#canucks50K, a Tweetup and a Signed Canucks Jersey Giveaway

Daniel Sedin’s third period goal in last week’s 3-1 win against the Calgary Flames was significant not only because it served as the insurance marker in an otherwise close game, but also because it was the 10,000th goal in the history of the Vancouver Canucks franchise.

Yesterday, the Canucks celebrated another milestone: their 50,000th follower on Twitter. This ranks them 4th among all official NHL team Twitter accounts, and they’re closing in on 3rd place Chicago.

The hockey blogosphere is often filled with stories pitting team vs. blogger vs. mainstream media. For their part, the Canucks have done a pretty good job of managing the many entities that provide some sort of coverage of their team.

In recent years, the Canucks have been among the more progressive teams in the league in terms of dealing with fans and bloggers. In 2006, they reached out to various bloggers – including yours truly, and John, Rebecca, Alanah and Dave from The Crazy Canucks podcast – to help them start building a fan network. At various points, Sean and Mike from Nucks Misconduct and other Canucks Fan Zone bloggers were involved as well. They hired a couple of consultants, Anton and Bruce from Anton Sledgehammer, to spearhead the project, but as a fan, I remember thinking it was neat to be engaged and asked for input.

What followed next were a series of fan initiatives. The Canucks hosted the Ultimate Canucks Search, a search for the ultimate Canucks fan, and created the Canucks Fan Zone and Facebook page. In 2008, they asked us – and other fans – to participate in their season print and in-arena video ad campaign. They grew their fan network too, and now includes some of your favorite Canucks bloggers (Richard and Chris from CHB, and Brian from Canucks Corner) and Canucks tweeps (@gloomybb). They host regular Tweetups and often use Twitter to communicate with their fans.

With their level of engagement, it’s perhaps not surprising that canucks.com, the Canucks’ Facebook page and Twitter accounts are among the most popular in the NHL.

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Speaking of Tweetups, the Canucks are hosting an official Tweetup at the Boston Pizza on Grandview and Rupert (in Vancouver) on Tuesday, January 18th. It starts at 6:00 PM, in time for the Canucks game against the Colorado Avalanche. As always, there will be lots of giveaways and prizes. Chris Palliser from the Beat 94.5 is the celebrity host. The last couple of Tweetups were very well-attended so you may want to get there early to guarantee yourself a seat.

Like they promised, the Canucks are giving away a pair of tickets at this Tweetup for reaching 50,000 followers this week. Click here for more details.

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As a token of their appreciation, the Canucks have given CHB a signed Alex Burrows Canucks jersey to give away to one of our readers.

To enter:

1) Enter a comment on this post. (1 entry)

and/or

2) Tweet the following. (1 entry)

RT or comment on http://bit.ly/dIdawJ to enter to win a signed Burrows #Canucks jersey from @canuckshockey & @VanCanucks.

Deadline to enter is on Saturday, January 22nd at 11:59 PM.