It’s a great day in sports analytics! Today, we’re going to talk about sports social network analysis and how sports teams are leveraging social network analysis and the internet to increase team sales and marketability. And we’ll take a deeper dive into how social networks already play a fundamental role in many of the communication strategies of successful college and professional teams.
The constant evolution of the internet throughout history has highlighted the importance for players and teams to adapt to these changes, and learn how to manage social networks. In recent years, social networks have become a strong exponent of these changes, impacting the way we communicate in all areas.
Social networks have become a strong channel of dissemination in the sports world and have managed to become the perfect platform for brands to achieve visibility and direct contact with their followers. These channels have seen that sports marketing is now much more veritable. More and more big brands are betting on promoting their campaigns on social networks.
According to statistics, in recent years, there has been an increase of 38% in advertising campaigns on social networks related to sports. The activity of this sector usually brings large advertising investments, so it is not surprising that advertising in this medium is expected to represent 20% of all advertising on the Internet in 2019, according to Zenith Media, in its 2018 advertising forecast.
Thanks to social networks, not only brands can have greater access to customers, but the athletes themselves can show more through these channels. And fans can enjoy learning more about the day to day life of their favorite stars.
Knowing this reality, the sponsored tweet has become the widespread format of choice social networking. According to data from Opendorse, the consultancy specialized in personalities, sports and its dissemination, more than two thousand professional athletes signed more than five thousand publications sponsored on Twitter. Figures show how big companies related to sports bet on working with professional athletes in their advertising campaigns due to their influential role in these channels.
Thus, these sports influencers have managed to amass a large community of followers who follow their publications. According to Forbes, 85% of users trust more in the content generated by influential users.
This past year’s Super Bowl became one of the sporting events with the most impact on social networks. Facebook and Instagram were the platforms most used during the match and between them were recorded about 110 million mentions. On Twitter, the event’s hashtag was a global trend with more than 27 million tweets.
In these channels, athletes have an unparalleled influence on social networks and even have more engagement power (degree of connection with the audience measured in interaction with the ad that the brands themselves sponsor).
According to Opendorse, the average participation rate in social networks of these athletes is more than ten times that of the teams’ and 50 times more than the leagues’.
The numbers are clear and the combination of social networks and sports has become for brands a highly effective combination to engage digital sports fans.
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