"The Lines Between Social Media And Sports Continue To Blur"

From Forbes

Review by Josh Ruffner in KIN 435 (section 1)

This article is about how sports teams are starting to implement social media into their marketing campaigns. They are really trying to increase interaction between fans, players, and the teams. Social media usage has become a huge asset to our daily lives. The one that is talked about within this article is Twitter.

The Philadelphia Wings decided to have a special jersey night with the players donning their twitter handles on the backs of their jerseys. The idea behind this was to create an interaction between the fans and players. The jerseys were later raffled off for a charity event. Social media is starting to become widely used in sports marketing. It is easier to engage the fans through social media because everybody is using it. I personally think this was a great idea for the Philadelphia Wings as it increases interaction between the players and fans. I think that Twitter could have a huge future in the marketing of sports. By following teams on Twitter fans are always up-to-date about what is going on with their favorite teams. Since the Wings were the first team to implement this idea, I think others will surely give it a try. I also think this may benefit the smaller leagues because they can become more connected with their fan base through social media usage. I am not really sure how this will factor into the four major sports as many people are already connected with their favorite teams through some sort of social media channel.

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Review by Peter Billups in KIN 435 (section 1)

A recent article in Forbes Magazine titled, “The Lines Between Social Media and Sports Continue To Blur,” addresses the February 12th National League Lacrosse game in which the Philadelphia Wings wore jerseys with the players Twitter handles on them. This marks the first time a North American Professional Sports team has done such a promotion. This promotion was genius; the team and league received a great amount of free exposure due to the jerseys. The NLL and Philadelphia Wings received more airtime on SportsCenter and other news channels channels across the country as well as articles in many magazines including the one in Forbes Magazine. Not mentioned in the article was the fact that after the game the jerseys were auctioned off, with proceeds going to support the American Cancer Society. Obviously, the intent of having these jerseys made, worn once and auctioned off was to provide a unique marketing experience for the Philadelphia Wings and provide an opportunity for fans to engage with the athletes via Twitter.

I thoroughly enjoyed this article. It raises many questions and encourages any sport business professional to consider the future of social media relating to sports. Steve Olenski, a freelance advertising and marketing writer/blogger concludes the article with the question, is “the use of Twitter handles and jerseys, a one time thing? Or do you think this is only the beginning?” I believe that this is only the beginning but the use of Twitter handles on team jerseys will not immediately be duplicated by other professional teams.

The sports purest would be against Twitter jerseys and right now I think management would be against it as well. This practice puts emphasis on the individual players. Why promote fan focus on the individual athletes instead of the team? Many players leave in free agency and those players can easily take fans with them through the use of today’s technology which makes keeping track of your favorite players a click away. The article focuses on the merchandise sales and makes the reader believe that Twitter jerseys could sell and lead to more Twitter gear. I believe that this is not the case, despite the fact that the line between social media and sports is becoming less clear. Fans value tradition and Twitter handles on jerseys is a deviation from tradition. One possibility is first to present Twitter handles in the programs and on the jumbotrons, more or less testing the response. The NLL and the Wings received positive results from the promotion since they found a new way to get publicity and had the positive image of helping those in need. Twitter reaches millions of people, especially those that economically support online marketing. It is inevitable that Twitter is used by major sports programs; but to add Twitter names on jerseys further divides athlete with team.