Evaluating Social Media Use by Cricket Clubs to Boost Fan Engagement

This report evaluates the effectiveness of social media as a tool for cricket clubs and teams to enhance fan engagement. It identifies the impact of social media on fan engagement within the sports industry, evaluates approaches for improving communication between cricket clubs and fans via social media, and assesses relevant techniques for engaging fans. The research also recommends measures for improving fan engagement through social media usage. It explores branding through social media, evaluating how sports personalities communicate with fans online. The methodology employs a deductive approach with a descriptive research design, using both qualitative and quantitative data collected from a sample size of 60, with a focus on primary data and secondary sources such as journals and articles.

Running head: SPORTS BUSINESS
Sports business
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Research background...............................................................................................................................3
Research aim...........................................................................................................................................3
Research objectives.................................................................................................................................3
Research questions..................................................................................................................................4
Research significance..............................................................................................................................4
Literature review.........................................................................................................................................5
Branding with the use of social media.....................................................................................................5
Evaluation of sports persons communicating with the fans online..........................................................6
Research methodology................................................................................................................................8
Research philosophy and approach..........................................................................................................8
Research design.......................................................................................................................................8
Sample size and data collection...............................................................................................................9
Research scope........................................................................................................................................9
Limitations..............................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................11

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Title: An evaluation into the effectiveness of social media and whether it can be used by
selected cricket clubs/teams to improve engagement with their fan base
Introduction
Research background
The research proposal illustrates about the effectiveness of using social media as an
important tool by the cricket teams and clubs to engage with the customers and increase the fan
base. It is true to the fact that with the implementation of newer technologies and internet
facilities, the social media platforms have served as effective tools to raise awareness among the
people and make them watch the sports more frequently (Goh, Heng and Lin 2013). The social
media platform has developed good relationships with the customers as well as enhanced the
brand image and identity for increasing the fan base and makes the people connect with their
favorite cricket teams and the players.
Research aim
The aim of the research is to evaluate the effectiveness of social media usage for the
cricket clubs or teams to enhance the level of engagement with the fan base.
Research objectives
 To identify the impact of social media on the engagement with the fan base for the cricket
clubs or teams within the sports industry
 To evaluate the various approaches followed for improving the communication between
the cricket clubs or teams and the fans by using social media

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 To assess the relevant techniques that can enable the cricket teams and players to engage
with their fan base
 To recommend necessary measures for improving the engagement level with the fan base
through social media usage
Research questions
What is the impact of social media on the way cricket teams and clubs engage with their fan
base?
How could the various approaches improve the engagement level between the cricket stars and
the fans?
What are the most suitable methods used by the cricket clubs or teams to interact with their fans
through social media usage?
What are the various measures recommended for the cricket teams and clubs to improve the
social media interaction efficiency and increase the fan base?
Research significance
The research significance will shed light on the importance of this research, which is to
find out how the social media platforms can help the cricket clubs and teams to connect with
their fan base. This will help in remaining connected to make them aware of the brand products
and services offered alongside the management of cricket matches all over. The popular sports
brands like Adidas, Nike and Rebook have involved with the social media to increase their fan
base and at the same time, make the sports brands popular among the fan base (Stavros et al.
2014). This can not only make them connect with their favorite sports persons, but will also

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improve the brand name and image. This will make the cricket sports popular among the people
while the cricket teams and clubs can interact with the fans more often.
Literature review
The literature review will assist in obtaining relevant information obtained from the
secondary sources of data and conduct the research appropriately. The secondary sources of data
include journals, articles and internet websites that consist of important information related to the
branding and engagement with clients through the use of social media (Abeza, O’Reilly and Reid
2013).
Branding with the use of social media
With the advancement in technology and communication, the social media usage has
gained pace and is considered as one of the major convenient tools used to enhance the brand
awareness and establish good relationships between the business and its clients. The e of
connected devices and using social media platforms have changed the entire way of managing
business and improved the customers’ experiences largely. The clients are finding it much more
convenient to connect with the brands and look the posts made by the brand on the social
networking websites and even search through the marketing emails (Fan and Gordon 2014). The
e-commerce purchases made by the customers are much more convenient and the customers’
services are provided through presentation of solutions to the queries asked by clients regarding
the products purchased on the particular social networking website. The traditional methods used
previously included televisions, radios and newspapers, which were considered as costlier when
compared to the new and advanced social media platforms used to remain connected with the
clients (Filo, Lock and Karg 2015).

