Title: Engaging Australian Rules Football fans with social media: a case study

Authors: John L. Hopkins

Addresses: College of Business, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria 8001, Australia

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.

Keywords: social networking sites; SNSs; digital media; Facebook; Twitter; AFL fans; sport marketing; Australia; Australian Rules Football; social media; communication improvement; consumer investments; consumer behaviour; fan behaviour; membership sales; match day attendances; ticket sales; TV audiences; merchandise sales.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2013.055197

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2013 Vol.13 No.1/2, pp.104 - 121

Accepted: 18 Dec 2012
Published online: 29 Apr 2014 *

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