Sports
organizations like the NBA along with companies like Nike are now utilizing
social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare,
Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, blogs, and live chats to reach and engage their
audience. I think this is awesome for both parties involved, a win win situation. Can you think of all the positives this provides the audience as now they can interact with the game,others and athletes?
Some
platforms that work the best are YouTube, Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter. It
is because these platforms allow for much more viewer interaction. Interaction is the key.Viewers are
allowed to comment and share content with others. Twitter has been very
successful with using the hashtag. The hashtag allows you to search particular content by hashtag. Also using social media to engage or entice
the participants has proved beneficial by providing free promotions get people
to engage. This makes participation really exciting knowing that there is a possibility that you can win!
While attending events a customer can text during the event to earn special rewards and prizes. While at a Bucks game, I couldn't wait to pull out my smartphone to interact with halftime activities having a chance to win a free pizza or tickets.
Social media also provides valuable
marketing information. Facebook has become very good at this. Increasingly people are using social media to access
information and interact with sports organizations and companies are taking advantage of this relationship using the information to increase marketing share.
Social
Media helps the audience identify with, feel a personal connection and allows them
to focus on their own particular area of interest. The audience interaction reaches all ages and people all over the world. In the past interaction and even viewership had been restricted to that of more of a local audience. This is great for business by increasing sales, customer base and product loyalty. This connection allows for the customer to be more in control of product information and features. At no other time in history has advertising and sales been so exciting and creative on such a platform that gets the customer involved. The consumer can now feel a personal connection to a service and product, not just a marketing number. A customer even can give product input. You can interact with athletes via Twitter and Facebook in real time.
““Viewers are using Twitter not just for news but
as a TV Guide,” Melissa Brenner, the NBA’s senior vice president of marketing,
told TheWrap. “Having the penetration that we do on Twitter, people see NBA
teams and players and other terminology in the top 10 trending topics and it is
nothing short of beneficial. “It’s not just Twitter. Facebook users have given
the NBA has more than 11 million "likes" and provide the NBA with fan
opinions and traffic to its own website. Facebook is now the second biggest
source of traffic to the NBA’s home site, whereas two years ago it wasn’t even
ranked in the top 10.And on YouTube — the NBA’s first real social outreach
platform back in 2006 — the highlight-driven nature of the sport makes it a
perfect match.”
Companies
like Nike has also moved away from traditional advertising and embraced social
media. Nike Fuel created by Nike uses gadgets and apps to help you achieve your
fitness goal. These Apps can be shared on Facebook and Twitter. This allows the
user to become personally connected to the brand.
“Another Nike+ application goes back to the
roots of Nike and that's their running app for the iPhone and Android operating
system. As demoed by our own Marissa
Treece, who ran track in college, you can see the total
mileage and how you stack up against your other runs. Once you sync it, the
data feeds into Nike+ and you can see where you ran, where you went fast and
slow based on the color and how many runs you are logging this week, month or
year.”
The use of social media has revolutionized the relationship between company and consumer and there is no turning back.
