Mike and I are proud to announce that two of the panels crafted in-house at Carrot have been selected for further voting by you, the lovely interactive community. With your help we can collect all the gold rings, green mushrooms, fire spitting flowers, and flying feather things to defeat Bowser and deliver two riveting presentations in Austin.

Mike will be speaking on how the reigning sports leagues like the MLB, NFL, and NBA can help their athletes leverage social media to connect with their fans on a more direct level. He’ll also touch upon our own client experiences with some of the most influential athletes to play the game, in addition to the controversy surrounding fake athlete accounts, and how they can lead to far-reaching a PR nightmare if left to an amateur.

Myself, PepsiCo’s Director of Digital and Social Media, Bonin Bough, and Josh Karpf, Social Media Manager at PepsiCo, will be speaking on how large corporations can reach an entire new generation of digital consumers by embracing their social consumption behaviors and facilitating genuine communication through a brand’s core messages.

Help us beat Bowser—it’ll not only be a victory for Mario fans worldwide, but also for every one of us who live, eat, and breathe social media.

This article is copyright © 2012 

Whether it was Kevin Love breaking news or Shaq hearing he’d been traded on Twitter (and then singing about it), the fact is social media is changing this landscape. More and more NBA players are signing up for Twitter everyday, connecting with their fans and building actual relationships with them – no Traditional Media outlets involved.

Twitter alone has gotten so popular among NBA players and teams that David Stern even warned teams not to disclose draft picks on Twitter before the official announcements at the 2009 NBA Draft.

Side note: Thanks to our good friends in the NBDL, Kyle and I were in attendance at the Draft. We had a great time hanging with the guys from HHReynolds, The Sports Hernia and Project Spurs. Speaking of which, here’s a quick video of Kyle screaming at Hasheem Thabeet with some UCONN love.

Anyway, my point here is simple: Social media is truly changing the sports world. By choice, athletes are more accessible, and that makes being a fan more fun. Executed correctly, a social media strategy allows a player, team, or league to expand their reach and provide fans with an enriched experience. It’s a win-win for everyone involved and it is enhancing fandom as we know it.

This is what Carrot loves about the social web and it’s exactly why we’re entrenched in sports.

This article is copyright © 2012