Conference Panel: Social Media as an Agent of Change in Sport

This week, the Annual Conference of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) is taking place in Atlanta, GA. Gashaw Abeza and Norm O’Reilly have invited several authors of a recent book on Social Media in Sport to come together for a panel discussion. In the video statement below, just like in the book, I focus on the role of communities and community management in sport. In addition, you will also find the videos by Rebecca Achen (University of the Pacific), who speaks and writes about revenue generation and return on invest (ROI) on social media, as well as Evan Frederick (University of Louisville), whose panel contribution and chapter are about crisis communication on social media. The videos give you an idea of what is covered in the book – and of the discussions happening at the conference.

Online Communities in Sport

There are two central claims in the video: One is, very simply, that communities matter. The second, less obvious, one is that as social media media platforms may often be the first choice in terms of ease and reach when building community, but on-domain or own communities are likely to become more strategically relevant in the medium to long term, given that (sport) organizations can deliberately make important choices, such as design (including gamification elements), rules and governance (including visibility for sponsors), and (re-) gain control of the customer interface, including options for monetization (e-commerce and lead generation). For more details, please see the reference to the full book chapter, including a free draft, below.

Revenue Generation and Return on Invest (ROI) from social media in sport

Social Media and Crisis Communication in Sport

References:

Achen, R., & O’Reilly, N. 2021. Revenue Generation and Return on Investment from Social Media in Sport. In G. Abeza, N. O’Reilly, J. Sanderson, & E. Fredrick (Eds.), Social Media in Sport: Theory and Practice: 403-432. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific. [Chapter, Book]

Gashaw, A., Achen, R., Cianfrone, B., Frederick, E., Mamo, Y. , O’Reilly, N., Sanderson, J., Su, Y., & Wagner, D. 2022, June 2-4. Social Media as an Agent of Change in Sport. Annual Conference of the North American Society for Sport Management, Atlanta, GA. [Details]

Pegoraro, A., & Frederick, E. 2021. Social Media and Crisis Communication in Sport. In G. Abeza, N. O’Reilly, J. Sanderson, & E. Fredrick (Eds.), Social Media in Sport: Theory and Practice: 345-382. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific. [Chapter, Book]

Wagner, D. 2021. Online Communities in Sport. In G. Abeza, N. O’Reilly, J. Sanderson, & E. Fredrick (Eds.), Social Media in Sport: Theory and Practice: 57-82. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific. [Draft, Chapter, Book]