THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON SPORTS PUBLIC RELATIONS ...

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON SPORTS PUBLIC RELATIONS By Allison Coombs A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Information Design and Corporate Communication Bentley University November 20, 2009 ABSTRACT The Impact of Social Media on Sports Public Relations By Allison Coombs The following thesis investigates the impact that social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and LinkedIn has had on the sports public relations industry. The thesis includes an analysis of the social media integration of top professional sports leagues in the United States and the world. The final section of this thesis includes a social media integration plan for the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), one of the fastest growing sports in the United States. Research concluded that social media is a new way to communicate that will continue to evolve and change the landscape of the communications industry. Public relations professionals were among the first to adopt this new type of communication and will continue to adapt their profession with each successive change. The analysis showed that the professional sports leagues in the United States had the most social media integration. Many of the sports leagues lacked social networking and a social media policy with the exception of the National Football League and International Tennis Federation. This analysis led to proposing that NASCAR create two unique social networks for fans and potential employees. TABLE OF CONTENTS Overview ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ..... 1 Public Relations in Sports Business ............................................................................................... 2 Social Media’s Effects on Public Relations ................... 4 Public Relations Objectives for Sports Entities ................. 10 Opportunities ................................................................. 10 Threats and Crisis Management ................................................................... 12 Guide to Social Media ......................... 14 Introduction ... 14 Facebook ....................................................................... 14 Twitter ........................................................................... 17 LinkedIn ........ 20 Blogs .............. 21 Social Media’s Current Use in Sports ................................................................................................ 24 Introduction ................................... 24 Criteria for Comparison ................................................................................................................ 25 Sports League Social Media Integration Rankings ...... 29 Sports League Ranking Results Analysis ..................... 29 Optimizing Social Media .................... 33 Wider Applications for Social Media in Sports ........................................................................... 37 Promotion of New Sports ............................................. 37 Crisis Communications ................. 38 Promotion of a Venue ................................................................................... 38 Player and Team Association/Dissociation .................. 39 Sponsor Relations ......................................................... 39 NASCAR and Social Media ............... 41 Introduction ............................................................................................. 41 Current Problems in NASCAR .............................. 43 Current Use of Social Media .................................. 46 NASCAR Social Media Integration Plan .............................................. 48 NASCAR’s Current Social Network ..................................................... 52 The Future of NASCAR and Social Media ........... 52 Where Social Media is Going in Sports and Business ....................................... 53 Attachments Sports Entity Webs ................................................................................. 54 Social Media Ranking Rubric ................................ 57 Professional Sports League .................................................................... 58 National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing Ranking .................... 65 War Wagon Sample Web Pages ............................ 67 HARDCARD Sample Web Pages ......................................................................................... 71 Works Cited ......................................................................................................................................... 74 Image References 77 i Overview Introduction In the last year, the buzzword on the tongues and minds of marketers, public relations professionals, business owners, celebrities, and the public is social media. The first wave of the social media boom was the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook, which connected people from across the globe. Facebook originated as a social network for college students, but has taken over as the most popular social networking site since opening up to the wider public. There are now niche social network sites that allow members to connect through similar interests or purposes. The second social media wave was YouTube where anyone could watch numerous free videos as well as post their own homemade pieces. The most recent social medium is Twitter, which unlike the previous social media was most popular among public personalities and business people. Twitter has ushered in a true instant and intimate view into people’s use of social media. At any given time a Twitter user is posting what they are doing at that very second be it eating a Cucumber sandwich or going to a business meeting. Twitter actually played off the popularity of blogging by creating micro-blogging of 140 characters or less, allowing people to post thoughts, pictures, videos, and links throughout the day without having to log into a blog service and write a long post. 1Here are some of the most interesting facts about social media from: 1. Social media has overtaken porn as the number one activity on the Web. 2. Facebook signed up 100,000,000 users in less than nine months it took radio, television, and the Internet 38, 13, and 4 years, respectively, to reach 50,000,000 users. 3. If social media were countries, Facebook would be the fourth largest in the world. 4. Studies show that Wikipedia is more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica. 5. Daily there are more than 1,500,000 pieces of content shared on Facebook. Though many of these facts are consumer focused, social media has gone corporate from CEO’s who have Twitter accounts to full social media communication campaigns. To fully explore the intricacies of social media use this paper looks into the business of sports, where a sports entity must create and maintain relationships with media, sponsors, athletes, teams, sanctioning bodies, business partners, and fans. The emphasis of relationship building in the sports industry places a heavy burden on a sports entity’s public relations department. As a society we are in the midst of a transition where social media is becoming the main source of all communication and information that we receive daily. 1 Social Media Revolution. Dir. Erik Qualman. Perf. Erik Qualman. 2009. Page | 2 As this shift continues public relations professionals must be on top of new forms of media and effectively use them to communicate a sports entity’s message to its target audiences. The objective of this paper is to look at how sports entities use social media and in what areas and in what sports social media integration could be helpful. This paper compares and contrasts the Public relations objectives of sports entities with regular businesses, and includes a social media guide defining and describing the important attributes of four of the top five social media used by corporations. A social media integration rubric serves as a platform to rank the use of social media by the top sports leagues in the United States and the world. The paper culminates in a social media integration plan for one of the United States’ fastest growing sports, National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). This section will explore what NASCAR is currently doing, where it lacks social media, and outlines a NASCAR specific social network. Public Relations in Sports Business Many studies over the past decade have shown that public relations is among the most misunderstood professions. Not only do people outside of PR misunderstand the purpose and objectives of PR but PR majors and professionals themselves do not have a true grasp on the definition of their profession. One of the most common classifications is that PR includes 2“unabashed advocacy, involving manipulation, lying, and spin,”. This stereotypical image is perpetuated by PR professionals who do not adhere to strict ethical codes and in the mainstream 3with movies such as “Thank You for Smoking.” As for the public, a study completed by Stacks, Botan, and Turk in 1999 tested the accuracy of 4the statement, “Overall, the general public understands what public relations is.” Out of the sample 24% stated they strongly disagreed and 61% stated they disagree, accounting for 85% of 5total correspondents. A study by Bowen in 2003 explored the perceptions of public relations in academia, including professors, PR majors, and non-PR majors. The study revealed that though public relations professors did agree on what a proper PR curriculum should be each curriculum