A++ work ( No Plagairism, Quality work on time)

KAHPERD Journal Vol. 55 No. 1 8

(Peer Reviewed Article)

Social Media and Relationship Marketing in Community Sport

Tricia Jordan, Western Kentucky University

Paula Upright, Western Kentucky University

Stacey A. Forsythe, Western Kentucky University

Abstract

Using social media to meet relationship marketing goals continues to expand in professional

and collegiate sport. Community sport organizations still struggle to implement social media

into their marketing strategies. Using a case study design, this paper examines perceptions of

social media use in relationship marketing within a rural community summer- baseball

league. Research findings suggest team administrators believe using social media aids in

building fan support, excitement, team awareness, and value. Teams also faced challenges as

they attempted to integrate social media in to their marketing strategies, including a lack of

knowledge, limited resources, use, post consistency, and content. This case demonstrates the

value of social media in providing teams with an opportunity to build fan relationships.

Key Words: Relationship marketing, social media, community sport

Introduction

Limited discretionary income coupled with unlimited entertainment options curb a small-

market team’s ability to recruit new fans at all levels. Luker (2012) reported one fourth of

avid sports fans have less discretionary income because of tough economic times. Fountain

and Finley (2010) suggested the NFL could lose middle class fans citing from 1991 to 2009

the purchasing power of fans decreased while the Fan Cost Index (FCI), or average cost for a

family of four to attend a contest, increased. The researchers warned that even with price

variations within team markets, the league should be aware of the potential loss of the ticket

revenue stemming from escalating cost and the baby boomer population aging. Future middle

class fans may stop attending games, follow teams through media sources only, increase

discretionary spending to attend games, limit family member game attendance, or change

game day spending. This trend is also being felt at the colligate level as game attendance is

decreasing (Hunn, 2013). Kim and Trail (2011) proposed a shift to relationship marketing so

teams could mitigate the effects of economic conditions, market practices, and new

technology. Online interactive-technology may also aid sport organizations in this efforts to

connect with fans. Hopkins (2013) found even with inherent challenges to its use social

media can be used to improve two-way communication between sport clubs and fans. Sashi

(2012) suggests social media may provide organizations with capability to facilitate engaged

and satisfied customers.

Advances in technology have provided sport organizations with many channels to engage

their fan. Yadav and Varadarajan (2005) suggest as new technologies emerge, the ability to

interact with consumers becomes easier. What was once a face-to-face communication; it

may now take place through social media platforms. Yet, O'Shea and Alonso (2011)

suggested professional sport organizations still struggle to implement these advanced

KAHPERD Journal Vol. 55 No. 1 9

technologies in a positive manner necessitating the need to understand social media as a

marketing tool. Clavio (2011) found collegiate athletic departments are slow to adopt social

media as a marketing tool. The communication sought by sport organizations to connect with

fans aligns with relationship marketing. Relationship marketing focuses on developing long-

term relationships between the sport organization and fan. This focus is on developing

communication, interaction, meeting customer expectations, fulfilling promises, and creating

value (Grönroos, 2000; Grönroos, 2004).

Relationship Marketing

Berry (2001) first coined the term relationship marketing in the eighties emphasizing the

importance of the customer relationship. Grönroos (1994) later explained relationship

marketing involves establishing, maintaining, and enhancing a relationship with customers.

Relationship marketing begins by first attracting customers, and then building on that initial

attraction through keeping your promises thereby developing a sense of trust. Organizations

that sought to develop relationship marketing as a means to contact their customers directly

maintain detailed customer files and emphasize customer service (Grönroos, 1996).

Grönroos (2000, 2004) further developed his concepts of relationship marketing with an

emphasis that was placed on communication, interaction, dialogue, and value. As

organizations developed planned communications with customers, opportunities for

interaction emerged. Sustained interaction between organization and customer facilitated a

potential dialogue. Information from the interactions allowed organizations to align products

or services to meet customer expectations. This in turn builds value. Researchers suggested

successful relationship marketing requires a marketing paradigm shift in which the marketing

function involves all organizational groups and focuses on long term relationships (Grönroos

1994; Gummesson, 1998; Grönroos, 2006).

To help assess social media platform use in relationship marketing, Abeza et al. (2013)

outlined a framework of potential opportunities and challenges faced by organizations. Sport

practitioners felt social media benefited the organization by providing opportunities to

efficiently use resources, evaluate relationship status quicker, facilitate interactions and

communication, and helped them better understand their customer. At the same time

challenges existed. Practitioners expressed concerns over message control and credibility of

information. Other concerns included message effectiveness, customer identification via

online sources, and resource allocation.

