Tags: customers | facebook | rugby league | social media | sports | twitter

As more and more individuals become members of social media sites the need for sports clubs to become active in the social media field also increases.

Beyond face-to-face contact, social media is the clearest and easiest way to engage with your customers, with a direct feed into their consciousness but with the ability to converse freely, something a website or written article doesn’t allow.

Twitter now has almost 200 million visitors a month as Dick Costolo (Twitter COO) announced at the Conversational Media Summit in New York last month. The website is now attracting 190 million visitors per month and generating 65 million Tweets a day.

Potentially a ‘tweet’ on Twitter or a post on Facebook could reach more people than traditional forms of media like newsprint or websites. All this for a service which is free, yes you’ll spend time but for little more than a few minutes a day you could be directly talking to hundreds or thousands of people. What other media offers this sort of return?


Twitter, Are you using Social Media?

Rugby League clubs such as our clients Bramley Buffaloes (follow them @bramleybuffs) use twitter to communicate to fans with latest scores, match reports and press releases. Martyn Cheney, the clubs chairman said of social media: “Facebook, twitter and other social networking sites allow us to contact more people than we ever could using email or written letters, when coupled with press releases we get maximum coverage for little outlay".

The shear reach of social networking not only to people within your local community but Worldwide is key as Martyn explains: "We are reaching audiences we never thought possible, not only local people but ex-pats too. It's a fantastic tool”.

The best uses of twitter that we’ve seen from sports clubs is to inform fans of latest scores and news but also provide a valuable and interesting insight behind the scenes at the club, some tweets and photos of the players training or taking part in a community activity are great ways of maintaining interest amongst your followers and providing value to these customers.

The most interesting aspect of using Twitter is the ease of communication with your customers, whether it be your fans, sponsors or stakeholders. Clubs can form relationships with their customers just like some non-sporting businesses do.

There are many examples of companies using twitter well, Starbucks posts new offers and also participates in threaded discussions of these offers with their followers, not only talking at their customers but listening and responding too, what could be better. 02 announce new phone releases but also spend much of their time responding to technical queries of their customers, saving time for the customer (who doesn’t need to call a helpline or visit a store) and their staff who can concentrate on sales within the companies stores.

Much like 02 clubs are able to react quickly to problems that arise and these can be easily dealt with. They can also report news or scores anytime of day without drafting an official press release and waiting to access their official club website during office hours.

So how can clubs learn from other industries and use Twitter well?

• They can inform followers but not preach to them
• They are inviting, engaging, personable and responsive to their customers
• They search using keywords or #tags and listen to relevant conversations and respond where necessary

If you want us to help with your social media presence via twitter and facebook please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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