Last week I had a chance to speak with Kathy Jacobelli, whose company, 2Dogs, provides a platform to power online communities. They help with set up, promotion and ongoing management of their clients' communities. I was interested in talking to Kathy because 2Dogs set up/manages Posting Up, the official social networking site for the Detroit Pistons. The site includes sections for typical social networking features like events, pictures, videos and blogs, but they also have integrated a schedule for upcoming games into the site to encourage fans to purchase tickets.
If it was my site, I'd want to tweak a few design elements and integrate some features to allow people to more easily invite their friends and share content with them. But the way it is now seems to work. Over 6,000 members have signed up since the site launched a few months ago, though I think there is huge potential for growth.
Here are three of the questions I asked Kathy about the site/social networking and sports.
Fans have so many outlets now to share their passion for their favorite teams. Why should fans join official team communities instead of just talking on existing fan sites, blogs, forums and groups on other social networks? How do you attract these fans to the official team sites?
An official team site offers much more. When inside the social network you can navigate back to the home page and buy tickets, merchandise and check out scores, videos and picture. With social networking at the official team site fans can express themselves and interact with blogs, videos and pictures. This does not happen with forums. The social network has grown to 6,400 people in months. People are coming over from other sites at a rapid rate.
What has surprised you most since launching the site?
How fast the site is growing and how passionate the fans are. On launch day I was in a Starbucks watching almost 200 people join in a matter of hours. During games I see people blogging and commenting with enormous passion. Someone blogged about a group of handicapped kids facing a financial challenge getting to a game. The Pistons reached out and so did others in the social netowrk. Also, we are seeing alot of social events formed inside the social network. We can see the die hard bloggers coming back often to see comments on their blogs. All and all the social network is an ongoing party!
What do you think the future holds for online fan communities in professional sports?
Social networking is a must for professional sports to meet the needs of the the next generation that has grown up on Facebook and Myspace.
Thanks, Kathy. If any of you reading this need help with design strategy, content strategy, influencer outreach or monetization ideas when building/growing your online fan community, let me know and I'd be happy to help.