Reaching out to hockey fans through social media...

The Washington Capitals are currently on an amazing win streak of 14 games (the NHL record is 18 games). They are also doing amazing things off the ice, especially in the area of social media. Their owner, Ted Leonsis (a longtime AOL executive...that's how he made his money), realized soon after he bought the team that his hockey fans were younger, more educated, Web-Savvy individuals, who love interactivity. As a result, he moved more aggressively than any other NHL team to embrace social media websites. This strategy has been paramount to increasing the club's engagement with the fans and popularity (the Capitals are considered to be one of the Top 5 most popular teams in the NHL). Ted Leonsis is getting awesome results from his social media strategy, which he describes below:

"What's unique and different about us is that most organizations are managed [with the thinking], 'We're bricks and mortar, we're buildings, and we have this Web operation aside us,'" Leonsis said. "We're kind of different. We look at the Web as being our basic power plant, kind of like electricity, so the Web and communicating in this fashion is second nature to us now. It's not like we go brochure, television, mail. It's Web, and then everything else. It's social media first, and everything else."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/08/AR2010020803530.html