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The social media usage has enhanced the business performance through improvement of
brand image through promotion of two way communication. It has facilitated the communication
between the business and its clients and created a sense of trust and loyalty among the customers
too. For every business including the sports brands, the customers are considered as the most
important stakeholders and thus future spending on the social media usage can be vital for
managing the human resources and paid marketing activities efficiently (McCarthyet al. 2014).
The social media platforms are facilitated by forming a social media team, which can align with
the marketing teams for improving the marketing campaigns efficiency and ensure that the right
messages and information from the brand are delivered to the clients. The management of close
relationships with the customers, considered as the topmost priority of every business, has been
associated with the way social media usage has formulated the marketing activities and improved
the customers’ services too. This has helped in delivering the best quality customers’ experiences
across every channel including the online websites, email, social, sales and services (Eagleman
2013).
Evaluation of sports persons communicating with the fans online
Few of the most popular social networking websites including Facebook and Twitter have
improved the ability of the organizations to create content and deliver those through posts on the
website, so that it can be clearly visible to the customers. For example, the sports persons and
athletes often made live video and demonstrated their love for the sports along with the brands
that they were associated with. This has not only made more people remain connected with their
favorite athletes, but also has established positive relationships with the brands, which influenced
their buying behaviors and improved the sales revenue for the business too (Tsimonis and
Dimitriadis 2014). The sports team managed closed interactions with the fans with the

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management of their website, which enhanced the brand visibility and awareness among
customers, thereby resulted in making them get constant updates and news about the team. The
broadcast rights are managed through integration of the social media into the live broadcast sports
and this has allowed the viewers to remain more connected with the sports. They can send tweets
and posts on social media walls that can be showed during the broadcast and the cricket experts
can provide relevant answers accordingly too. The conversations around the broadcast can trigger
the people’s interests and motivate them to become more engaged.
Nowadays, more and more people are getting habituated with the use of social media and remain
online most of the times. It has become easier and more convenient for the sports brands and
sports persons to communicate with larger group of audiences by coming live or online in social
networking websites (Ashley and Tuten 2015). Though, they do not communicate with every
people, still they come online and spread their messages and information regarding their love for
sports, which has influenced many people towards the sports and the brands associated with it as
well. The sports teams have identified the audience and targeted them on social media, which has
helped in understanding the fan base and with the use of social media platforms; it has become
easier to create an active community following. There have been more followers of the website
and it has created more scopes for the teams to grow their brand, furthermore creates a sense of
enthusiasm and interest among the existing fans and kept them informed about the events as well
(Hopkins 2013). The content and information associated with the sports are being dispersed via
live videos, tweets and posts, which sometimes though can affect the integrity of the brand. The
teams must balance the content and keep close interactions with the fans, which has facilitated
the promotion of brand and improved the ways of drawing more fans to follow the game and
become consistent buyers of the brand items too (Campbell, Lambright and Wells 2014).

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Research methodology
The research methodology is considered as one of the most important chapters of the
research proposal that will provide the researcher an overview of the research approaches,
methods, philosophies and strategies followed to conduct the research appropriately. The
research methods will assist the research to understand the ways of selecting the right sample
size and collect data to analyze and derive a good conclusion in the end (Shen and Bissell 2013).
Research philosophy and approach
The philosophy of research will guide the researcher in obtaining relevant skills,
knowledge and expertise regarding the research subject and focus on the purpose of conducting
the research rather than finding out the ‘what’ and ‘why. The philosophical approach will also
help in reflecting the methods adopted and strategies that will be implemented for developing a
scientific knowledge on the use of social media by sports team for engaging with their fan base
(Neuman 2013). The research approach will be considered as deductive, considered the fact that
the existing theories and concepts will be considered as certain times to derive new theories and
focus on deriving a good conclusion that will be able to meet the objectives of the research.
Research design
Among the exploratory, explanatory and descriptive research designs, the descriptive
research design will be the most suitable for conducting the research appropriately. While the
exploratory research design considers the hypothetical and theoretical ideas to ensure that the
research can be conducted properly in the future, the descriptive research design will focus on
generating new ideas and explore the areas to gain in-depth information required to create scopes
for successful research conduction (Smith 2015). The descriptive research design will be quite

