Do New Sports Teams Utilise Social Media To Create a Fan Base?

Gold Coast Football Club are the latest club to enter the AFL. As they prepare to enter their first year in the league, whilst still playing in the secondary league VFL, how do they establish a new fan base?  Can they use social media to reach others in the football community that weren’t previously aware of them?

Anthony Alsop recently sat down with Greg Price from GCFC to find out.

Anthony Alsop: Hi Greg, tell us a little about yourself, what is your role for Gold Coast Football Club?

Greg: My name is Greg Price and I am the General Manager – Marketing, Communications and Community

AA: How did you end up in this role?

Greg: I was the communications consultant for GC17 Bid which successfully bid for the 17th AFL licence for the Gold Coast. Prior to that, I had worked in sports marketing & management, corporate affairs, media and public relations roles.

AA: When looking at an overall marketing strategy, how important is social media to GCFC?

Greg: Social media is a key component of our overall communications strategy. Since we are essentially building an AFL Club from the ground up, we need to build and engage our fan base at the same time as we build a team or a stadium. We need to spread the word about the Club – what we stand for, the region we represent, and the challenges ahead of us, and social media provides a great platform for us to do that. It also allows our passionate fans to spread the message for us, making them an integral part of that journey.

For most sporting organisations, social media is a great way to communicate with existing fans and bring them closer to the Club – this is a the main strength of social media. However for GCFC, we also see it as one of the primary tools we have to connect with new AFL and GCFC fans, particularly in the Gold Coast region, by using social media to tell our story throughout the broader community.

Social Media Integration on goldcoastfc.com.au 

AA: What initiatives have GCFC taken to achieve social media success?

Greg: Our social media plan is really based around our website, and the content plan that sits behind it. We have worked really hard to create a platform that gives our fans, and the broader AFL community, a place to regularly visit that keeps them very up to date with the Club’s progress. The result is a really impactful site that continues to grow in traffic, and has had terrific feedback from our fans and the industry in general.

From there, we have recently launched some specific social media tools on the site to make it as easy as possible for our fans to engage with the club and it’s content, and also to share the story with their friends.

Our social media platforms are just extensions of this communications strategy, allowing our fans to keep up to date with the Club on their platform of choice, such as Twitter and Facebook. But I wouldn’t say we have yet “achieved success” – I’m not sure you ever do in this area, as the opportunities continue to quickly evolve, just like our Club. For example, when we start playing in our new stadium next season, some location-based social media programs will allow us to give our fans an even greater connection.

AA: Who have the club looked to in other sports, for inspiration in social media?

Greg: That’s a difficult question to answer – you try to take in as much as you can from other sports and clubs, and you end up taking the best ideas and trying to build them into your own approach. In terms of sport in Australia, there are some AFL Clubs that are doing a great job at using social media to give their fans an insight into their own team.

At our club, Jeff White (former Melbourne FC ruckman) is the club’s ruck coach this year, and is also passionate about the role social media can play in sport, and has been a great in helping the Club recognise some of these opportunities.

Behind the scenes Twitpic taken by ruck coach Jeff White. Don’t worry folks, he’s a coach.

 

AA: Are you targeting fans not based on the Gold Coast as well?

Greg: Absolutely. While our Club’s foundations are in the Gold Coast community, there are current and potential fans all around Australia that are passionate to see an AFL Club on the Gold Coast. We have a large number of members in other regions and cities, and social media allows those fans to be as up to date with the Club as those living in Southport!

It’s also important that AFL fans in Melbourne know about the Club and what we stand for, so that when we travel around the country next year, people are interested enough in the Club to come and watch us play!

AA: With GCFC being the city’s fourth news sports franchise in nearly as many years, in such a tough market place, how are you using social media to separate yourself from the pack?

Greg: I don’t think it’s a matter of separating ourselves from the pack – we just need to make sure we are giving our fans as higher quality content and information as possible about the club, and also ensuring they are part of the growth of the club as we enter our first season in the AFL next year. That said, being on top of new social media developments and opportunities, and continuing to offer these to our fans is critical, as demonstrated by the recent additions to our site.

AA: Will you use social media to follow the VFL season this year?

Greg: Yes – the VFL doesn’t get the same media coverage as the AFL, so we need to work a bit harder to make sure our fans can stay up to date with how the team is going, whether it’s the team’s development throughout the season, or specifically following scores on match day.

Like a lot of AFL Clubs this year, we are tweeting scores from each game and have also built a live twitter feed into the home page of the site so that fans not on twitter can still get the same information. We have also worked really hard to make sure our database of fans get emailed the team as soon as its announced on Thursday, and get a match report emailed to them on Sunday after each game.

About author

Anthony Alsop
Anthony Alsop 9 posts

Anthony Alsop is a blogger and consultant at sportspiel.com.au. He has worked previously in both the IT and Sport sectors, so working in the niche of social media and sport was a natural fit. Anthony is from Melbourne, Australia was was recently named the sporting capital of the world and has consulted with sporting organisations both in Australia and in the United States. You can find him on Twitter @anthonyalsop or via email anthony@sportspiel.com.au

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