Thanks to modern technology, you can get your fill of Mud Hens anytime, anywhere — as long as you have a smart phone.
More than 48,500 people “like” the Mud Hens on Facebook while nearly 9,000 people follow the team on Twitter. This allows the Mud Hens to not only connect with fans on a regular basis, but it also allows for fans to score some hot deals.
The team recently opened up a block of opening day tickets to Facebook fans only, a marketing tool that sold a few hundred tickets quickly, said Nathan Steinmetz, manager of online marketing for the Toledo Mud Hens and Toledo Walleye.
The Mud Hens have more than twice as many Facebook fans as any other minor league baseball team, according to sportsfangraph.com, which tracks and ranks the social media usage of sports fans. The Mud Hens rank No. 8 in number of Twitter followers.
Other tools steinmetz wants to use in the future at Mud Hens games are already active at Walleye hockey games.
With a goal of fans interacting with each other as well as with the team, Facebook and Twitter posts from fans have been featured in-game on the big screens. Fans can also win prizes by answering trivia questions via the two social networks and are encouraged to take photos of themselves in their Walleye garb so the team can post the shots to its Facebook page.
“We’re looking to take that online conversation and bring it into the arena,” Steinmetz said. The Mud Hens had an “app” for the iPhone last year, but will not this season because the business conducting the app backed out. Steinmetz said he wants to reinstate a new app for future seasons, but it is unlikely to happen in 2012.
An exciting new piece of social media that might hit the market will include the ability to log in with a Facebook account to see where other people are sitting in the park and whether they have checked in yet, Steinmetz said. That is still in the dream stages. But until then, the Mud Hens’ mobile site works just as well.
At the site, fans can check the latest headlines and stats. Steinmetz said the mobile site is run by the minor leagues and he did not have a measure of how many hits it garners. However, he expects that popularity is similar to the Walleyes’ mobile site, which represents 15 to 20 percent of Internet traffic to the site.
But what if you’re old-fashioned and you just want to sit back and soak in the nuances of a ball game — the clap of the ball as it hits the glove, the smell of peanuts and Cracker Jack or the slow, drawn-out nature of the sport?
For those fans, Steinmetz points out that the Mud Hens are one of the only minor league teams with two high-definition score boards.
“While there are fans that appreciate the romance of baseball and all that it is, there is a big percentage of people that get into the bells of whistles of going to a game in the modern age,” he said. “Fans don’t have to get on their mobile phones and look up stats if they want to have a conversation and just enjoy the game.”
