Take Advantage of Twitter in Sports Marketing Campaigns

Twitter has been and will continue to be, increasingly important for instant communication between teams, athletes and especially their die-hard fans. Facebook has at least 30 times more members than Twitter. There is no argument about the importance for every sports organization, team, athlete and facility to have their own Facebook Fan Page.

The Facebook fan page is instrumental in the use of sport mechanics starting 2012. However, for instant impact and connectivity between fans, teams and sport organizations nothing yet beats Twitter. Top athletes and celebrities all use Twitter many times more often than they are likely to use Facebook. In fact, while they consider their Facebook Fan Page important, they usually have someone on staff to maintain the page and work the sport mechanics aspects of their contact with fans.

Twitter is different. Twitter is, so to speak, face-to-face, mano-y-mano, which is Spanish and means, to give something to someone person to person. Direct contact, albeit mostly one way between fans and their team is what makes Super Fans. The reasons are easily identifiable.

Twitter is simplicity and speed. Messages on Twitter must be short, clearly stated and direct to the point. As some have said, Twitter is quality communication compared to quantity communication with Facebook.

When a team or athlete tweets, fans often pass on that message for their own followers to see. The people receiving the tweet from the team or athlete are the ultimate targeted consumer. They have chosen individually to follow that organization or person and want to know what they have to say. Because of the brevity of tweets, Twitter is the best communication friend a smart phone has in the world. Every time a fan passes a tweet from an athlete or team on to their own followers a significant portion will pick up the Twitter address and follow the team, athlete and by transference, the associated brands.

Teams and athletes are already noticing the importance of Twitter. On television recently, it was obvious how. The backs of Jerseys, typically displaying the name of the athlete were changed to show the Twitter handle of the athlete. Some teams are paying athletes additional pay or benefits to be active on Twitter with fans. If you watched the recent World Series on television, did you notice the World Series Twitter contact handle next to the Fox Logo?

The most important reasons for team and athlete Twitter contact with fans are as follows:

• Twitter enable teams to survey fans instantly on opinions with instant feedback.

• Teams can provide real-time news to people who want to know what the story is.

• Twitter enables teams and athletes to react to problems quickly and quash rumors.

• Twitter is about brand control, protecting brands by giving out correct information.

• Twitter is for announcing and extending brand promotions, instantly.

• Twitter increases numbers of unique visitors to team or athlete websites.

• Twitter provides direct, interactive contact between teams and fans.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly the contact and interaction between teams, athletes and fans is automatically quantified and the data available. Twitter search also allows a quantifiable check on the number of times a tweet was passed on and passed on repeatedly, over time.