Social Media and Sports
Social Media and Sports
The greatest thing about today’s sports is the advancement of social media and sports. Fans and media members alike are able to obtain the widest range of sports information more quickly than ever before. This could also be dangerous, as was the recent case with Ryan Braun, but for the most part it’s an amazing tool for all sports formats.
LoMo's Twitter Account. Some may think he is to "one" with his fans, while others may think Twitter is the only reason he has so many fans. What do you think?
Engaging the fans
Social media networking sites like Twitter and Facebook allow fans to be a part of the action. Now more than ever fans are able to voice their opinion through several different outlets. Beat writers are able to let their fans into the locker rooms and the lives of these athletes through Twitter.
Some athletes even directly let fans into their lives through Twitter, which I think is a slight problem in the sports world, see Logan Morrison. While I don’t follow any athletes because I could care less what they’re eating for dinner, some fans enjoy having that look into their lives and knowing what they’re doing on a day-to-day basis.
Facebook is more helpful for individual teams and TV stations. They’re able to post pictures and videos that the fans are able to see and connect with them when they can’t be there personally. It’s also a great way to keep fans informed of events, games, specials, etc.
How to use them
Now there are different strategies for how to use social media and sports outlets. Me personally I’ve become more of a Twitter guy and only use Facebook to follow my favorite teams.
Like I said before I’m not interested in what a certain player is wearing that day, I just want to know if they’re injured or going to be missing a few weeks.
For this I use beat writers and website columnist to get all of the sports information I need. I’m a huge baseball fan and more particularly a National League baseball fan. For this reason I follow the beat writer for every National League baseball team. This gives me the most informative information for each team in the league.
I also do this because I don’t like a bunch of nonsense clustering my Twitter feed. I do check it often, but I hate skipping through senseless tweets when I just want information regarding the teams and players. If I notice a writer is tweeting too much and only half of it is pertaining to baseball, I’ll be inclined to unfollow him. Look for the people that are going to give you the information you need and don’t get excited by following a bunch of people that are just going to clog your news feed.
As I mentioned Facebook is more of a platform for specific teams. I like certain Facebook pages that are going to give me good photos and videos of my team and players. They’re also good for being informed on ticket sales and upcoming events.
How to use these devices in the business world
Manchester United has one of the more popular Facebook pages. Is it their social media strategies, or their fanbase they already had in place that makes it so successful?
I started by giving my take on these social media outlets because I think that helps give people in the sports business arena a look at how they should use these tools. It is essential that every business updates their Twitter and Facebook page frequently. These have become vital to increasing the traffic and support of your business.
If you do have a Twitter account for your business make sure the content you are delivering to your followers is in context; meaning, make sure it pertains to your business sect. Don’t use it as your personal Twitter account to talk about random events.
As a rule I would never want to see more than 10 tweets a day from a particular business. Posting useless information could lead to a follower dropping you by their lack of interest. You want to keep people informed and aware, it’s not your job to entertain them.
The same thing can be said for Facebook. People just want to be informed of what is going on and when it’s happening. There is no need to post stuff on your page all day so it’s jamming someone’s news feed. I would suggest no more than three post a day on your Facebook page.
These really are great tools and knowing how to use them correctly will help engage your fans and make your business look and feel legitimate. These are easy and free ways of advertising and gaining exposure. They must be used and they must be used correctly.
There really are no limitations for these social media outlets and they continue to develop their role in making fans more involved in sports. It’s become a wonderful tool for both parties involved.
Social Media and Sports
