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Monday, April 23, 2012

Sweet new street sign to revolutionize social media?


At the risk of turning this into a sports blog, I have to point out a new favorite among "dumbest attempts to be social media-savvy."

This is the Cleveland Indians' "Social Suite." (Why not "social media suite?" Alliteration? Subtle guilt about the fact that the box adds almost nothing to the Indians' actual social media presence?)

I mean, check out this picture. Somebody in those seats is seriously gonna tweet something killer real soon. How about that lady with the red jacket giving the dirty look to the guys across from her? She's just warming up her fingers under her armpits. Once they unfreeze, she's gonna pull out her iPad and microblog. And it will be totally be Indians-related. Well, OK, how about the guy in front with the drink? Personally, my bet is on the guy creepily hanging out in the doorway. He's going to light up the internet real soon. Either that, or abduct somebody.

As far as I can tell, these are just regular fans sitting behind a sign. They didn't even take time to design a logo for "Social Suite." It's just regular block print under the usual Indians logo.

As far as I can tell, the main feature of the Social Suite is its wi-fi. But they can't call it the "Free Wi-fi Suite." So 2006. Calling it the "Social Media" hot spot is... well, pretty 2010. But that's still a lot closer to the present.

Two serious questions: (1) Why not provide free wi-fi to the whole damn stadium? Plenty of buildings have wi-fi throughout. I imagine it's financially feasible. (2) If your fans are tweeting from their phones, isn't wi-fi unnecessary?

Social media is a means to an end. It's something you use to communicate. What's being communicated here? If you fill out our online application, we might give you free wi-fi for one game? I think I'll pass.

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