David Stern takes questions through Twitter

Tonight, David Stern and Adam Silver took to Twitter in a town hall of sorts where they answered tweets from players, media, and fans. Last week they unveiled a new Twitter handle. Tonight, they took the message to the people.

Brillant move by the NBA to get down to the level of the fans through their Twitterview. Change comes from the top and getting Commish David Stern to tweet about the lockout is a great move to make the owners and the NBA look more transparent and sympathetic.

And here is the best part... by responding on Twitter, you get to choose which tweets to answer! Helps you avoid any large gaffes or embarrassing memory lapses, right Gov Rick Perry?

Here's a look at some of the highlights:

The opening of the Twitterview with an answer to Bill Simmons

And even D-Wade gets in on the action

Of course, the most obvious limitation is length. To talk eloquently about the new CBA deal in 160 characters or less is quite a challenge. But all in all, this was a great move for the NBA to get their message out directly to the people. If there is one thing we have seen in social media is that if you are not crafting your message, someone else will do it for you. 

Why it's Hard to Show Marketing Effectiveness of Social Media in Sports

I have always been intrigued as to why sports firms have been so slow to use social media to promote their products. As we all know, social media has incredible breadth in terms of sports fans. So, why don't firms promote their brands on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets?

Well, it's still really hard to gauge the effectiveness and return on marketing in social media. With traditional print and digital media, companies rated effectiveness on cold metrics. Cold metrics are what you normally think of with marketing effectiveness - reach, frequency, page views, impressions. But social media has a different reach then traditional media and needs to look at warm metrics. Warm metrics deal with engagement, levels of "viral", community conversation. Tricky stuff to compute.

Traditional media is a monologue, meaning that it's one way communication. Social media is two way; the company promotes their product and fans immediate respond. Think of it this way, traditional media was a speech and social media is a conversation. Conversations naturally are harder to analysis.

Intrigued like me? Then check out this unbelievable guest article in the Sports Business Journal by Amy Martin. You'll thank me later when you can't fit your brain through the door.

Backlash to NBA's new Twitter account

Incredible reaction coming out from the NBA's new Twitter account, @NBA_Labor. Players are extremely upset with the account, believing the NBA is using the account as a bully pulpit.

Honestly, I think it's brillant by the NBA. The players have been connected to the fans through Twitter for so long and have been able to send out their message. The NBA had to make this move to directly connect to fans.

Now about directly contacting players while they are negotiating, that's a different story. Doesn't seem like it would help to build consensus to me. After reading these articles, you tell me.

Here are some great articles on the matter:

• Article with the actual tweets on NBC Sports. 
• "Player accuses NBA of Twitter harassment" from CBS.
• Even Bleacher Report gets in on the action. (By the way, if you are not reading Bleacher Report, it is the most easy and leisurely sports reading out there. Be careful, you'll get lost in their slides and before you know it, you'll have memorized the 10 dumbest football players based on their Wunderlich. And that's some useful information, people)