A leaked image purporting to show the yet-to-be-released Wii U, below an image of the old version. Source: GamesRadarNintendo isn’t quite ready to pull the curtains off its next generation Wii U, but a purported photo of the game console has already circulated on Twitter.

That’s according to WebProNews, which says GamesRadar found the image posted from the Twitter account of a QA tester for Traveler’s Tales, makers of the LEGO game series. While the picture has been deleted, GamesRadar saved it and compared the image to a photo of the previous model.

The leaked image shows a controller with analog sticks instead of the previous model’s circle pads.

“That’s a change for the better as the circle pad on the 3DS is great for handhelds, but wouldn’t feel right with a core console game that required analog sticks for twitch-based shooter titles,” points out WebProNews.

Compared to the old version, the leaked picture shows a controller with the start and select buttons now on the side instead of the bottom, small unmarked square buttons that perform unknown functions and Wii U branding.

The Wii U reportedly has a large controller that is similar to a dedicated handheld console, with a touchscreen, motion detection and camera. Its small screen can be used in tandem with games played on TVs or it can replace the larger display entirely. It also will use NFC, or near field communication, standards that are widely used in tap-and-go train passes and other payment systems.

Nintendo also is working to expand the peer-to-peer platforms of the device, which let users communicate and compete via their 3DS consoles.

Nintendo will officially take the wraps off the Wii U at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, a major annual game exhibition to be held June 5-7 in Los Angeles. The highly anticipated console is expected to show up on store shelves in time for the holiday season in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

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Article source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/255872/nintendo_wii_u_not_yet_out_but_purported_photo_surfaces.html

By
Cassie Carpenter

PUBLISHED:

22:42 EST, 18 May 2012

|

UPDATED:

05:49 EST, 20 May 2012

In Hollywood, an actor dating a model is positively commonplace.

However, many eyebrows were raised when singer-actress Raven-Symoné was reported to be living in a New York condo with America’s Next Top Model contestant AzMarie Livingston, and Raven took to her Twitter today to address the rumors.

‘I’m living my PERSONAL life the way I’m happiest,” the 26-year-old tweeted to her 350,000 followers.

That’s so…private! Raven-Symoné, seen outside of her Broadway show last month, took to her Twitter today to address recent gay rumors

‘I’m not one, in my 25 year career to disclose who I’m dating. and I shall not start now. My sexual orientation is mine, and the person I’m datings to know. I’m not one for a public display of my life.’

Raven added, ‘That is my right as a HUMAN BEing whether straight or gay. To tell or not to tell. As long as I’m not harming anyone.’

Living with a model? The 26-year-old was reported to be living with America’s Next Top Model contestant AzMarie Livingston

The That’s So Raven star did not confirm or deny the allegations about dating AzMarie, who was voted off the current season of The CW’s modeling competition when she refused to wear a butt pad for a ‘Bootie-tooch Teach’ class taught by Tyra Banks.

The tattooed 24-year-old lesbian model was famous on cycle 18 for her strong, androgynous beauty not unlike AzMarie’s idol Grace Jones.

None of your business! Raven tweeted an official four-part statement of privacy for her 350,000 followers

Secret sexuality: The former Cosby Show cutie stressed that her career is the only thing she would like to put on display, not her personal life

The former Cosby Show cutie stressed that her career is the only thing she would like to put on display — not her personal life.

‘Raven has lost almost 30 pounds, has done a whole image makeover, and now she is the star of Sister Act on Broadway,’ a source recently told The National Enquirer.

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Article source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2146674/Raven-Symon-addresses-gay-rumours-Twitter.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

This time I will be chronicling the race on Twitter — where you can follow me @PeterHartlaub. Here’s what you will get:

This shirt makes more sense if you listen to Phil Collins.

1. Reports from the finish line.

2. Links to things I write for the Chronicle or SFGate.com.

3. No images of naked people. (Unless the winner of the race is naked, or there’s some other journalistically compelling reason.)

4. All of the best costumes I find.

5. Photos featuring anyone I can find wearing Bay to Breakers shirts from the 1970s, 80s and early 1990s.

I kept the shirt from the 1985 race , modeled on the right by my wife because it doesn’t fit me any more. I’m definitely feeling a “Miami Vice” vibe with the logo design and colors …

If you’re running this year’s race in a Bay to Breakers shirt from before 1995, please take a photo and send me a copy at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com. I may throw a few on The Big Event after the race is over.

