Sports and Social Media Podcast

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NCAA Athletes on Social Media

            Almost everyone is on social media these days.  Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, social media has become a big part of people’s lives, even NCAA student athletes.  Although social media can be used in a number of good ways, it can also have negative impacts on college athletes, their teams, and coaches.  The bottom line is that athletes need to be careful about what they put on social media sites.  As far as Facebook, there are a number of programs that prohibit their athletes from having a Facebook.  Those athletes that do should consider reviewing their privacy settings and being careful of who views their page, pictures, and posts.  The same goes for Twitter.  It is wise to set your Twitter to private so only those you approve can see your tweets.  As an athlete, you never know who could follow you or see your tweet, and turn around and send it somewhere else.  The content of what you tweet is also very important.

            In recent months, the NCAA has used social media to find universities that were violating NCAA rules. The University of North Carolina and University of Alabama are two schools that recently were under investigation by the NCAA that resulted in sanctions.  UNC’s sanctions came about after pictures were found on Twitter, and UA’s sanctions were due to illegally using Facebook for recruiting.  An article by Charles Bowles of “The University News” describes how the new age of social media can impact the sports world.

            An athlete may think that because their social media site is blocked and only their friends can see it means that they are safe.  With the Internet, no one is safe.  Social media spreads like wild fire.  One must think before posting something because you never know who is going to see it or share it.  Some institutions even have set people who monitor social media sites just to make sure their athletes are no posting any questionable content.  As a result of UNC’s sanctions, they informed their athletes that by violating social media policies, they could face a number of penalties.

            Social media can seem to have a negative impact on some areas of the sports world.  However, when used properly, social media can be helpful in recruiting, marketing, and promoting college athletics.  The only problem now is how do we find a happy medium for the athletes, coaches, universities, fans, and the NCAA.

Facebook Fan Pages

Facebook has become such a huge social networking tool and has over 1 billion users.  Users can follow friends, favorite companies, celebrities, and sports teams.  Simply by “liking” these pages, Facebook users can keep up to date with the latest news and content, and engage with the certain athletic team they are following.  It allows fans to feel that they have an inside look at the professional sports team that they follow week in and week out. Teams post pictures, videos, score updates, schedules, promotions, and contests.

It is not only great for the fans, but it is even better for the professional organization themselves.  It allows teams to get the word out there and gain fans.  When a Facebook user “likes” a particular sports team, every friend the user has on Facebook will see that.  This prompts other users to visit the team page.  Also, by being a fan of the team on Facebook, the user will see each post the team makes on their newsfeed.  This is great for promoting the team, as well as a key marketing tool.  From the fan page, users can also find the pages of the professional athletes that play for the teams.  These athletes have their own personal fan pages.

Three main perks for using Facebook to market a sports team are contests, fan photos and PPC.  Contest draw people in because it gives them a chance to win team gear, tickets and other fun prizes.  Contests also get people talking and spreads the word.  Who doesn’t love winning free things? No one!  So, obviously everyone tells their friends and post links to the contest.  Another way of interacting with fans is to post pictures of them on the page.  Even if a fan never sees themselves on the page, there is always a hope that they will appear, supporting the team they love.  Everyone wants the chance to have their own ten seconds of fame.  The Pay Per Click is a great feature because, like previously stated, it allows the teams page to be spread throughout Facebook the more fans they gain.  This will build the amount of traffic the page has, and essentially, draws more fans to the page.

An article by Cork Gaines in "The Business Insider" displays the 20 most popular sports teams on Facebook.  Surprisingly, soccer teams are the sport with the most Facebook Fans.  Among those are Manchester United, Barcelona FC, Liverpool FC, Arsenal, and Real Madrid.  The United States, being the sports hub that it is, has a few MLB, NFL, and NBA teams with the most fans.  For as large a social networking country the United States is, they really should step up their athletic Facebook fan pages.  Below is the Lakers' fan page, which is the most popular team in the United States.