This weeks #DigiSport mash-up has brought together a whole host of great stories from the last few days.  With the seasons first El Classico coming up this weekend and Shaq O’Neill giving an insight into his social media plans its been all go.

To go to the actual articles and find out more on the story, click on the title of the article and it will take you straight there.  If you hear of any interesting #DigiSport stories during the week then tweet them to me at @danielmclaren or @uksportsnetwork and we’ll add them in next week.

For anyone still interested, the drinks on Monday in London has a couple of places (is just about full) so DM or email me for more details.  The great news is that We Are Social (my place of work) will be sponsoring the evening which is fantastic news!  Thanks guys 🙂

Have a great weekend all and enjoy the articles below…

Twitter launches brand pages – interesting for sports teams!

Tonight, Twitter has come out and made a major announcement in regards to a redesign of its platform and more interestingly what it is doing for brands.  The article concentrates on what is in it for brand marketeers but this is also interesting for sports teams and leagues.  Be interesting to see what more comes out in the coming days from all parties.

The Match Day Experience: a Social Media trial goes live

After last weeks post about Man City’s social media experiment they have again come out and explained more about whaty has been happening.  It is great to read about what they are doing, why they are doing and sharing their successes and failures.  I cant think of many other companies who would do the same. Well work keeping an eye on their MCFCgeeks website and twitter

Big Shaq talks up Social Media plans

The Big Aristotle announced via Twitter in June that he was done with basketball. But since then, he has busied himself by promoting his book, “Shaq Uncut,” and by preparing to team up with Charles Barkley as a TNT basketball analyst this year.  O’Neal has also been working on his website, Shaq.com, which is what he wanted to talk about during a phone interview last week. During a call that included his brand manager, Mary Gleason, he also discussed his business plans, dispensed social-media advice and talked a little Barkley and basketball.

Barcelona’s new website gives links to players social media profiles

Barca’s newly designed website has come with some really cool new features.  The one I was drawn to, unsurprisingly, was the players info area where not only can you find out about the usual player biog stuff but also see embedded news streams from either Twitter or Facebook pages.  Awesome integration!

Fastest growing Facebook pages in sport this year dominated by Messi and Barca

This interesting snippet of information as we near years end has come from Facebook and their ‘Memology 2011’ tab.  Here you can see the fastest growing sports (as well as music, news and entertainment) pages in terms of growth of fans.  Messi’s FB page launch this year means he went from 0 to 27m pretty quickly.  6 footballers are in the top 10 and Barca, Real and Man Utd make up top 3 in teams (shock).  Some interesting info none the less.

Real Madrid v Barcelona – social media battle

You may need Google Translate for this one but this Spanish article ahead of the first El Classico of the league season this coming weekend.  It compares the giants of both the football and social media world with some interesting stats and take on what they are doing well.  A good read from Sportwist.

Social Saviness – NBAers, NCAAers and Media members talk social media

An interesting look by Jeremy Bauman and Peter Robert Casey on Slam Online at the impact social media has had for fans, players and media alike in how they consume and follow the game.  They’ve snippets from players on their experiences and media alike.  A good read if a fan of basketball and social media in the US.