During my usual procrastination circuit of TechCrunch, Woot, ESPN, and Facebook I noticed two things. Well, three, first that I wasn’t getting anything done, two, that Oklahoma is somehow number one in the BCS standings, and three, sports owns social media on the weekends.
Scrolling through my Facebook feed, every other post was about the Huskies beating the Beavers or the Seahawks winning their game. Now early into Monday morning, the BCS rankings that came out late on Sunday are making the rounds. Several college names and team names are trending on Twitter just hours after the release of the new rankings. I can even look up the score to almost any game on Facebook just as well as I can on ESPN. And now, you do a search for ‘BCS’ and articles are pouring in and getting shared like mad.
You have Oregon fans griping that they should be #1 since they are in all the other polls, Boise St. complaining that they should be higher, and all the other undefeated teams moaning about a playoff system and how the computer is unfair. All of this, plus all the pro athletes tweeting, the stories about Ochocinco getting fined for his tweets, even soccer players getting in on some Twitter trouble.
So what it is? Why do sports ignite such strong responses in social media? Easy answer: Passion. Anything that people really care about is bound to elicit response. Sports may be the biggest one out there because tons of people care about it on a fanatical level, but the real lesson here is that if you need response and interaction, find your fans!
There are people out there that are passionate about things I never knew anyone even cared about like Vegan waffles, rubber stamps, even strange pictures of cats. Social media offers a way to easily find, join, and start conversations with the actual people that care about what you have to offer. We talk about listening in our social media classes and it’s the only way to find where your fans are, those perfect customers that are going to drive your business.
Tune in to passions and track down your fans, tweeps, and pros; you will find a passionate community that can be a powerful force in marketing and supporting your business. Your stadium of 60,000+ screaming and body painted people is out there waiting for you in social media communities, go to them!
And one last thing: The BCS is wrong, Oregon should be number one.
