Digital Media Cafe Blog Week Nine – David Granger
January 22, 2014
Making the right sort of social racket
Badminton England is a sport which gets social media spot-on. Their audience clearly comprises fans as well as players – and presumably most are both – and their digital and social appeals to both with equal weighting.
What really stands out though is the inclusive nature of the content – there are pictures of every level of competition as well as presentations and events on Flickr and the Facebook content gets that balance right between technical, and fan and the multitude of initiatives the sport is involved in.
And this is reflected in the clips on YouTube – all of digestible length but there’s a variety of content from games, to post-match interviews to a look back at some classic games.
Participation is also at the heart of Badminton England – and it encourages competition through some innovative methods. Their new ‘Battle Badminton’ initiative aims to get players actually playing together. Users can issue challenges and earn points every time they actually get on a court, play and more if they win, working their way up different status and rankings. There are regional as well as national leaderboards, or you can set up your own challenges and leagues within your office, college or club.
Got Five Minutes to Spare?
If you’ve got five minutes to kill in your lunch break, then take a wander over to check out a recent infographic from Eventility which sets out what it calls the winners and the losers in sports social media. As well as listing the most liked teams and athletes, there’s more fun stuff to be had and a cautionary tale or two in the section which outlines those people who engaged Twittering thumbs before PR filter. We’ll never tire of hearing Ashley Cole’s views on the FA.
Tennis Tournaments Getting It Right
The uk sports network has a fascinating interview with Daniel Lattimer, the Social Media Coordinator for Tennis Australia on its site. What’s interesting about what he and his colleagues do at each Australian event is weave social into everything they do – and how they manage to maintain momentum through the rest of the year while the players aren’t sweating in the Melbourne sun.
Pay Attention
And here’s one from the file marked weird and wonderful. Basketball team the Sacramento Kings will now allow you to buy tickets or merchandise online, using Bitcoinyep you can now pay for stuff using the virtual digital currency, the first major team to do so. Their owner is tech executive Vivek Ranadive who’s doing much to link the sport to new technology.
It’ll be interesting to see who, if anyone, follows next…
