Monetizing Social Media in the Sport Industry--Or Not?

One of the vexing issues for sport marketers is how one can develop marketing strategies and programs to utilize social media in order to monetize this effort. No one can argue the other 5 of 6 business drivers of social media marketing (Falls, personal communications, 2013). These 5 include the following: Enhance Branding and Awareness Protect Brand Reputation Facilitate Customer Service Build Community Facilitate Research and Development However, when it comes to the sixth driver-- Drive Sales/Leads , sport organizations have found it difficult to affect their ability to monetize social media marketing efforts in this regard. It is this inability or unwillingness to stimulate action to buy, purchase, or attend on the part of the sport consumer that is examined in this presentation. Specifically, this paper will examine some initial attempts made in the sport industry to monetize and impact sales, sponsorships, and marketing, as well as to impact the brand adoption process (Mullin, Hardy & Sutton, 2007)