is there any one platform that you prefer over the others? CM: Web site and Twitter and Facebook are great mediums. I probably enjoy or spend the most time on Facebook catching up with friends, but i think I get the most hits and responses from my blog through my Web site.

b.0: When did you start using each of these platforms? CM: I’ve had a Web site since 1999 and kept a blog. I started Facebook about 18 months ago and Twitter now for about 6 months.

b.0:What are your objectives with your online marketing campaign? CM: Really to keep people up to date of my movements and what I am doing and also to pass my message across to a broad range or audience. These online platforms are a great way to not only advertise yourself and what you do, but also to create communities who have like-minded opinions or interests as you do. My objective is to give people an insight and a feel into who I really am outside my sporting persona. This is a positive thing within my sport and good for the brand Macca. It gives people a perspective that they might not otherwise have of myself because they have never met or spoken to me. These platforms allow people to get a feel for you, which if you did not have them they would not otherwise been able to. We really try to focus on this and keep it real.

b.0: What strategies have you implemented to work towards these objectives? Are the strategies the same for each platform (blog, Twitter, Facebook) or do they differ based on the platform? CM: We use video extensively and have really ensured to keep things as up to date as possible and our friends and followers and members. The strategies are very similar across all these platforms except that some of these platforms demand differing things. We use Twitter as an up-to-date reference point for people. We use our website as a more advanced and informative platform. Facebook is really used as a family platform that allows people to really interact if need be.

b.0: Have you noticed results thus far? If so, what are they? CM: It is hard to measure results but to be honest I think these platforms have really added some strength to my brand and more so to my personality within the sport. Without question it has given us a bigger voice and more notoriety.

b.0: Do you do your own blogging/tweeting/etc. or do you have someone else do it — or a combination of both? CM: I do everything myself. It is totally run by me.

b.0: How often would you say you blog/tweet/etc? CM: Daily i try to update or change something on one of these three platforms. There is no use having these platforms if they are not used correctly. People demand this attention and I try to make sure to deliver this.

b.0: What have you found to be most effective in your use of blogs/social media? CM: The most effective thing has been the ability to use these platforms as political tools within your sport. I can really push my objectives and my opinions on things and have an open audience to push this across to. This has been very powerful for my sponsors and for media who are trying to get information and opinions from me.

b.0: Why would other elite athletes find these platforms useful? Or, why might they NOT find them useful? CM: For the very same reasosn I do. I think people are interested in what we do. As athletes we really live a dream lifestyle and this is appealing to people. I think these platforms are a great way to connect with people and are very powerful tools.

b.0: How savvy with blogging/social media sites would you consider yourself? CM: Average

b.0: Do you use any Content Management System such as WordPress, Joomla or Drupal? CM: No i use my own developed content management system that my brother made when he made the Web site. It is great because you dont have to be a computer genius to get your information uploaded and up to date.

b.0: How do you plan to use your sites over the next year? CM: Just continually use it to keep people up to date with what I do. We are launching a new site called MaccaX which will be a training platform built around our community. I will use my current platforms to really push the launch of this.

b.0: Do you have any favorite blogs or Twitter users that you follow? CM: I follow Lance Armstrong on Twitter.

b.0: Is there anything else you’d like to add with respect to your use of online media? CM: I hope this has made some sense. Cheers

Macca can be found on Twitter at @chrisjmacca. His Web site is here.

Chris Bowcutt is the founder of blue.0, an award-winning Web marketing and social media firm based in upstate New York. He can be found on Twitter at @cbowcutt or on his blog.

blue.0 in the News: Area Duo Help Rueckert Advertising Win PR Award

More on our PR win at SoSara.com.

blue.0 and Partner Rueckert Advertising Win PRSA Social Media Award

I’m happy to say that blue.0 and partner Rueckert Advertising & PR has won the Public Relations Society of America Capital Region Chapter’s Empire Award for Social Media. This was based on the work that we did for the 2009 Freihofer’s Run for Women, an elite 5k race that takes place in Albany, NY every year. We used blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to help increase race registration 19% over 2008, resulting in 4,029 women signing up to run — a record field.

