In continuing our series of interview with industry leaders, this week we talk with Rob Campbell of the Cleveland Indians (@TribeTalk) about his new position with the team and the Indians’ social media initiatives.

You’re new to the Indians organization. How did you come to work for the Indians? What were you doing before the Indians?

I’ve been with the Indians organization just over a month and lived in Cleveland just as long. Before, I worked in Chicago for sponsorship consultancy IEG, LLC. At IEG I conducted sponsorship research for both sponsors and properties and helped value sponsorship packages. I also managed IEG’s social media platforms; blogging and video blogging on sponsorship, developing strategies and managing IEG’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. In my spare time, I created and managed the Twitter account for the athletic department of my alma mater, Northwestern University. In college I played baseball for Northwestern and have a deep affinity for the game.

Can you give an overview of the Indians’ social media strategy as it exists currently?

The Indians social media strategy is multi-faceted and is being developed with help from Digital Royalty. In its current initial stage, we aim to establish a foothold in social media by interacting with fans who have already established themselves in the space. In essence, we want to join the conversation that is already taking place. The Indians are then taking the conversation a step further with the development of our Tribe Social Deck where we bring bloggers and social media users together to enjoy an Indians game and network with like-minded individuals. It has been an incredible experience to interact with fans, answer their questions and listen to their feedback.

The Indians recently debuted a “Social Media Deck” at Progressive Field. What is the Social Media Deck? How can bloggers become involved with it?

The Tribe Social Deck is the physical component of our social media presence. It affords attendees the opportunity to not only watch a game live but also network with members of their digital community; often providing attendees the first time to shake hands with someone they had been conversing with for months online. Involvement with the Tribe Social Deck initially has been by invitation only but we are currently working with MLB Advanced Media to develop an online application.

In the past the Indians have featured exclusive ticket promotions to their Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Can you talk about the previous promotions and what might be in the works in the future?

We will be conducting ticket promotions through social media and Tweet-ups throughout the season. Technically speaking, we give out at least ten tickets per game to the social media community solely as a result of the Tribe Social Deck. Throughout the season we hope to reach diverse groups of social media users who would get the most out of our promotions and themed events.

As an organization, how do the Indians view social media? In what way does social media marketing complement the more traditional marketing and PR arms of the organization?

The Indians view social media as integral component of our marketing and communications initiatives. The ability of social media to foster two-way conversations allows for a more tailored approach towards fan interaction affords the organization a tremendous opportunity to engage fans in ways never before possible. We view social media not as a separate initiative but as a tool that augments the abilities of the organization to better serve our fans.

Can you identify one other sports team or brand whose social media presence you personally admire?

The Chicago White Sox have a tremendous social media presence in terms of MLB teams. Their Sox Fest is a great example of leveraging social media to generate interest and increase interaction. It was also great to see Twitter get behind a Tweet-up in San Francisco for the Giants.

Outside of Major League Baseball, the New York Islanders and Phoenix Suns were definitely innovators in integrating social media into professional sports.

What role do you think social media will play in the future? Where do you see the sports industry in terms of adoption of social media?

I think social media will allow fans to feel an increased sense of investment with their favorite teams. The ability of a fan to converse with members of the front office bridges what had once been a sizable gap in access that the everyday fan experienced.

If you could change one thing about social media, what would you change and why?

In a perfect world I would love to streamline the process of communicating and tracking conversations in social media. I currently use six different applications and a mobile device to monitor and manage accounts and correspondence.

What advice, if any, would you give to current students just starting out in their careers?

Keep an open mind and never stop working hard.

Late last night NBCSports.com’s Aaron Gleeman broke a story that MLB had just instituted a new policy banning MLB.com team beat writers from tweeting about non-baseball topics. Gleeman wrote:

I’m told a big part of the policy change is due to MLB not wanting non-baseball tweets showing up on the MLB.com Twitter feed/aggregator, but banning every writer from non-baseball talk because of that is like killing a fly with a sledgehammer.

If true this new policy seems very unfortunate. MLB has been silent since the story broke late last night. Of course I will publish any official statement on the policy if one is forthcoming, although I personally doubt MLB will address an internal policy issue, after all, it’s doubtful most fans would even notice the change were it not for Gleeman’s original report.

If the issue is indeed that non-baseball tweets were appearing on the MLB.com homepage, there are several more subtler ways to solve the problem than to, as Gleeman wrote, “[kill] a fly with a sledgehammer.” One solution could be to separate tweets based on keywords or hashtags.

It appears that at least one MLB.com beat writer has a solution. Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne created a separate Twitter account tonight for his non-baseball tweets. If MLB allows its writers to do this, this could be a compromise. MLB wouldn’t have to worry about non-baseball tweets on its homepage and team beat writers would regain the ability to interact with fans on a more personal level. Seems like a win-win to me.

What do you think of the new MLB policy? Have your say in the comments.

I’m proud to announce that Sportsin140.com has been nominated for “Best Sports Business Twitter Account” in the inaugural Business of Sports Awards at TheBusinessofSports.com.

The nominees for the Best Sports Business Twitter account are:

• Gail Sideman (@PUBLISIDE)
• Jason Peck (@jasonpeck)
• J.W. Cannon (@khuda1)
• Kathleen Hessert (@kathleenhessert)
• Maury Brown (@bizballmaury)
• Mike Mahoney (@mmahoney13)
• Sponsor Park (@SponsorPark)
• Sports in 140 (@Sportsin140)

It is an honor to be recognized as a nominee in this category. These are some of the brightest and most innovating names in the online sports marketing industry. I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know several of my fellow nominees in the last year and am proud to be included in the same conversation.

The winners will be announced in early May. You can show your support for Sportsin140.com by commenting on the linked article at the beginning of this post.

For now, you can vote for the “People’s Choice” award, given to the Sports Business Social Media Contributor of the Year, on that site’s main page. The nominees include Amy Martin of Digital Royalty, whom I interviewed last May.

An NBA league source tells ESPN’s Marc Stein that the league will unveil “minimal” guidelines for players, coaches and other team officials using Twitter and other social media sites this week.

Stein writes:

The primary restriction of the policy is expected to prevent various team representatives from tweeting during games, after the stir caused late last season when Detroit Pistons forward Charlie Villanueva, then with Milwaukee, tweeted from the Bucks’ locker room during halftime.

Stein also reports that the NBA will allow individual teams to set their own organizational guidelines for the use of social media in a manner similar to how some teams have adopted a strict dress code which goes beyond the league mandated dress code.

Edit- The NBA released its policy on Wednesday and it is exactly as Stein reported. For the record, Shaq said he has no problem with the new policy.

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?