The Wacky World of Sports & Social Media
By Gary Wiser

There’s no doubt about it, athletes have embraced the opportunity to connect directly with fans.  There has been no shortage of stories on athletes using Twitter and social media to further their personal agendas.  On any given day, millions of fans*, from all over the world are actively looking for and following their favorite athletes on Twitter, FaceBook and MySpace.  Athletes like:

Lance Armstrong Larry Fitzgerald Shaquille O’Neal Ray Lewis Carlos Beltran

Michael Phelps Chris Paul CC Sabathia Dwight Howard Drew Brees

Steve Nash Serena & Venus Williams Freddy Adu Tony Hawk and thousands more!

Athletes are connecting with fans like never before.  They’re updating their FaceBook page, responding to requests, hosting live web broadcasts, dropping in on tweet-ups, and using social media in creative and strategic ways.  Even the "sports media" has followed suit, they are now following the athletes themselves, finding fodder for their stories, Tweeting breaking news updates and more. 
 
So what do sports organizations do when the winning percentage isn’t so great and fans are disappearing?  The answer to this question is easy; they must turn their attention to building a strong “fan community” so when the on-field product isn’t so great, they will have the support they need to weather the storm. 

There are many examples of this in action, teams who may not have the best winning record but have a large community of raving fans who love to support them.  Google the phrase “lovable losers” and you’ll find perhaps the best example of this in action.  The Chicago Cubs or “Lovable Losers” have done a fantastic job of tying their team to the community and continue to sell their games out in spite of the fact they haven’t won a championship in more than 100 years! There’s an incredible opportunity for social media in today’s sports world.  The traditional marketing utilized by most sports organizations have focused on marketing of the brand, stadium, events, and individual athletes.  While this has worked in the past, social media has changed the paradigm resulting in a whole new way of doing business.

So if the organization doesn’t have a large community of fans like the Cubs, what should they do?  It’s simple... go to where the fans are… the fans that are already out their sharing their passion, frustration, hopes and dreams for the team.  They are doing this online, on social media sites like; Fan Nation, FaceBook, Scout, You Tube and more.  Sports organizations should be engaging, facilitating and encouraging their fans in these online communities.  The best part is… this is a low cost way to get the message out there and while you’re at it, social media strategies should also be integrated with existing “traditional” marketing efforts to help spread the word that they can be found online in these communities, or better yet their own privately branded social network.

Now if you think these principles apply only to the “losers” you’re wrong.  It also applies to those organizations who:

• Are winning but still don’t fill the seats
• Want to increase revenue or funding
• Looking to recruit new students and/or athletes
• Want to sell their fan gear
• Who want to make themselves “Fan Friendly”

Social media should be viewed as a fantastic compliment to sports that is good for both fans and organizations.  Let the organization, players and coaches share their opinions and game experiences contributing to the storylines with their own personal insights to engage their fans like never before.  While it presents a few new challenges, the opportunities are abundant and everyone will reap the rewards. 

An example of this in action is: St. John’s basketball fan, Peter Robert Casey… a fan with 55,000* plus Twitter followers who has been granted a press row seat for the 2009-10 St. John’s men’s basketball season (Click Here to read the story).  The arrangement means that he can tweet his game updates in real-time. 

A way to leverage this relationship even more would be to set up a “St. John’s Red Storm” privately branded social network, making sure that Mr. Casey has a premium “all access” membership.  This would allow him to embrace and transfer his passion to the network, which he could then pass on to his followers, who would then join and support the community.  This would give St. John’s 55,000 potential members to build their community on!  How’s that for embracing social media?

In this “Wacky World of Sports and Social Media” sports organizations must realize the importance of building private communities around their team(s), players and personalities.  Not only could the front office learn a thing or two about their fans who spend the valuable dollars, but they might actually help the fans have some much needed fun along the way.  Providing the exclusive “insider information” the fans crave, motivating them to take action to support your organization.  Isn’t that worth the “risk” of setting up and running your own private social network?  I would think so!


Gary works for SocialSAM.com - Private Social Networks for Doing Business



* As of the publishing of this article (12/30/09) Michael Phelps has 2,870,684 fans on his FaceBook Fan Page and Peter Robert Casey has 55,328 Twitter followers.