Introduction
Many organizations have had to change the way they operate because social media has become such a powerhouse that has to be implemented in their marketing and communication strategies.
Social media can be defined as web sites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts: Many businesses are utilizing social media to generate sales (Dictionary.com, n.p.).
For the sport industry, social media has enabled fans to have a closer relationship with sporting organisation operations while allowing their organisation to be strategic and more proficient with limited amount of capitals. This has helped sports to get involved in the
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This paper will use Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as an illustration to analyse how this organisation uses social media to achieve its business objectives. The UFC is the leading MMA organisation and promoter and the two have become indistinguishable, just like the sport of basketball is formally known as National Basketball Association (NBA).
Background of UFC
The UFC was an adaption of a full contact sport known as Vale tudo which originated from Brazil. The ultimate fighting championship was then created with minimal rules in the united stated in 1993, and it was promoted as a contest which decides the effective and well-rounded martial art for unarmed combat situations (UFC, n.p.). Long after the UFC started the fighters understood that in order to be competitive among the martial artist, they will have to train in additional disciplines. Therefore, this helped the UFC fighters to become well-rounded and balanced fighters that could fight on the floor as well as standing so that then compete at an elite level. So the mixed martial arts (MMA) of today are from the blend of different fighting styles and skills. In the present days, UFC is the prime organisation in MMA with the enforced Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts without exemption. Nowadays, the UFC has progressed into an organisation that regulates its environment where safety is paramount. The UFC athletes have to be capable to compete in many forms of
The definition of social media Wigmore provided is that the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. (2014) Social networks have evolved into online communities. They can be based around all sorts of thing like friendship or common interests, which allows file sharing, blogging and often-incorporate content from all sorts of other
Social media is different from more traditional marketing tactics as it offers a free platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. This allows for the increase communication for organizations to foster brand awareness and often, and
Another way social media has affected the sports world is by bringing fans closer to the game. As a sports fan, I can agree that fans always want to feel closer to the game. That is why people still pay ridiculous ticket prices to attend ball games instead of watching them on TV in the comfort of their living room. Fans have an urge for that connection and closeness. They want to feel apart of the game. Social media sites provide teams and players the unique ability to directly connect with their fans. It used to be the closest you got to a favorite player was a post-game radio interview. Now, you can follow them on Twitter and have rare insight into their everyday world. Players use sites like Facebook and Twitter to give fan’s a behind the scenes look at what happens at home, in the locker room, and on the sidelines. Social media gives pro athletes the chance to interact and share data with fans in a way that was not possible in the past. Fans used to only know about a player from what they read in the paper or saw on TV (Van Schaik) . Now, fans can find out what their favorite player ate for breakfast or what music they are listening to. Fans have yearned for this kind of accessibility for years and now it is becoming a reality. I actually have friend’s that make it a daily ritual
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters use techniques from various forms of fighting. Because of that, they should be in top physical condition, thus undergo an intense MMA training. When they prepare to fight in matches, they have to work on their strength, agility, endurance, and speed. It takes time and patience to become a professional MMA fighter. Most fighters started from basic martial arts like Jiu-Jitsu, Karate, and Tae Kwon Do. Boxing and wrestling are also essential abilities to have. If an aspiring fighter doesn’t have any of these skills, they should join a specialized school, club, or gym to have the proper training.
We cannot deny how big of an impact social media has on our lives now, not only on people but businesses too. It has opened a whole new door to the business world and given them a big opportunity to interact and attract a larger amount of customers. It’s given us a new and faster way of communication by exchanging pictures, stories, news, blogs, online discussions, etc. In exchange businesses have benefited by a long shot just by the click of a button. With the help of the Internet a company no longer is dependent on a particular customer base to survive because now it can reach out to a worldwide audience within seconds. It’s imaginable the countless business attributes of all social media to this day and still is growing. Social media
Social media is capable of connecting a brand with its consumers and discover how they are being perceived, it also has the power to change perceptions and identify the key people within the business network. The unique feature of social media is that it can provide corporations and businesses solutions developed through operating with consumers and stakeholders. Basically, social media serves as a visible connection to one’s corporation and its stakeholders, consumers, suppliers, etc, who each have a defined role within the system to filter and regulate information. As mentioned earlier, the influence of social media is spreading in a proliferative pace that has resulted to an essential transformation in society, technology and business customs.
The main research in the literature review will be broken down into two different fields, social media and MMA. For social media, we will look into the various aspects of social media. Topics such as social media marketing, advertising and how it integrates perfectly within a business organization will be covered. We will also be covering the social media aspect of public relations and how it helps organisations communicate with its public. As for MMA, we will understand and study the history of MMA and how the sport has used social media to improve the development of the sport. In the literature review, I would first start by giving a brief history of MMA, how it all started, and subsequently go into the discourse of social media; the marketing and advertising aspect, and how it has help the growth of MMA.
The term social media generally refers to communication technologies and interactive platform, such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. A further definition is given by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) who described it as a group of Internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content, and emphasizes that any user of social media can be a content creator and can distribute to a network of users. In a broad term, social media is the social interaction via online information and communication technologies
Social media affects people’s daily lives. Think about how social media has affected your life. Many people that interact with technology do not realize how much Facebook and Twitter have affected their own lives, so they surely do not realize how much it has affected a business’s marketing structure. Bill Bowerman, once a head coach at the University of Oregon, and Phil Knight, a long distance runner once at the University of Oregon, paired up to start making athletic shoes. They first started working with a company named Blue Ribbon Sports then they paired up and their ideas and hard work resulted into the company Nike in 1971 (Nike). Nike has grown into a popular brand for athletes. Their marketing tactics heavily focus on athletes and
As the fighter's face drips with blood, he continues to push forward and engage his opponent. At this point in time, the fighter's body and mind are telling him to give up. Most people give in to this feeling because they do not know what their body can actually do. However, a true athlete knows how to keep on fighting and ignore what his body and mind are ordering. Although there is much bloodshed, mixed martial arts is not a barbaric death match, but a sport because there are many techniques and rules that a fighter must master and follow in order to ensure safety to himself and his opponent.
The purpose of this report is to show that even though some state that Social Media has fallen short of their expectations, it is actually good for business, given that it enhances the visibility of their brand and helps businesses stay connected to potential customers.
Social media can be defined as websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking. As a phenomenon of only the past couple of decades, it has certainly changed the way we live our everyday lives. Whether socially or professionally, it opens the door to incredible amounts of information; most of which is freely shared.
Before the invention of the Web, organizations had only two significant choices in order to attract attention: they could either buy expensive advertising or get third-party ink from the media. The old rules of marketing were
According to Campbell in order to achieve key business strategies and goals, social media and innovation have to be closely tied to (Campbell, 2010). Organization has to first identify which social media outpost source to establish their presence, it can be done through company blog, Facebook or Twitter. Presence must be constantly monitored and monitoring can be done using team approach whereby a team of employees are settled to be responsible in managing the account. Through social media, organization is able to monitor the voices of customers’ view as well as track competitors’ current new update efficiently in order to stay abreast and encourage creatively thinking in the organization, as well as advising for your new product with just a simple tweet or post. In Appendix 1 and 2 are some examples of how a multinational organization named Baskin-Robbins uses Facebook and Twitter monitoring to get views and communicate using two way communications with their customers.
The era of social media platforms is booming really fast and increasing usage of these platforms by the competing companies Decathlon E-commerce Head Aaron Zhou was concerned and decided to convince the CEO of the company to dedicate more of the resources in the social media world to push the sales and to increase brand awareness and brand engagement.