As this year’s host city to
the Super Bowl, Indianapolis has come up with a high tech solution to managing
the hectic high profile sporting event with the first-ever social media command
center. It will dedicate 2,800 square
feet of space downtown to an extensive team of analysts, strategists and tech
savvy assistants that monitor online conversations held on Facebook, Twitter
and other social media platforms. The
social media command center team is slated to open Monday January 30th
to tweet or post information related to parking, events and area attractions
and provide information should a disaster occur. The command center will operate 15 hours a
day through Super Bowl XLVI on February 5th and be manned by more
than 20 people who will use of 150 square feet of networked screen space to
keep a watchful eye. The Super Bowl’s host committee has selected the Raidious digital
marketing agency to manage communications at the command center.
This year about 150,000 people
are expected to jam into downtown Indianapolis, where Lucas Oil Stadium is
located. "Social media is just how people interact
now," stated Taulbee Jackson, CEO of Raidious. "We felt it was
critical to have some horsepower behind that aspect of the Super Bowl here,
versus what you might have seen from other Super Bowls." The Raidious team will have plenty of
advanced analytics and search tools to assist fans, while they index phrases
and key words. Rather than fan having to
ask for parking instructions, a simple tweet that says “park sucks” can prompt
the Raidious team to provide parking assistance. "We're kind of breaking new ground here
so we don't know the exact numbers yet of what we'll be dealing with, but we should
be able to provide that after the game to other cities that have to deal with
these types of issues," Jackson stated. "I think a lot of brands will
start to see a need for something like this." Social media researchers
will be closely watching the operation from Ball State University Center for
Media Design which is located in close proximity.
Related Link:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/23/tech/social-media/super-bowl-social-media-center/index.html