We usually look at how sports teams and organizations can use new technology to provide a better user experience for the fans and although it is all still very new, the take up in the last six months has been positive. Technology can enhance the experience, augment the feeling of connectedness, give fans access to wider and richer volume of content.So, why oh why does the most popular sport on the plant leave itself open to ridicule by being the only major sport that does not use technology in the GAME ITSELF!!

This is not a sour grapes post because England were denied a second goal at a crucial time in their game with Germany, it actually would have been a travesty if England had drawn level in that game…they were that bad! But, during the course of an otherwise awesome World Cup, it has happened to the USA, Italy and Mexico .

What we are debating here is whether we should get important, game changing decisions right . You can throw in all types of hurdles like, where do we restart the game from? How far back does the replay go? We need to implement it in all levels of the game? Answers to that are, I don’t care and stop being stupid! We are talking about getting key decisions in a game right or wrong and, up until now, FIFA have been ok with getting it wrong. Thankfully Sepp Blatter has said he will look at this again, and this morning seems to be taking it a step further .

One quote which stood out was “Naturally we deplore when you see the evidence of refereeing mistakes,” …well wouldn’t replays and goaline technology eliminate that completely? You won’t get referees making important mistakes if they can simply ‘go upstairs’ and get it checked. Plus it will get rid of the ugly scenes of players surrounding and verbally destroying the ref when they think a decision has unfairly gone against them. What’s to argue about if the ref can simply say “I’m going to check with the video ref…get out of my face”?

We aren’t even talking about the need for goal line technology, which admittedly can be expensive to implement in professional leagues, we are talking about replays, the same as Rugby and American Football. We have had replays for decades! We actually got an example of how it could work in the Mexico game when inadvertently, the replay of Carols Tevez’ clearly offside goal, was replayed to the whole stadium…and the official’s had to stick with their decision! This is seriously amateur outlook for supposedly the most professional game we have.

Minor rant over! As you were…

Daniel McLaren is founder of ‘The UK Sports Network’ and is a consultant here at Spearfish Labs. He also runs several groups on LinkedIn including ‘The UK Sports Network’ and ‘Social Media & Sport’. You can follow his tweets on @danielmclaren. This is his first post for Spearfish Labs so leave him some comments and let him know what you think!

Some of you may wonder why I have chosen Reading Football Club for this article. Well it has been my hometown for the last 10 years and I’ve been following the team for a large proportion of that.  I was there at the Madjeski Stadium watching the big screen when they were promoted from League 1 after playing away at Brentford…. great memories.

Since then the club has played in the Premier League for two seasons and this year ended up a comfortable mid table (after a very shaky start) and went on an FA Cup run that included the scalps of West Bromwich Albion and Liverpool before bowing out to Aston Villa at the quarter-final stage.

Despite this I have found myself drifting away from the club as the prices went up and work/home took up more of my life.  I keep meaning to go to games but just not made it down to the stadium for a game.

Reading Football Club

The club has a bright future ahead of it; a good young manager in Brian McDermott, a young talented team, a prudent and wise Chairman and a modern stadium with the hotel, training ground and all the facilities a team needs.  The income streams are in place for merchandise, events, conferences, hotel stopovers and sponsorship.

The Thames Valley area is one of the wealthiest in the UK and with the likes of Microsoft, HP, Nokia, Vodafone, Oracle and Dell on the doorstep so sponsorship should be an area in which the club should prosper.

To give you an idea of the clubs local reach before I delve any deeper.  The nearest football clubs of note are Swindon Town and Aldershot.  Beyond this you are travelling into London hence why the majority of Reading locals support Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Social Media

In terms of Social Media the club does not have any official presence.  Not on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube…. not even a fans forum on the man www.readingfc.co.uk website.

There is a fair amount of unofficial activity going on with over 5,000 fans following the Reading FC fan page on Facebook.  That is a large number of people that are showing a great interest in the club, want to talk about what is happening and want to engage with the club.

Add this is to unofficial players fan pages of Noel Hunt, Shane Long, Sigurdsson and Matejovsky this brings the Facebook activity for Reading FC up to almost 10,000!  That is not a small, inconsiderate number considering the average crowd at the Madjeski was 17,408 for the season just gone.

