Sports are one of the most popular and long-standing leisure activities developed by humankind. They date back thousands of years, to ancient China, Egypt, Persia and Greece. Once, their performance was limited to a selected few, but sports became commonplace after the industrial revolution, with both, a growing number of athletes and fans all over the world. The explosion of popularity that all kinds of physical activity have seen, could not have been fathomed by spectators at the Coliseum. As it’s often the case, the Internet seems to be the culprit here. In this post, I’d like to show you how to use live chat on sports websites to your advantage. Game on!
Along with their growing popularity, sports have become a full-fledged business (Hasn’t everything? No, seriously, what’s not for sale these days?). I’m not really mad at it, as I think that bigger money involved has increased the levels of athletes’ performance. And why not let people earn on something that’s beautiful and entertaining?
Anyway, to narrow down this extremely wide topic, I’d like to take a closer look at how the Internet affects the fan – sports organization relation and what it offers to fans in terms of sharing their passion.
The points I’m going to discuss below are rather broad categories pertaining to using live chat on sports websites, within which I provide more detailed examples. If you happen to be an owner of such a page, keep on reading, and maybe you’ll be able to set your website franchise user attendance record.
Live chat with sports organization members
This application of live chat on sports websites seems to be one of the most frequent ones out there. It shouldn’t come as a surprise either, as a Q&A or AMA session with a member of sports organization is a great way for fans to learn more about the discipline they’re interested in and the session can be pretty entertaining. Notice, I didn’t just say players, too.
Since I’ve been a huge basketball fan for nearly 20 years now and I’m also a stats junkie (they keep so many of them in the NBA it’s not even funny), I recently read a transcript of an interview with an NBA analyst.
I didn’t really expect to learn any rare stats but was more interested in getting to know the man’s personal side, and that’s exactly what fans can do with live chat on sports websites. The guy was asked a variety of questions and gave funny answers adjusted to the tone of people querying him.
If you’re an admin of a sports site, you’ll surely draw more visitors to it by arranging a real-time question and answer session with a prominent (or actually unexpected) figure. You can go completely out of the box and have a ball boy, a fitness trainer or a club dietitian answer questions to go beyond sports.
Just make sure you announce the session in advance and have moderators ready to step in, should things get inappropriate. After you’re done, upload the transcript to your website for anyone interested to read it.
Connect during live games
Watching sports live and connecting with other people on the emotional level is the essence of the whole experience. The thing is that teams and notable events are usually located in major cities. Sports fans can be found all over the map, though.
Well, they can, of course, connect over the Internet. Not only can supporters use all types of streaming services to watch athletes compete, they can also talk to each other in real-time via live chat on sports websites.
There are also webcasts for various sports disciplines that can incorporate live chat to engage and make their viewers a part of the show by answering questions or running live contest.
If, however, fans have an option to watch a game live on TV, they can still hook up from the comfort of their couch and discuss events as they happen using the mobile version of live chat on sports websites. They can even turn the emotional aspect up a notch and post their reactions to plays in the form of photos for everyone to see.
Live chat on sports websites fosters communities
Every facet of sports is innately social. The majority of disciplines involve not only a significant number of people competing but also deep coaching and supporting staff. And then there are millions of fans all over the globe, too.
Live chat on sports websites allows these fans to get together and talk shop. And let me tell you, when I get with my boys, we can go all night long. I don’t think it’s much different for people online.
Fans can use live chat on sports websites to discuss recent games, storylines, trades, highlights and even make arrangements to go to games together, if they happen to be from the same area. Chat room can also become a trading hub for stuff like sports equipment and team gear.
Sports clubs building their brands
Like I said earlier in the post, sports have become a huge business. Some of the most successful teams have become brands, whose logos can be seen in various forms all over the world.
Fans want to stay connected to their favorite teams and implementing live chat on sports websites facilitates this. Using such a solution bridges the gap between a club website and its social media channels. It also creates an opportunity to build brand loyalty among fans and add a little human touch to the business.
And speaking of business, live chat on sports websites can help to boost ticket sales and provide more personalized, real-time customer service to season ticket holders, who usually, and rightfully so, demand special treatment. Live chat can be made available only on certain pages, available to the members of loyal fanbase.
Recently, I’ve been reading an article on advisory sales, or assisted sales if you will, and live chat on sports websites provides an excellent opportunity for delivering one-to-one, personalized advice to sports fans interested in doing business with a club.
Live chat for fantasy leagues
Some of the more hardcore team sports enthusiasts can’t get enough satisfaction just watching their favorite game, they also want to play general managers.
There are pages catering to that need, offering fantasy leagues for anyone interested to participate in. Live chat on sports websites of this kind can be used for a number or purposes. Members of the league can ask for advice on trades, strategy, tech issues they may experience while managing their rosters or how to start or join a league.
Obviously, there would be a lot of general sports-related talk going on, as people using fantasy league sites are heavily into particular disciplines, plus the events taking place in the real world directly influence the rate of success online. Thus, there’s plenty of room to discuss perspectives, what may happen, what changes should one make to his roster, etc.
Final word
Live chat on sports websites provides another opportunity for people interested in different disciplines to be closer to their passion and connect with each other in real-time. It’s an excellent tool for sports clubs to build their brand, grab more fans and boost sales of tickets or merch, as well as communicate and deliver entertainment in the form of AMA sessions with intriguing figures.
Moreover, live chat on sports websites fits very well into one of the basic concepts behind athletics, that is live competition and sharing emotions with other people in real-time by means of instant communication offered by today’s technology.
It also supports community building process around sports-related websites through bringing together people who are centered around the same team or interest in a particular discipline. Let me know how you feel about live chat on sports websites and whether you have used one so far.
