Want to know the latest updates on
your favorite sports team? Turn to social media; download apps on your smart
phone and all the info you want is easily at your fingertips. Gone are the days
where fans had to wait for the information they were seeking to be on the news
or in the newspaper...or even on an Internet website. Over the past ten years
social media has increasingly played a huge role in sports. More often then
not, the way many people find information about sports is through different
applications such as Twitter, ESPN, Facebook, and Instagram. Social media was
defined in my American Sport in the 21st Century class as a group of
Internet applications that allow the creation and exchange of user generated
content. In the article I found online, MLB
Clubs See Social Media Gains in Lead-up to Season, it discussed the rise of
attention to MLB teams' social media websites during the 2015 spring training
season. In one month the league's teams collectively gained over 4 million new
Twitter followers, over 1 million Instagram followers, and over 2.5 million new
Google Plus followers. As discussed in class on March 26th social
media websites such as Facebook and Twitter have a significant increase in
users per day. Craig Williams confirms this in his article when he provided the
statistics on how many people are starting to use social media for updates on
sports. Also on March 26th we discussed how using social media can
activate and leverage brands if done correctly. In the article, Bryan Srabian,
Director of Social Media for the San Francisco Giants, talks about how
important it is for all people in charge of social media to focus on making a
great experience for people rather than just trying to make revenue for the
team. The overall experience is what will make people come back and stay
connected to the team. Lastly, in class we discussed how social media gives us
better reach and accessibility to what we want to know about sports. Fans are
not just interested in news about players, team records, or stats; the social
aspects surrounding their favorite teams also intrigue them. For instance, the
article tells about how Will Ferrell traveled to and played for over ten MLB
teams in one day and how Twitter blew up because of that. How awesome is that?
Without social media how would fans have even known it was happening at the
time? Social media has a huge impact on sports now, and from here on it will
only increase its role and its impact on the sport industry.
Article discussed in Blog post:
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/04/06/Media/MLB-social-media.aspx
More ways social media has been
affecting sport:
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