There is obviously a life away from Facebook where more activity is going on.  If you search YouTube for Reading FC content this brings up over 9000 results.  This is another sign that the fans want to engage, show their experiences from their point of view.  On Flikr, the photo uploading site from Yahoo, there are almost 2000 photos from fans that have been added.

A quick look at that other major social media platform, Twitter, shows that @ReadingFC and @Reading_FC have already been taken by fans.  With almost 1,500 followers between them with little content being offered this is another place in which the conversations and updates are taking place.

What should Reading FC be doing?

The first point is always to listen first, which is what I have started to do with in the section before.  You have to look at where the fans are, what they are talking about and how best it is then to engage with them.

It is not about just adding a Facebook and Twitter page with your club RSS feed plugged in because everyone else is on it and it seems the thing to do.   Without a strategy in place that ensures the aims of the business are being serviced by this new marketing media and that it dovetails with the other marketing and PR activity the club has planned then the chances of it being a success are reduced.

Content is something the club is not short of, as with all sports organisations.  You have players, training sessions, events, awards, journeys to games and much much more.  Fans want to see what is relevant to them – not players rambling about their inane thoughts but them talking about football.  They want to feel part of the club, see/hear what is happening behind the scenes, the chance to win prizes and ask questions.

One of the keys is to give the power to the fans…. a scary thought I know and an issue that crops up time and again within sport in the UK.  The fans are going to talk about it anyway, so instead of hiding away and pretending nothing is going on why not participate in it?  You can’t control the conversation but you can be part of it; give them a platform to use, listen to their suggestions, answer their questions, offer them content and exclusives.

• How much would Reading fans love to listen to a live chat before a game with Shane Long and interact using UStream or Vpype.
• Be able to follow the twitter game updates if they are away from the TV or radio via their mobile.
• Hear what key executives and players are doing via Twitter and Blogs.  How much of a hit would Sir John Madjeski, manager Brian McDermott and Director of Football Nicky Hammond on Twitter!  Look at what Tony Fernandes does with Lotus F1.
• Have some player interaction through Facebook with their own fan pages with pictures, video and messages to their fans…. Nadal and Federer are two of sports biggest stars and use Facebook brilliantly.
• Invite key twitter/bloggers to games and bring them closer to the club.  It is publicity and with more and more sports content online you want to encourage insightful positive comment/reporting.
• Acknowledge fan twitter pages and blogs who offer great content and post links to them from the main site.  Manchester City has a page dedicated to their fan blogs, something that I am sure has caused more positive publicity and built new bridges.
• Drive traffic back to the club site by creating stories around product launches, season ticket dates, game ticket offers and player appearances to encourage sales from Facebook/Twitter.
• Use the platforms as an additional sponsorship activation tool to acknowledge sponsors, run competitions and inform of offers.  Liverpool have over 1.2m Facebook ‘likes’ which be the cherry on the cake to any sponsor coming in and can access this additional area

And you can measure it!  There are many tools out there, both free and chargeable, that can help in making sure you are where the chatter is and making positive moves towards your goals and many more hitting the market all the time.  For free you can use Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, YouTube Insights and Swix (whilst in beta phase). Or use paid for searches such as Radian6 for a more detailed analysis dependent on your budget size.

Bring the fans closer

When I used to work for a cricket club one of the constant issues with fans if the feeling of being left behind, that no-one was listening to them.  Social media gives you the tools and opportunity to bring them in and nip any arguments, negative reaction in the bud.  Sometimes you have to stay silent but most whisper campaigns can be silenced by a quick tweet or message.  It can make some ones day to have a reply from their favourite player or their club – it makes them feel special, included and leaves them with a positive experience…. which they will tell their friends about and the ball starts rolling.

If you can bring in the capabilities and content already out there on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flikr and blogs then this will become a major fan interaction, sales and marketing tool.  It is not a quick fix but can grow the fan base, create more positive associations, increase sponsorship sales values, help focus advertising spends and much more.

I hope that the club wants to learn more about the possibilities and make a decision to look at these new areas and how they can benefit the club as a whole.  The 2010/11 season could be the best one yet for the fans and the club….. on and off the pitch!

