Recently I came across an article that I thought was perfect and very relevant to anyone who interested in sports marketing. This article is basically talks about the highs and lows of Facebook. It made me think; If Facebook loses its edge what other platforms could marketers use to make the most of their digital media plans. The first platform that came to mind was Meetup.com, which is a site that has 7.2 million members, gets 6 million visitors a month, and covers over 45,000 cities across the globe. The second platform would have to be Twitter, which now has 175 million registered users and 95 million tweets written per day. The last platform that I would use is Youtube, which exceeds 2 billion views a day. These are all media platforms that marketers could use to charge their company or brand.
Here is how marketers can use these platforms to give their company a boost:
Meetup.com
Meetup can be used in multiple ways to reach out to consumers and leave an impression. Recently Meetup began allowing businesses to sponsor groups from the site. This is a great way to get the name of your business out into the community and strengthen a company’s brand. By offering members of the group a small discount or a free service the company can easily become a staple to a group that may have more than 1,000 members. Marketers can also use this site to broadcast sporting events that are taking place in specific cities. Site takeovers, contests, and ticket giveaways are great ways to get more people interested in a local sports team. Lastly, Meetup can be used as a message board for your specific team. For example a group can be made for Orlando Magic Fans or Orlando Entertainment Sports in which the group activities include going to games and functions involving the team.
Twitter
Twitter can be used as a means to reach out to fans that are both near and far. With Twitter a marketer can reach people all across the world so there is really no limit to the amount of publicity a sports organization can gain from this site. By setting up a Twitter page, the organization can keep fans up to date on current events before they hear it on television. For a fan to hear information about their favorite player before it is out to the press makes them feel more connected to the team. Twitter can also be used to giveaway prizes to followers. Another great use of Twitter would be to tweet trivia questions to the fans and have them reply to the questions. This will not only keep the fan involved, it will also strengthen the search rating of the site.
Youtube
Youtube is a great platform to showcase game clips and highlights, but it can be used for much more. Marketers can really build their fan base by connecting them to players. Much like the Old Spice campaign, star athletes can take a few moments to make a video answering some of the fan’s questions. The questions can be posed via Twitter and can be answered via Youtube; connecting the two and strengthening the search rating even more. For a small sports organization it is important to build a relationship with the local community, but it is impossible to meet everyone. Youtube can be used to show clips from practice and give behind the scenes clips that show who the players are off the field or court. Lastly, it can be used as a medium to hold contests amongst fans. For example, have fans post videos explaining why they are Orlando Magic’s biggest fan and the winner gets a prize. This will bring attention to the organization and give potential fans to hear about the organization from those that are not affiliated.
Sports marketing is more than possible without Facebook. So when target markets pull away, reel them back in with some creative marketing outside of the box and outside of mere status updates.
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