Ducks Follow Duarte Approach

POST 4: How do the lessons of Resonate text connect or correspond to growing forms of social media? In other words, are any of the techniques suggested by Resonate used within the social media platforms utilized by the sport organization you have studied?

In the text Resonate by Nancy Duarte, there is mention of transparency by an individual or group. That is broken down further into three categories, only two of which are relevant: being honest and being unique. The third is not compromising, but the communication is mostly one way until any of the activities actually occur. The general idea is not to allow for the community to influence the organizations objectives. This doesn’t mean that there can be no interaction with the community in regards to receiving and giving feedback on certain motives and ideas.

In the idea of honesty, there really is nothing to be honest about unless the players make some statement regarding a personal matter that is brought to the media’s attention. Besides which, most of the posts, photos, and videos that appear on the page following the completion of an event give an extra pair of eyes to the non attending audience by giving them part of the experience and to summarize what happened. If something was not honest (in the traditional sense) in social media, it’s hard to take back something with false information without being seen by many people. Fortunately the Ducks organization has a fantastic reputation for their special access and personable approach to provide an honest image.

The uniqueness is really what separates the Anaheim Ducks franchise is the uniqueness. They promote their team through other mediums within the social media realm. This includes their team charity foundation, the Power Players ice dancers, and especially mascot Wild Wing – specifically on Facebook. You don’t typically see too many mascots with many pictures of their “appearances” quite like Wild Wing, collegiate or professional. In fact, Wild Wing’s page has been on Facebook since the start of the Ducks 2010/11 season. The organizations page has been up since the 2009 off-season, the Ducks Foundation (founded in 2008) joined this past off season prior to the NHL labor dispute , and the Power Players circa midseason 2009/10 (January) which was their first season.

Despite being new to some of these social media platforms, the Ducks franchise has quickly been able to learn and utilize them well. But each of the above cross promote what the others are doing. This well helps get the word to Duck fans in the form of repetition. This does not take away for being able to distinguish themselves from the other professional and semiprofessional hockey clubs in such a short period of time to the audience outside of the Southern California area in an honest and professional manner.