To capture the nature of communication on Facebook and Twitter, Abeza and O’Reilly

(2014) proposed 13 communication elements and three interaction elements. Communication

elements focused on sharing of organizational information, positing videos, links, or pictures

and videos. Interaction elements related to posts to platforms from users, interactions among

user or organization-user interactions.

Social Media and Relationship Marketing

Social media serve as a new tool to complement traditional media sources of a fan's sport

consumption (Vann, 2014). Today, individuals of all ages are embracing social networking.

The Pew Research Center (2016) reported 79% of adults are on Facebook, 28% use

Instagram, and 21% use Twitter. The emergence of new social media platforms provides

KAHPERD Journal Vol. 55 No. 1 10

additional opportunities for sport organizations to relationship market. Advances in social

media return on investment (RIO) create a business environment that necessitates small

business use and maintain social media platforms (Gehol & Dangelo, 2012). As a marketing

tool, social media allows marketers to expose an organization’s brand while identifying and

building loyal customers (Beqiri, 2015).

Relationship marketing serves to strengthen relationships between team and fan. This benefits

teams through increases in fan retention (Gray & Wert-Gray, 2012). Sashi (2012) connected

relationship marketing, social media and fan engagement proposing the addition of social

media in the marketing mix serves to increase customer engagement through the fan’s ability

to add value. By engaging customers, sport organizations may turn customers into avid fans.

The use of social media as a relationship marketing tool is not without challenges. Waters,

Burnett, Lamm, and Lucas (2009) found that majority of nonprofit organizations failed to

understand how to incorporate the interactive applications available through Facebook. They

concluded that organizations’ need to refocus their social media efforts into relationship

development. Lovejoy Waters, and Saxton (2012) suggested that social media provides an

opportunity to engage stakeholders in dialogues yet nonprofit organizations continue to

emphasize information sharing versus interactivity. Lovejoy et al. (2012) found the majority

of nonprofit organizations do not fully use Twitter to engage stakeholders. Within their

investigation, the examined Tweets still reflected one-way communication missing the

opportunity to develop dialogues with their stakeholders.

Fan Use of Social Media

Beverland et al. (2010) suggested that understanding sport consumer behavior begins by

understanding the motives behind brand consumption. Bee and Kahle (2006) emphasized a

functional perspective to sport relationship marketing beginning with understanding why

sport consumers entered and maintained relationships with sport organizations. Thus, how

fans interact through social media platforms provides a starting point to examine challenges

and opportunities they perceive with the use of social media in relationship marketing. As

such, NBA fans’ Facebook communication is motivated by passion, hope, esteem, and

camaraderie (Stavros et al., 2014). While sport-related Twitter use filled four aims, including

information, entertainment, passing time, and expressions of fanship (Witkemper, et al.,

2012).

Investigations of single hashtags tied to sporting events suggested similar use motives.

Blaszka et al. (2012) found #WorldSeries was predominately used by individuals not

officially associated with the league, media, or companies to express fanship and

interactivity. While those engaged via Twitter during the 2012 College World Series engaged

in conversations calling the game, cheering their team, celebrating victories, and jeers or

taunts (Smith & Smith, 2012). It is beneficial for those who seek to develop relationships

with community fans to t develop hashtags. Smith and Smith (2012, p. 552) suggest through

their selection of hashtags, users gathering around “virtual watercoolers: to interact with like-

minded individuals from around the country. Motives for social sharing provided additional

insights to sport marketers. Clavio and Frederick (2014) found collegiate sport fans engage in

sharing sport event information to promote and encourage friend attendance.

KAHPERD Journal Vol. 55 No. 1 11

A theoretical understanding of relationship marketing provided the underpinning of this case

study. This is supplemented with a current understanding of sport organization and fan use of

social media. Several investigations focused on professional sport applications, this

investigation sought to understand the utilization of social media in relationship marketing at

the community sport level.

Purpose and Research Questions

This investigation seeks to understand how teams in a collegiate baseball league, uses social

media to accomplish its relationship marketing goals. The study extends existing social media

and relationship marketing research (Abeza et al., 2013), through the examination of

opportunities and challenges for social media's application in relationship marketing to a

community sport setting. Additionally, the study explores the fan perspective of social media

strategies aimed at relationship marketing

Four research questions shaped the investigation: (1) what opportunities do team leaders see

associated with their use of social media to accomplish relationship marketing goals? (2)

what challenges do teams leaders see associated with their use of social media to accomplish

relationship marketing goals?(3) what opportunities do fans see for team leadership to use

social media to accomplish relationship marketing goals?, and (4) what challenges do fans

see for team leadership to use social media to accomplish relationship marketing goals?

