Local Clubs Promotion and Commercialisation
The main purpose of any sports club is participation. This can be in a number of capacities, be it playing, coaching or socialising with others. The sports club is a focal point in many communities across Ireland, although are they doing everything, they can to ensure their club is at the forefront everyone’s mind and providing the potential for greater success.
It can be said that the bigger the area and number of sports clubs in that area the more difficult it is, through competing for players and sponsorship. In any club, a good strategy to have would be evaluating what expertise exists within the club already. Have we got someone who’s career is in Public Relations/Communications, is there someone who is working in social media in sport? Some sports clubs put significant time and effort into updating their website and social media accounts at a time when such technologies play a significant role in many people’s daily lives. By dedicating a few hours, a week to keeping members of both the club and community updated on news and events, it can bring value to the club in many ways over the short and long-term.
By creating engaging content, of images from matches and training. Match score updates via Instagram Stories, Twitter and Facebook, Player takeovers, Interviews and coaching videos the club is engaging pro-actively with its member’s encouraging interaction and creating a sense of belonging. Through following aspects of the social media strategy used by most professional sports teams’ participative clubs can adopt something similar at no major financial cost. The cost of which would be time and effort. The majority of young people are very handy with technology and by allowing certain individuals the opportunity to control the club’s social channels over a period, spreads out the workload and provides an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience in both a technological and sports industry capacity that will go far on any CV. Most notably those who wish to forge a career in sport, in which jobs are often few and far between.
After designing a social media strategy for your club and growing your following, potential local commercial opportunities may arise bringing vital financial support into the club. This may be through sponsoring a weekly coaching video series, a match highlights video on Instagram TV or score updates. In turn digital sponsorship may develop into on the pitch sponsorship and the commercial value of the club will rise. Other potential initiatives include player visits to schools and voluntary facilities in which the club can document their role in the community in which they can engage with via Social Media.
The final aspect is growing the membership base. Having an engaging social media presence, ensures that the sports club in consistently in the mindset of the community, promoting events and matches will not only potentially grow the number of those supporting the team at matches. Though also will grow the interest in the club and grow those wanting to play for their age team, due to the engaging content that the club put out on social channels illustrating the enjoyment and fun that is had within the club.
Some teams are excellent at promoting their club, while others have not ventured into that area at all or alternatively have previously and have become very dormant of late. An example being a GAA club that updated their website in June last year with an event due to take place in September and didn’t update it again until early June this year with details of Summer Camps due to take place in August. Social media channels were more active in this club, however significantly more could be done in an area where the potential for exposure and engagement is high. Competition for players and sponsorship as previously mentioned is far greater in the Dublin area than it is in other parts of the country. Outside of Dublin and the surrounding areas, there is a bigger motivation for young people to play as many sports in the community as possible and all the sports are organised so that there is minimal clashing. In comparison to Dublin, where a fewer amount of young people plays multiple sports, with many choosing Gaelic Games or Soccer rather than both. Training and matches more often than not clash and there are a greater number of sports clubs in a smaller area which is a contributing factor in it being harder to gain sponsorship from certain businesses.
