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How Social Media Is Changing The Sports Media Landscape
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Tom Fox blogs about the world cup for Setanta sports, is obsessed with sports and social media and also works here at Simply Zesty. He will be writing more about sports and social media in the coming months, here is his first post…
As a massive sports enthusiast, I thought it would be interesting to examine the impact social media channels have had on sport in today’s society. There is a plethora of excellent content on sporting websites and blogs all over the world, so where does social media fit in? For a start, the landscape has changed dramatically in the last five years. Before the advent of social media, following sports online was not an interactive or communal experience. This is not the case anymore.
People Are Passionate About Sport
People are passionate about sport and social media enables them to connect with others who share their passion. Sport is a topic that gets people talking and these platforms offer them the opportunity to vent frustrations and share views with people of a similar disposition. A Facebook petition to have Ireland versus France replayed attained well over 450k ‘likes’. This is a phenomenal amount of interaction. It would be very interesting to get a figure on the number of World Cup tweets in the last few weeks but it must be enormous.
I Want It Now
Twitter is very beneficial tool in regards to sporting information online as it offers the opportunity to gain more insights into your preferred sports than ever before. The current World Cup is the perfect example.
Following the right journalists provides you with instant information that was never previously attainable. We have a situation now where journalists tweet from training camps, press conferences and from the actual games themselves. This is the kind of instant information which is invaluable to sports fans. This is the first World Cup where this sort of content has been available to me and already I don’t know how I lived without it in previous tournaments! I may be an exception but the point is that never has some much material and opinion been so readily available at any football tournament in the past.
We Like It Live
I used to be a fan of the minute-by-minute renditions on various sporting websites, following games by live text updates. This was essentially a pre-cursor for twitter and showed that there was an appetite for live updates. Twitter is just an extension of this. Used correctly, it can be a live sporting news feed from all your favourite journalists and bloggers. This is the kind of content that is very attractive to me and, as an added bonus, its instant. I now find Twitter to be the best place for updates on team news, transfers and general information – providing of course you are following the right people
Accessibility
Sports stars today are more accessible than they ever have been in the modern era. Fans have never had such an insight into the minds of their favourite athletes thanks to Twitter and many sports stars can be quite prolific tweeters. People can be fanatical about sport and attaining even trivial bits of information on your favourite athletes can be very exciting. Like any celebrity status, there is a mystique about sports stars; a fervent thirst for more knowledge on them. Rugby star Brian O’Driscoll tweeted recently that he loves the show ‘Mad Men’. I want to know this. Why? I don’t know.
My Wimbledon experience has also improved this year thanks to direct access to the likes of Andy Roddick, Andy Murray and Jon Isner. In fact, the Wimbledon 2010 app for the iPhone has included a twitter tab with links to Wimbledon tweets and tennis stars on twitter. It is a direct link to the tennis stars that are competing in the event.
Athletes using Social Media to Promote their Brand?
Whilst many professional athletes are genuine fans of Twitter as a tool, how many use it to build their brand? Some probably do, sure. They push you to things like their sponsors and personal ventures. The increased accessibility of athletes coupled with the personal touch that twitter brings makes it easy for professional athletes to promote themselves and their products. The key is that they don’t simply use Twitter to promote themselves or their brand. There must be some interaction and valuable information in there.
Alternatively, Twitter could potentially be quite destructive for a professional athlete’s brand. Sporting agents must be worried as they cannot control what their client says online and it only takes one tweet to unhinge much good work. A famous example was English footballer Darren Bent launching a twitter tirade against the chairman of his then employers- Tottenham Hotspur. The good news is we are surely in for more Twitter gaffes from sports stars in the near future.
The Perfect Match?
Ultimately, sports and social media look a perfect match. Rarely does a topic inspire such passion and discussion. Social media provides the platforms where people can share and discuss this passion with people of a similar disposition. Social media provides access not only to great sporting content but also to the athletes themselves.
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Hi Tom. Great post. I think its pretty hard to argue with the impact social media has had on pretty much all aspects of life with sports being no exception. I’d be interested to hear what you think about the reliability of social media to report the facts as opposed to just spread rumors though? For example the tweet above begins with “unconfirmed/rumor”. Nice one Tom!
