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Ezekiel Ansah , th e Detroit Lions first round dra ft pick, a ddresses the mediaduring a n NFL football news conference the team's training facility in AllenPark, Mich., Friday , April 26, 2013 . Ansah, born and raised in Ghana, wasselected fifth overa ll in t he NFL draft on Thu rsday. (Carlos Osorio, Associated

Press)

The power of social media is rising at

a phenomenal rate.

In all aspects of media, especially

sports, it has become a force of nature

breaking news, engaging fans anddelivering people directly to everyone.

Even BYU football coach Bronco

Mendenhall has a Twitter account to

take advantage of NCAA rules and

communicate directly with prospects

and fans.

Did you know there were more than 30,000 tweets on Twitter about Ziggy Ansah before and after

Detroit drafted him? And, connections to those who tweeted about him represented a potentialaudience of 53 million?

A detailed analysis of social media paints an interesting picture of what kind of chatter took place

when the Lions picked Ansah in the first round of the NFL draft not only what, but where and by

whom. It is interesting to note, social media traffic about Ansah around the Detroit area was neutral

or negative before the draft, but on draft day turned positive. And the second-most interesting thing

about Ansah on the Internet wasnt his speed, size or his unique story of having never played football

until a few years prior to the draft. It was his glasses.

Thats right, the lensless, black-

rimmed glasses Ziggy wore on draft

day drew so much attention around

the world, they became one of the

biggest features about him. And the

attention led to free admission for

Ansah to 3D IMAX movie theaters

for one year.

Whether it's Ziggy, the Jazz, BYU,

Dick Harmon: Utah analytics company breaks downBYU's Ziggy Ansah and the NFL draftBy Dick Harmon , Deseret NewsPublished: Wednesday, May 15 2013 4:15 p.m. MDT

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865579437/Report-Ziggy-Ansah-gets-free-movie-tickets-for-a-year-after-wearing-3D-glasses-to-NFL-draft.html?pg=allhttp://www.deseretnews.com/article/865579613/Brad-Rock-BYUs-Bronco-now-in-the-news-business.html?pg=all

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BYU's Ziggy A nsah is introduced as the fifth overa ll pick by t he Detroit Lions inthe First Round of the NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall. (Jar en Wilkey /BYU,

Jaren Wilkey/BYU)

Ezekiel Ansah, the Detroit Lions first round draft pick a ddresses the media at theteam's training facility in Allen Park, Mich., Friday, A pril 26, 2 013. Ansah,

born an d ra ised in Gha na , w as selected fifth overa ll i n t he N FL draft on

Thu rsday . (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) (Car los Osorio, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Utah or Utah State, an interesting

tool that gauges and measures social

media traffic is featured in a startup

business out of Sandy called NUVI.

This company is a real-time

analytics platform for social media

called "visual intelligence." It makes

social conversations on the webactionable and insightful.

One of the vice presidents, onboard

NUVI for just four months, is

former BYU linebacker and

defensive captain Cameron Jensen.

All this data is pulled from Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, YouTube, Delicious, Reddit, Flickr,

Vimeo and more than 3 million RSS feeds.

In other words, the new media, the

one that is fast becoming the most

popular communication device of a

generation, has become a powerful

presence for not only the user but

those who want to use it.

For instance, Jensen said his

companys analytics can tell you thattop draftees Eric Fisher (Kansas City)

and Luke Joeckel (Jacksonville) may

have been judged by NFL gurus to be

similar at the top of the college heap,

but Fisher is by far more popular,

more well-known and has more

positive vibes in cyberspace. And

much of that is because Fisher tweets more on Twitter, has more followers and engages with them in

a back-and-forth discussion. That information is valuable to somebody.

Conversely, Notre Dame linebacker Manti Teo's negatives were high before, during and after the

NFL draft. He had similar negatives as West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith. Both slipped down

the ladder on draft day.

The interesting thing is, Jensens

company tools can break it down by

topic, by source, by geography, by

intensity and by time.

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BYU Head Football Coach Bronco Mendenhall congrat ulates Ziggy Ansah on hispick to join the Detroit Lions. BYU's Ziggy Ansah is introduced as the fifth over allpick by the Detroit Lions in the First Round of the NFL Draft at Radio City Music

Hall. April 25, 2 013 (JarenWilkey/Byu, JarenWilkey/BYU)

Ezekiel "Ziggy " Ansah is drafted by Detroit Lions. (Jar enWilkey/By u,

JarenWilkey /BYU)

This is interesting if you are a sports

franchise or college program,

somebody like the Jazz or Utes or

Cougars. Its interesting to see how

this fits in if you were the Deseret

News or selling tennis shoes, or if

you are Tiger Woods and had just

won a big tournament.

People are talking about your

brand, whether you are listening or

whether you care about it or not.

They are talking about you and

discussing you said Jensen.

You have some options. You can choose to ignore it or you can choose to listen or you can choose to

listen and engage those people. What NUVI allows, is you can set up a topic and you can listen on a

number of social media platforms and you can listen and leverage it. You can filter out who the

influencers are; you can filter out sentiment, whether it is positive or negative; and you can use that

for further decisions.

In other words, its a focus group on

steroids.

Companies that use this NUVI

detective work include Vivint,

University of Utah Health Care, BYU

Communications, 97th Floor and

MultiLing to mention a few.

Bottom line? Social media, Twitter

and so on are shaping the world.

This is stuff Don Draper folks on the

TV show "Mad Men" would have killed for.

No wonder Bronco is now on Twitter.

Dick Harmon, Deseret News sports columnist, can be found on Twitter as Harmonwrites and can be

contacted atdharmon@desnews.com.

Copyright 2013, Deseret News Publishing Company

mailto:dharmon@desnews.comhttp://www.deseretnews.com/article/865578380/Bronco-Mendenhall-caves-joins-Twitter.html?pg=all