Many leagues and teams are probably wondering what all this social networking stuff means (or if they aren't they should be). Where should we try to establish presence? What site/s should we place content on? Where can we best reach our fans? Of course, there's Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Plaxo, YouTube, in addition to other niche social networking sites. But the issue of who owns the data on each of these networks, and whether companies must create something new for each one has long been a problem. How does a brand/team/league choose which site to utilize?
Well, with the recent announcement from the Data Portability Workgroup, the answers to these questions may get a lot more simple. Check out wikipedia for more on data portability. Google, Facebook and Plaxo are all on board with the initiative. A recent announcement from the group said:
“… Users will be able to access their friends and media across all the applications, social networking sites and widgets that implement the design into their systems …” (thanks for the quote, Mashable)
Essentially this makes it much easier for brands to port their applications/widgets/data from one network to another. Instead of developing a separate app for presence on each of these sites, only one app will likely be needed to accomplish the same thing on many platforms.
Similarly, fans will be able to take data from their favorite sports apps/widgets with them when they go from one network to the next. They'll be able to share the same data with friends from different social networking sites. This is great for brands/leagues/teams as it enables fans to spread their content much more easily, and this enables fans and individuals to engage with content on their own terms.
Today's fans already have more control than ever before---they can watch what they want, when they want, how they want. The Data Portability movement will give both brands and people more control over content online; and should reduce the cost of entry for brands to develop apps/widgets, since they won't have to develop independent apps/widgets for each platform.
Would love to hear your thoughts on Data Portability and how it relates to sports, marketing, and/or advertising.