More information about the 101st Bay to Breakers is here. I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe time and enjoys the race.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder/editor of The Big Event. He takes requests. Contact him at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com. Follow him on Twitter @peterhartlaub. Follow The Big Event on Facebook.

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/thebigevent/2012/05/20/follow-me-on-twitter-during-the-bay-to-breakers/

“The material was promoting a competition on Facebook to post images of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad,” said Mohammad Yaseen, chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication’s Authority, was quoted as saying. He was also quoted as saying that Facebook had agreed to allay the concerns of the Pakistani government.

Blasphemy is an issue that roils sentiment easily in Pakistan. Blasphemy allegations have often resulted in violent riots, and religious minorities in Pakistan have long maintained that the country’s blasphemy laws are used to settle personal scores.

Facebook was banned for two weeks in 2010 after protests erupted in the country over a similar cartoon contest on Facebook to draw the Prophet Muhammad. After a high court ordered the government to ban Facebook, the government was quick to ban YouTube and hundreds of other Web sites and services.

Speculation that the government intended to suspended Facebook and Twitter again had been swirling around for the past couple of days. However, this time around there have been no major public protests over the contest that Pakistani officials have expressed concerns about.

The ban has caught Twitter users by surprise.

“I never heard of any caricatures on Twitter,” said Arif Rafiq, an adjunct scholar at Middle East Institute and a commentator on Pakistani politics, who has a Twitter following of more than 10,000 users. “Now this ban will be promoting whatever caricatures were posted on it.”

Responding to a question last night, Rehman Malik, the country’s interior minister, had denied that ban on social networking sites was in the offing.

“The government of Pakistan’s ban on Twitter is ill advised, counterproductive and will ultimately prove to be futile as all such attempts at censorship have proved to be,” said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at Human Rights Watch, in a press statement. “The right to free speech is nonnegotiable, and if Pakistan is the rights-respecting democracy it claims to be, this ban must be lifted forthwith. Free speech can and should only be countered with free speech.”

Critics said that the blocking of the micro-blogging site could actually be a part of longstanding government plan to muzzle media freedom and could be related to the vociferous opposition and criticism that is heaped on the country’s security apparatus in Twitter debates.

“Twitter is a place where fierce opposition to Pakistan’s security agencies is expressed,” said Raza Rumi, a widely read columnist and an adviser at the Jinnah Institute, a public policy center based in Islamabad.

“There is a clear trend,” Mr. Rumi said, “that the Pakistani military and spy agency get a strong critique from Pakistanis themselves, something that does not happen in mainstream media where people are generally shy to express such views.”

Activists supporting minority rights have established a strong voice on Twitter, and advocates for the Baluch people, who are demanding greater rights and a share of the natural-resources wealth in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, have also used it to spread their message.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/world/asia/pakistan-blocks-twitter-over-cartoon-contest.html

Image courtesy of Mark Zuckerberg. Source: Facebook

Guests that arrived at Mark Zuckerberg’s Palo Alto, Calif., home Saturday, the day after his social network went public, thought they were attending a party to celebrate longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan’s medical school graduation party. Instead, the two got married.

According to The Associated Press, Zuckerberg and Chan tied the knot in the company of fewer than 100 guests, culminating a busy week for the couple.

On Monday, Zuckerberg turned 28 and Chan graduated from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, where she studied pediatrics. On Friday, Facebook became a public company, minting Zuckerberg as a $20 billion man. Saturday, the couple held a surprise wedding and Zuckerberg updated his Facebook status to “married.”

A wedding guest told the AP that the wedding had been planned for months, but the date of the IPO had been an unknown “moving target” when the couple set the wedding date.

If you haven’t yet stopped by Zuckerberg’s Facebook profile to verify his new status, you should. The Facebook chief — one of the world’s most famous CEOs — shares some interesting personal details.

Were you aware, for example, that Zuckerberg is a vegetarian?

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page.As for Chan, posers have created fake pages for Zuckerberg’s new wife, although if you click on Zuckerberg’s timeline event “Married Priscilla Chan,” which has already been “liked” by more than 700,000 Facebook fans, you’ll get to her public profile.

According to it, Zuckerberg’s bride has eclectic tastes in books and music — everything from Kenney Chesney to Lady Gaga and “Harry Potter” to “Pride and Prejudice.” She also likes cooking and is a fan of Tieks, a high-end ballet flat.

