Fox Soccer and ESPN are both present and active on Social Media--especially twitter (@foxsoccer @espnfc). Personally, I follow both; however, I feel more
engaged with Fox Soccer than I do with ESPN. Fox Soccer makes more of an
effort to actually engage with their followers. There are many examples I could
use, but for the sake of this blog I will focus on the Hashtags used by ESPN
and Fox Soccer on twitter.
Let’s start with ESPN. ESPN does a great job on Twitter: posting articles, videos, live scores, etc. I’ve found that their only attempt
at engagement with followers is during live matches with the hashtag
#FCBootroom. Fans can live tweet during
the match with questions using this hashtag and select few will be answered at
halftime and during the post match show.
Fox Soccer is constantly engaging with their
followers on twitter. It could be by asking a simple question like “who will win
tonight?” or “what did you think of this video?” or other opinions, questions on
current news, scores, etc. If your answer is good or you have good timing, a
re-tweet or a response from Fox Soccer is usually coming. Fox Soccer Channel
has a nightly show called Fox Soccer News where during each broadcast, they will ask
a question on twitter with the hashtag #Banterzone. The best responses will be
read on the air. In addition to the Banterzone, if you’re tweeting during a
Champions League match you can use #UCLonFox to connect with Fox Soccer and
other fans around the world. Fox Soccer has not only done a decent job of
engaging with their followers, but has also made it easy for their followers to
engage with one another.
I could take this one step further and talk about ESPN
analyst twitter accounts versus Fox Soccer analyst twitter account. Or talk
about how ESPN is part of your basic cable package and the Fox Soccer Channel
is a paid subscription, but I won’t. Yet.
http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/
http://www.foxsoccer2go.com/
http://espnfc.com/?cc=5901
