Being a multi sport town, Boston has a luxury that other
states dont Boston sports fans have to admit theyve been spoiled over the last
decade.The Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics have all won championships, and even
the Bruins have made it deep into the NHL playoffs. Growing in parallel with
the success of Bostons franchises has been fan interest and excitement.Thanks
to the advent of social media, the fan noise has grown even louder and become
interactive at the same time.  According
to the Boston Globe, the Celtics are using social media and Social Media
Marketing to increase their profits and increase brand awareness with fans
worldwide.Through an app called GameTime Live, scores, fan interaction, blogs
and tweets are just a few of the features being used to drive users to
Celtics.com The Celtics have four hundred and fifty thousand Facebook fans and
twenty-two thousand Twitter followers.  Although
social media is a powerful tool to market and brand teams and gain support
beyond the walls of stadiums, there can be negative aspects to it as well.Paul
Pierce, the Boston Celtics player captain, recently got into a bit of a
controversy over a tweet he made that bragged about a Celtics a victory.The
words found on his tweet, Anybody got a BROOM? referred to a possible four-game
sweep of the Celtics over the Orlando Magic, as the Celtics had just gone up
2-0 in the series. Pierce would later deny tweeting this explaining that
hackers broke into his account.Fortunately for Pierce and the Celtics, they
would win the series against Orlando and advance to the NBA finals. If social
media is this powerful for one American sports team, imagine its potential to
reach audiences via the currently ongoing World Cup. According to ABC news, in
2010 social media has exploded in soccer.Due to limited access for some on
broadcast television and different global time zones, many supporters have
joined their countrys crusade online. There are dozens of blogs, hundreds of
websites, and many live streams available some through mobile apps all
dedicated to soccer teams.Foursquare, a location-based social networking site,
allows mobile users the ability to check-in at various venues for points and badges.
They have partnered up with CNN to tap into locations of World Cup global
viewing parties. This app is also being used to link attendees between the ten
soccer stadiums located thousands of miles apart in South Africa.Some of the
players are connecting to supportive fans though their Twitter pages. This
opens up the possibility of other applications jumping into the arena of
sporting events.Event marketers or vendors at or nearby scheduled events could
design an application announcing their product or service at a discount to fans
by showing their game stub.Downloadable content applications could be created
by marketing firms to deliver exclusive content for a fee.Marketers of sports
teams or sports charities could be compensated by designing an application that
gave away signed game material.There are endless combinations of applications
and marketing opportunities available. What will effective social media look
like for big games like the NBA finals and World Cup Soccer?Currently, popular
keyword high on Google Trends list include: German national anthem, German
soccer, and Germany World Cup.Famous soccer players such as Robert Enke, Lusa
Padolski, Miroslav Klose and Mesut Ozil rank high as well.As more people
connect in real time globally, the more soccer viewing and interaction for
events like the World Cup will take place.Social media site Mashable has a
Twitter directory list, which fans can follow for the month long soccer tournament.Twitter
has its own Top Tweets list for the World Cup too. The more following taking
place, the more communication between the fans of soccer, basketball or any
sport can exist.This gives marketers of the sports or sport related offerings a
specialized audience to talk to.Facebook and Twitter are getting more
convertible with combining advertising and user input on their sites, and Apple
is preparing apps creators for richer ad delivery through iAds.Dedicated fan
sites such as Lego Click Community boards already have ways for their fans to
click and interact and its only a matter of time before more sporting fanatics
get in on the action. In the NBA Finals, Twitter also has taken advantage of
its platform through the use of  
http://twitter.com/CELTICSvLAKERS.This allows fans the chance to view
highlights of the game, view a press conference or interact with NBA.com to
post their opinions on wholl they think will be the series most valuable player.
Fans can also share their historical data with other fans.Topics range from
draft statistics to trends for winning a particular game in a series and many
more.Sport provider ESPN, along with sister network ABC, offers a real time
play-by-play twitter feed for fans to follow along with. Sports fans should get
used to the new landscape involving not just their remote control and comfy
couch.Social media aspects are mashing together with online and mobile
technologies to heighten and enlighten a fans experience.

Social Marketing Photo

By mohamed_hassan from Pixabay