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Recently the Toronto Maple Leafs became the 30th and final NHL franchise to join Twitter. By our count, the NHL is now the first of the four major leagues with all of its member franchises on the social networking site. As NHL teams warm to Twitter just in time for the ’09-’10 NHL season, it seems that NHL players are also growing more active on the site.

This week we confirmed that Nashville Predators goalie Dan Ellis and the recently retired defenseman Bret Hedican are the two newest NHL players on Twitter. Ellis joins his teammate Steve Sullivan on the site while Hedican is said to be interested in using social media to help publicize wife Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream Foundation.

While the NHL has by far the fewest number of active players using Twitter of any of the four major sports, the fact that the league now has all of its teams on Twitter makes league-wide, cohesive social media marketing plans even easier to implement. As a hockey fan, what are some of the ways you would like to see the NHL and its teams and players use Twitter this season? Which players would you like to hear from the most?

As President and Chief Operating Officer of the NHL’s Florida Panthers, Michael Yormark is always thinking of ways to build the Panthers brand and increase its standing with hockey fans in South Florida and across the country.

Mr. Yormark recently sat down with Sportsin140.com to discuss his team’s social networking presence, the team’s new Social Networking Coordinator position and his own Twitter account.

You are one of the first team Presidents to join Twitter. As President of the Panthers, what made you want to join Twitter? How do you think using Twitter enhances your brand?

I have always enjoyed communicating directly with our fans. I have probably 200 or so fans that I talk to on a regular basis – I return all of their e-mails, I give them my cell phone number, they call me in the office and I’ll even have lunch or meetings with them from time to time. Not only is the interaction something that I enjoy but it’s also extremely useful in terms of shaping the way we run our business on a daily basis. In that respect, Twitter is yet another means to an end. It’s a way to give up to the minute updates to our fans on what we, as an organization, are working on, and to get almost instantaneous feedback.

The Florida Panthers recently advertised a new position with the team, that of the Social Networking Coordinator. What does this position entail and why did the organization feel it necessary to add the position now? How does this new position differ from the more traditional PR roles in an NHL front office?

Well, we’ve had this position in house for about a month now and I have to tell you, it has really opened our eyes to how much diligence and time we have to lend to the implementation of these social media outlets, in order to have the type of success we want. Our goal with the SSE Media Network is not only to generate thousands of new fans for SSE, the BankAtlantic Center and the Florida Panthers, but also to develop a multi-million dollar revenue stream that can subsidize our unique marketing and public relations initiatives.

We’ve seen many teams take unique “Twitter specific” promotions in the past. Is this something the Panthers will do in the future? If so, how do you see the organization utilizing these types of promotions next season?

We have already developed a list of 10-20 unique social media promotions that we will use throughout the season and will undoubtedly include Twitter. Some of these promotions center on our marketing and community initiatives, while others are part of sponsorship programs tied in to the SSE Media Network.

Do you think that organizations should govern players’ usage of Twitter? Why or why not? Does an organization need to take a proactive approach in educating players on the use of Twitter in light of past incidents involving players and the media?

In the end, it is an individual player’s right to choose how they communicate with their fans and the public. If they choose to maintain a Twitter or Facebook account outside the realm of our organization, that is their prerogative. Our players, though, have been extremely receptive in terms of being a part of our social media outreach. As many of them tend to be savvy from a business and PR standpoint, they understand the value of controlling the message while expanding our overall media footprint. They also understand that their voice and their likeness can be exponentially more valuable as part of an overall promotional strategy then it can when it exists individually.

What do you think the “sports on Twitter movement” means for professional sports franchises?

I think it is consistent with the trend of interacting directly with fans, and finding new ways to get our message across, unfiltered, to our constituents. We’ve seen it in recent years with the rise of content-driven team and league web sites, other social media sites like YouTube and Facebook, and I think Twitter is just the next natural step in that evolution.

The Los Angeles Kings have announced that they tweet live updates during next week’s 2009 NHL Draft in Montreal. Select members of the Kings front office, including General Manager Dean Lombardi, Assistant General Manager Ron Hextall and Kings legend and President of Business Operations Luc Robitaille will be among the five people tweeting draft coverage from Thursday, June 25 to Sunday, June 28.

The full list of Kings personnel tweeting during the draft include Lombardi, Hextall and Robitaille as well as Co-Directors of Amateur Scouting Michael Futa and Mark Yannetti. Each tweet will be signed by the author using his initials. The Kings’ use of Twitter during the draft marks the first time an NHL franchise has live-tweeted during the league’s annual draft.

The Kings will also host a Tweetup and Draft Party on June 26, the first day of the draft, at the ESPN Zone in Los Angeles. Heidi Androl, host of Kings Vision, will be tweeting during the event.

Update- The Vancouver Canucks will also be live-tweeting during the NHL Draft. Canucks assistant coach Ryan Walter will tweet updates on the team’s official Twitter account during this weekend’s draft. Fans can also enter to win prizes including a team signed stick.

The National Hockey League has taken to Twitter in a big way. The NHL made headlines in the blogosphere last month with its first ever NHL Tweetup on April 15. The Tweetup brought hockey fans together to watch playoff games in 24 cities across the United States and Canada.

The NHL Tweetup was an all around success for both fans and the league. “A lot of us talk to each other online during the day but never get a chance to meet each other face to face and watch Pens’ hockey,” a fan told Pittsburgh TV station WPXI.

Sportsin140.com recently asked Michael DiLorenzo, NHL Director of Corporate Communications, about the Tweetup and the NHL’s use of Twitter to reach fans. Follow Michael DiLorenzo on Twitter.

How did the idea for the NHL Tweetup come about? Was using Twitter always a part of the plan?

We’re always looking for fun and innovative things we can do for fans, and so the notion of a Tweetup was perfect.  The NHL Tweetup was the idea of one of our Twitter followers, who one day said, “we should get the NYC people together for a Tweetup.”  We took her great idea and made it bigger by doing it as a kickoff party for the playoffs, hosting it at the NHL store, and helping the parties in the other cities.

Caps fans at a Tweetup - Courtesy NHLTweetup.com

I don’t necessarily look at Twitter as a publicity medium.  I think the Twitter advantage is that it allows us to listen to communities of NHL fans, and to engage them about what’s important to them, all in real time.  Twitter also enables us to “personalize” our brand, by allowing these communities to interact with us, not as a faceless logo, but as real people that want to do what we can to make their fandom the most enjoyable and fun experience possible.

As I mentioned, we’re always looking for fun and innovative things we can do to make the fan experience even better.  McDonald’s and Bud Light are two brands (and also NHL partners) that help people come together to have fun.  And that’s exactly what the NHL Tweetup was.  So that was a natural fit.  We also wanted to make sure that the satellite parties had a great time, and it made sense that providing merchandise to be given away would help the satellites get a nice crowd, and also make it a more fun time for those who attended.

It is definitively changing the sports marketing landscape.  It removes a barrier between athletes and fans. Shaq O’Neal is really the gold standard in this way, and the perfect example for my point.  Fans now have access to Shaq that was never before possible, and I think that’s something that makes being a fan more fun.

We’ll continue to use services like Twitter and others that can help us make the experience of being a NHL fan more fun and rewarding.

NHL fans continue to organize Tweetups during the Stanley Cup playoffs. Visit NHLTweetup.com for more information or to find a Tweetup near you.