For sports organizations, social media is the preferred avenue to engage with fans and promote their products. As such, it’s an integral component of a team’s brand strategy. It allows teams to share digital content like photos, videos and tweets with millions of followers, transforming them into loyal customers, partners and advocates.
Athletes can build authentic and lasting relationships with fans by sharing behind-the-scenes photos and videos. They can also leverage these platforms to communicate with their peers, coaches and other athletes. These powerful connections humanize athletes and make them more relatable to their fans, increasing fan loyalty and driving a positive impact on sponsorships and ticket sales.
In addition, social media offers an opportunity for athletes to raise money and awareness for a cause that’s important to them. For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced many of the world’s top athletes to suspend training, triathlete Jan Frodeno completed a triathlon in his own four walls using a countercurrent pool, a bike roller and a treadmill, raising over 22,000 euros for hospitals and the Laureus Foundationopen_in_new.
A critical review of the literature found that articles fall into four distinct research stream categories, namely the foundation category (38.6%), the features category (23.6%), the functionality category (13.2%) and the impacts category (9.7%). The foundation category articles delved into the fundamental aspects of social media, exploring topics such as user characteristics, platform adoption, attributes and perception. The functionality category articles explored the practical applications of social media in the context of sport, ranging from its use as an activism platform to its function as a marketing tool and crisis communication medium.