Sports Executives: 3 Recommendations to Better Grow Fan Engagement on Social Media

As sports continue to capture the attention of billions of fans worldwide, teams are shifting to social media outlets such as Twitter and Instagram to interact with their fans instantly in a more engaging way. As a sports marketing student at Northwestern University, I’ve found two articles that highlight the importance of making this type of connection.

Rick Maese of the Washington Post wrote an interesting article entitled "NBA Twitter: A sports bar that doesn’t close, where the stars pull up a seat next to you." In this article, he discusses how NBA fans immerse themselves in Twitter in order to stay up to date with the constant, essentially year-round, news cycle of professional basketball. According to Maese, this has essentially become a routine for many fans, and some even prefer to follow the games via their online Twitter communities rather than go to the game in person if they had the opportunity. This relate to the idea that team's usage of official social media accounts gives fans an outlet that they can follow and constantly engage with during live games. These official team accounts often times provide commentary, which can make online users feel as if they are watching alongside other fans of the team. For more insight, you can follow Rick on Twitter. 

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Anthony DiMoro on Forbes takes a deep dive into how this trend of social media quickly invaded the sports world, along with some examples of teams who are able to generate a great deal of fan engagement while strengthening a team's overall brand in an article titled "The Growing Impact of Social Media on Today's Culture." One example Dimoro gives is how often times, a sports league or team creates one common hashtag around a topic so that fans can see all related tweets and news in one, centralizes location (e.g. #BecauseItsTheCup for the NHL playoffs). As a result of these tactics, he claims that fan engagement and discussion online is at new levels that no one could have imagined several years ago. If you want to find more of Dimoro's work, you can follow him on Twitter or visit his official website to see his latest sports media ventures.

Based on these articles, along with my own personal experience helping run multiple verified team accounts for Northwestern Athletics, here are three recommendations for sports executives to better grow fan engagement on social media:

• Entertain Your Followers – Fans want to feel like they’re watching the game with the team, it’s up to you to engage and relate to your audience.

• Storytelling = Engagement – Recognize what is happening in the game and the implications/message behind every single word you are sending out and how it fits into a bigger picture.

• Stay Ahead of the Surge – The industry is constantly evolving, be ready to adapt to any changes or innovations in order to ensure you are putting out the best possible final product.

As a sports executive, it is more and more important that you make meaningful connections with your fans and people interested in your team using social media, and I hope these three action items will help you do that more effectively.

My name is Zach Wingrove and I am a senior at Northwestern University studying Journalism and Integrated Marketing Communications. I have worked closely with Northwestern's Athletic Department during my four years, assisting in media relations for almost all of Northwestern's 19 varsity programs at some point. During the 2018 MLB season, I worked on the Media Relations team for the Chicago Cubs. In the future, I want to continue working media relations in either professional or collegiate athletics. You can follow me on Twitter and on LinkedIn.