Provided by: Amplified Soccer As per stats, 45% of the social media consumers are likely to use the channels to view sports-related news and events. Social media usage for showcasing personal achievements (50%) succeeded this number. This shows the significant and central role social media plays in the world of sports. And in the sports arena, soccer stands as the clear winner as the most popular sport in the world. If you are still not convinced of the popularity of soccer on social media, know that Christiano Ronaldo, one of the world's top football players, is also the most popular celebrity on Instagram, with more than 470 million followers on the photo-sharing app. With sports in general, social media has become almost indispensable. Soccer, in particular, has been so popular on social media. So, how can the managers, the sponsors, the celebrities, and associated people use social media to boost the experience of fans and promote their teams? Keep reading to find out. How Are Sports and Social Media Integrated Right Now? Ever since the pandemic, the use of social media in sports has skyrocketed. Athletes and teams use different channels to promote themselves and keep up the excitement in the fans. Even before the pandemic, social media had become an integral part of sports and has been used in several ways to connect with fans. Social media is mainly used to keep people updated on the latest news and trends in soccer and the rest of the sports field. It is also used to interact with fans via live sessions, comments, and interactive posts. Moreover, highlights of the ongoing sports events can be broadcasted directly to the fans through social media. Athletes use it to show their day-to-day lives, a glint into their practice sessions, and more personal stuff. It is safe to say that social media is completely integrated with sports at the moment. How to Use Social Media for Your Soccer Team There are some good and bad ways to use social media. If you strategically use it for your soccer team, it can lead to great results not just in the promotion of your brand but also in how fans and people perceive your team. But how exactly should you use social media for your soccer team? Here are a few ideas. Market Your Teams and Upcoming Games Team promotion and athlete marketing are few main ways you can use social media. You can keep updating the fans about the new developments in your team, such as the onboarding of a new player in your team. Make sure to expose people to your brand color, shirts, logo, and more visual stuff so they can get acquainted with your soccer team and its players. Be sure to add some organic posts, as well, to mix up the feed. Get the Fans Hooked on Pre-Season Training Sessions Social media is not only beneficial during the season of soccer or when a game is about to happen. You can keep posting on social media before the seasons begin as well. Keep the fans updated about the pre-season training sessions and how the players prepare for the next tournaments. This will keep the fans engaged with your team and level up their excitement for the next game. Keep Giving Live and Real-Time Updates Social media content is so popular because of the short, real-time quality it possesses. Fans love the brief and quick updates celebrities give them about their lives. You can use the same format for your soccer team as well. For example, keep tweeting about the events as they happen in short time spans, such as posting a countdown when a tournament is about to start. Use hashtags and post video snippets of what is happening in the field during, before, or after the game. These live updates keep fans hooked to your page, refreshing it for more real-time news. Take Them Behind-the-Scenes One thing fans love is getting to know about the personal life of their favorite sportsperson. So, your social media pages shouldn't all be about sports and games. Mix the page with posts that show the lives of your athletes behind-the-scenes. Stories on Instagram and other social media channels are especially good for this purpose. You can put up daily stories showcasing the personal life snippets of some of the players, or you can even show the BTS of the team together. Go Live and Chat with the Fans All the die-hard fans await the moment when they will be able to talk to and meet their favorite athlete in real-time. While this might have fewer chances of happening, a live talk or chat with the player is a near possibility given the accessibility of social media. You can use your team's social media channel to hold live sessions with the players altogether, with a few of them, or even solo sessions when they can come live and chat with the fans. You could do this in the comments of a post. You can post something new and set a time limit for answering the questions in the comment section. Conclusion You can use social media in several other ways for your soccer team. Marketing your team and athletes is surely one of the main ways of using social media for any sports-related person or entity. But remember not to make your entire social media page about promotions and marketing. While fans love to know when the next game is coming up and what the teams are doing for preparations, keep adding some organic and non-promotional stuff like live sessions where you answer your fans' questions or stories of behind-the-scenes activities. You can post contests and interactive videos. Social media is as vast in functionality as you can think and figure out. Use this one of the best digital marketing tools to your best advantage! |