Speaking of fashion, Zuckerberg did not wear a hoodie to his wedding. He went the more traditional route with a dark jacket and tie.

[See more: Facebook IPO: Is Zuckerberg’s Hoodie a Sign of Immaturity?]

Follow Christina on Twitter and Google+ for even more tech news and commentary and follow Today@PCWorld on Twitter, too.

Article source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/255871/facebooks_zuckerberg_marries_in_surprise_then_shares.html

Granted, it was 20 years ago, but I ran a Syndicate group at an emerging growth investment-banking boutique and had previously worked in a Capital Markets group at a large investment bank.  Syndicate/Capital Markets is responsible for managing an IPO.  Many wonder why, after all the hype, Facebook really did nothing in trading on Friday.  Perhaps my antidotes will shed some light…

Before companies even start the process, they must file an S-1 with the SEC.  On that S-1 is a price range.  For companies with a history of financials and earnings, investment bankers tend to set that price at a 15% or so discount to the company’s valuation so that investors get some return on the first day of trading.  Why?  So that investors feel good about the investment and that sentiment will remain with them for the next offering.  Generally, when companies go public, they only offer a limited amount of stock to whet the appetite of investors, and anticipate doing a follow-on offering sometime in the future.

For a “normal” IPO, a company that goes public in the normal course with little media attention, the first step is to build a strong “book” of orders for the offering.  If a company wants to sell, for example, one million shares to the public, the order book needs to exceed that one million by some multiple.  Back in the less frenzied days in less frenzied industries, having order demand exceed supply by 3-5 times was a good book.  The reason why the demand had to exceed supply was that accounts that really wanted the stock would put in inflated orders to make sure they got “filled” on what their true demand.   With this level of demand, underwriters would be confident that there would be enough demand in the after market (once the stock begins trading) to support the offering price.

For IPOs that have a lot of interest, the order book can get out of hand.  In our first lead-managed IPO at the boutique, our order book was 26 times oversubscribed.  This was back in the early 1990s and the company was an innovative technology company.  At this level of exuberant demand, the offering price had to be increased because otherwise the company management would be certain to feel that they weren’t getting a fair deal.  Companies don’t love to price their stock at $15 and see it open for trading at $30.  That said, sometimes there are constraints on how high a IPO can be priced, regardless of demand, because institutional investors may have a limit on the valuation they can pay (ie, on some metric such as a multiple of projected earnings per share).  So pricing a “hot” IPO is a bit of a balancing act to determine the “real” order book at what price.

The “book” comes together, generally, on the road show.   The road show is usually a week-long tour of the country’s institutional investors with one-on-one meetings for the big accounts (ie Fidelity) and group lunches or breakfasts for the smaller accounts.  It is grueling, often with 8 meetings each day.  (It used to be that management teams wore suits on road shows…and I was a tech banker.)  And, of course, there is retail interest that comes in through investment banks’ syndicate desks but, usually, retail investors get very little IPO stock.

It is important to know the book because pricing and the initial trading is so important.  If the stock is priced too high and there is not enough demand to support it at its offering price, the underwriters should “stabilize” the stock, which is to say, put their own capital behind buying the stock to maintain offering price.  So, when stocks trade at their IPO price, chances are that the underwriters are supporting the stock, and that there is insufficient demand for the stock at this price.  It could mean that the stock was priced too high.

If the stock skyrockets, then many investors who received stock on the IPO feel compelled to sell or “flip” the stock.  Once upon a time, flippers were considered a menace and were penalized by not being allowed to participate in subsequent IPOs.  I believe that many retail investors who placed orders on Facebook’s IPO were asked to hold their stock for 30-60 days with this implicit penalty looming.  Yet, if the stock trades up substantially, underwriters will need to have some flipping in order to have an inventory of stock to sell to those who want to build long-term positions once a stock begins to trade.  Again, pricing is a delicate balance between knowing the real order book and what trades will be placed once a stock begins to trade.

What inferences can be drawn for the Facebook IPO?

It suggests that the underwriters priced the IPO at the highest price it could, leaving nothing to create buying interest after the stock began trading.  Underwriters should have a view of at what price the stock can trade where there will be buying interest, and price accordingly to ensure that the stock can trade on its own the first day.

