Identifying the Different Approaches in Use of Social Media Outlets: A Case Study of German Professional Sport Teams

Abstract

The sport industry has long used social media as an effective instrument of communication. In the framework of the current study, a content analysis investigated how professional sport clubs in Germany use Facebook and Twitter. The study covers the entire 2015–16 season, which was illustrated via selectively choosing 2 weeks for data analysis; four clubs each from basketball, ice hockey, football, and handball were collected as a sample. All Facebook posts and Twitter tweets published by the 16 clubs during the 2 weeks, a total of 3,412 contributions (Facebook 717, Twitter 2,695), were included in the analysis. The codebook contained 57 variables, and this article presents the results on the identified topics of the published contents on the two social media platforms. On both platforms, the clubs under examination primarily issued statements regarding themselves and their sport-related activities. Twitter is predominantly used as a live medium during games, whereas Facebook allows for significantly greater reach. However, no sport-related differences were found between the two social media platforms.