Phillies Clinch, MLB Tweets Me

As I lifted my 5th beer in grand exultation celebrating a third straight Phillies division championship, I was overwhelmed by the onslaught of messages I received from MLB making me aware of this fact.

Alright, so I’m a nerd. My email and Twitter account all happened to be open at this point. If my phone was on, I’m sure it would have vibrated its way across the room. As Ryan Howard touched first for the final out, I pumped my fist with one hand and tweeted with the other. I’m sure this is a sign of the impending apocalypse. But who cares… the Phillies are playing in October, people!

That said… I was impressed by the speed and effectiveness with which MLB used both social media and email to deliver their message and push their product.

As I hit “update” on my Twitter account, I quickly received the following update from @philaphillies

NL East Champion merchandise available @ The Majestic Clubhouse Store. Hours this week r Thurs & Fri 10 am – 4:30 pm & Sat 10 am – 1 pm.

2 minutes later...

Gear also available @ phillies.com. http://tinyurl.com/ydgjxql

Oh… and let’s not forget about the email I received at 10:27pm EST… 1 minute after the Phillies clinched…

Awesome.

The thing is, while I’m sure MLB has an army of administrators, mutli-channel promotions and messaging are not difficult to manage given the proper tools and plan of attack. Actually… chances are you hit this blog post using a similar strategy.

It’s pretty simple, really. When we post a story to our blog, we let people know on both Facebook and Twitter. We also include the post in our monthly newsletter. This increases visibility and pushes traffic. The payoff varies depending on the visitor. If we were selling a product, the conversion is delivered upon purchase. For the purposes of this post, a comment would be nice :)

However, delivering the message at a timely moment is also important. If I were to complete this post in say a month, it would no longer be relevant. MLB took advantage of the moment by delivering their message at a point when fans like me were most susceptible to purchase… in the haze of victory!

While it may seem somewhat overwhelming… or pushy… or even downright intrusive… it is highly effective since it takes advantage of the consumer’s need to buy at an impulsive moment. It’s like winning the lottery and having someone show up to your house with a Bentley.

In my case, I dropped $80 on a hat and a sweatshirt. Worth every penny. Well done MLB! Go Phils!