Social media in sports

Social media in sports

Many a high-profile sportsperson has got a reprimand or lost his place in the side for an offensive or embarrassing Tweet. But tweets about the on and off the field activities has become not only a way of life but a way to connect to fans, both for players and teams.  Social media is changing the way sports administrators go about conducting sports business.

It is time to bridge the generational gap between the old and the new way of doing sports business.

We have all heard stories of how professional sports teams are using social media to build their fan base, promote events and create new revenue opportunities

And, you might be asking yourself - Can an amateur or semi-professional sports team benefit from social media? After all, these professional sports teams already have a large loyal fan base and a marketing budget to put towards their efforts, right?

The fact is, social media does not require a big budget and you don’t need millions of fans to see a positive return from your social media efforts. If you could put a few more people in the stands at your games or sell more merchandise at your team store without it costing you anything, wouldn’t that be worth your time?

Every team has fans. Some are more loyal and engaging than others, but every team has a fan base that wants to see your program succeed. What social media does is give you the tools to engage with your fan base and turn them into advocates that will help you achieve your goals. The only thing you have to do is provide value. And, yes, value can be defined in a number of ways. It doesn’t mean you have to give away something that costs a lot of money. Value can simply be providing your fan base with something that they normally wouldn’t experience such as access to behind the scenes action, exclusive offers on tickets and merchandise and creative online contests that encourage participation.

The same tools that professional sports teams are using to engage with their fans are also available to amateur and semi-pro sports teams. The challenge is knowing which ones to focus your efforts on and how to use the tools in a way that provides value for your fans. For many teams, the first step is knowing where to begin.

Own Your Name

It’s likely that most amateur and semi-professional teams have some presence online in the form of a website. If not, you need to secure your team domain name now! And, for only a few hundred dollars (hosting and domain cost), you can setup a simple Wordpress blog, display all of your social accounts on your blog and push content out to your social accounts using simple tools.

Create a Facebook Fan Page

There are over 400 Million people on Facebook. Now, of course, they are not all going to be fans of your amateur or semi-professional team, but I guarantee that many of your fans are already on Facebook. These fans would happily “Fan” your team on Facebook if you ask them. One of the many benefits of a Facebook Fan Page is that it provides you with a platform that encourages “sharing” and “liking” of your content, which can make your message can spread very quickly through Facebook.

Create a Twitter account

Although the number of people on Twitter is nowhere close to those on Facebook, it is still a tool that can’t be ignored. It is more of an instant communication tool that allows you to provide up to the minute information about your team as well as engage in direct conversations with your fans. At the very least, you should be on Twitter to follow other sports teams to see how they are using the tool to engage with their fans.

 Create a YouTube channel

Many people do not know that YouTube is the #2 search engine behind Google. By creating video content, you can give your fans a perspective that can’t be communicated through text or photos. YouTube is also a great platform to run simple contests that encourage fans to voice their loyalty to your team.

Create a Flickr account

Flickr is a photo sharing website that allows you to tag your photos and create albums that can be pulled into your website. Flickr is also a great way to share photos with people that blog about your team? By providing high quality photos to your fans that have the appropriate Creative Commons licensing, you will generate goodwill with the bloggers that will then hopefully link back to your website and help you promote your team.