Social Media Marketing in Sports

The article that I found was on how to market a sports team using twitter. I thought that this was an interesting article first because of the title “The Twitter Sports Marketing Guide, Five Tips From the Leading Pro Teams”. It starts by saying that marketing a sports team is very similar to marketing a product or yourself, the goal is to separate your object from the rest of the crowd. The teams with the most fans use strategies that make them stand out and attract the most followers. Most of this comes breaking the stereotypical mold.
The first example is the LA Lakers with the theory of “When in Doubt, Tweet” Although the platform of Twitter success is already set up for the Lakers, the Lakers social media marketing managers found a way to gain followers. They found that Lakers fans are information hungry and want updated information as often as every minute. When anything that is related to Lakers happens they tweet about it, and they put up context that does not make other media outlets. They also use Twitters Picture capability to give behind the scene shots that give followers a unique view not on TV. They do everything that they can to makes fans feel they are a part of the organization.
The second example is the Orlando Magic with the theory of “Respect the Fan” The Orlando Magic is a medium-sized sports market and does not compare to the Lakers. However, they are the second most followed sports team on Twitter. They uses the superstars on the team to promote their twitter. They understand the importance of their fans, and the Magic hold give-away contests for fans. When they had Dwight Howard they gave his one-millionth fan an all-expenses paid trip to Orlando to watch a game and meet him. They found a balance between promotions for fans and team updates.
The third example is combined teams with examples of Using the Resources You Have Real Madrid have fans that bleed soccer and twitter gives an ultimate for fans to get news. They stay active