NBA Fan Scores Dream Job, Twitter with the Assist

The 76ers offered a job to a fan this week after his Twitter antics caught the attention of the Philadelphia team, reports Mashable.

Last week the NBA team launched a fan-voting contest to choose a new team mascot. The choices were narrowed down to three: Big Ben, a version of Benjamin Franklin; Phil E. Moose, “one of the most regal animals to roam the wild,” according to a team press release; and B. Franklin Dogg, “the All-American pet.”

But the 76ers marketing team had failed to register Twitter accounts for the nominated mascots. Fortunately for them, two very dedicated fans - Jerry Rizzo, 23, and Hunter Coleman, 22 - stepped in, set up accounts for @PhilEMoose and @BFranklinDogg and started promoting the contest.

From Tuesday to Friday, @PhilEMoose acquired 500 Twitter followers and @BFranklinDogg acquired 200 followers.

The pair also set up Facebook and Google+ accounts for the characters in the hope of getting the word out about the contest.

But by the end of the day last Friday, the fans had received an email from the 76ers legal team asking them to stop tweeting and had then traded in their Twitter accounts for box seats at the teams’ home opener and season tickets.

It sounded like the end of the story, but it wasn’t for Rizzo who has now been offered a job as a social media coordinator with the team.

Apparently, 76ers CEO Adam Aron phoned him on Satuday to chat about his interests and experiences, after being impressed with Rizzo’s online portfolio and work.

“Jerry impressed us not just with his clever Twitter campaign, but he had also created a website that was just loaded with content that demonstrated his creativity and drive and that he is a good writer and knowledgeable about social media,” Aron said. “He did online what people have done in job-searching efforts for decades — put his best foot forward and demonstrated what he can bring to an employer.”

While this story might seem rather inconsequential to some, there are really two important lessons to take from the 76ers story.

First, for those marketers out there, make sure that whenever you launch a product, campaign, event, etc. you also register any social media profiles that might align with it, even if you don’t plan on using it.

The 76ers were lucky that Rizzo and Coleman were true fans with the best of intentions. They treated the accounts as professionals would, but not everyone out there is so well meaning. The odds of your brand being over-taken by someone out to cause some trouble are much more likely.

The second point to take from this is that the job landscape in media and communication is really changing and initiative can be just as important in finding a job as can a perfect resume.

You can now be as easily discovered by a pet project you undertake online or your social media presence as you can by any other means, which can bring great opportunities like it did for Rizzo or be a detriment.

“It just shows that people now have the ability to showcase who they are for good and bad, and that all of that is findable,” said Beverly Macy, a Huffington Post contributor and author of the book The Power of Real-time Social Media Marketing. “It says it’s about personal initiative and that if you have a love or an affinity for something just go do it, because you don’t know what might happen.”