The rise of fan engagement has coincided with the internet of things. With social media platforms, it is clear that sports have shifted from being more than just a match on a Saturday afternoon.
Gaming apps, pre-match entertainment, fan pictures, and social media interaction are now part of what sports clubs offer in the competitive field.
But what exactly is fan engagement? It is perceived as likes, tweets, and shares on social media. Many don’t know that fan engagement is about enriching the relationship between fans and their Club. An example of a fan engagement strategy is the purchase of an iconic old club which was later restored and used to provide an interactive zone for fans with features like live music, family fun, big TV screens, and games.
What Constitutes Fun Engagement?
Fan engagement has both an online and offline component and includes the voluntary interactions between fans and their teams. These interactions are meant to create value or to add value by the purchase of products, recommendations, volunteering, and supporting the club in one way or another.
There is an emotional connection between fans and their teams. This leads to positive thoughts towards the team, often translating into transactional and non-transactional behavior. Transactional engagement behavior is related to direct exchanges of essential factors like time, effort, and money. For example, this is exhibited when fans watch a football game live on television or when they attend a live match. Other transactional engagement strategies include purchasing tickets, paying membership fees, and following your favorite team on social media.
The non-transactional fan engagement behavior refers to those activities that only add value to the team but do not provide economic gains. Such strategies include:
- Following your favorite team on social media.
- Helping other fans navigate social media.
- Volunteering for team events.
- Participating in discussion forums.
The purpose of sports fan engagement is to ensure that the fans are in touch with each other and that they are part of a community that can support each other. Fan engagement platforms ensure that fans can help the team and that the team can help their fans to create a more meaningful life for those involved. The purpose of sports fan engagement is to have highly engaged fans. Unfortunately, highly engaged fans can be detrimental to the team’s success since they provide continuous criticism, negative messages, and other disruptive behavior.
How to Keep the Hype Train
Sports are emotional. Let’s consider football which sparks the roar of fans across the globe. The transfer season, in particular, spikes a lot of ravenous hype among fans. However, clubs now face the challenge of maintaining this hype.
Stoke the Flames of Passion
Since football is an emotional sport, the fans subscribe to its history, legends, and community. This generates a passion seen in every interaction with these aspects of sports. However, fan engagement platforms need to understand that the motivations of their fan base are essential, as the passion can go against you if you don’t truly understand your fans’ motivations.
However, if done right, there is no asset more valuable than the fan base’s passion. Fan engagement platforms should ensure that providing fans with a platform to voice their opinions should be a crucial part of their marketing strategy. Giving them simple activities like voting for their favorite character or choosing the team of the week can help show fans that the team cares about their opinion.
Fuel Rivalries
Rivalries are key to striking engagement in the field of sports. Although the battle may be heated on the field, it doesn’t have to be so for the fans. Sports fan engagement clubs can engage with rivals to design strategic activations that give your fans some energy. Fuelling rivalries also allow your fans to display their passion for the team as they try to put rivals to shame.
Bridge the Physical and the Digital
The pandemic shifted how clubs interacted with their fans with a larger focus on the digital. While it is still good to see fans back in the stands, it would be wise for sports fan engagement platforms to remember that digital is still something to pay attention to. The digital scratch-off has led to increased engagement with the fans who might not have been able to attend live matches.
Returning fans to the stand is also a great opportunity for fan engagement clubs to create strategies that run in the venue and online. Fan engagement platforms should therefore consider a blend of the digital and the physical to ensure they provide value to their fans and sponsors.
Conclusion
The internet has ensured that today’s fans are more connected than ever. Clubs that manage the digital scratch-off effectively are positioned to channel this energy toward developing sustainable partnerships. Firms can also use the digital platform to generate fan engagement while reaping the teams’ financial benefits. However, the digital platform can be blended with the physical to reduce the adverse effects of using social media for fan engagement.
