The number of articles and blog post claiming that companies in the future may only focus on social sites instead of their own corporate brand websites is on the rise. Articles such as “The death of the brand website?” and “The death of the corporate website” are good examples of that.
So, what will happen in the world of sports?
With sports clubs taking the lead in social media (FC Barcelona, Manchester United and Real Madrid just about to break the 10 million mark on Facebook) and witnessing the benefits of engaging with fans online and via networks, will sports clubs in the future also take the “lead” when it comes to unplugging their own club websites and put all focus on social media?
One thing is certain, we are witnessing a shift and a dramatic increase in the focus on social media by sports clubs. Some have been at it for a while but it seems like everyone is joining at the moment. It is less than a year ago that several leading sports clubs in the world were still hesitating (e.g. Manchester United, FC Schalke 04) when it came to social media, but currently we are not only seeing rapid growth in numbers and usage of social media but also in great new initiatives, engagement models etc.
Sports clubs are indeed seeing the same benefits as other businesses are in social media and are investing in the “fish where the fish are” approach by increasing their activities on a daily basis. Some clubs use it as a stand alone engagement or communication vehicle where others, e.g. the Boston Celtics, use it in an integrated way with the rest of the club’s activities.
Having discussed the idea of completely moving all activities to social networks with both fans as well as several clubs the response is the following. Fans increasingly engage with clubs via social networks but the club’s own website remains a regular place to visit. All the fans I discussed the idea with expect the time spent “with” their club via social media to increase in the future. Clubs themselves, seemed to be a bit more hesitant and still considered their own sites as the #1 source for information about the club. I will admit that no thorough research was carried out, but it is clear that there are new boundaries to be set, new policies around communication and engagement patterns to be defined and a whole lot of new opportunities to be explored.
My own take on this matter is that a club’s own website is more vital to a fan than for example a company website is for a customer. Fans “naturally” go there for information and due to the fact that clubs often have a transactional relationship with fans, the club website plays an important role when it comes to buying tickets and merchandise for example. From the club’s perspective, a club website is the most flexible way to promote and communicate the brand and the club remains in control of vital elements such as data.
That being said, I do believe that clubs are much better off not only “pulling” people to their sites but simply engage with fans where they spend a lot of their time, i.e. at the social sites. The best solution, thus, seems to me to be one where activities are integrated and where both social media and club website play a role in the fan experience.
In today’s world, things happen at light speed and I wouldn’t be surprised to read a story about a club “unplugging” its own website in the future. I must admit, however, that I don’t see any major club do it first but potentially a smaller club (maybe just in order to claim that they were the first to do so!). For bigger clubs I can see boundaries between own website and social sites become blurry or increasingly overlapping but the club’s own (and controlled) presence online remains a vital part of the club’s strategy and focus.
What do you think – will the club websites remain, change or disappear?
You bring up a valid point that sport organizations seem to be paving the way of truly engaging fans (the European football clubs, in particular). Engagement is more important to consumers of sports than to consumers of tangible goods; this is how loyalty increases and fans continue to stay interested and go to games and by merchandise. In this regard, social media plays a huge role. That being said, I do not think branded websites will disappear leaving fans with only social media channels as their resources. In fact, I think that in the coming years we may see mobile applications and the use of mobile marketing and engagement as a tool of even greater potential than the social networking sites. None of this, however, will lead to the demise of the team website.
Some clubs launch their own social network and use FB reach to drive traffic to their services…a lot smarter!
TeamBlogger is such a service that offers clubs their own social fan service!
Nice post by the way!
I tend to agree with what you say, “if you want to follow where the fans want to go” BUT, there is a great BUT:
Do not forget that Sport clubs (and certainly the famous one you mentioned) do not sell brown water with sugar or expensive sport apparels, they “sell” the content of their matches to an audience that expect emotions and a sense of belonging. This is then exploited (for about 70% of their budget) by partners and sponsors willing to link their brands to the emotions that the sport clubs generates. how does this fit with your approach of Social Media’s!?
I think that Sport clubs in general and football clubs in particular should take back the ownership of their “social graphs” (check on Wikipedia what it is) because in the not so far away future, this will define how they will value their fan base to their sponsors and partners.
In short, be present on generic social websites to say that you exists but keep your social interactions (the sum of it being your social graph) on YOUR website!
[...] fan or does the fan interact with the club in other ways than via social media? In an earlier blog post, I referred to an article about the Boston Celtics, which is a good example of the above mentioned [...]