Last month I had the pleasure of speaking at a sports conference in Kilkenny on the subject of fans engagement. The conference attracted a wide range of sports professionals from a diverse range of governing bodies, sports clubs and sports tech companies.

The key learnings from the day included;

• Raw video footage that is not planned can often work well in terms of fans engagement resulting in shares, re tweets and comments.
• Developing great content that the fans want is key for sports organisations /clubs. The content should be interesting, informative and unique.
• Fans engagement is about building a strong relationship rather than being viewed as a sales channel!
• You have to make the engagement with the fans personal.
• Athlete generated content is some of the most sought after content by fans.
• ‎Measuring fans engagement on your social media channels is vital. It is then key to take the data and adopt the content accordingly – on a week by week basis.
• Get your brand right! Fans love to support their team but the administration must create the right brand to allow quality fans engagement to happen.

Geoff runs his own Sports Consultancy, working with clients such as FIFA across the world. He is also on the board of Tourism Northern Ireland. You can follow Geoff on twitter @geoffwnjwilson or connect on Linkedin at http://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffwnjwilson