Engaging Australian Rules Football fans with social media: a case study
by John L. Hopkins
International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing (IJSMM), Vol. 13, No. 1/2, 2013

Abstract: Social media, specifically social networking sites (SNSs), offer organisations direct access to a significant amount of personal information about their consumers and provide the means by which to create two-way, business-to-consumer (B2C) information channels. Therefore, instead of traditional impersonal one-direction advertising, organisations can establish personal two-way communication, by accepting members and forming 'friendships' on these digital platforms. A case study is presented that examines how a professional Australian Rules Football club has implemented Facebook and Twitter to improve the level and quality of communication they have with their fans. An end of season member survey indicated that the club were not performing well, in the area of communication, and a project team was formed to identify how improvements in the club's social media capabilities could be leveraged to improve communication. Whilst the level of success of the case was measured in terms of consumer investments; consumer behaviours that are linked to social media, such as traffic, time spent on an application, and comments gained, etc., a growth in membership sales, match day attendances, ticket sales, TV audiences and merchandise sales were also experienced in the period following the improvements made to the club's Facebook and Twitter presence.

Online publication date: Tue, 29-Apr-2014

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing (IJSMM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com