Irish Sport’s Social Media Content

Irish Sport’s Social Media Content
20, July 2017 Donnacha Brennan

Recent attendees to #FECKK17 and #FECBrighton will have come across Jeramie McPeek. Energetic, passionate and clued in, Jeramie is the former VP of brand at NBA side, the Phoenix Suns. It is fair to say he knows a thing or two about social. His recent presentation on the South Coast of England featured some excellent insights on what clubs should be doing in the world of digital.

It covered 10 headings; Inform; Entertain, Invite; listen, Share, Celebrate, Remind, Inspire; Monetize and Thank. It featured some excellent content from the world of US sport, such as these from Phoenix Mercury, the San Francisco 49ers and the New England Patriots.

mcpeek

It got me thinking about the content shared by sporting teams in Ireland. How are we doing when it comes to entertaining, thanking and sharing on social media?

While our US counter-parts have dedicated teams, budgets and a more fan-centric culture; Irish sport in general are made up of volunteers and one man teams.

That said, Irish content creators, much like our sporting heroes are punching above their weight. Here are some examples of social posts highlighting the creativity of teams online.

 

Entertain and informing at the same time

Some of you reading will be aware of the Liberal.ie. It has haters and likers aplenty and we won’t be discussing that site here (Look it up if not sure what they do). They are relevant here as they were recently in a bit of bother over content and long story short, issued an apology in a feint hard to read color. The results led to more negative headlines, however Finn Harps, saw an opportunity and came up with this post advising fans when their next game. It was relevant, funny and informative at the same time. Well done.

 

Finna Harps

 

Monetize/help monetize

Irish Rugby provinces have more resources than our football clubs and this is evidenced by the content out put. While perhaps less playful then their part-time counterparts, the quality is very high. The below post from Munster, shows key club ambassadors modelling the latest jersey and includes the maker of the jersey by tagging. The images are high quality and very professional.

The same with the Dublin GAA post, admittedly via a re-post, as they show ‘ambassadors’ wearing clothes from a partner or brand. Both fall short by not having a stronger call to action with a shop now button or an offer however with a combined 4k likes they have created social noise.

 

dubgaa

Insight and behind the scenes

Dugout, a dedicated football social network, and other social platforms have shown that fans have an appetite for behind the scenes footage, the game behind the game. Fans want to see the build up to game just as much as they want the actual game.

Dundalk gave fans an insight ahead of their Champions League game with Rosenberg as they showed the players walking out of the tool. A simple video captured by one of their administration team has over 9k views at the time of writing.

 

 

This picture from Dave Maher at Sportsfile has over 1163 likes. It captures an intimate moment between John Caulfield and Sean Maguire. They don’t know the camera is one them and it not designed for social, but the reaction from fans to this is lovely.

 

cork

 

 

Celebrate, engage, reward and Invite

What do an emoji and Shamrock Rovers have in-common? Both work well on social it seems. Shamrock Rovers pounced on the #worldemojiday hashtag to leverage off a trending, on point topic and add their own spin. They made it a guess the player competition using an emoji to block out the player. Great fun, and judging by the comments, fans got involved with the fun.

emoji

This meanwhile is good from Galway United as they use impressive graphics to create a match day poster and encourage people to digest it with a competition. A 0.71% engagement rate is great but more importantly with 55 shares they are spreading their message.

galway

 

Graphics within the league of Ireland have greatly improved. Cork City has long led the way with their match day posters but Shelbourne, Galway and others have stepped up in the last 18 months or so to offer real competition. This from Cobh Ramblers grabs the attention and while the call to action is maybe lost somewhat initially as you work the angles, you have to admire the graphic work involved.

Cobh

It is great to see the innovation in Irish sport on social. This are just a sample of what has come into network and caught my eye. If you have some examples do let me know and we can grow this post.

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