Social Media Conversations About High Engagement Sports Team Brands

Abstract

This study conducts an analysis of social media discussions related to high engagement sports brands. More specifically, our study examined the English Premier League (EPL); it sought to retrieve data systematically over the same day, weekly, for a period of five months. After this process, we had built 20 datasets and NodeXL was utilized to analyse the data. After we had this data, we were able to use qualitative observations to identify key users and conversations that formed around the EPL as well as the connections between the conversations that arose from the brand’s posts and the people involved in them. We also analyzed the quantitative data underpinning our network visualisations to provide further insights. The most obvious initial finding was that when the EPL tweets, it prompts a large volume of conversations directly related to these tweets. However, we also noted that EPL tweets also help instigate further, sometimes unrelated, tweets and conversations. More specifically, we identified that the visualized network of conversations was of a broadcast form, which is characterized by messages being generated by a central account (the EPL) and shared by a number of decentralized users. Based on our analysis, we propose guidance around (S)ocial media presence, (C)rafting the message, Planned (i)ntervention, (S)pontaneous follow-up, and (M)essage mortality to form the SCISM framework. This framework is likely to be of interest to brands that wish to promote, sustain and benefit from their instigation of social media.

Binge Watching and the Role of Social Media Virality towards promoting Netflix’s Squid Game

“…These findings add to the body of research that has examined the role and potentials of eWOM (Srivastava et al, 2021) and the social media echo-chamber effect from a non-marketing and non-business-related perspective (Wang & Song, 2020). Our findings are also comparable to Chadwick et al (2021), who found that the Twitter account of a high impact brand (EPL) containing several distinct opinion leaders can lead to the development of a unique amplified network. Another relevant study by Guzmán et al (2021) examined tweets that were collected during Manchester United’s matchdays.…”

“…The interest in the promotional actions of influencers and the responses to such content to achieve viral status is shared by these studies. Identifying viral marketing campaigns requires a detailed analysis of three distinct elements: the influencer, the brand and the followers (Chadwick et al, 2021).…”

“…SNA has also been applied to analyse data regarding the English Premier League (EPL), such as by Chadwick et al (2021). This study found that when a high impact brand such as the EPL tweeted, it generated a vast number of further conversations, engagement and replies.…”

“…More specifically, Srivastava et al (2021) called for more research in e-word-of-mouth (WOM) and influencers using different methods (RQ1), and Fenton et al (2021) called for more research relating to the exploration of social network shape, engagement and influence (RQ2 and RQ3). Furthermore, Chadwick et al (2021) highlight that Twitter is the most open network and that tools such as NodeXL can be used for answering questions relating to impact, network shapes, conversation leaders and flows. They call for future research in SNA to analyse the structure and shape of conversations around high impact brands (RQ3).…”

“…Building on earlier work, including Chadwick et al (2021) and Srivastava (2021), we respond to calls for future research for new products, information spread and influencers on social media using an SNA approach. More specifically, Srivastava et al (2021) called for more research in e-word-of-mouth (WOM) and influencers using different methods (RQ1), and Fenton et al (2021) called for more research relating to the exploration of social network shape, engagement and influence (RQ2 and RQ3).…”