Methodology

The investigation used a case study to explore the team's use of social media. Patton (1985)

suggests a benefit of case study research occurs from the depth of understanding provided.

The design allowed researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of how team leaders and

fans viewed social media usage. The selected league included five teams playing in the

Western Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Teams provided access to a sample of community

sport organizations using social media in their marketing strategies. Geographical location

allowed researchers easier access. Teams were organized as Limited Liability Company's

(LLC) or 501c3s. Volunteers and part-time staff provided administrative leadership. Teams

designated one-two volunteer or part-time staff responsible for their social media. The

tradition of baseball within the communities ranged from three years to communities with

rich baseball traditions beginning in the early 1900's. Individuals of all five teams working

with social media agreed to participate in the study. Team leadership assisted with fan

recruitment, suggesting potential fans that regularly attend games. Teams also allowed the

researchers to post requests to participate in the study on their Facebook page. Facebook was

selected, since all teams used this platform.

Trustworthiness was ensured through the triangulation of several sources of data (Yin, 2014)

including semi-structure interviews of team leaders (N = 8) responsible for managing

marketing/social, a selected group of fans (N = 9), and social media coding. Mining of

existing social media and relationship marketing research provided the foundation for

interview questions. An interview guide was used to help researchers pursue a line of

reasoning while allowing additional topic exploration (Patton, 2002). Interview questions

sought to understand team leadership and fan perspectives of social media use in team

relationship marketing efforts.

KAHPERD Journal Vol. 55 No. 1 12

Face-to-face or phone interviews lasted 35-40 minutes. With permission, interviews were

recorded and transcribed. Researchers also took detailed interview notes and coded each

team’s Facebook interactions for one-month in-season. During this time the teams and fans

generated 430 Facebook posts including team content sharing, posts of game dates and times,

cancelations, game updates, upcoming events, and responses to fans. Fans shared limited

content but did post questions, cheered for their team, or commented on content shared.

Intercoder reliability was calculated using Holsti's reliability formula. The formula takes into

consideration the number of coding decisions agreed upon by the coders and divides this

number by the number of coding decisions per coder. Holsti's coefficient was .96. Acceptable

coder reliability equal a coefficient of .90 or higher (Stacks, 2011). To determine emergent

themes from interview data collected, researchers examined individual cases to predict

similarities or contradictions based on the conceptual framework (Yin, 2014; Patton, 2002).

Researchers then used the constant comparative method (Glasser & Strauss, 1967) to

determine themes that were supported by the evidence (Yin, 2014). Within the results section,

interviewees are referenced by their initials.

Results

The leadership team responsible for social media included volunteers or designated part-time

staff members with different levels of relationships marketing and social media expertise. To

overcome misunderstandings of concepts under investigation, the researchers divided

opportunities into two perspectives—one from the team, and the other one from fans. All felt

social media was a valuable tool, but admitted their use of social media could be better. Four

of the five teams maintained an active Facebook presence. One team, shared they were

revamping their social media and website. Overall, teams used Facebook to provide

information with limited fan interaction.

Team Uses

Three opportunities for social media use emerged across cases. These included awareness,

information/communication, and entertainment. All teams believed that social media

provided an opportunity to create awareness with the community. Creating awareness was

particularly important leading up to the season as a means to build excitement. Team leaders

expressed a desire to "push out" more team information with some suggesting a "lot of

community members did not even know about the team" (TN, 2015; TJ, 2015; MD, 2015;

CP, 2015). Leadership also expressed a desire to promote the team’s merchandise, host

family opportunities, sponsorships, and events. Information and communication emphasized

in-season communication. This included sharing game line-ups, rainouts, inning updates,

upcoming events, and media coverage. Facebook information or online broadcasts allowed

fans/family not in attendance to follow the game. Entertainment related to creating

opportunities to share content. One team leader shared social media provides opportunities to

"share videos, pictures of fans and game activities, or have silly contests on Facebook" (MD,

2015).

Team Opportunities

Teams reported three opportunities for social media's use in relationship marketing including

building fan support and excitement, create awareness, and building value. Three teams

KAHPERD Journal Vol. 55 No. 1 13

suggested that building fan support by connecting with people was a main opportunity

Facebook provided. One leader stated, "You are going to build fan interest when looking at

it" (CP, 2015).Another stated, "I think we would build more team support. I think it's a matter

of the people of the community embracing the team" (TN, 2015). A final informant suggested

they posted uniform pictures on Facebook one month before opening day as a way to build

support and excitement (CL, 2015).

Create awareness is closely related to building fan support. One leader felt the more

information you "push out" the more awareness you created about the team (TN, 2015).