It appears that the underwriters had to pay for pricing Facebook at its limit.  Because the stock closed at $38.23 on the first day, despite reported enormous retail interest, it suggests that the stock had to be supported by the underwriters in addition to retail buying.  It suggests that institutions probably put in orders larger than they wanted to ensure they received IPO stock, but sold out of the offering when the stock didn’t pop.  Institutions got out at whatever profits they could lock in (the stock did trade at $42) and retail investors bought in.

It brings into question institutional support, since many institutions were able to buy Facebook prior to the IPO on the private market.

This does not bode well for trading next week.  Without a strong finish on the first day of trading, institutional and retail investors alike will approach the stock with trepidation and will most likely take a wait and see attitude. After all, according to Barrons, at $38, Facebook trades for 76 times projected 2012 profits of 50 cents a share and 89 times 2011 earnings.   Without a buying interest, the stock could languish until it can engender investor confidence with strong earnings.  The next earnings report is three months away.

Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/darcytravlos/2012/05/20/facebook-how-not-to-price-and-trade-and-ipo-thoughts-from-a-capital-markets-veteran/

The NBA‘s scoring champ buried a clutch three-pointer right in Metta World Peace’s grill to give the Oklahoma City Thunder a 103-100 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Despite leading by 13 with under eight minutes to play, the Lakers fell apart down the stretch. Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum stopped hitting shots, while Durant and Russell Westbrook were dominant on the other end.

Westbrook led OKC with 37 points and carried his team through some rough stretches of the game. But with the score tied at 98-98, the Thunder turned to Durant.

The young superstar didn’t disappoint, knocking down the three with 13 seconds left. After a missed Kobe three, the Thunder knocked down a pair of free throws to seal the victory.

They lead the series, 3-1. 

Tweets of the Night

As Russell Westbrook went down before halftime, it brought up questions about the slippery floor at the Staples Center. But as Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles points out, you can’t blame it on the hockey rink below.

Ice has been below the basketball court at Staples Center all season. They didn’t just put a rink under there this week.

— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) May 20, 2012

Bethlehem Shoals, our fine NBA Lead Writer here at Bleacher Report, has a great idea for talented yet volatile point guards Russell Westbrook and Rajon Rondo.

Working on a pilot for a Rondo-Westbrook detective buddy show. They spend the whole episode trying to figure out if one of them did it.

— Bethlehem Shoals (@freedarko) May 20, 2012

As the fine folks at ESPN point out, if “shot difficulty” was a stat, Kobe would lead the league every year.

On a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being easiest and 10 being crazy difficult), the difficulty of Kobe’s shots: 10. #Mamba

— ESPN (@espn) May 20, 2012

Former NBA baller and current basketball analyst Jalen Rose made a good point about how the Lakers dealt with the always-dangerous James Harden.

Lakers are making a conscious effort of attacking Harden on the defensive end. It has taken away from his offense so far #NBA

— JALEN ROSE (@jalenrose) May 20, 2012

After Kevin Durant drained his the game-winning three, David Aldridge of TNT had flashbacks to this summer.

Durant. Wow. Just like at the Rucker…

— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) May 20, 2012

Must-See Highlight

The highlight of the night goes to Durant, who splashed yet another game-winning shot.

Grades for Key Thunder Players

Kevin Durant: A

It was an up-and-down game for Durant, but he made up for some potentially costly mistakes with that clutch three-pointer.

He finished the game with 31 points and 13 rebounds, and although he missed two big free throws down the stretch, he still did enough to get OKC the win.

Russell Westbrook: A

From nearly tearing his groin in the second quarter, to dominating in the third, to picking up a silly technical in the fourth, OKC’s enigmatic point guard did it all. 

Overall, it was an excellent game for Westbrook. He got to the rim at will and worked his mid-range mojo to finish with 37 points on 15-of-26 shooting.

Grades for Key Lakers Players

Kobe Bryant: A-

It was a vintage Kobe performance, as the relentless gunner went for 38 points on 12-of-28 shooting. Unfortunately, he missed a few key shots late in the fourth quarter, and didn’t get much help from his supporting cast.

Andrew Bynum: B-

The big man was excellent for the first three quarters, but he faded late. With Kendrick Perkins frustrating him, Bynum couldn’t find his rhythm in the fourth quarter, which ultimately led to the collapse of the Lakers offense.

He finished the game with 18 points and nine rebounds.

Game MVP: Russell Westbrook

Although Kobe scored more points and Durant hit the game-winner, Westbrook was the best player on the court Saturday.

