The world of sports is changing at an unprecedented pace. Fans from around the globe are turning to social media to celebrate their favorite teams and athletes, or vent frustrations when their team loses a game.
Whether it’s LeBron James’s pro-social activism or Colin Kaepernick’s anti-racism advocacy, social media has enabled athletes to engage with their audiences authentically and build a strong personal brand. This, in turn, increases their contract values and sponsorship opportunities. As such, it is important for sport managers and player relations teams to help their athletes maintain a strong social media presence and encourage them to share regular glimpses into their daily lives with authentic and original content.
In addition, social media allows athletes to humanize themselves by sharing their own personal experiences and training routines. For example, fans can follow athlete Snapchat or Instagram accounts to see what it’s like inside the locker room with their favorite player. This helps them develop a closer relationship with the athlete, which ultimately strengthens their fan loyalty.
In addition to these advantages, social media also enables fans to interact with each other through Twitter chats or Facebook groups. In doing so, they can discuss the game in real-time and debate team strategy and tactics with other fans. This interactive dynamic transforms power dynamics and enables fans to create beneficial transformations within professional sports. The impacts research stream (representing 14.4% of the reviewed articles) focuses on investigating the consequences and effects of social media on the sports domain. These include the impact on journalism practices; analyzing the psychological, behavioral, and economic implications; exploring the impact of social media on fan behavior; and addressing ethical issues and concerns in the use of social media in sports.