Hi Kevin, thanks for the feedback! In regards to the reliability issue, it all depends on where you are getting your information from I think. The above tweet you are referring to is from Oliver Kay of the English Times so I would consider it credible and he was right! I do agree though there is plenty of clutter out there; finding the gems amidst it is the key
Hi Tom – Good points. I agree, social media and sport is a niche that has a huge amount of potential. If the right programs are set up, it can facilitate regular interaction between teams and fans and address the disconnect that is currently felt with some of the major sports (in England anyway!). Its an area I have been involved in for the last few months so would be keen to chat more with you about it sometime.
cheers
Ed
Hi Ed, great point on the capacity of social media to reconnect teams and fans. And yes, it is needed in England just at the moment! I would love to sit down and have a chat about it with you sometime, sounds great. Tom
Very informative Tom, i’m thinking of getting into Social Media myself but I had not considered quite a few of the points you have discussed above. You clearly know your stuff. Call me a sceptic but how can one be sure that for instance the Ian Poulter Tweet is actually Ian Poulter?
Hi Gareth, Twitter verify accounts to ensure it is really the person in question. Best of luck in your future ventures!
Good post Tom. I am finding it a very useful tool for the World Cup.
I think twitter is also taking over the roll of the forums. People can engage in real time debate about teams, games etc and get instant replies. Much more engaging that writing on a posting on a forum which may or may not be replied too.
Yeah I agree with you that Twitter is taking over but the only issue there is that Twitter stream is lots about an hour later whereas the forum is around forever for me to go back and have a look at. Forums defo still have their place although a newer more updated version of them should have been born by now with some form of Twitter integration.
N
[...] How social media is changing the way we consume sport online [...]
Great information Tom. I did a survey last year in August specifically looking at the use of social media and football. The results support your thoughts above – however, at that time, not all teams had facebook pages or used twitter. I am planning to relaunch the survey to measure the changes over the last year. I think there will be significant difference in usage and how quickly people get their information now. I also believe, based on my survey results, that fans feel more connection to teams that use social media. Its a great way to communicate with all interested audiences.
Great blog Tom – I sometimes find twitter a little too cluttered and distracting for live sports stuff; 140 characters and the race to post first mean the match is not rendered that well in textual form compared to a tracker. Prefer to use it during current affairs TV programmes! UFC is a terrific example of Social Media being used to really drive a sport (http://mashable.com/2010/06/08/dana-white-ufc-social-media/). Will Social Media re-shape sports? We may see more fan-driven ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…..’ sports in the future – not sure if that’s entirely a good thing…..!
For what it is worth I always end up on Twitter when watching matches. Just to see what people are saying. I usually end up using it a lot more than normal at those times. The only problem is that its just social and not much quality opinion in there. For my real sports coverage I’ll always rivert to newspapers and blogs. The top one for me is always the Sunday Times sport section. I’ll learn more reading that than I would in 2 months of looking at Twitter. Both have their place though.
Brendan, very good point in regards to live tracker versus twitter. Twitter would probably be better for speed whereas it wouldn’t have the detail of a match tracker. Also, as you said, you probably get more insight from match tracker into what is actually going on in the match! That UFC example is excellent btw!
I don’t think twitter will replace forums, because readers still look for depth, analysis and opinion from their sources rather than simply reporting of the facts, or short updates. Twitter sometimes feels less rich in terms of content than some of the more informative blogs/forums.
Great article though Tom, look forward to the next installment.
Cheers James. Although Twitter is definitely less rich in terms of content, I find sometimes it directs me to great content I wouldn’t otherwise have come across.
It’s not an unknown fact that social media is having an impact on sports, though I think it is more along how we interact with sports discussions and reports mainly. Before we could get tweets from the sports stars, clubs, teams, networks, we normally had to go to a large portal (i.e. ESPN) and then could post our thoughts and opinions. Today, you can see tweets, FB updates, vlog sites, where interaction is the main purpose of this content.
If there is one thing social media has done it has allowed the arm-chair quarterbacks and die hard sports fan to express themselves and their loyalty (or dislike) for a team to anyone who is willing to listen.
Hi Omar, good point. The interaction of fans has changed dramatically alright with many new platforms for them to vent on. Some of the interaction on see on forums and facebook etc in regards to sport is phenomenal.