Another spoke of a desire to let people know that the ballpark was "a fun place to be" (MD,

2015). They felt posting field or stand shots allowed people to share pictures and showed

what was happening in the stadium. Building value was expressed from three perspectives.

The teams felt providing game information, field shots, and upcoming events added value.

Up-to-date information allowed fans to know where to get current and correct team

information (TN, 2015; TJ, 2015; MD, 2015; CS, 2015). Others felt they could build value by

interacting with fans through surveys (TJ, 2015). Leaders felt if they collected fan satisfaction

information and addressed concerns fans would see team value their opinion when attending

games. Social media use also built value for sponsors. One leader shared sponsor updates on

Facebook added to sponsorship packages (CL, 2015). Sharing or liking posts gained sponsors

more exposure. Another leader noted, "we're still in the process of highlighting those that

bought on-field signage so we'll post a picture of their sign, thank them, and tag them in the

hopes that it goes to their people" (MD, 2015).

Team Challenges

Knowledge, resources, and negativity/content control were main types of the challenges

faced by teams using social media. Multiple teams suggested they were "just learning how it

(social media) worked" or "the biggest thing is we don't know anything about it" and "I'll say

it, I'm not on Facebook" (CS, 2015; CP, 2015). We're learning more, the team is learning

more about using it" (TJ, 2015). Resource challenges stem from team organization structure.

Only a few of the teams had a designated person to handle their organization's social media.

A volunteer managed one team's social media. Another team added this responsibility to a

part-time position with multiple marketing responsibilities. One leader felt the team needed a

champion for social media, maybe an "intern who could run with it" (CS, 2015). Time was

also a factor. During games it was difficult to handle marketing responsibilities, in game

experiences, and update Facebook. After the season, it was also difficult to find the time to

keep the team's page active. One team, concerned with negativity/content control, expressed

concerns relating to how to handle negative responses and misinformation (CS, 2015).

Fan Opportunities

Fans shared four types of opportunities including sharing content, sharing general

information, creating awareness, and exposure associated with social media use in

relationship marketing. Fans believed Facebook provided an opportunity to share content

including pictures, video clips, game updates, and the line-up. One fan suggested, "The more

they share the more interested I am in following the team" (HM, 2015). Facebook also

provided an opportunity to share general information, i.e. schedules, and upcoming events.

Creating awareness included building a good fan base within the community. This meant

KAHPERD Journal Vol. 55 No. 1 14

keeping the page active throughout the year by sharing player recruitment information prior

to the season to help build excitement. Exposure included opportunities to share what the

team does for the community (HS, 2015; JB, 2015). Fans who shared social media provided

an opportunity to share what the players do off the field. Fans also believe social media was a

way to gain exposure for the players by sharing their bios, interactions with their host

families, and successes (KC, 2015; CM, 2015; JB, 2015).

Fan Challenges

Fans shared (posted) five challenges faced by organizations when using social media. These

included use, post consistency, resources, content, and knowledge. Fans perceived the fact

that not all fans use social media as a challenge. One informant suggested the older fan base

made using social media potentially difficult stating, "You know we have a lot of older

people that come out to watch the team. They may not use Facebook (NP, 2015). Post

consistency was defined as failing to post in a timely manner, not posting enough, and having

a difficult time keeping posts going. Resources related to lacking time, not making use of

Facebook a priority, and not having a designated person responsible for posting (KC, 2015;

CM, 2015; JB, 2015). Content challenges included keeping the Facebook page fresh and

handling negative responses (HS, 2015; JB, 2015). Knowledge challenges incorporated a lack

of understanding of how to use Facebook effectively (KC, 2015; NP, 2015).

Discussion

Research findings are similar to McCarthy et al.’s (2013) findings that UK Football clubs all

recognize the potential of social media yet fail to have a clear plan for utilization. Team

leaders and fans both concur with Abeza et al. (2013) and Thompson et al. (2014) concerning

resource challenge. Participating teams did not have the resources to designate one person

solely responsible for social media. Instead, teams relied on volunteers, interns, or part-time

staff members with several responsibilities. Thompson et al. (2014) suggested successful use

of social media involved first understanding social media fundamentals within the industry.

Success also involved understanding where social media fits within the organization, who

will manage the organization’s social media, and how success is defined. Like the National

Sport Organizations (NSO) in the Thompson et al. (2014), teams within this case study

experienced a social media knowledge gap. The gap ranged from understanding the tools

available through Facebook to understanding how to use social media to engage their fans.

