Sports and the Media: Social Media

On March 27th in class, we discussed the topic area of Sport and the Mass Media. We discussed a lot of different ways that sport and the mass media are connected, and one of those ways we discussed that is very relevant today was new media and sports, specifically social media.

Social Media is defined as a group of interest applications that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content. Some of the appealing traits that social media offers users are a better reach, accessibility, usability, and immediacy. Most fans or community members go to a form of social media for sport information. Social media is used by 96% of businesses for marketing. This is considered mobile marketing.

A site is considered a social media site if the users dictate the content and/or the popularity/visibility of that content. There are so many social media sites out there, that they have been put into specific categories based on the services that they provide:

• Communication Services - Ex) Facebook, 4square, Gowalla, Blogging, Twitter, Fanvibe.
• Entertainment Services - Ex) Myspace, Youtube, Virtual Worlds, Vimeo, Instagram, etc.
• Professional Services - Ex) LinkedIn, Plaxo
• Multimedia Services - Ex) Ustream, Skype, Livestream, Flickr, Blubrry.com, etc.
• Smart Phone Apps - Ex) Fanvision, Zinzcam
• Mobile Couponing - Ex) Groupon, Living Social

These sites are constantly growing larger and larger. Facebook adds 1 million visitors a week. Twitter currently has 554 million users and 150,000 new users sign up per day. Athletes and teams have embraced the opportunities that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have given them to connect with their fan base.

Ryan Baucom wrote an article in volume 16, issue 47 in Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal

that ranked and discussed the most supported college basketball teams that participated in this years NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament based on social media following. Baucom used statistics form Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. A "supporter" is considered the same thing as a "follower" or "like" in this case. The top 3 schools based on Twitter followers of their basketball account were North

Carolina (156,071), Duke (103,964), and Michigan (100,764). The order changed when using Facebook instead of Twitter. This time North Carolina again held the top spot (869,479), but Kentucky took over the number 2 spot (421,222), and Kansas came in 3rd (329,921). Instagram also held a different order. Duke took the top sport here (125,381), Kentucky was next (44,987), and Ohio State came in 3rd (16,469). Based off the the numbers you can see that Instagram currently has a lot less users, but schools are beginning to figure out how to better utilize the platform to connect with their fans. When all three platforms were added together, the top 3 overall supported schools were:

1. North Carolina - 1,035,245 supporters
2. Kentucky - 529,996 supporters
3. Duke - 410,274 supporters

Statistics like these show that social media sites are a great way for athletic programs to connect with their fans. The area of social media is growing, and we can assume that if these statistics are taken agin next year, the total number of "supporters" for the schools will rise. 

Connecting to the text, Jay Coakley discusses how new media has changed sports on page 398 of his book, Sports in Society:  Issues and Controversies. He explains how online access can provide active involvement with sports content. It allows us to interact with:

• fellow fans 
• players
• coaches
• identify scores and statistics
• play online games that are sport related

Social media sites allow us to create content that matches our own interests and the interests of others in the world. Coakley believes that this new media consumption is replacing traditional media consumption like television and radio. Professional sport teams are now becoming more active in managing their media representations.