More Sports organisation are looking for real-time fan engagement. As a result, clubs are taking advantage of new innovations on social network platforms. As interactions tools go, polls and GIF’s are a great way to communicate with followers. Last week saw Facebook roll out its new GIF poll feature, allowing users to vote on their answers to questions based on an above GIF. It was reported by Digital Sport that football teams have snapped at the chance to get involved. One of the first teams to try the feature out was Manchester City who created their first poll to engage with fans in a new way on Facebook. As ever, other social platforms have also introduced similar features, for example, Instagram released a poll feature on stories. These tools are helping change the ways clubs interact with fans, with some like Bayern Munich, going as far as incorporating these types of polls into their match day coverage.
.@ManCity try out Facebook polls as social media platforms try out real-time engagement.
Read now ➡️ https://t.co/SVXWDCSaC8#smsports pic.twitter.com/biMXr3U3po
— Digital Sport (@DigitalSportUK) November 8, 2017
It’s becoming ever apparent that lower league sports teams need to do more to try and engage with fans. Viewing figures for the premier league are rising year on year but so are ticket prices. Over the past few years, there has been a rise of social media teams where the fans have an input in deciding who plays. Not only have these generated a significant following but for many, this figure surpasses many lower league clubs. Sports organisations need to evaluate their tools they use to interact with supporters. Whether this is online or in the stadium the more communication they have with their community the more likely they are to visit. Clubs and sponsors can use branded activations and could even produce video highlight reels on their own channels or apps to get a conversation started.
What can lower league clubs learn from the Premier League? https://t.co/wZTzlOQpEs
— Snack Media (@snackmedia) November 7, 2017
Amazon is leading the charge to become the top online broadcaster of sports coverage. Yesterday, the corporation along with Manchester City announced that Amazon has agreed to produce a documentary series about the club. This is the first kind of deal between an English football team and Amazon. The corporation hopes that the series will turn football fans into Amazon Prime subscribers. What are you’re feeling about this deal? Should sports teams look to create content themselves on their own channels or do you think using online streaming networks helps boost coverage numbers and more teams should look towards creating this entertainment content?
Pitched as a soccer version of Amazon and the NFL’s documentary series “All or Nothing,” the show will follow Manchester City throughout the 2017-18 season and air sometime after the season ends. https://t.co/hn2NBGBfmu
— Digiday (@Digiday) November 10, 2017
More sports organisations and clubs are creating increasing amounts of online coverage with the advances in technology. As a natural progression, live-streaming services are now battling to gain coverage against broadcasters. Major sports networking including the NFL, NHL and the ATP have all signed contracts in recent months with online providers for either live-coverage or content. But contrary to many expectations, online sports are not attracting the viewership many sports organisations predicted leading to many asking the question “are online live streaming contract living up to the hype and the cost that surrounds them?”
With more sports being live streamed than ever before we look at whether these platforms are living up to the expectations put upon them. #NFL #Tennis https://t.co/N7Kmq1Pdsg
— Snack Media (@snackmedia) November 9, 2017
This week saw Twitter’s official global roll out of the rise in characters. The social network site has been known for its 140-character limit. In September, the organisation announced that they were planning to increase this number to 280 if their trial went successfully. Straight away users voiced their mixed feeling many preferring 140 and other looking forward to the ability to express themselves more on the platform. What’s your opinion? Do you prefer 280 characters or are you only waiting for the ability to edit tweets?
Twitter Officially Rolls Out Its Switch To 280 Characters https://t.co/RYz3L1LJVM
— We are Social Media (@WeRSM) November 10, 2017
