The news is that the US Open officials banned players to use their Twitter account during breaks, fearing that the inside information that they provide will be used for gambling purposes. I have to say a big grin appeared on my face while reading the news. I simply cannot imagine Federer or Nadal using their breaks to tweet to the world about whatever. This measure, while extreme and slightly ridiculous, shows however just how big the whole social media phenomenon has become.
I think sports is perhaps one of the best industry to accommodate social media. Sports consumption is largely social and there's no better consumer than a loyal fan. The amounts of money being made just from subscriptions and fan merchandise are there to prove it. And people simply love to talk about their favorite player/ team and debate over which is the better one. And Facebook, Twitter and the likes are the perfect platforms for fans to express their love.
That is why I decided to take a deeper look at the 4 Grand Slams (Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open) and see how they have integrated the social media phenomenon in their marketing efforts.
I started by looking at the usual suspects, Facebook, Twitter, the App Store and YouTube. The results are in the table below:
From a superficial analysis it can be said that Wimbledon seems to have best integrated social media in its marketing. However, if we compare the tournaments with the individual tennis players, we can say that they are a long way behind. Just to give you an idea, Roger Federer currently has 2,882,491 fans on his Facebook Page and Rafael Nadal 2,047,955. Serena Williams has 991,490 followers on Twitter, Andy Roddick 11,779.2010 will probably tell which of the four Grand Slams will ace the social media game.
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