This week’s Saturday Night Live episode hosted by former Golden Girls star, 88 year-old Betty White, claimed the highest ratings and largest audience since November 1, 2008 when John McCain and Sarah Palin appeared. And who do they have to thank? A fan and his Facebook Page.

After White starred in a viral Super Bowl Snickers commercial, a 29-year old superfan named David Matthews took to the 450+ million user platform in an attempt to garner 5,000 fans before writing a letter to SNL producer Lorne Michaels.

After being picked up by USA Today and Perez Hilton, Matthews says the Page jumped from 8,300 fans to over 22,000. According to AllFacebook, the Page went from 30,000 to 230,000 fans last week. The “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!” Facebook Page now claims over half a million “likes” or “fans”, which is simply astonishing.

Yesterday’s 2010 NFL Draft was one of the most anticipated and hotly debated in recent history, both off- and online. Rightfully so, the NFL has made a concerted effort to facilitate and capture fan conversations that are taking place across social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and blogging networks.

The key to the NFL’s online social media draft strategy was recognizing that “conversations are happening in a lot of different places,” NFL.com’s General Manager Laura Goldberg said. “We want to make sure we’re aggregating comments no matter where they are.”

Jimmy “J-Roll” Rollins has always been known for his blazing speed and affinity for two-baggers.  On Tuesday, April 13th, Rollins will look to add homerun king to an already impressive baseball resume.

While his Philadelphia Phillies teammates are resting after their Citizens Bank Park home opener against the Washington Nationals, Rollins will spend his afternoon launching baseballs in excess of 550 feet over a closed-down Philadelphia highway in an attempt to break a Guinness World Record.

Who’s the top athlete on Facebook? Is it an international phenom like Cristiano Ronaldo or Roger Federer with millions of fans? Or maybe an engaging personality like Shaun White or Steve Nash with creative, authentic content?

That’s a question Activ8Social set out to answer early in the new year and in the process, we decided to rank the Top 30 professional athlete Facebook Pages as of February 2010. Top caliber athletes from all over the world and from a variety of sports made the grade. Read our full blog entry for more details.

A few weeks ago, I contributed to an e-book put together by fellow sports and social media enthusiast Jason Peck. The focus of my post was industry predictions for 2010 and given the nature of our work at Activ8Social, I decide to focus on individual athletes. I came up with three primary growth areas to keep an eye on: Promotions, Live Video, and Mobile.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a few examples and decided to point them out to better demonstrate my predictions. Here’s my original post, coupled with a recent example of each primary growth area. Drop me a line and let me know how you see sports and social media growing in 2010 (hopefully by leaps and bounds).

Well-known sports and social media blogger, Jason Peck, released an ebook today that aggregates the opinions and predictions of 16 thought leaders in the sports and social media space.

We are excited that Activ8Social Partner Steve Cobb was included in the first annual release of the compilation. You can find his predictions on pages 21-22.
Sports Social Media Predictions 2010

The Activ8Social team just capped off a long, eventful day at the prestigious 2009 Princeton Sports Symposium, which was the fourth installment of this event that has become an annual landmark in the sports industry and on the Princeton University Campus. Founded by Chris Chaney, Princeton class of ’07, the symposium provides a forum where students and sports professionals can interact and acquire invaluable knowledge about this fast-growing industry.

Anthony Caponiti of Activ8Social was a featured panelist on the “Digital Media & Technology” panel, alongside the following renowned industry veterans:

The success of any combat sporting event, like Pacquiao vs. Cotto or UFC 105, ultimately boils down to one core factor … promotion. “Promoter” and “promotion company” are terms not readily found in basketball, football, baseball or any other mainstream sport’s vernacular. Marketing for these sports is an ongoing process while boxing is largely event-based.

For decades, promoters have been hyping fights and reaching consumers through traditional media channels such as television, radio, and print. However, boxing executives can no longer afford to rely solely on these outlets. Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other online platforms offer ideal mediums to engage fans, build brand equity, generate additional PPV sales, and usher in a new era of the international sport of pugilism. When it comes to promotion, social media is the undisputed, P4P Champ!