Social media is important to a professional sports franchise and should be incorporated to the marketing mix. With social media come a lot of advantages that should be implemented and not ignored. The one thing that should not be ignored is the fact that social media is a proven commodity with many success stories and it’s here to stay. Where businesses encounter the most problems with social media is where to start and how to develop a plan with the business goals in mind. The core of social media, if used correctly, to engage the audience in innovative ways (most important), be personable, develop new connections and to nurture the relationships you already have. According to an article titled “European Leads Social Book” published in the Sports Business Journal, the core of social media is their success in social media.

“They’ve [European Team] taken extra pains to make sure the social media is primarily about engaging fans, as opposed to it being more marketing related. In fact, they don’t market as much as they maybe could. But they’ve really grasped that it’s one thing … to have someone sign up and follow, but yet another to keep them engaged.”

Instead of ignoring the mastodon size benefits of leveraging social media to grow the fan base of a sports franchise, the marketing team should definitely incorporate it to their marketing mix. The reasons why sports franchises are not jumping on social media marketing efforts are not quite clear, but what is clear is that it is on the same level as traditional marketing. “Clubs’ social media followings are getting large enough that they are dictating long-term, high-level strategic thought on the same level given to traditional broadband and TV programming efforts.” Imagine having the same effect as traditional marketing (TV, Radio, etc) in social media marketing but without the tremendous costs incurred. Social media, for the most part, is free and costs are hardly incurred with the exception of some social media management tools. A popular business model in social media is the concept of “Freemium;” which is the product is free to a certain degree and if the user wants premium tools, than a cost would be incurred. Instead of seeing social media as a leprotic method, it should be seen as a “White Knight” by the marketing team that should be incorporated to the mix.

Bryan Perez, NBA Digital senior vice president and general manager (speaking on how European Teams have leveraged social media for the Clubs benefit);

“If there’s anything to be learn from what’s happening abroad, it’s that these [soccer] teams are global brands…They have truly vibrant global followings, exactly the kind of thing we’re trying to build here, and social media, of course, is going to be a key tool in that.”