How the Boston Celtics are using Social Media

Really interesting article in the Boston Globe yesterday on how the Boston Celtics are using social media to not only increase revenues, but also to reach out to fans who cannot see the team live.

What the Celtics are doing?
The primary goal of the Celtics online efforts is to drive people to their web site. Celtics.com features GameTime Live, an application that features real time scores, tweets, and blogging with supporters throughout the world. The team beta-tested GameTime Live during the 2009 postseason, and more than 50,000 unique visitors checked it out during the triple-overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls in Game 6 of the first round.

From the Globe article:

“Now that we’re at this sold-out state, it’s more difficult to get into the game and fans can’t get tickets,’’ said Rich Gotham, the team’s president. “We want to make sure we don’t forget about those fans. We want to keep them interested and keep them loyal.’’

Basketball buffs are demanding deeper interaction, or a “second screen’’ experience, as Gotham calls it. While fans watch the game on television, many are also tweeting and surfing the Internet – traffic on Celtics.com spikes 100 percent during games

“With sold-out games, we have 18,624 people in the building. But we could have over 20,000 online at Celtics.com,’’ said Shawn Sullivan, chief marketing officer for the Celtics. “It’s almost like there is a whole other game going on.’’

In addition to making Celtics.com a destination for its fans, the Celtics are also going out to other places online where Celtic fans congregate; namely YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/bostonceltics)
With less than 700 subscribers, the Celtics YouTube channel is not attracting a lot of attention at the moment. Most videos get around 1,000 views. However, the team recently began distributing exclusive locker room footage on YouTube which will drive more people to this channel and increase subscribers. This is a great example of providing different content for separate digital channels in order to make them more valuable in users eyes.

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/bostonceltics)
With over 450,000 fans in its Facebook page, the Celtics are the second most popular NBA team on Facebook. Similar to the exclusive locker room video for YouTube subscribers, last week the Celtics launched 3-Point Play, an interactive stats prediction game for fans on its Facebook page.

Twitter (http://twitter.com/celtics)
With almost 22,000 Twitter followers, the Celtics have built up a good following. In addition to Tweeting quotes from press conferences and team events, the Celtics are also using Twitter to offer seating upgrades at games. The picture below was from earlier today.

The Celtics are a really good example of how to successfully use social media. They have a central point of contact (the web site) but they are also visible in the main social networking sites. And on these social networking sites they are investing in exclusive content specially for that channel to attract new fans and strengthen the relationship they have with existing fans.

“The last thing we want to do is sit on our hands,’’ Gotham said. “Our popularity has reached an all-time high, and we want to take advantage of the opportunity to build a bigger fan base so that during leaner times that will pay us back.’’