A Tail of Sport Fans

I am a large fan of social media and mass communications via the Internet, especially in the environment of sports. The start of this class has challenged and persuaded me to start thinking in more diverse ways of utilizing social media. With a degree in Sport Management and now perusing a masters in Sport Communication, I think that utilizing The Long Tail theory in the industry can accelerate the sports world into an expansion or their 1K True Fan base. I think the sport and musical industry have a large collection of true fans from a global perspective. I believe that sport itself has a diverse culture that leads to many niches that are virtually everywhere in the world. For example, the world of Lacrosse is dispersed among the country along the coastlines where as the NFL or college football is almost equally spread out across all of the states. Since Lacrosse has yet to obtain a national or global following, or exposure for that matter, it is a strong example of a sport niche. With that, Lacrosse needs to maintain a direct contact with its True 1000 Fans that Kelly explains in his blog. The strongest or most effective way they can maintain this contact is through the expansion and global fascination of social media.

From today’s class discussion on about fans wanting to have that “relationship” with athletes, artists, bands, or authors has become something that organizations and industries need to understand and utilize in a safe environment. Fans of athletes or teams desire that “relationship feeling”, including myself. We get a rush when we tweet our location at a ball game and then retweeted by that teams account. I believe that sport teams and organizations need a social media department to have personnel only focusing on the distribution of a “relationship feeling or tie” to their fans. If they can maintain that relationship feeling between the fan and organization, then those fans, who may not be season ticket holders or of the niche market, will start to deepen their association and ties to that team which can result in increased sales from the niche market in all departments.

In addition, fans of the sports world gather their news or information from the outlets of mass communication; either from ESPN networks or their online communication connections. Not only do athletic fans trust the news ESPN broadcasts, but they also tend to go directly to a specific sport or team that they are fans of to get that specific news and information. Not only does this contribute the driving need of diverse communication outlets in the sports world but an even strong need for data base research to find those fans who may not be of the social media or online audience. That research will help determine how sport organizations can maintain their 1K fans and reach them in the best way possible.

Marina Barrett