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effective to choose for meeting the requirements needed to assess the information and data,
furthermore will ensure that the online survey process and analysis of quantitative data are
successful done while conducting the research.
Sample size and data collection
A sample size of 60 will be considered from where the data and information will be
collected to conduct the research properly. The collection of data includes both qualitative and
quantitative data. While the quantitative data collection is the major focus, where a homogenous
group of respondents will be selected from a heterogeneous large group of people, the qualitative
data has little role during the research conduction (Sekaran and Bougie 2016). These kinds of
data will constitute the primary data while the secondary data will be collected from secondary
sources including the journals, articles, newspapers, websites, etc.
Research scope
As the research suits the determining of connection created between the cricket and its
engagement with the fans through use of social media, it is important to expand the scope of
research by shedding limelight on other sports too. People have interest in different sports
nowadays like cricket, soccer, basketball, tennis, etc. and so the social media usage by every
sports will enhance the chances for the fans to engage with their favorite sports stars. This will
also increase the popularity of the sports and ensure that the fan base increase consistently with
the brand partners and sponsors getting immense exposure for managing business alternatively
(Fowler Jr 2013).

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Limitations
The cost and time can be major constraints while conducting the research though it is true
that the budget is properly allocated for ensuring that all the resources are available. At certain
times, the respondents were not found at the same place and time, which hindered obtaining
relevant data and information and limited the research study too. As the respondents here are the
fans of sports, so a smaller sample may not be suitable, which is considered as another limitation
of the research (Lindlof and Taylor 2017).

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References
Abeza, G., O’Reilly, N. and Reid, I., 2013. Relationship marketing and social media in sport.
International Journal of Sport Communication, 6(2), pp.120-142.
Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory
study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1),
pp.15-27.
Campbell, D.A., Lambright, K.T. and Wells, C.J., 2014. Looking for friends, fans, and
followers? Social media use in public and nonprofit human services. Public Administration
Review, 74(5), pp.655-663.
Eagleman, A.N., 2013. Acceptance, motivations, and usage of social media as a marketing
communications tool amongst employees of sport national governing bodies. Sport Management
Review, 16(4), pp.488-497.
Fan, W. and Gordon, M.D., 2014. The power of social media analytics. Communications of the
ACM, 57(6), pp.74-81.
Filo, K., Lock, D. and Karg, A., 2015. Sport and social media research: A review. Sport
management review, 18(2), pp.166-181.
Fowler Jr, F.J., 2013. Survey research methods. Sage publications.
Goh, K.Y., Heng, C.S. and Lin, Z., 2013. Social media brand community and consumer
behavior: Quantifying the relative impact of user-and marketer-generated content. Information
Systems Research, 24(1), pp.88-107.
Hopkins, J.L., 2013. Engaging Australian Rules Football fans with social media: A case study.
International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 13(1-2), pp.104-121.

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Lindlof, T.R. and Taylor, B.C., 2017. Qualitative communication research methods. Sage
publications.
McCarthy, J., Rowley, J., Jane Ashworth, C. and Pioch, E., 2014. Managing brand presence
through social media: the case of UK football clubs. Internet Research, 24(2), pp.181-204.
Neuman, W.L., 2013. Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Pearson education.
Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Shen, B. and Bissell, K., 2013. Social media, social me: A content analysis of beauty companies’
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Stavros, C., Meng, M.D., Westberg, K. and Farrelly, F., 2014. Understanding fan motivation for
interacting on social media. Sport management review, 17(4), pp.455-469.
Tsimonis, G. and Dimitriadis, S., 2014. Brand strategies in social media. Marketing Intelligence
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