The annual Sportel conference is currently taking place in Monaco, with today being its last day.  It covers all areas of sport including, much to our relief, a social media panel discussion with some of the biggest influencers within sport including Richard Ayers (CEO, Seven League), Shergul Arshad (Head of Digital, AS Roma) and David Sternberg (Head of Media, Man Utd).

They discussed for almost an hour the different approaches, barriers and opportunities that surround social media and the monetisation possibilities it represents.  To give you a flavour of what is to come, the initial talking points raised by the speakers included;

David Sternberg: Manchester United have taken a cautious approach, concentrating on getting the content right (tone, relationships and frequency) before then engaging partners around the possibility of driving revenue from the platforms.

Shergul Arshad: For him it is important to stay authentic to the content and get that right. At AS Roma they have 5 main ways in which they look to monetise social media;

• Promote ticketing (season tickets and specific games)
• E-commerce
• Licensing / Gaming
• Sponsorship / Advertising
• Membership Programme (which unlocks more content)

Richard Ayers: It’s about Reach, Retention and Revenue.  There are plenty of examples of monetisation, with ticketing, sponsorship, etc.  Wise businesses fully embrace the two-way channel that social media is and look to take it to the next level, though many are afraid to do so and see it as an old school broadcast channel only.  For him there are two main themes;

1. Love
2. Data

So it’s about building relationships and trust with fans and also understanding them, enabling the conversations with sponsors and opening up CRM channels.

You can see the whole of the panel session and find out a lot more about their thoughts and maybe pick up some insights to use yourself from the video below…

@richardayers crushed it on the panel but high quality all around.David Sternberg (@ManUtd) and I representing clubs:http://t.co/Zyk69btPo5

— Shergul Arshad (@shergul) October 16, 2013