His 13 third-quarter points kept OKC in the game when L.A. was about to pull away, and he maintained his aggression in the fourth. Without Westbrook going off Saturday, this series would be tied at two.

What’s Next?

The pivotal Game 5 will take place Monday, May 21 in Oklahoma City. The game starts at 9:30 p.m. Eastern and will be televised live on TNT.

Article source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1189402-thunder-vs-lakers-game-4-highlights-twitter-reaction-and-analysis

The NBA‘s scoring champ buried a clutch three-pointer right in Metta World Peace’s grill to give the Oklahoma City Thunder a 103-100 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Despite leading by 13 with under eight minutes to play, the Lakers fell apart down the stretch. Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum stopped hitting shots, while Durant and Russell Westbrook were dominant on the other end.

Westbrook led OKC with 37 points and carried his team through some rough stretches of the game. But with the score tied at 98-98, the Thunder turned to Durant.

The young superstar didn’t disappoint, knocking down the three with 13 seconds left. After a missed Kobe three, the Thunder knocked down a pair of free throws to seal the victory.

They lead the series, 3-1. 

Tweets of the Night

As Russell Westbrook went down before halftime, it brought up questions about the slippery floor at the Staples Center. But as Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles points out, you can’t blame it on the hockey rink below.

Ice has been below the basketball court at Staples Center all season. They didn’t just put a rink under there this week.

— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) May 20, 2012

Bethlehem Shoals, our fine NBA Lead Writer here at Bleacher Report, has a great idea for talented yet volatile point guards Russell Westbrook and Rajon Rondo.

Working on a pilot for a Rondo-Westbrook detective buddy show. They spend the whole episode trying to figure out if one of them did it.

— Bethlehem Shoals (@freedarko) May 20, 2012

As the fine folks at ESPN point out, if “shot difficulty” was a stat, Kobe would lead the league every year.

On a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being easiest and 10 being crazy difficult), the difficulty of Kobe’s shots: 10. #Mamba

— ESPN (@espn) May 20, 2012

Former NBA baller and current basketball analyst Jalen Rose made a good point about how the Lakers dealt with the always-dangerous James Harden.

Lakers are making a conscious effort of attacking Harden on the defensive end. It has taken away from his offense so far #NBA

— JALEN ROSE (@jalenrose) May 20, 2012

After Kevin Durant drained his the game-winning three, David Aldridge of TNT had flashbacks to this summer.

Durant. Wow. Just like at the Rucker…

— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) May 20, 2012

Must-See Highlight

The highlight of the night goes to Durant, who splashed yet another game-winning shot.

Grades for Key Thunder Players

Kevin Durant: A

It was an up-and-down game for Durant, but he made up for some potentially costly mistakes with that clutch three-pointer.

He finished the game with 31 points and 13 rebounds, and although he missed two big free throws down the stretch, he still did enough to get OKC the win.

Russell Westbrook: A

From nearly tearing his groin in the second quarter, to dominating in the third, to picking up a silly technical in the fourth, OKC’s enigmatic point guard did it all. 

Overall, it was an excellent game for Westbrook. He got to the rim at will and worked his mid-range mojo to finish with 37 points on 15-of-26 shooting.

Grades for Key Lakers Players

Kobe Bryant: A-

It was a vintage Kobe performance, as the relentless gunner went for 38 points on 12-of-28 shooting. Unfortunately, he missed a few key shots late in the fourth quarter, and didn’t get much help from his supporting cast.

Andrew Bynum: B-

The big man was excellent for the first three quarters, but he faded late. With Kendrick Perkins frustrating him, Bynum couldn’t find his rhythm in the fourth quarter, which ultimately led to the collapse of the Lakers offense.

He finished the game with 18 points and nine rebounds.

Game MVP: Russell Westbrook

Although Kobe scored more points and Durant hit the game-winner, Westbrook was the best player on the court Saturday.

His 13 third-quarter points kept OKC in the game when L.A. was about to pull away, and he maintained his aggression in the fourth. Without Westbrook going off Saturday, this series would be tied at two.

What’s Next?

The pivotal Game 5 will take place Monday, May 21 in Oklahoma City. The game starts at 9:30 p.m. Eastern and will be televised live on TNT.