I think most people who follow football (Soccer to those across the pond!) will agree that Barcelona are the best team in the World it at the moment. Their manager, ex-player Pep Guardiola, took the reins last year and proceeded to win every competition they competed in and did so playing the most attractive and attacking football out of any team in Europe. In an interview with the Evening Standard, Guardiola shed some light into the philosophy behind how the club operates and there are some lessons that all organizations should take on board.

What is different about Barcelona to other sports teams is that the club is owned by the fans.  Each year, over 100,000 fans pay a solid chunk of money to be members and get voting rights over who the President will be for the next two years, who has to submit his plans of new signings etc in a kind of election manifesto. What this means is the club is inherently ‘fan centric’, they understand the importance of keeping their customers happy!

Guardiola said “We live in a world where everything is spiraling in cost and many people need to make a big sacrifice in order to go and watch a game of football. So for me it all makes sense, the effort, the work the planning the concentration and the discipline if you do it for the people. The manner in which we play is a demonstration of the respect we have for the people who pay for a ticket or pay money to watch matches on television” Cool huh?!

Even though most businesses aren’t owned by their customers, if they adopted the mindset that they are and were constantly thinking about how they can delight them, keep them coming through the door or turnstyle, keep them spending their hard earned money, then the result will be a customer centric organization…and we all love them!

For non-football fans, Andrey Arshavin is Russia’s most talented and flamboyant player, currently plying his trade with Arsenal. His talents on the pitch are there for all to see but a recent article in the Evening Standard highlighted his willingness to engage with his fans in a far more personal and human way than many (if not all) of his Premier League counterparts.

His official website is not the most cutting edge in terms of design and interactivity. There is no ‘real time’ features in the way of chat rooms, forums, or integration with social media. The questions in the ‘Ask Andrey’ section have been vetted and then written and posted on the site, so the authenticity could be questioned, plus some stuff may have been lost in translation!

Humanising Celebrity

However, the personal nature of the questions and answers shows a willingness to engage and give his fans a window into his life outside of football. The text in the header is a good mantra that many other athletes could adpopt,  “On the pages of this website you can learn a lot about me. Not only as a footballer, but as an ordinary person. I’d be glad if my website helps you to communicate with each other”

Give Mr Arshavin some better tools (Facebook, Twitter, live streams) and I reckon you could have a new web celebrity on our hands…check out Chad Ochocinco , the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver , for the benchmark of what mega talented, ever so slightly insane, athletes can do with social media.

To non-fans, it may seem banal to want to know what colour Arshavin’s bath sponge is, his thoughts on extra terrestrial activity and body art….but to his fans, this is the type of stuff they want. You won’t get this type of content on a Sky Sports press conference or posted on the Aresenal official website and that is probably a good thing, but as a fan, this type of personnal connection is what creates a bond that is intrinsicly hard to break. The same goes for athletes who engage in an authentic manner on Twitter and Facebook – check out Shaq. Now compare that to what many of the Premier League footballers have allowed to happen to their pages on Facebook – Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney for example.

Personal Branding

These pages should not be used as ‘bear traps’ to move traffic to generic football news websites, they are a potentially golden piece of real estate for the players to build their personal brand – not just their professional one. Ignoring all the commercial possibilities which are flying out of the window for the players, their agents and their sponsors…. they can be used as a way to raise awareness for the good causes and charity work they do and be a trusted communication point for when things go pear shaped.

The real time web and democratization of content means that whether, these athletes like it or not, it is now impossible to ‘control’ the spread of information about them, good and bad. Ask John Terry, Ashley Cole or Tiger Woods. In the past, with a press gagging order in place, any runours would gradually vanish…not so anymore. Athletes are always going to find themselves in some kind of trouble during their careers (we wouldn’t want it any other way!) so creating a channel where you have a loyal group of engaged advocates who feel they know the person behind the celebrity can be a powerful tool when having to rebuild your personal brand.

Let me know in the comments any athletes you think are using social media for good, evil or nothing at all!

Sports teams and athletes are at an enormous advantage to corporate or consumer brands. They have a huge amount of content, they have an exisiting, passionate offline community who want their rpoduct. On top of that, sports fans are one of the most brand loyal groups of people I can think of and sport itself is inherently social. It brings people together around the game itself, in bars and pubs, in people’s homes…and online can help augment the game experience by bringing the fans into the inner workings of the clubs on a daily basis.

