Women’s pro sports: Facebook awaits you
March 31, 2009 by Megan Hueter
Filed under Campaigns, Marketing and Advertising, Sports Programs
I just read an excellent post on Mashable titled “5 Elements of a Successful Facebook Page.” I LOVED this post, and I think they are spot on with their recommendations.
In the hopes that the women’s sports industry is reading this, I empower you to take these steps in enhancing your presence on Facebook.
The biggest opportunity is “network with other platforms” – with the consumer industry for females being as huge as it is, and with official sponsors in the mix, professional organizations like the WNBA or Women’s Pro Soccer can strategically get this done, effectively, providing mutually beneficial contracts with all parties involved
The only thing I’d add is to make it personal. Because female athletes are real people (and likely have personal Facebook accounts – if they don’t, they should), I challenge the players to become “fans” of their own leagues and teams, and contribute to it frequently by posting discussions and interacting with fans.
Now that more female athletes are on Twitter, their updates should automatically feed into their Facebook status, enhancing that “personal feel” that people want to see/hear. Using Twitpic to show what it’s like in their locker rooms, overseas, or even in their own homes would help, too.
From Mashable…
1. Networking with other platforms
Building a large following requires a network of other platforms, working in conjunction to drive visitors to your fan page. One brand that does that well is Victoria’s Secret with their PINK line.As you can see, on their PINK landing page they have a link to their Facebook fan page and their MySpace (
) profile. Victoria’s Secret leverages the traffic their home page gets and pushes them to their Facebook fan page.
Many companies lack this level of dedication, expecting their consumers on Facebook to find them automatically. However, that’s not usually the case.
When is the last time you went looking for a brand’s Facebook fan page? More often than not, a consumer will stumble upon the page, either through a friend or from a hub, similar to Victoria’s Secret’s PINK page.
Understandably, the fact that the demographic targeted by Victoria’s Secret PINK, aligns exactly with the demographic that is most active on Facebook, has helped grow the group as well.
Key Takeaway: Connecting multiple social platforms and a hub from the brand website, can help funnel consumers throughout the network.
2. Creating a resource
Some pages are used as connection hubs, but others offer information pertinent to their consumers. They use the information as added value to have consumers create a connection with the brand.Dell has done a great job with their social media resource for small businesses. Understanding that small business owners buy computers, by offering them this resource, small business owners interested in social media keep Dell top of mind.
Although, Dell can’t explicitly gauge the success of this program in ROI, it is a branding exercise. Also, since they offer deals and updates on new products on the page – the page does have a chance to convert small business owners into Dell consumers.
Key Takeaway: Offering a resource page allows a brand to target a new demographic, outside of those that already know and love the business.
3. Creating contests that include participation
For brands that want fan pages to have added value (a reason for users to join the page, aside from brand loyalty), but don’t want to become a resource portal; offering contests and coupons specifically to Facebook users can entice consumers to join.Sears offered fans a $10 coupon to use in stores, giving consumers a reason to join. Clicking on the coupon takes you to a page where Sears collects your information and sends you information about the coupon, deals, and offers. There’s no way to make sure the coupon is given to only Facebook fans, however like Sears, brands can require an email before receiving the coupon.
Key Takeaway: Offering something to consumers to join can help build a large community. Some examples of things to offer: Coupons, free shipping, weekly deals.
4. Empowering pre-existing pages
One of my favorite stories about social media involves the Coca Cola Facebook page. The fan page was created by two users who liked Coke. What started as a fan page for fun, turned out to be the largest product fan page on Facebook.Coca Cola, instead of taking over the page and making it their own, rewarded the fans by bringing them to Atlanta and giving them a tour of the Coke facility. The fan page remains theirs, but now they have the blessing and help of Coca Cola.
By empowering the fans to keep their fan page, Coke ensures a passionate page owner.
The Coca Cola marketing team was also smart enough to realize that letting others know what happened here would work in their favor. The fan page creators were told to make a video of the history behind the fan page, and how Coke had reached out to them and rewarded them for this.
