Social Media Growing Influence On Sports

Social Media Growing Influence On Sports

The past couple of decades have been interesting for the digital landscape. But nothing has had quite as much of an impact on so many aspects of our culture as social media. We practically live online now, and thanks to social media, every aspect of our lives has changed—from dating to enjoying our favorite sports.

Social media has significantly changed the digital landscape for sports fans. You can not only catch the highlights of the game on social media but also follow your favorite team, or your favorite players, as well.

Sports Teams Have Caught On

Sports franchises have been quick to catch on. It’s not surprising—the global sports industry was worth $76.1 billion at the end of 2013 and has been growing ever since. Considering that 71% of internet users also use social media, it’s a match made in heaven.

These days you’ll be hard-pressed to find any kind of team or sporting association that doesn’t run at least one social media page. And considering the research conducted by Betting Sites, there are 650 million sports fans on Facebook alone.

Celebs and teams alike are cashing in. With the return on a tweet by Cristiano Ronaldo being worth over $260,000, it’s big business. Want to find out more about the kind of money we’re talking about? Betting Sites gathered all the statistics and put them into one comprehensive infographic. We’ve reprinted the IG below so you can get all the juicy details for yourself.

Makes you dream about chucking it all in and becoming a sports star, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, for most of us, that’s a dream that will never come true. As a consolation, however, we can follow every single detail of our favorite sports on social media.

All the Best Information and a Lot More Besides

Catch the latest scores of the game on Facebook and celebrate the wins on Twitter. Just be warned, the tensions run as high on social media as they do in real life. So give those thumbs a good stretch before you get involved in any Twitter battle.

It’s the immediacy of the medium that is perhaps the greatest draw for sports fan. Use the right hashtag and pick up any chatter about that game right away. Maybe your favorite player has tweeted about how they got robbed by the ref’s poor judgment, or maybe they’re just waiting for their fans to step in and come to their defense.

There’s only one way to find out—put in the hashtag and see for yourself.

Of course, social media in the sports arena is about more than just discussing the game, celebrating the wins, and defending your team to the death. It’s also an ideal avenue for the teams to give something back to their loyal fans.

It’s on social media that you’ll get to watch sneak peeks of your players at practice, get a range of additional content, and really get to engage with your favorite brands. Social media has completely changed the way we access all kinds of information. And it has proved particularly potent in the changing of the public face of the sports industry.

Author: Jawad Alalawi

Information Technology Professional specialized in Financial Payment Services, Risk Management, Information Security, and Compliance. Experienced in solutions development and implementation, and technical writer.

Technology Specialist & Consultant

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