Tips for using social media for sports teams
Getting the most out of Social Media can be tricky for all kinds of business, organisations and even sports teams. Many Social Media “experts” will tout their alleged ability to drive “hundreds and thousands of sales” from various social media platforms, but if you have that mindset, you are likely to be disappointed.
For me, social media is for engaging with customers (existing and potential), or in the case of a sports team: fans. You should be aiming to make your team more accessible to your fans and help them to feel closer to you in any way possible. As well as this, reward them with some great content that they will enjoy and potentially share. If your content is shared, potentially your team will gain new fans, or re-ignite an interest from those who may not have been following your team for various reasons.
Not all of these ideas will be applicable to every team, however there should be plenty of food for thought for you here:
Social Media for Sports Teams | Social Media Usage Ideas:
- Respond to queries – This could be related to the cost of tickets, or merchandise, or could even be as straight forward as telling people what time the gates are open for the game. If you have a twitter presence and you are asked a question, respond!
- Hashtags
- If you are promoting an event, use a hashtrag and try to encourage others to do so if and when they are tweeting about you. If you are providing live updates, such as scores, use an appropriate hashtag.
Facebook Pages
- The Facebook page has recently switched over to the new “timeline” format, which many have divided opinions over. However, this timeline feature provides a great opportunity for you to display historical information and media. If your team has won trophies, create a timed entry to showcase this, with images or video.
- You should also look to promote events, or host competitions on your Facebook page to really engage with your “likers”. Polls tend to get a good response, so look to run those on a fairly regular basis.
- The “tabs” aren’t as prominent any more, however they shouldn’t be ignored completely. If you have something worthy of placing on your Facebook page, such as special offers, or even selected items from your online store, host them within a tab.
Google+
- The beauty of Google+ is the circles feature, that will allow different content to be displayed to different users in your circles. If you can get a lot of information about your fans, such as if they are season ticket holders, you could present them with different information compared to those that may not be very regular attendees. You’ll need to research thoroughly not to upset anybody though!
- You could use the “Hangout” feature, potentially to bring fans together with the players or coaching staff for an online chat session, that isn’t particularly frequently used at the moment, but could catch on in the near future.
YouTube
- Youtube is the biggest video hosting platform around, yet many sports teams aren’t using it. If you are hosting video content on your website, upload them to youtube as well and have your own branded youtube channel.
- By naming the video titles appropriately, your videos will be found by those looking for your content and you will also find that they will appear in Google’s search results.
Social Media For Sports Teams | Who does it well?
Facebook – Manchester United & Los Angeles Lakers
Manchester United’s facebook timeline is full of great historic content that fans and even haters would enjoy looking through.
The Los Angeles Lakers have taken a similar approach, mixing up their social media posts with current and historic events. They also present a huge memorabilia collection and host a history of past players and coaches.
Twitter: Women’s Soccer Team & Vancouver Canucks
In the 2011 World Cup, having been heavily engaged by the team, the fans of the Japan Women’s team set the record for the most tweets during the final game, using the hashtag #ladyballers. Women’s soccer also dominated the trending topics, with some stars of the tournament, significantly increase their followers.
The Vancouver Canucks are clearly dedicated to the Twitter followers, they even host “Tweet Up” meetings to bring their online followers together in the real world!
Policies – FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona’s usage of social media is deliberate, with the staff being educated to help them “get it right”. They have a liberal policy on posting and have a long term mindset.
This article is written by Jonathan Walker, an online marketer from Cardiff, Wales. Click here to visit his website.