Sport and Social Media

In the summer of 2014, the World Cup dominated attention from all across the world.  This showed on twitter when six of the top ten most mentioned events were about the World Cup.  With that being it said, it also comes as no surprise that eight of the top ten most mentioned tweets in the United Kingdom were sport related.  The most mentioned event on this list was the 2014 World Cup semi-final game where Germany beat the host country Brazil 7-1.  During the 2014 World Cup a total of 672 million tweets were sent out, and the Germany vs Brazil match had a total of 35.6 million tweets, which set the record for the most discussed live event in Twitter history.  The World Cup did not just receive noticed on Twitter, the World Cup was the most mentioned event on Facebook, and the third most mentioned event on Facebook in the U.K.

To read more information go to How Sport Dominated Social Media in 2014

This article directly connects to what we learned in class on March 26th, when we learned about sport and the mass media, and specifically about social media and sport.  In class on March 26th, we learned about the increasing role of social media in sport which include:

• Athletes have embraced the opportunities to connect with fans via twitter and other social media tools (Twitter, athletes.com).
• Creating social identities that could drive and support future business opportunities called social media marketing. 
• Activate and leverage brands.

Most retweeted tweet during the 2014 World Cup

What I learned in class, and what I learned from this article, is how huge social media is in sport.  Millions of users are on social media sites every single day, and there are other events that can be deemed more important than a sporting event.  It is quite astonishing to see how much the 2014 World Cup was mentioned over social media.  In class on March 26th, we talked about why sport as became so important on social media.  The reason is, it lets fans feel as if they are at the game, or more involved with the event.  Fans receive tweet replies of famous athletes, which makes them feel connected to that player and team.  Whenever that fan is watching a game where that player who tweeted them is playing, they will always remember that connection they felt from the reply on social media.  For fans watching the World Cup on television, they will tweet about the game and their opinions to try to feel like they apart of the game.  Many people are against social media, and think it should be nonexistent.  I disagree with this, I think social media is a great tool for personal use, but more importantly in the business world.  With millions of users, it is one of the best ways a business can use as a tool to promote and market their organization.  Social media marketing is a huge trend that was not around a few years ago.  I think this trend will continue to grow, and I think companies will find new and creative ways to market on various social media sites.  Athletes also receive major attention on social media sites, which can be both positive and negative.  Athletes have lost their scholarships just by the tweet that they sent out.  Universities and teams know how much attention their athletes and team gets on social media, so they do not want to have any negative connotations associated with them.  With as fast as social media is growing, I think it will continue to grow, with new and creative innovations being added to it.  I think social media will continue to have a major role in sport, and their will still be both positive and negative connotations brought with it.