As someone who doesn’t avidly follow sport myself, I can still see the clear relationship between sports and social media. Fans follow, like and share about their favourite teams, athletes, events and moments. When Usain Bolt won the 200m in the 2012 Olympics, Twitter went wild with 80,000 tweets per minute just about Bolt. Facebook also demonstrates how different sports took over the social buzz each day on the Winter Olympics 2014. This gives great insights into demographical popularity which could be used to aid in marketing decisions. It also shows how much social media sharing has spread across the globe into a norm that almost everyone follows.
So how does it look from the other side? How are sports clubs, leagues, athletes and venues making use of social media in order to get this kind of connection with people? If you own a sporting company, what are the benefits and risks of growing your following and developing excitement over social medias?
Eventility (2013) have used their resources to find out about the big successes that we all see, but also about how local and amateur sports clubs use social media. You can see that Facebook is the most used platform, followed by twitter. This may be due to the ease of use and visibility they create. In 2013, still only half of their smaller organisations used social media, which is not the case within large organisations. Wang and Zhou (2015) conducted a study on the National Basketball Association club’s use of Twitter as a tool to build relationships with fans during the 2013-14 season. “Sport entities are ideally positioned to use social media, given existing fan bases and the ability to facilitate consumer interactions with sport products and with team members.” Clubs mostly used social media to develop professional relationships (not personal) with the general public via sharing information and promoting products, as well as reporting game details. Social media provides an easy way for teams to engage with their fans and have instantaneous connections. Informational communication is normally preferred over interactive communication, often due to the size of the club and following. Here is a function of social media use that smaller clubs would have an advantage on over larger clubs. With smaller followings it’s easier to have personal engagements with more of your fans. Larger clubs could improve this by organising more online activities, such as votes on most valuable players and score guesses for example.
Rothschild (2011) found that Sports and Entertainment Venue Managers felt that social media efforts were proficient and at expert level, with most having a defined social media strategy. Out of those that did have a strategy, they reported having increased revenues. Cave and Miller (2015) confirms that stadiums and venues are now offering Wi-Fi which enables more interaction in live events as well as commercial activity. Facebook has even launched a new hub in 2016 for sports fans to provide real-time solutions for users. They call it Facebook Sports Satdium. It allows fans to engage with a live event even if they’re not there in a new and unique way. Users can comment on specific plays, see expert opinions and view comprehensive game details, as well as linking you to other friends using the app. This real-time app aims to bridge the gap with Twitters lead in live events.
A lot of events now encourage fans to get on social media while in the experience. I have been to a baseball game as well as a few basketball matches and an American football college game. During the games the announcers and big screens would show relevant hashtags and ask you to tweet in a picture in the chance that you might be shown on the big screen yourself. DiMoro (2015) confirms that almost every sports related show or event now has hashtags related to it, such as the Stanley Cup Finals #BecauseItsTheCup. “It drives engagement and creates a relationship with the audience that had not been possible several years ago.” Fans can interact with teams, players, sports personalities and other fans. Sport social media spreads news easily, engages topical discussions and empowers teams turning them into brands.
Social media use has truly been woven into the fabric of experiencing sports nowadays. It’s clear to see how social media has changed the way we interact with sports. It can be used by athletes, fans, teams, leagues and sports personalities as well as the actual venues and locations. Social media use offers many incentives to sporting members such as increased engagements with fans, increased revenue and brand building. The platform is still evolving, with Facebooks Sport Stadium, as mentioned before, as well as Facebook Live and now Instagram’s new 1 minute video posts. This means that people in the sporting world can now create fuller adverts and share longer moments to all their InstaFans. A few tips from Winter (2013) for driving sports engagements include building pre-game buzz, live tweeting during games, participate in after game discussions, promote your players, don’t lose activity during the off-seasons and handle scandals appropriately. As with all online presences, users must be careful not to break down their brand image with inappropriate and unwanted content. For instance, Australia’s swimmers Nick D’Arcy and Kendrick Monk faced a social media ban after posting pictures holding guns before the 2012 London Olympics. This affected fans respect for the swimmers and dented their professional status. As sport is so much in the public eye you have to be cautious about every post.
References:
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Cave, A. and Miller, A. (2015) The importance of social media in sport. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/business-of-sport/social-media-in-sport/ (Accessed: 20 May 2016).
Connelly, T. (2016) How Facebook live is turning the social network into the sports broadcaster of the future. Available at: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/04/04/how-facebook-live-turning-social-network-sports-broadcaster-future (Accessed: 20 May 2016).
Danjou, A. (2016) What Instagram’s 60 second videos mean for the sporting world. Available at: http://digitalsport.co/what-instagrams-60-second-videos-mean-for-the-sporting-world# (Accessed: 20 May 2016).
DiMoro, A. (2015) The growing impact of social media on today’s sports culture. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonydimoro/2015/07/02/the-growing-impact-of-social-media-on-todays-sports-culture/3/#182aba8e339e (Accessed: 20 May 2016).
Eventility (2013) Social media for sports clubs Infographic. Available at: https://eventility.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/social-media-for-sports-clubs-infographic/ (Accessed: 20 May 2016).
Facebook on Youtube (2014) Global Winter Olympics buzz on Facebook by sport throughout the 2014 Sochi games. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0vRrF2RmjQ (Accessed: 20 May 2016).
Kafka, S. (2015) Introducing the Facebook sports stadium | Facebook newsroom. Available at: http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/01/facebook-sports-stadium/ (Accessed: 20 May 2016).
Petco Park Twitter (2016) San Diego Padres Retweet. Available at: https://twitter.com/PetcoPark?lang=en-gb (Accessed: 20 May 2016).
Robinson, G. (2012) D’Arcy and monk fire up swimming Australia with gun photo. Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/swimming-london-2012/darcy-and-monk-fire-up-swimming-australia-with-gun-photo-20120607-1zyj0.html?rand=1342236743692 (Accessed: 20 May 2016).
Rothschild, P.C. (2011) ‘Social media use in sports and entertainment venues’, International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 2(2), pp. 139–150. doi: 10.1108/17582951111136568.
Wang, Y. and Zhou, S. (2015) ‘How do sports organizations use social media to build relationships? Content Analysis of NBA Clubs’ Twitter Use’, International Journal of Sport Communication, 8, pp. 133–148.
Winter, K. (2013) How a social media company can help sports teams with fan engagement. Available at: http://www.ballywhosocial.com/2013/10/03/how-a-social-media-company-can-help-sports-teams-with-fan-engagement/ (Accessed: 20 May 2016).
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