Why Social Media Matters So Much In Today's Sports Sponsorship - Best Strategies for Clients In Nigeria

You may have heard it before, "Sponsorship is the life blood of Sports without it no Sports Organization can really survive as a healthy growing business."

So it's important that any profit oriented Sports organization pay altmost attention to what brands (involved in Sponsorship) are looking out for to meet their own corporate goals and objectives... and social media plays such a key role today.

Social media use web-based and mobile technologies on smartphones, tablets and personal computers to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals, communities and organizations can share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content or pre-made content posted online.

Through variety of platforms such as blogs, forums, chats... Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, What'sApp, Skype, WeChat. Hangout...  that powers the communication mode.

They introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between businesses, organizations, communities, and individuals. Social media changes the way individuals and large organizations communicate. These changes are the focus of the emerging field of technoself studies.

We at GreenHunters Sports International, have consistently work with sport organizations such as LMC-NPFL  and clubs like - Enugu Rangers, Enyimba, Kano Pillars... as well as other private firms and Associations planning to host a football program or event.... to strategize on use of the new media to bolster their chances of attracting sponsorships from corporate brands

The reason is this...

Corporate brand entities involved in sport sponsorship have realized the need to create personalized, tailored messages tto engage as well as capture their target audiences online. You can't just ignore a media platform that has such large active participation like Facebook with over a billion users or Twitter with over 500 million users...

An individual football player can amass as much as a million "followers" on twitter and a club can get 10 million "Likes" on it's facebook fanpage... that alone can attract sponsors without mainstream media - television and radio included.

For instance, a player like Cristiano Ronaldo has over 13.5 million followers on twitter and that  has continually attract  advertisers to wanting to endorse him and to get him to tweet about their brand for a real time response.

The LMC-NPFL involvement on social media has began to yield result... with a cumulative followers of a little above 500k on all social media platforms, the league administrators has already attracted big sponsors like Star Lager Beer.

 I surely believe that most of the elite league clubs will be able to close a deal for a substantial Shirt Sponsorship... with a little help come next season.

In today's world, advertisers (potential Sponsors) will always pay close attention on a club as well as it's individual players' followers on major social media platforms before they can make  decisions to take up sponsorship deal with the club.

The club should sit down to strategies on the best way to deliver to the sponsors more positive exposures on the social media... that definitely will influence the sponorship financial terms on Cost Per Thousand (CPM) basis.

The truth is, social media allow football clubs, individual players and other sports organizations to improve revenue generation and create a sense of intimacy with fans and other customers.

As a Sport Marketing and Management Company, we''ve been able to convince  our clients (Sports Organizations) that effective marketing today requires direct communication specific to a target group.

Mainstream media like television and radio send broad messages to entire groups of people with little chance of personalizing the message  to a particular person. On the other hand, social media allow for frequent personalized message directed at specifically defined target groups and markets. And this is what corporate brands need in their relationship marketing efforts today.

By this understanding, every professional football player, club and Association in Nigeria  should at least have account in the major social media platforms mentioned above.

 But for effective strategizing and implementations, clubs and Associations should employ digital Sports marketing professional or alternatively, outsource the job to a sport marketing company with a bias on social media.

You can consult with us at GreenHunters Sports International... for your next football project. Call: +234 809 877 2556, or email: gh.sports1@gmail.com