In 2008, Rueckert Advertising won top honors in the Empire Award’s “Integrated Campaign” category for its comprehensive public relations program for the race. They’ve been the race’s PR firm for 14 years and do an excellent job. I’m happy that we’re able to work with such a great company.

More here.

Thierry Henry and the Social Media Tsunami of Hate

Wow. If you want to know how quickly news is traveling these days, and how social media is fueling this wave and shaping public perception, read on.

Not three hours ago, superstar soccer player Thierry Henry of France dealt Ireland a crushing blow when he assisted in the go-ahead goal in their World Cup qualifying match. During the play, Henry employed what appeared to be a blatant handball to set up the assist, and cries to the referees from the Irish team fell on deaf ears. The game eventually ended, the French fans cheered, the Irish players sat crushed — and Henry sat among them, appearing a bit conflicted, and probably wondering if outright celebration might be inappropriate.

Fast forward one hour, and the video of the handball is already up on YouTube. Twitter is aflutter in tweets — with the top trending topics including “Thierry Henry,” “France,” “Irish,” “Ireland,” “Handball,” and “World Cup.” It’s rare to see multiple trending topics that relate back to one news item, but here we have six of them.

On Facebook, not three hours after the match’s conclusion, the following group pages have been established and drawn legions of fans:

• We Irish Hate Thierry Henry the cheat (12,063 fans) *(33,102 as of 12 hours later)
• Thierry Henry Is a Cheating Bastard (5,226) *(15,633 as of 12 hours later…)
• Thierry Henry Should Apologise to Ireland (2,341 fans) *(7,546…)
• La Main de Thierry Henry (”The Hand of Thierry Henry”) (2,433 fans) *(19,878…)
• La Main Gauche de Thierry Henry (”The Left Hand of Thierry Henry”) (2,071 fans) *(10,144…)
• We Hate Thierry Henry (444 fans) (1,539…)

These numbers will have increased by the thousands come morning, when the French and Irish — and Henry — wake to a new day. Also, these above groups don’t take into account dozens of other similarly-named groups that have fans in their hundreds or thousands too.

How else might Henry feel the backlash?

Let’s look at Twitter again. One other topic you’ll find is #boycottgillette, which users believe will hurt Henry where it hurts most: his sponsor. Gillette is well known as one of the superstar’s main sponsors. How will they react to this?

Better yet, how will Henry react?

What will happen tomorrow?

For what it’s worth, Henry didn’t do anything technically wrong — nothing that doesn’t fall out of the confines of the game. You can blame the referring for the no-call(s). But that’s sport. Referees don’t catch everything.

Much worse is the actual extent to which Henry used his arm to control the ball, which brings his character into question. You can forgive a slight reaction sometimes, but Henry’s play may have been more than a slight reaction. There appeared to be a deliberate aim to control the ball.

It’s a shame that it happened.

But as far as entertainment value, I haven’t been this hooked to Twitter in months.

*Stats updated 7:45 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time

ScreenFlow: Desktop Screencasting

I’ve been searching for software to capture video of whatever I have going on on my desktop, and came across ScreenFlow from Telestream. So far, so good. My goal is to create some Google Earth video maps of a triathlon I’m planning, and I want people (athletes, organizers, volunteers, etc.) to be able to get an aerial view of the course. The trickiest part thus far has actually been trying to navigate Google Earth and make the video flow nicely. But as far as capturing the screen itself and other options (text, highlighting, overlays), ScreenFlow seems to work well. It’s $99 for first-time buyers, or $29 for those upgrading.

Web: Healthy Wallet

Healthy Wallet is the Web site for finance coach Elham Menhaji, of New York City. Ellie’s a CPA who’s developed a business helping people become more financially literate and teaching them how to gain greater control over their finances.

The site is running on WordPress using a theme by iThemes.

See the brochure we created for Elham as well.