The video shows future ‘brand enthusiasts’ that creating successful groups around Coca Cola can result in rewards and recognition.
Key Takeaway: Taking over unsanctioned Facebook fan pages isn’t always the best idea. Instead, rewarding dedication can inspire others to do the same.
5. Targeting the proper demographic
Sometimes no matter what you do, your Facebook page won’t grow. This can simply be a side effect of Facebook’s demographic. There are just some brands that will not have a strong presence on Facebook.Understanding the demographic present can help you decide if Facebook is worth it for your business.
From Quantcast estimates, we can tell that Facebook skews towards female youths. Interestingly, 53% of users have kids and a majority make over $60k a year salary. Obviously, over 50% are college kids. The demographics that make up Facebook are changing quickly, as more moms have begun to join and the college market has become saturated.
Armed with this knowledge, Seventeen Magazine jumped on to the Facebook fan page bandwagon. Their brand targets the demographic most prominent on Facebook, meaning a fairly quick and organic growth.
For companies whose brand does not target the optimal demographic, finding a specific line that does, works.
Consider the brand mentioned earlier in this article, Victoria’s Secret. Instead of putting the entire brand on Facebook, they targeted the PINK line, a line for college students.
Key Takeaway: Some brands cannot expect huge followings on Facebook. Brands or product lines targeting the demographic most prominent on Facebook tend to see the quickest growth.
I purposely did not talk about using advertising to increase the size of a fan page, because although it can be useful to jump start a fan page, organic growth can help build a more engaged group.
Creating a Facebook fan page is simple, but getting it to work well takes time, dedication, and some planning. Don’t expect to create a page and then have a huge following instantaneously. Build good content, make it easy to share, and let people know about it, and over-time the community will grow.
Do you have a successful fan page? What did you do to get the word out? What elements did you add to make it easier to pass along? How do you engage your consumers?
I’ll offer some counter arguments to the ideas in this blog about using social media to market and promote female athletes. I don’t necessarily disagree with the suggestions but there might also be a few problems.
First, if we ask female professional and elite athletes to blog, Twitter, Facebook and use other forms of social media to “connect” with fans, aren’t we asking them to do the jobs of those who market and promote? Why should the responsibility (some or part or all) be placed on female athletes? Their job is to play sports the best they can, and to focus on optimal performance. Are we similarly asking or requiring male athletes to use social media in the same way? I don’t know the answer, but my guess would be we don’t. Why? Because male athletes don’t HAVE to use social media platforms–we already see them. We see male athletes in 92-94% of all sport media coverage and a great deal more resources go into the marketing and promoting of men’s sports.
People who market and promote women’s sport haven’t quite gotten it right….yet. Researchers in sport marketing have been arguing for years that you can’t market women’s sports the same way as men’s sports. It’s not as simple as “add women and stir”. Everyone is struggling to find the right mix of “what works”– perhaps social media is the answer. It might not be a bad thing, but its too early to tell, I need more facts. Fans and consumers might like the social media, as they can feel connected to female athletes in ways they don’t have access to male athletes (in most cases). What we do know is that fans of women’s sport primarily go because the LIKE THE SPORT. They want to see female athletes in action, doing what they do best, because its exciting and they love the game.
One underlying assumption for using social media is fans of female sports and female athletes WANT personal information,want the human interest story, want to feel connected to female athletes not just as athletes, and as Megan writes because it will “enhanc[e] that “personal feel” that people want to see/hear.” I don’t know if this is true or just an assumption. If I know through Twitter, for example what Candace Parker is doing 24/7 that is partially unrelated to basketball, does that make me more or less interested in the WNBA? If I know she is “just like me” an ordinary person, might it not take some of her credibility and intrigue away? I’ll use the recent example of Sarah Palin. Like or don’t like Palin, her ploy was to appeal to the American public by saying “I’m just like you”. Many criticized her approach by saying, “I don’t want my Vice President to be ‘just like me’!” If by using social media undermines the credibility of leagues or the primary capital of the league–the athletic competence of the women, than it could backfire. It might be a slippery slope.
