As a brand, you have probably heard of community or fan engagement being referred to as the holy grail of social media marketing – a journey to reach, but so rewarding once achieved. Every sector and every niche has its own creative strategies to help reach that end goal, and rest assured, the sports industry is no exception.
In the context of this article, we refer to the broad term of sports brands as both the brands surrounding sports teams, and the brands which specialise in sports products (clothing, equipment, etc.), all united in their tight connection to the notion of community and fans.
We are not reinventing the wheel when we say that sport, at its core, has always been about togetherness and support. Fans’ love for a team is what pushes this team forward, both cognitively and monetarily, and this love has also made its way into how those fans interact with sports brands.
But if we put our social media marketing hats on, we can see that community holds a much greater meaning in the shape of fan engagement. In this article, we will explore specific tactics that sports brands can utilise to transform fan engagement into a growing online community.
Community management – the way to turn fan engagement into something more
One of the most valuable opportunities that social media makes more accessible and actionable than any other marketing medium is community management. In a world overflowing with brands and value offerings bombarding us from every corner, community management holds the power to make brands stand out from the crowd and rise above the noise. It is a definite way to showcase that your brand does not exist in the digital vacuum, but in fact has people behind it. Why is that important to highlight? Because people will naturally always gravitate towards people.
What is community management?
Community management, simply put, is the act of engaging with your audience online. As opposed to having a one-off one-way conversation spanning over your followers potentially reacting to the content that you are posting, with community management, you are able to take it further and turn this one-time interaction into a continuous series of conversations, building towards trust and engagement.
Community management can be reactive and proactive, as Phil, our CEO, discusses in his book “Human First Marketing: The Art of Being Seen, Trusted and Remembered”. So, taking that into account, let’s break it down further with actionable strategies:
Reactive: The importance of reciprocity and responsiveness
Replying to comments and messages on social media can be considered level one of community management. While it may be only scratching the surface, demonstrating a quick response rate can still have a large impact on fan engagement online.
Engagement typically creates grounds for further engagement, and the simple act of responding to a comment turns it into something bigger – a conversation. A conversation can turn into a full discussion, or a series of new conversations in the future. What is more, this type of reciprocity also creates a positive brand association for your followers, significantly boosting their trust.
A great example of a strong replier is The North Face – despite standing at over 5.4 million followers on Instagram and generating hundreds of comments on each piece of content, they still realise the power of regular reactive community management.
Proactive: Celebration and outreach
Social listening is a valuable skill for any brand to possess in its entourage. For sports brands, there are many sources that can give us the most up-to-date information about our fans and what they are thinking and feeling. Monitoring any fan spaces, groups and forums, as well as social media mentions, can be a great way to keep track of how your fans are expressing their support for your brand. But how can we turn that into fan engagement?
The key to showing your fans that you are not only aware of their support and advocacy but are willing to go the extra mile is by actively demonstrating your appreciation.
Joining the conversations and replying to any ongoing conversations surrounding your brand, reposting and resharing user-generated content by giving proper credit to the original creator, and hosting special contests to highlight their creativity are all great ways to turn outreach into appreciation and pave the way for further fan engagement.
Moreover, this will once again enhance fans’ trust in your brand and help you sustain and grow your relationship with them, inspiring more advocacy and support.
Some great examples are the sportswear brand Outdoor Voices, who regularly post highlights carousels with the best images of their followers sporting their equipment and showcasing their achievements and activities.
Another strong example of going the extra mile is the FC Barcelona 125th Anniversary Photo Contest, where the football club rewarded long-time fans of the club and their stunning match photographs.
Proactive: Invite fan engagement with variety and added value
Along with regularly highlighting and celebrating your fans’ support, social media offers us many other ways to spark that conversation and turn it into fan engagement.
Taking advantage of all the available content formats is another great starting point. Combined with social listening, you can work on creating the content your fans want to see most, sparking that engagement. A great example is Tottenham’s official TikTok, where the team regularly participates in trendy and entertaining challenges, as well as “Day in the Life” videos, easily making them some of their most watched and interacted with content.
Another effective way to fuel up fan engagement is to create spaces for more personal interactions between you. Many sports brands choose to develop their own brand apps, but social media can also help with this. Nike are a great example with their Instagram community channel, currently hosting over 354 thousand members. The brand has turned it into a space for celebrating achievements, diversity and generating buzz.
Introducing a level of interactive competitiveness is another easy and proactive way to stimulate fan engagement. Hosting giveaways and contests can be a great stimulus to motivate even the more passive of fans to become active on your social media platforms. Arsenal are a great example of this – with their Match Predictor platform, they turn the already existing pre-match buzz into valuable fan engagement, all happening on their turf.
If all of this sounds inspiring and you are ready to put the plan into action, we are here to help! To take your fan community and engagement to the next level, get in touch with us here.