Article source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1189402-thunder-vs-lakers-game-4-highlights-twitter-reaction-and-analysis

Players such as Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips and Miami Marlins outfielder Logan Morrison are Twitter superstars, but devoted fans across the country also are responding to the personal touch provided by the teams’ online presence.

Social media nights vary from ballpark to ballpark, but some aspects are fairly consistent. The Cubs offered specially priced tickets and put together contests for their online fans. They encouraged their Twitter followers to use the hashtag (hash)CubsSocial to mark their tweets throughout the night.

“I think it’s going to be mandatory for all clubs to be not just involved in it, but go all-in, not just dip your toes in the water,” said Jamie Ramsey, who works in the Reds’ media relations department and writes a blog for Major League Baseball’s website. “Teams are going to realize how important it is to help sell tickets, generate revenue and keep the fan base interested and engaged.

“I think it’s still kind of new to everybody. Once teams realize how to master it and do what works for them, it’s going to keep growing and become as important as your marketing department, your sales department.”

Houlihan, 33, of Chicago, attended the first social media night at Wrigley Field on Wednesday with her boyfriend, George Hayman, and his brother, Pete. She pounced on her phone when the Cubs announced a Twitter contest, and managed to post in time to win an autographed pack of the social media-themed cards that were part of the promotion.

“I think it’s really awesome to put together events like this,” Houlihan said. “I’ve been going to social media events for several years now and I find it’s the perfect way to network because you meet people through Twitter and then you go meet them in person and it gives an entree into what they like to talk about, things that you have in common.”

The Cubs put approximately 300 special bleacher tickets on sale for the promotion and sold each one. They are planning a second social media night for September.

Kevin Saghy, a public relations and marketing specialist for the Cubs who helps run their Twitter account, said the key to generating revenue in the field is content.

“If your focus is revenue and your content reflects that, I don’t believe that’s a wise strategy … That’s not why people are there,” he said. “They’re there to converse. So we’ve taken the other approach where it’s definitely a priority for us, it’s something we track, and I can say from 2010 to last year, as we got more involved and offered better content on our platforms, we quadrupled our revenue. So we’re up about 300 percent.”

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/perfect-pitch-baseball-teams-searching-for-right-mix-of-business-and-content-for-social-media/2012/05/20/gIQAhxYBcU_story.html

Players such as Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips and Miami Marlins outfielder Logan Morrison are Twitter superstars, but devoted fans across the country also are responding to the personal touch provided by the teams’ online presence.

Social media nights vary from ballpark to ballpark, but some aspects are fairly consistent. The Cubs offered specially priced tickets and put together contests for their online fans. They encouraged their Twitter followers to use the hashtag (hash)CubsSocial to mark their tweets throughout the night.

“I think it’s going to be mandatory for all clubs to be not just involved in it, but go all-in, not just dip your toes in the water,” said Jamie Ramsey, who works in the Reds’ media relations department and writes a blog for Major League Baseball’s website. “Teams are going to realize how important it is to help sell tickets, generate revenue and keep the fan base interested and engaged.

“I think it’s still kind of new to everybody. Once teams realize how to master it and do what works for them, it’s going to keep growing and become as important as your marketing department, your sales department.”

Houlihan, 33, of Chicago, attended the first social media night at Wrigley Field on Wednesday with her boyfriend, George Hayman, and his brother, Pete. She pounced on her phone when the Cubs announced a Twitter contest, and managed to post in time to win an autographed pack of the social media-themed cards that were part of the promotion.

“I think it’s really awesome to put together events like this,” Houlihan said. “I’ve been going to social media events for several years now and I find it’s the perfect way to network because you meet people through Twitter and then you go meet them in person and it gives an entree into what they like to talk about, things that you have in common.”

The Cubs put approximately 300 special bleacher tickets on sale for the promotion and sold each one. They are planning a second social media night for September.

Kevin Saghy, a public relations and marketing specialist for the Cubs who helps run their Twitter account, said the key to generating revenue in the field is content.

“If your focus is revenue and your content reflects that, I don’t believe that’s a wise strategy … That’s not why people are there,” he said. “They’re there to converse. So we’ve taken the other approach where it’s definitely a priority for us, it’s something we track, and I can say from 2010 to last year, as we got more involved and offered better content on our platforms, we quadrupled our revenue. So we’re up about 300 percent.”

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/perfect-pitch-baseball-teams-searching-for-right-mix-of-business-and-content-for-social-media/2012/05/20/gIQAhxYBcU_story.html