2009 has been a breakout year for sports and social media. Athletes, teams, leagues, coaches, media and sponsors have finally started to take note of how social media impacts sports and fans. There have been some really great executions and ideas as well as some missteps.
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What If Teams Were Using Social Media The Right Way?
Posted on September 22nd, 2009
We’ve seen that there is a whole lot more to social media than just media or marketing. Social media tools and the tenets of listening, audience participation, user-generated content, real-time news and updates, sharing and voting are revolutionizing the way companies do business. Done properly and with a purpose, social media has the ability to transform the way companies look at:
- Market research
- Product development
- Customer service
- Sales and marketing
- Employee hiring
A few businesses and teams get this, but overall we’re still not there yet. Many teams are getting involved, but not always with a purpose or clear strategy. A Facebook page that has 100k people on it is worthless, without the proper strategy behind it. If you’re a team, you don’t really want Facebook fans, you want ticket buyers.
The video below describes some ideas for ways that teams can use social media the right way and what benefits they (and their fans) can get from this.
The last idea in the video is one I look forward to exploring more, and would love your thoughts on. It’s one thing to do some basic videos occasionally and make them exclusive to Twitter or YouTube to drive awareness and engagement. But hardcore fans are always willing to consume more, in my opinion. Why aren’t teams capitalizing on this?
More and more fans now want to participate, be involved in the creation of ticket packages, get exclusive, behind-the-scenes videos, articles and real-time updates, get personalized merchandise, vote on ideas for sponsor promotions, etc. Clearly people want content in new forms as indicated by the explosion of sites like Twitter. Why aren’t more teams taking some of these concepts, creating new content areas and fan clubs and charging fans for access to drive revenue?
If you’re a die-hard Lakers fan, wouldn’t you pay for the right to see Kobe’s real-time updates right after the game, before the press get a crack at him? Wouldn’t you pay to have access to short, 30 second videos from Phil Jackson before and after practice? Wouldn’t you pay for a chance to ask a member of the Lakers staff or ownership any question you wanted once a month? I know I would.
I think teams may need to rethink a lot of the things they’re doing online. There should be a balance between using these free social media tools to expand an audience and keep a pulse on what fans want/think vs. charging people for access to really cool content and opportunities. Some of the things teams and players are doing on outside sites could be moved in-house (and on team communities, so they have a better value proposition) so they can be better monetized and packaged for hardcore fans. I think this is the only way teams will see a good ROI from their efforts and will be able to justify spending money on new opportunities that serve to engage fans in more ways.
I’m always interested in hearing what you think. Thanks for watching/reading and I look forward to your thoughts on this.
Tags: community, online community, social media, team communities, teams, video
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Comments 5
September 23rd, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I’m a huge fan of several teams, but I’m not going to pay for that kind of content. In order to pay for something it has to provide value. Secondly, I don’t know many people that are going to pay for content via social networking. Wish we didn’t have so many people in marketing trying to use social networking for sales.
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:57 pm
You’re absolutely correct–that anything people pay for should have value. Maybe my examples weren’t great but I think there are ways teams can utilize social concepts/platforms to provide value that is worth money. And not necessarily just in the form of a subscription fee, but can be monetized via advertising or sponsorship. Or by data mining to find out what fans really want/what content is really popular and interesting. The behavior and sales metrics available on popular social networks are lacking, compared to what teams could learn if they did some more things on their own sites, I think.
October 10th, 2009 at 9:10 am
I thought your ideas of using social media as a research tool or a “fan-based focus group” are pretty good. Teams and organizations could most definitely use these “free” social networking avenues to help them improve the overall experience for fans, no doubt. And, your ideas on organizations hiring a social media marketing manager also has merit.
Generating revenue from social media will be the challenge however, as evident from the comment made by hoopstar. There’s of course, the viral aspects of social networking? Taking your idea of hiring loyal fans as community managers, why not hire the lot of them (maybe on a seasonal basis?) to help build ticket sales thru the networks? Or something to that effect. These folks can be paid, given items, whatever. Something along those lines, but I’m with you, teams/organizations need to find a way to capitalize from social media. I also think the Phoenix Suns will really be the pioneering force and role model for anything social media…
October 16th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Great insights! I’m constantly debating this issue in my classes, MS sports business management, and we can never find a solution for teams to monetize on social media. We mostly talk about how athletes can ruin their careers! I think one issue that prevents teams/organizations from taking advantage of social media and using it as a profit generator, is lack of qualified staff that understands and knows how to use all the tools available through social media. Things change so fast in today’s day and age and I’m sure we’ll see more social media managers positions being offered within sports organizations.
Have you thought about social media done right in high school or college athletics? There was an incident recently involving college football players that got suspended for twitting their opinion about the their coach. Do you think that schools/colleges should educate student-athletes about the benefits of using social media?
October 19th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
David – I think hiring a lot of people/or giving them benefits in exchange for their help building ticket sales is a great idea. Thanks for your comment!
Mariana – Thanks for your comment. I haven’t done much thinking about social media in the high school sports setting, except from a video perspective–certain highlight videos get shared rapidly, and this can definitely help players get additional exposure. I do think that high school athletes (actually all athletes in general) need to be better educated about the impact of social media and better equipped to take advantage of it so it helps, and not hurts, them.