Social Media Use In Sports

With the introduction of social media to our everyday lives, it's becoming easier than ever to make contact with your favorite sports team, player, or community. Social media users are consistently growing year after year and so are fan bases. The use of social media through sports organizations allows the audience to have a more personal connection to their beloved sports franchise. The use of social media can be used as a tool to grow a personal brand, and expand to a broader audience. Before social media and technology people already developed a close and personal connection with their favorite teams and players. Social media now creates a level of interaction that has never been seen before. I believe it was smart for sports franchises to ride the wave of social media. If you're not on social media you may as well be living under a rock. Almost everybody I come into contact with has some form of social media, whether it be Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. I believe many businesses and corporations saw the social media boom as an opportunity to reach a broader audience, and they were right to invest! According to an article written by Chenghao Ma they state, "for sports organizations, the advantages of using social media is that it can help sports organizations to build relationships with the public, to reduce their marketing costs and to increase sales etc. Organizations can use social media to promote two-way conversations with the public and build a community under their mission." If you'd like to read more on this article, click here. This two way interaction with an audience can benefit the sports organization because they don't have to market themselves as hard as before the social media era. The ability to communicate at no expense to the organization or the audience provides a personal connection to the audience.

Although social media use is beneficial to organizations and businesses doesn't necessarily mean it's always positive. There are some negative things that come along with social media, such as bad press, fake news, and leaked information. Previous to the social media era, it took some time for negative information to get out to the press or in circulation with the public. Now with social media things can get out of control in what seems like an instant. As a business or team owner you have to be more proactive when dealing with issues on social media. Beforehand you could take your time formulating a response to the allegations or accusations because not everyone would not about it yet. Now on the other hand is completely different. Taking to long to address an issue may make it seem like you're not taking the issue seriously which will negatively impact your brand or image. In the article written by Chenghao Ma, the writer states, "bad contents can be spread more quickly than ever before; players may have no idea of using the social media appropriately; negative comments from fans could affect the performance of the athletes or the team, etc. There are lots of cases indicating that the use of social media among athletes need to be trained and one bad post can dramatically influence the athletes as well as the sports organizations." These issues can be avoided with training and raising awareness about brand image and personal image. Here is a video that displays careless acts of social media use in the sports realm. Gilbert Arenas, Jemele Hill, Adam Caparell, and Pierce Simpson speak on the do's and don't of social media.

Social media can be very beneficial to a sports team and I believe is a great way for fans to interact with their favorite sports team and players! I think the positive outweigh the negatives when it comes to social media, but they do exist. Social media training is something that should be learned now because it's so prominent in peoples every day lives. One bad tweet, post, or snap could ruin your image!

References:

Ma, C. (2018, November 27). The Impact of Social Media in Sports. Retrieved from https://thesportdigest.com/2018/11/the-impact-of-social-media-in-sports/