Maria Burns Ortiz

Although my column’s focus is social media, there’s some flexibility in what I cover and relevant Web-related sports technology tends to fall under the general umbrella as well. This week’s piece featured an iPad app available only to professional baseball players.

See: MLB players study video with iPad app

Part of what I enjoy about being a journalist, especially in covering sports, is getting a behind-the-scenes look at an area that millions of people are passionate about. However, it’s about more than just having an all-access pass. It’s about then being able to bring that information to an audience that might never have known about it otherwise. That’s why it piqued my interest when I heard that Bloomberg had developed an app that was only available to professional baseball players. It’s not only a unique and incredibly exclusive product – they’re appealing to a very small and elite demographic – but it’s also the kind of story the average fan might not have heard and would find interesting.

A new Twitter record was set during the Women’s World Cup final match between the United States and Japan with users posting a 7,196 tweets per second. This fact combined with the outpouring of social media reaction from notable personalities, both in the sports world and other spheres, became the featured story in my newest @Page2 column.

See: Women’s World Cup fans storm Twitter

I initially had another top for my column (which will run in two weeks), but sometimes when big stories happen you have to switch things up on the fly. There’s always a little bit of pressure when you’re writing something editors are waiting on to post, but there’s also specific sense of accomplishment you feel when you file a piece you’ve worked to turn around quickly. It takes me back to my days of daily deadlines when working in the newspaper world.

Everyone knows that Shaquille O’Neal became as big a star in Twitterverse as he did in the NBA. And, as I covered in my last @Page2 column, the UFC has been incredibly successful in the social mediasphere. But what people might not know is that Amy Jo Martin and her company, Digital Royalty, have been the driving force behind these social media strategies.

See: Amy Jo Martin blazes trails with Shaq

Part of what’s been great about writing @Page2 has been the opportunity to really get a look at what’s going on behind-the-scenes in the world of sports and social media. I have been covering sports professionally for approaching a decade and feel I have a strong understanding of social media (as much as one can in an ever-evolving industry), but being able to speak with sports personalities and social media leaders and get their insight has further broadened my knowledge and perspective when it comes to the digital space.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has set the benchmark for sports organizations when it comes to social media. I wrote about about the NBA’s status as a leader in the social space a few weeks back, and there’s no question that the NBA is dominant when it comes to numbers. However, UFC has embraced social media in a way that no other league or sport has.

See: Dana White leads UFC into social realm

Led by president Dana White, UFC clearly understands the importance of not just using social media to communicate information, but as a way to connect with their fans. The UFC also instituted sports’ first social media bonus, another progressive – even revolutionary – measure

As I mentioned before, I don’t post every piece (especially every blog) I write here, but thought this one was a good fit as it hits on the Web’s newest meme – planking.

With the Indy 500 days away, I’ve been paying more attention that usual to IndyCar drivers on social media. I noticed a number of driver tweets – and accompanying photos – centered on planking (which involves randomly lying face down in public places). It made for a fun, quick-hit post.

See: The buzz in Indianapolis: Planking with the stars

Part of what I enjoy about writing for Page 2 is that there’s some room to have fun. When I was trying to come up with some sports and social media ideas for my @Page2 column, I thought a piece on parody Twitter accounts would be a great fit. There’s some really funny accounts out there, and I was really interested in talking to the people who run them about the inspiration to start such an account, coming up with the material to tweet and the reception they’ve gotten from the Twitterverse.

See: Behind the fake sports Twitter accounts

What was really interesting about this piece was that all the people that I talked with had completely different motivations and had their own individual approaches to running the accounts. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into the interviews, but I really enjoyed the chance to gain some unique social media insight from a handful of very creative and humorous people.

My ESPN.com social media column is off to a strong start. The initial plan is to have the column to probably run every other week, but in an effort to continue the momentum generated by the launch, we’ve started off with a column a week for three straight weeks.

This week’s piece was on the New Jersey Devils’ social media initiative. The team converted a former storage space in the team’s front offices into a “digital hub” and recruited fans to staff it – both to create a social media dialogue and to monitor conversation around the team.

See: Devils fans power ‘Mission Control’

I had a chance to go out to see Mission Control in action on game night during a recent trip to the New York City area. It’s a really unique endeavor on the team’s behalf, and they have some really committed fans who are helping make it a successful undertaking.

With my social media column officially launched and generating some buzz, the goal was to further build on the initial column’s success. Considering that the NBA playoffs are underway and the league has been dominant among professional sports organizations in the social space, profiling the NBA seemed a perfect fit.

See: The NBA’s social media explosion

For this column, I headed down to New York City for the day to get a behind-the-scene’s look at the NBA’s social media operations as the Boston Celtics took on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in the first round of the playoffs.

I’ve technically been the ESPN.com social media columnist for a little over a month, but now it’s official. Named @Page2, my first column ran on Monday.

It’s a notebook format with a large top item and some shorter notes. I spoke with White Sox general manager Ozzie Guillen for the first piece, and he was a perfect fit.

See: Ozzie Guillen gets direct on Twitter.

I’m happy with how it came out. My editors are happy with it came out. For the ultimate trifecta, it seems to be doing really well as far as traffic/user reception.

And I’m not going to lie, I think it’s pretty cool that I have my own graphic for my column.