Alfonso N. Cornish
Ben Larkin

The use of social media as a communication tool to engage others has rapidly proliferated over the past decade (Wallace, Wilson, & Miloch, 2011). According to the Pew Research Center, 73% of all online adults were using social media as of September 2013 (Brenner, 2013). Facebook leads the way with 71% of all online adults using the platform in 2013; however, a growing number of individuals are also using other emerging platforms such as LinkedIn (22%), Pinterest (21%), and Twitter (18%) (Duggan & Smith, 2013). Further, approximately 42% used multiple social media platforms (Duggan...Read more

Patrick Walsh
Galen Clavio
M. David Lovell
Matthew Blaszka

Research on both brand personality and social media in sport is still in their respective developmental stages, and to date no research has examined the impact of social media use on sport brands. This study was the first to examine if differences exist in the brand personality of a sport event between those that use the events social media page and those that do not. After surveying fans of a major National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) event, the results revealed that eight of the nine brand personality items were rated significantly higher for users of the event’s Facebook page...Read more

Natasha T. Brison

Social media provides brands with “personal, trusted, and direct” connectivity to consumers (Drury, 2008, p. 277). Through social media, brands are able to target specific consumer demographics about new and existing products, thereby increasing the likelihood of purchase of those products. With more than 1 billion active users (“Facebook Newsroom,” 2012), Facebook has become a leader in social media and an important vehicle through which sport marketers connect their brands with consumers. From the London 2012 Olympics alone, brands saw significant growth in fan interaction on Facebook....Read more

Mya Pronschinske
Mark D. Groza
Matthew Walker

Given the availability and usage of social network sites (SNS), professional sport teams are drawn to this medium as a way to reach new and foster existing fan relationships. Despite the ubiquity of social media, however, little empirical research is available on how Facebook page attributes, and other SNS strategies, influence user participation. Grounded in the relationship marketing framework, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the page attributes found on team Facebook pages and user (i.e., fan) participation. An econometric model is developed and tested...Read more