Social Media in the World of High School Sports

By Cheryl Roche

The era of social media continues to grow and change how we engage fans in the world of sports.  We have seen evidence of this recently during the Olympics opening ceremony which garnered 8.9 million social media mentions, topping the total number of Twitter posts during the entire 2008 Beijing Olympics in just one day. 

Although High School Sports is on a smaller scale, digital communications tools are opening the doors into the high school sports space at increasing levels.  With 901 million active users on Facebook and 140 million using Twitter, there are endless opportunities for sponsors to engage with these tech savvy fans.

For sponsors who are specifically targeting teens, social media and other digital assets at sporting venues are a very effective means of engagement.  That’s because for the vast majority of teens, social media is a daily part of their lives.  According to the Common Sense Study, July 2012, 68% of teens text every day, 51% visit social networking sites daily and 11% send or receive tweets at least once every day.    

And it’s not just teens who watch High School Sporting events.  For corporations who seek to reach adults, their brand and message is also exposed to the parents, faculty, and community members in attendance.  In fact, more than 66% of the high school sports audience is made up of adults 18 to 49 years (Scarborough Research Study of select U.S. Markets, August 2010 – September 2011).   These adults are adopting social media in an escalating fashion as well.  Experian Simmons recently reported that 52% of adults who can browse the web on their phone do so and at least 41 million Americans now use their cell phone for shopping-related activities. 

Home Team Marketing (HTM) offers digital opportunities to increase consumer engagement and to maximize our sponsors’ return on investment beyond the field or gym.  Through our exclusive partnership with Phizzle (a leading technology provider of advanced mobile marketing products and digital advertising solutions), HTM offers a platform that delivers customized online and mobile marketing solutions including customized websites, text to win contests, sweepstakes, social media promotions, customized smart phone applications, QR codes, in-venue digital interaction, mobile marketing, viral campaigns,interactive games, video and trivia. 

Incorporating these mobile and digital solutions into our traditional media elements such as signage, public address announcements, print advertisements and onsite access, HTM can help our sponsors get liked, tweeted, pinned and shared with more than 500 million onsite high school sports fans throughout the country!