The Sports Industry Love’s Social Media

My advanced PR writing teacher has got me hooked on Shel Holtz’s blog.  I love his posts and rarely disagree with anything he says.  A few days ago when he asserted reasons corporations don’t like to use new & social media, I started thinking about what prompted corporations to get involved in social media.

I asked my all PR knowing cousin, what prompts your clients to get involved in social media?  Her answer surprised me a little being that it was one word – sustainability.  Social media is HUGE right now but the problem is that many people are not willing to learn how to use it.  This is not alarming because technology is constantly changing and innovating.  Who has time to keep up?

One example of an industry that does keep up, however, is the sports industry.  Sports leagues have embraced social and new media. The amount of podcasts, blogs and fantasy league sites is unreal.  Even ESPN has an RSS feed, enabling everyone to keep up with Packman’s latest mishap. 

So my question remains: Why has the sports industry kept up with social and new media, while many corporations continue to operate in their low-tech ways? 

Personally, I blame the  fact that sport are a form of entertainment and thus leading people to spend their free time at work and school paying attention to ESPN.com.  If there wasn’t an online market for fantasy football and social networks devoted to sports fans, they wouldn’t exist.  Have you seen the never ending list of comments on online sports pages?  Comment pages have some of the most heated debates I have seen about anything, let alone a form of entertainment.

If sports weren’t entertaining, no one would pay attention.  But, because they are and the fan bases are large enough to support hundreds of athletes worth multiple millions of dollars, the internet has become the ultimate way to feed the sports addiction.  Continuous news, statistics and schedules are just a few reasons why the sports industry relies so heavily on new and social media, making the sports industry an exception to Holtz’s reasons why corporations don’t always like to use social media.