Team leaders attributed their lack of knowledge to the newness of the technology, their age,

generation, or changes made within the selected platform. Thompson et al. (2014) also

suggested a fragmented organizational structure contributes to a lack of knowledge. In this

case, each team determined their own use of social media. The league utilized a website with

links to each team’s individual homepage, but did not use social media. This, coupled with

the small organizational structures and failure to utilize formal marketing plans, may

contribute to challenges integrating social meeting into team marketing activities.

Abeza et al. (2013) proposed social media opportunities in relationship marketing goal

achievement include better knowledge of customers, effective customer engagement,

efficient use of resources, quicker evaluation of relationship status, and advances in

customer-organization communication. Within this case study, teams and fans believe

opportunities stemming from social media included building fan support and excitement,

awareness, and building value. Teams or fans did not mention many of the opportunities

KAHPERD Journal Vol. 55 No. 1 15

identified by Abeza et al. (2013) such as efficient use of resources, effective engagement of

fans and participants, advance interactions among organization and customers, and develop a

better understanding of customers. This may be a direct result of the team leaders’ limited

understanding of relationship marketing and knowledge of social media's use as a tool to

interact with fans or lack of planning and formalization of marketing strategies involving

social media.

A knowledge gap exists between what researchers define as best social media relationship

marketing practices and what is implemented at the grassroots level. This may be the result of

resources available to these organizations. A primary resource shortage related to

organizational structure. Those working with the team's social media and marketing may not

have formal marketing or social media training, and/or may fulfill other roles that restricted

the time they could dedicate to fully understanding and incorporating social media

effectively.

Some fan perspectives of opportunities and challenges aligned with and extended team

leadership perspectives. Both agreed resource and knowledge challenges existed. Both agreed

social media use provided the team with an opportunity to create awareness. The addition of

the fan perspective may provide a springboard for teams to enhance their social media use.

Fans suggested opportunities to share content might build the opportunity to create

excitement and fan support. As one fan stated, "The more they share the more interested I'm

in following the team" (HM, 2015). Fans were interested in what the teams/players

accomplished on the field and their community involvement. Equally important is the

consistent use of social media prior to, during, and after the season. Updates during the game

were very important to each team’s fan base.

Team communication through social media predominately focused on one-way sharing of

content and general team information. This provided a starting point to begin interactions

with fans but does not provided the true dialogue needed to create meaning and

understanding central to relationship marketing. One team leader suggested the opportunity to

interact with fans through surveys (TJ, 2015). This statement conveys the essence of

relationship marketing; communicating, interacting, and creating a dialogue to meet fan

expectations, create value, and enhances the customer relationship (Berry, 2001; Grönroos,

2004). However, this type of communication was lacking in this study. For teams to form

relationships, interactions with their fans must improve. Teams should continue to share

information and content while attempting to find ways to encourage fan interaction and

sharing. Teams may also learn from strategies suggested by others. For instance, Thompson

et al. (2014) suggested sport organizations seek to engage fans by using promotions or

behind-the-scenes content. Within this case, fans felt promotions would generate social media

engagement stating, "you know in order to boost the amount of friends you might try

giveaways, you know a hat or tee-shirt, or something at the concession stand. You know

something simple like that."

Team leadership and fans recognized that resource availability and knowledge of social

media posed a significant challenge to the teams’ use of social media. It is important that

teams attempt to designate an individual to develop its social media. Within each community,

local businesses actively using social media in their marketing initiatives may also serve as a

resource for the teams. One fan suggested developing a social media committee composed of

KAHPERD Journal Vol. 55 No. 1 16

team leadership, community members, and interested business partners to assist teams in

keeping their social media fresh and supportive of fan and team needs (JB, 2015). The

Chamber of Commerce or community college may provide continuing education

opportunities for team leaders seeking to understand how to use social media in their

marketing efforts. Additionally, examining the challenges fans suggested provides these

teams with a starting point to enhance their use of social media in their relationships

marketing efforts.

Limitations and direction of future studies

The investigation's sample provides useful information for these small community

organizations. However, the findings are not generalizable to all sport organizations as this

investigation provides a snapshot of perceptions within the context of a specific sport league.

The information provided by team leadership and fans provides a thick description of their

perceptions. The sample size is limited by the number of teams in the league and fan base

participation in the investigation. Finally, each team's use of volunteer administrative

leadership may affect marketing and relationship marketing knowledge as backgrounds of

key informants fulfilling roles varied greatly. Future research could use a longitudinal design

to examine the team and fan use of social media in meeting relationship marketing goals

allowing for the review of multiple seasons. Researchers should continue to examine how

sport organization size and structure affect the use of social media in relationship marketing

to examine the effectiveness of small grassroots sport organizations in meeting relationship

marketing goals.

KAHPERD Journal Vol. 55 No. 1 17

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