YourMembership.com Provides Forum for Connection

I just came across a service called YourMembership.com, which is software that allows organizations, businesses, schools, or any group with a lot of people involved (churches too) to create profiles and connect with one another. I wouldn’t call it social media like Facebook or LinkedIn, although it is online and does deal with connecting with others. It’s limited to those who are involved in one organization — though it may be an organization of millions. I learned of it this week since Seoul Foreign School, my high school alma mater, launched the app to allow faculty, graduates and attendees throughout  its 100 years to keep others up-to-date on their whereabouts and life. Yourmembership.com allows members to create a profile that includes:

• Personal Page
• Profile
• Groups
• Networks
• Blogs
• Subscriptions
• Files & Links
• Favorites
• Preferences
• Messages
• Connections
• Photo Gallery
• Resumé/CV
• Career Postings
• Refer a Friend

So yes, this is very much another online networking tool — but it already has a built-in audience of people who are already connected to one another, and who must be invited and then approved. It’s around $6,000/year for organizations to use, which, considering you’re an organization with thousands of people involved, appears reasonable.

Web: Lisbeth Calandrino

Launched the sumer of 2009, Lisbeth Calandrino is the Web site of, you guessed it, Lisbeth Calandrino, a professional speaker and published author who works closely with us at blue.0. We launched Lis’s official blog on Typepad in 2008, and then launched this new site to promote her book and brand: Red Hot Customer Service.

Web: Integrated Bodies

Integrated Bodies is a Rolfing business owned and operated by Moira Mills, of Albany, NY. We’ve known Moira for a while and actually put up her earlier site — which we won’t go into here. That’s how bad it was. But a couple years and some new tricks learned, we feel the next version is a good representation of her professionalism and ability as a body worker.

Moira’s a big fan of the Cleveland Browns. Or at least of their team colors, so we went with a burnt orange background. We’re running on WordPress using a theme by iThemes.

We also added links to Moira’s interviews in local newspapers and embedded a video of her interview on T.V.

The site’s feature photos were taken by Michael Eldredge of Living Fiction Photography.

blue.0 in the News: Local Road Race Sees 19% Increase in Entries

This is a great event and we’re happy to be a part of it each year:

Rueckert Advertising & Public Relations taps into PR, social media to drive record field at 31st Annual Friehofer’s Run

ALBANY, NY (July 29, 2009) — A comprehensive public relations and social media campaign employed by Rueckert Advertising & Public Relations LLC and its partners helped draw 4,029 women — the largest field ever — to participate in this year’s 31st annual Freihofer’s Run for Women.

To raise awareness of the prestigious 5km road race, the full-service marketing communications agency generated 57 million impressions from 585 pre- and post-event print and electronic stories. This record coverage, which included in-depth articles in industry trade publications like Runners World and TV segments on the YES Network’s Running HD show and the International Association of Athletics Federations’ Running Roadshow, was valued at more than $1.6 million.

The agency also partnered with local social media firm blue.0 to launch an aggressive social media campaign.

“As the news hole shrinks social media is becoming an increasingly powerful communication tool,” said Rueckert Advertising Account Executive Chris Rueckert, noting that social media helped boost attendance by 19% this year. “This new communications tool enables us to tell our story with our audience on multiple fronts.”

Among the social networking tactics employed were the creation of a Run for Women Twitter page (@freihofersrun), which allowed organizers to drive viewers to the event’s Web site to read complete stories and press releases, and a Facebook group page, which enabled 364 members to stay abreast of the latest race news, as well as communicate directly with one another.

A new Freihofer’s Run for Women blog (http://blog.freihofersrun.com) — featuring news, video interviews with event staff and runners, elite athlete updates, women’s health and fitness news, media stories about the race, and general running news — was also introduced. Meanwhile, YouTube was used to promote various aspects of the race through video.

“With such a strong running community in the Capital Region and with so many Freihofer’s Run for Women participants blogging about their training, races and interests, it made sense to establish ways for them to connect with one another online,” explained Chris Bowcutt, founder of blue.0. “Hopefully these connections will translate into an even bigger turnout next year.”

Obviously, we have even bigger plans for next year…