Structure of Sports Social Media

1. STRUCTURE OF SPORTS
SOCIAL MEDIA
By: Nick Wojton

2. Popular Sport Networks on Social
Media
 Facebook
 Not as up to the second with the updates as Twitter, but still
posts the newest sports news
 Has more open discussions for more fan interact, allows fans to
debate with each other
 Twitter
 TSN
 Canada’s sports network; most of their sports social media is aimed
at the NHL, along with the CFL
 NBC Sports
 Along with their top (@nbc_sports) sports twitter, NBC is an up and
coming sports network that also provides specific pages for the NBA
and NHL
 ESPN
 ESPN has several twitter accounts; each are made to satisfy each
specific sporting need for fans, by far the leader

3. ESPN and Social Media
 When social media first became
popular, ESPN was said to be falling behind
 In recent years, ESPN has became the leader
of sports and social media
 ESPN provides twitter accounts for sports fans of
all kinds from covering certain sports
(@ESPN_NHL), even going as deep in certain
sports covering certain divisions (@afc_east)
 Along with certain sports coverage, ESPN shows
have their own twitter and facebook accounts
dedicated to their individual shows

4. How do they do it?
 With so many twitter accounts running out of
ESPN, how do they do it?
 Since expanding its reach in social
media, ESPN created a whole department
dedicated to conducting its social media
 Shows that connect to twitter for questions from
fans to be used on the shows, are run out of here
 Certain ESPN accounts, such as the (@afc_east)
account, are run by individuals who run blog’s
dedicated to the trending topic

5. Professional Individual Twitters
 An example of a “Professional” Twitter is used
by ESPN
 (@espn_afceast) is run by writer James
Walker
 Walker reports news on the AFC East of the
National Football League for ESPN
 His blog on ESPN.com is directly connected to
twitter which can be followed by tweeters
 Other writers also follow suit connecting their
twitter and facebook accounts to recent stories
they have published

7. Sports Teams
 Individual sports team
also run their own
“Official” twitter and
facebook pages such as
(@Sabresdotcom) and
(@buffalobills)
 These sites are also run
out of the teams media
department who decides
what goes up on a teams
site
 The latest new from a team
will be posts along with
play by play updates at
times, usually scoring plays

8. Individual Players
 Individual Players use
social media to connect
with fans more
 Though the idea is
meant to mean
well, several players
have been fined or
penalized in different
sports for being
provocative and not
representing a team or
league in a positive
light