Since the social media was fully embraced by the sports industry, the management of sports teams, leagues, and associations began to use them as a tool to promote their growth and connection to the fans. And sports bars and sports-themed restaurants could take some cues.

For example, a study conducted in 2017, Twitter partnered with NFL to do a live broadcast of 10 games for $10 million. Facebook also streamed 46 games from Mexico’s Liga MX soccer league in the same year. The use of social media by sports organizations is a crucial aspect of the marketing strategy geared towards enhanced productivity and more returns on investment.

And while you’re not running a sports league team, you’re still running a sports organization polska-ed.com. Your roster is your staff and, like pro teams, you’re trying to generate interest in your organization by marketing yourself to sports fans.

To that end, sports bar operators should use social media like pro teams and leagues do — to enhance the fan experience. Consider the following ways through which sports businesses exploit social media to achieve their goals.

Making Announcements

It has more or less become the normal expectation that almost all-important sports information and breaking news is made on social media — be it by teams, leagues and associations, or by the sports personalities themselves. Almost all of the major sports personalities have a social media presence and are even making money from it. For example, bettingsites.me.uk reports that Christiano Ronaldo’s social media channels are currently worth around $500 million!

Also, the ease and speed with which information and news go viral makes such announcements travel far and fast. Conversations can then begin between fans, running for long hours, starting trends and hashtags that will spread the news further. After all, the Internet never sleeps and neither do the social networks.

Sports bars and restaurants could also adopt the use of social media for awareness and sports news dissemination. Sharing breaking sports news and amazing highlights builds your brand’s credibility as the local sports experts. And when the credibility of a sports bar has been established amongst fans, it becomes the go-to place for any sports-related content.

Operators can use social media as a tool for informing guests and followers about what’s going on in their bar. For instance, you can talk about what games you’ll be featuring on your TVs each day and other big events during the week on social media. The SportsTV Guide App Widget makes sharing game schedules to social media a breeze.

Using Video Content

The most engaging type of sports content used by sports organizations on social media are short match clips (or highlights), pre-match footage, interviews, and live training ground footage.

As a sports bar, broadcasting these kinds of video content on your social media channels will attract larger viewership and exposure. In addition, regularly posting short video content about trending sports topics, upcoming events, and games will get you more audience engagement.

But don’t stop there. Be sure to show live streams or clips of guests at your bar enjoying the games and atmosphere. Fan videos are a great marketing tool that many sports bar overlook.

Providing Live Streams

Sports bars can start live-streaming various sports content and notify guests and their friends in advance over social media channels about such events. Often times, live-stream events are niche sports that the generic sports bar overlooks. However, by showing these “off-beat” sports and leagues, it expands your potential guest base, shows that you’re serious about sports and gives you an in with these niche-sports fans.

This means fans can count on your sports bar to provide them reliable and regular broadcasts of their favorite sports content as it happens.