ESPN SportsNation
ESPN's SportsNation web page is where "America's Sports Fans Meet." With an impressive array of interactive content, SportsNation is ESPN's premier web interface between sports fans around the globe. From groups to polls to chats and even a live Twitter feed, this website has everything social media related a fan could want. The success of the site even led to the creation of popular TV and radio shows.
Sports Fans Use Social Media To Cry Foul Against New Mascot
Fans of the Calgary Roughnecks lacrosse team took to social media to protest the team's new mascot. The Roughnecks decade-old mascot, Derrick Driller, was abruptly replaced with Howie the Honey Badger in January. The Honey Badger, an animal made famous by the 2011 viral video "Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger," is known for its fearlessness. Fans were most upset because the team never consulted them before making the decision. In protest, angry fans flooded the team's official Facebook page with complaints and even created their own Twitter hashtag, #bringbackderrick. While Howie remains the Roughnecks mascots, fans continue to utilize social media to bring back Derrick Driller.
Vs.
How Much Do Sports Fans Love Social Media?
Just how much do the sports fanatics rely on Social Media? Take a look at the poll from GMR Marketing to see.
Of note:
- People today are 10 times more likely to check the Internet for breaking sports news than they are to turn to sports radio. Slightly more people use Facebook and Twitter than national news websites, at 41% to 40%. By comparison, just 13% said they get their breaking sports news from TV, and 4% from radio.
- And it doesn’t matter where fans are; social media lets them get their sports fix in any place, any time. Nearly three quarters of respondents said they’ve checked social media for sports news at a party, nearly 70% during a meal, and 58% said they’ve done so while in the bathroom.
College Students Use Social Media To Sell Sports Tickets
With the University of Missouri Men's Basketball team ranked in the Top 10 throughout the season, ticket demand for home games at their Columbia, MO home skyrocketed. Students took to Facebook to create, University of Missouri TicketExchange and Mizzou Ticketmarket. Student tickets, usable only by those with university identification, are transferred from student to student through posts on these fan pages. While prices did rise for the more significant games, prices were still much cheaper for students to pay than going through scalpers outside the stadium or online venues such as StubHub.
Buying Fans Through Facebook Ads
Riot Sports Marketing describes how an organization can use Facebook Ads to draw fans. Getting Facebook "Likes" will lock fans into receiving updates even after they've left the page. This is much more effective than them stopping by the team's website. Ads are fairly cheap and are easy to use.
Cleveland Indians Continue To Embrace Social Media
The Indians are the most social media friendly team in Major League Baseball and they continue to push their efforts for the 2012 season. Growing from two platforms last year to six this year, the Tribe has launched a full-scale social media campaign. In addition to the Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as the "Indians Social Suite," a seating section that gives fans the opportunity to interact with fans both online and at the ballpark, the Indians are planning these initiatives:
- "TribeVibe" WordPress Blog and "Step into the Home" blog page on Tumblr
- Presence on Google+ and Pinterest
- Exclusive Google+ circle with opportunities to meet Indians alumni and front-office personnel
- Discount tickets based on how much they share the Indians over social media
NASCAR's RaceBuddy Blends Sport and Social Media on Race Day
NASCAR.com’s RaceBuddy uses social media applications as a companion to its broadcasts. Some of the applications include 10 alternate camera angles and live chat rooms to attract views while NASCAR events are being broadcast.
“There’s a lot of social activity happening along a given sporting event and we wanted to capture that,” said Matt Hong, senior vice president and general manager of sports operations for Turner Sports. “The metrics have all been positive. We’ve seen no decrease in TV ratings as more people consume the digital product.”
Hong uses RaceBuddy as an example. Turner Sports saw TV ratings for its six races in 2011 jump for the first time in three years, averaging 5.125 million viewers. Online activity around RaceBuddy also increased. The social media avenue saw a 76 percent increase in viewership, averaging 936,000 streams per race.
U.S. Women's Soccer Team Sets Twitter Record
The July 17, 2011 Women's World Cup final between the United States and Japan set the record for most ever Twitter tweets per second. That's more than the Super Bowl, World Series, Final Four, Daytona 500 or any other American sports mega-event.
At 7,196 tweets per second, the match beat out every other worldwide sporting event and two of 2011's biggest stories, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden. To top it off, the social media efforts for the World Cup were organic and fan-driven, unlike many coordinated efforts from major sporting leagues and organizations. Even President Obama contributed 13 tweets during the game.
The women stars from the team also saw huge gains to their social media following. Goalie Hope Solo entered the tournament in late June with fewer than 10,000 followers. She now has almost 400,000, less than a year later.
