Social media has become an integral part of
modern life today and one can hardly visualize anything without its
involvement. Sports world is no exception to this common rule and there is a
visible impact of sports social media on
the sports lovers across the globe. Social networking sites like Facebook and
Twitter have taken the lead in the field followed by YouTube with its exciting
videos. Sports lovers today make trash talks with their friends on Facebook,
exchange opinions on Twitter, and view and display memorable events on YouTube.
Difficulties of
Calculations
While use of sports social network could prove to be extremely rewarding for the
marketers, one difficulty that might be encountered by them too often is that
of calculating the exact use of a particular network by Fans. There are some
blog sites that try to quantify the hangout online of the sports fans.
Survey Results
A recent survey conducted by a leading sports
site that surveys and finds out the interests and impact of social networking
sites on sports lover brought out some interesting facts.
·
They conducted the survey on around two thousand viewers in
different age groups.
·
In their survey they took people in the age group of 16-64.
·
People covered were fans of NFL, MLB, NBA and various other types
of sports.
·
More than 70% of the people covered under survey used Facebook as
their favorite site whereas around 35% people use Twitter for the same purpose.
But on sports days Twitter becomes the favored sports social media for them and the users outnumber Facebook by
one and half times.
·
At the same time use of Google as well as YouTube for sports social network are on the rise.
If one takes into consideration the annual growth; Google shows 94% and YouTube
35% growth annually.
·
Almost 70% of viewers using the sites as sports fans also agree to
make brand sharing and buying goods and services through their engagements in
social posts.
Incredible Buzz
An incredible buzz is still surrounding the
social networking world and the latest trend in the industry is the direct
communications received through the sportssocial media from the sports celebrities that is a boon for the sports
lovers. Like celebrities in other areas; the sports celebrities also use to
tweet their views and opinions against press or on the sports events. They also
use it to deny the gossips and scandals that are often the part of the lives of
the celebrities in all spheres. An example is the Facebook page of popular
Olympic Swimming star Michael Phelps that is extremely popular fan page on the
site. Phelps uses the page to communicate with millions of fans around the
world and that is the story also of many other sports celebrities.
New social network generation wishes to
communicate with the sporting celebrities whom they worship as heroes and this
is something that was never possible in the past. The fact that the reactions
are much faster on social networking sites has also enhanced their value for
the users. All said and done; the impact of social networking in sports has
become a reality that cannot be ignored.
