7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1)   Pick an opportunity you would like to pursue.

a.    Athlete social media management

2)   Clearly state the opportunity you have identified, including the who, what, why.

a.    Collegiate and professional athletes are having their character dragged through the mud due to shocking or reprehensible social media content, much of which is often very dated.

                                               i.     The who: Collegiate and professional athletes 

                                             ii.     The what: They have their character called into question

                                           iii.     The why: They don’t know how to properly manage their social media presence  

3)   Hypothesis Testing

a.    The who: All athletes share the need of monitoring and managing their social media accounts to try and prevent public backlash. This issue could also be applied to any other people with a significant social media presence. This could also be applied to sports teams as well

b.    The what: Are all forms of social media and communication an issue/hard to manage for athletes? What are the easiest places for athletes to slip up on in social media?

c.    The why: will athletes by themselves learn over time how to avoid social media scandals? Is there a certain level of social media understanding or literacy that makes having an additional social media manager obsolete? Would many athletes only view this service as helpful after they themselves had made a mistake on social media?

4)   Interviews

a.    This opportunity is one where it is very hard for me to talk directly to my target demographic. However, I did interview several people about the opportunity. The groups of people I talked to can be split in to two separate groups, employees inside the sports industry and everyday people outside of it. I talked to Carly and Melissa, two employees of the Houston Astros, as well as Michael, Ben, and Thomas, who are all college students. 

                                               i.     College students interview takeaways

1.    Overall, the consensus amongst the college students that I talked to emphasized that my scope was too narrow. While I keyed in on athletes who have trouble managing their social account, Michael pointed out examples such as director James Gunn, who Disney recently severed ties with due to his past tweets. Michael really showed me that my “who” could potentially be much larger than I initially planned. In terms of managing “the what”, Michael and Thomas both pointed out that most celebrities with social media scandals seem to get in trouble for either simple slip ups or posts from well before the person was famous. Thomas made the point that because of this, viewing the opportunity as more of a social media janitor was limiting. Thomas felt like the opportunity was more of one for people to grow their brand through social media than to prevent scandal. Meanwhile, Ben pointed out a limitation of the “why” that I had manufactured. Ben said that marketing the opportunity statement only focused on social media scandal prevention. He said that he feels most athletes can use social media in this way, but that they often struggle or have more trouble using it to grow their following and image. 

                                             ii.     Houston Astros interview takeaways 

1.    Melissa felt like, in terms of the “who”, that public people besides athletes would have interest in this service, she also thinks that there would be potential to work with teams, as it can be hard to review all minor league players’ social feeds. Carley said that she thinks that there are several groups that would have interest in this idea. She specifically referenced the NCAA, ESports, and Politicians. Melissa stated that these scandals can often change how sports teams operate, and that any social media with a live component are the most potentially dangerous. Melissa also brought up a very interesting point. She thinks that it would be hard to sell this concept directly to players, but if you went through their agencies you would find more success. Overall, Melissa and Carley both believe that the growing live portion of social media is the biggest challenge for this opportunity, but it could also be a competitive advantage is approached correctly. 

5)   Given my interviews, I learned about how much wider of an audience that this service could have, in both clientele and service provided. I also learned that people inside the sport industry are especially concerned about the live aspects of social media that athletes and celebrities can access.