Social media marketing in sports: The rise of fan engagement through instagram

Abstract

Background:The rapid growth of social media has profoundly impacted on how sports is being consumed by fans worldwide and the emergence of social media platforms such as Instagram which has become an increasingly popular tool used by sports organization for sharing visual content has increased fan engagement among sports fans. However, research on sports fan engagement through social media is still minimal. The purpose of this research is to determine how Instagram has risen to become one of the most popular tools used by sports organization as a medium of engaging fans worldwide. Methods:A comparative analysis of the total number of comments and likes/reactions from videos posted by Liverpool Football Club on their official YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channel for the month of January was conducted in order to gain more insight into which of the above-mentioned social media platforms fans interact and engage more with their team.Conclusion:The findings offered significant insight into how Instagram has more engagement as compared to Facebook and YouTube.