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INTRODUCTION

Before a major fixture, scroll through the device and the results will be instantly there: TikTok videos of training ground footage, an X thread from the club’s official account counting down towards kick-off, an Instagram Reel going through the starting line-up. The introduction of social media has not just provided sport organisations with new distribution channels. It has revolutionised the meaning of the word fan, turning passive spectators into active consumers, creators, sharers and co-producers of sport content, all day long.

Platforms, Segmentation and Targeting

Not all platforms are used in the same way by sport organisations. The sport marketing (Mullin, Hardy and Sutton, 2014) central concept of segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) is easily applied to the different profiles to which the various platforms appeal. French club Paris Saint-Germain and the Los Angeles Lakers are two examples that have adopted Instagram to develop an aspirational brand identity that’s made up of visual media and has been extended beyond the games themselves to 18- to 34-year-olds. TikTok is a place that requires content to be quicker and more visceral. It is the NBA’s TikTok strategy that focuses on the Gen Z audience, who may not be ready to pay for a broadcast subscription but are very active for short-form video (Pedersen, 2014).

X, or as it was known back then, Twitter, is the platform of real-time sport debate, where journalists, analysts and fans meet around the match and a second screen becomes a shared and textual experience, as described by Boyle (2017). YouTube has been the platform for longer videos: tactical videos, documentary series and athlete blogs bring viewers looking for depth.

Platform	Primary Segment	Content Type	Sport Example
Instagram	18–34, lifestyle-oriented	Reels, Stories, aspirational images	PSG, Lakers brand content
TikTok	Gen Z, mobile-first	Short clips, trending audio	NBA comedy content
X (Twitter)	News followers	Live commentary, hashtags, threads	Match-day trending topics
YouTube	Long-form viewers	Documentaries, analysis, vlogs	Club behind-the-scenes series
Twitch	Esports audiences	Live streaming, real-time chat	NBA G League streams

Figure 1: Platform segmentation in sport marketing (adapted from Mullin, Hardy and Sutton, 2014)

THE FAN EXPERIENCE: ACCESS, COMMUNITY AND CONTENT CREATION

Here are three changes to the fan experience to consider in light of social media. First, the gap between sport and spectators has been reduced. With the launch of Instagram Stories and TikTok Lives, fans have the opportunity to share training sessions or private moments with their favourite stars that would otherwise not be available, fostering a sense of intimacy that Boyle (2017) refers to as parasocial proximity. It’s not transparency, it’s a carefully curated collection of information which is presented to athletes under a strategy of authenticity. However, for fans, the sense of direct access is not just in the mind and their emotional investment in individual athletes increases.

Second, social media has enabled fan communities to be realized around the world. Now a Premier League fan in Lagos, a Messi fan in Karachi and a Real Madrid follower in Mexico City are all a part of the same conversation, via memes, hashtags and watching games together. This fits in with the social identity theory of Tajfel and Turner (1979), which outlines how the group can influence identity even to an imagined community or online community. Third, there is a change in traditional production hierarchy with user-generated content (UGC). Highlight clips, tactical threads and satirical news are produced by fans and circulate via different channels, including ones that have more reach than the official ones. Most governing bodies haven’t been able to solve the tension between fan creativity and intellectual property rights that arises (Pedersen, 2014).

CRITICAL ISSUES

Any celebratory discussion of digital fan culture is faced with two issues. Racist abuse, especially towards Black athletes is a well-documented and ongoing problem on major platforms online. Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka have been singled out for racist abuse on X and Instagram within hours of the final of the UEFA Euro 2021. The likes of several England players have then gone on to abandon social media for a period of time. Kilvingting (2022) states that the algorithms used by platforms are designed to increase inflammatory content as it creates a lot of engagement, thus creating structural conditions that promote abuse, which spreads more than what is measured by the response.

Digital exclusion is the second concern. Older, less confident of digital technology and with limited broadband fans are being increasingly left out of a fan culture that has gone online. It is a frame that obscures the fact that there are inequalities when it comes to who can be a part of fandom today.

“Fans are no longer passive recipients of broadcast sport — they are co-producers of content, community, and commercial value.” — Rowe (2004)

CONCLUSION

From whom receives the attention of the sport to how fans remain connected outside of games, social media has changed and reshaped the sport fandom at all levels. The platform selection logic of the STP, the parasocial relationship that is created by allowing access to athletes and the co-creative power and energy of digital communities are real changes in the experience of sport. However, the prevalence of commercials and online abuse and the exclusion of digital media are not footnotes. The usage of social media by sport organisations as a mere distribution space, rather than as a social space in competition with others with real implications for real people is an ethical and reputational risk.