The other underlying assumption here is that marketing only the female athlete, only athletic competence, only the game isn’t enough. Something “more” must be done to capture fan interest, get them to buy tickets and consume women’s sports. Perhaps what fans really want is to see leagues get it right, to give their female athletes what they deserve, to promote athletic competence FIRST.
That said, I understand those who market and promote have to meet the fans where they are. And social media is where more and more people are…especially women, who are the majority and rapidly growing users of platforms like Facebook and Twitter AND who also happen to be the target market of women’s sports.
I think there are ways in which social media can be used effectively and if it can be done to increase the success of women’s leagues…let’s do it! But I’m not sure we know what “it” is quite yet. I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts.
What I do know is that I (and the many others who care deeply about women’s sports) would like to see equal resources being put into legitimately covering, marketing, and promoting women’s sports.
Nicole – it’s awesome to get a different point of view on here. With your background, this really adds value to the conversation.
I’d like to counter your response with a few things that back up my original points in the post.
1) Professional male athletes are using social media to connect with their fans. Shaq is the #8 followed person on Twitter (according to the Twitter top 100 today) and Lance Armstrong follows at #10. These guys are on there all day, everyday, telling the stories of their lives. Stories that their audience wants to hear.
For the twitter top 100, see here:
http://twitterholic.com/
To see a comprehensive list of professional athletes, check out this:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pAEWN9c0sDrZmsfUSUOswCg
2) As you pointed out, the funding isn’t equal between men and women when it comes to marketing, so it’s not fair. Also, male and female athletes need to market themselves in different ways (and I’d love to learn more about that research).
However, in an age where women’s sports are suffering due to the economy (see here: http://becauseiplayedsports.com/2008/12/05/ncaa-a-drained-economy-the-end-of-womens-professional-sports/) teams can’t afford to invest in the high-end marketing research and implementation that it would take in order to see an up-swing – and there’s no guarantee that there would be an ROI. Therefore, for now, they should use what’s already here: low-cost social media. Once they build a solid fan base (and have proof), maybe funds will be allocated differently. I can’t fathom one reason why they shouldn’t do it – it’s exactly where their fans are.
3) You’re right – engaging the athletes on Twitter & Facebook might not work, largely due to the fact that professional female athletes aren’t considered celebrities culturally (as Shaq and Lance Armstrong are). (Check out this article about celebrities on Twitter: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/fashion/29twitter.html?ref=style)
However, my key point is this – Twitter easy way to engage female athletes with the people who DO care about them, and gives the athletes a chance to respond (in real time, in their own words) to the fans directly. It gives them full control over their own brands, enhances their relationships and gives the audience sustained interest in the athlete’s life/story. That’s exactly what will keep people coming back for more – we call them “brand evangelists” (something that pro sports needs). For example, look at this NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/technology/internet/27twitter.html?hpw
Key quote – “In its short history, Twitter — a microblogging tool that uses 140 characters in bursts of text — has become an important marketing tool for celebrities, politicians and businesses, promising a level of intimacy never before approached online, as well as giving the public the ability to speak directly to people and institutions once comfortably on a pedestal.”
4) While I 100 percent agree with you that women should not have to do “more” than just perform well at their sport, I do not believe we live in a society that will fund it (at least not right now).
In fact, some experts argue that the “stories” are more important than the “show.” Check out this blog post by Seth Godin (marketing expert):
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/the-difference-between-a-show-and-a-story.html
“Marketing is telling a story that sticks, that spreads and that changes the way people act. The story you tell is far more important than the way you tell it. Don’t worry so much about being cool, and worry a lot more about resonating your story with my worldview. If you don’t have a story, then a great show isn’t going to help much.”
5) We have responsibility, too. It’s our responsibility as “evangelists” to network with each other, partner with each other, share stories, participate in conversations such as these, and take control of the branding of female athletes. I do strongly believe that in order for this to happen, pro athletes need to connect with fans online.
I think this is indeed the first step (more like a leap) toward finding “it” – the component of engagement that will create a new-found respect for female athletes.
Interested in hearing your response to this – can’t wait to see you start blogging.