A sports team’s product isn’t just the game each week that the fans will pay to come and watch and broadcasters will pay to distribute. Fans want interaction with the team and players and not through the traditional methods of the press and staged TV interviews. In the UK, Football is going through a rough time financially and we may see more clubs going the same way Portsmouth and Crystal Palace have recently -  into administration. I am not saying for a minute that a social media program will solve these structural problems, far from it, but it can keep the fans,  from feeling like the clubs don’t care about them and keep them coming through the turnstyles or buying their favourite players shirt – wanting to stay loyal, wanting to be brand advocates. Long term, that’s surely the game.

A team’s ‘customers’ want to be as close as they possibly can to the club and the players…this is in stark contrast to consumer brands. If you sell mobile phones, insurance or detergent, do your customers really want to be your friend? They will take any freebies or decent offers but its no small ask to keep them engaged on a regular basis and enjoying every bit of content, they just aren’t that interested. Not so in sport.

So, what can a club or team do to harness this opportunity?

Make sure you have a ‘fan engagement’ strategy – This is different to an online marketing and PR strategy. It needs to provide an experience the fans can’t get through traditional channels.

Have at least one community where conversations can take place – An interactive area of the clubs website,  An official Facebook fan page, a private social network. Be active and conversational here, don’t treat it as another PR vehicle.

Think what ‘exclusive’ content you can reward your fans or members with. There is boat loads of this! Exclusive footage from training, locker room interviews (within reason!), injury news from the physios, community projects….

Bring the fans into the fold. Consider empowering the fans, if you check your Facebook groups and forums I bet there are plenty of unofficial communities already thriving – harness that. Why not create Fan reporters, team tweeters, a fan zone that has some clout with the club. In Spain, Barcelona are ‘owned’ by the fans…other teams would do well to adopt a similar mindset.

Consider what Mobile can offer. Mobile is going to be big for entertainment – The devices are getting better and the teams already have a glut of content which can be distributed to people’s pockets. Think, what can we get to the fans via mobile? Arsenal and Chelsea both have iphone applications at around the £2.99 mark which is a good start. Sure they are the big fish, but the same will be true for clubs of all sizes, just on a different scale…the same principles apply.

Another key difference is that sports fans will pay for this type of content and level of interaction. Not huge amounts, as some fans will testify that it is expensive enough supporting their team but this is a question of value rather than pounds or dollars. Anything that provides a level of joy and touches the tribal part of our brains, a few quid here and there to make me feel it’s MY club is fine by me.

New Revenue

I think clubs have genuine untapped revenue streams here, not only through online advertising, sponsorship and merchandise sales but in streaming and distributing their games and content to much, much bigger audience than they currently do through TV broadcasting contracts. For the clubs with international audiences (especially Asia and Africa who have a lot of growth in terms of intenet access ahead of them), if and when the devices and connectivity improve, they can have millions more people watch their games and additional content and pay micro payments for the privilege. We aren’t there yet but it is coming.

Youtube have begun streaming live sports events.  We have seen England football matches being streamed live, admittedly not very well yet but that is to do with the devices and the connectivity, Virgin are trailing 100mb broadband, Conservatives have said they will make high speed connectivity priority if they win the election this year, smart phone penetration is on the up…and that is just for the games, what about news, updates, promoting community and charity work?

Players

For the athletes and players there is also the opportunity to build a huge amount of brand equity. This can be used a positive platform for a media career, raise awareness for good causes they are involved with, create a more authentic and trusted voice for the individual than old school press releases. Some are doing it well, (more in the US but we are seeing signs of it this side of the pond). Chad Ochocinco has his OCNN channel, Shaq has been a Twitter exponent for a few years now. Having the players active on these channels does come with its own set of potential pitfalls, but ignoring the new communication channels and opportunities isn’t going to make them go away. The clubs, agents and athlete’s representatives need to find a balance where the players can be treated like adults and decide the type of relationship they want with their fans…they may need them after they retire!

Organisations, brands and sports clubs are all in the same boat with needing to be more trusted and that takes time and comes with authenticity and engagement. Its all people to people communications, after all!

Update: A good example of exactly what I was talking about is Manchester City. Read this excellent post by Ash Read covering similar lines of thought.