Users have come to Instagram in droves because of the visual experience. The whole experience of a football match and everything that surrounds it is filled with visual stimulants. Clubs can take advantage of Instagram by using these photos to tell a story about their brand and connecting fans to the brand through photography.

Ways Teams Can Use Instagram

Engage fans with imagery

Photos can tell a story quicker and oftentimes, better, than words. Football is filled with powerful images – goal celebrations, the joy of fans, the vibrant colors in the stadium on matchday. Photos can evoke strong emotions in fans. A team with a rich history could go with a strategy of posting classic photos and memorable moments in team history. Perhaps after each match, a team could post a great photo or two from the game to connect with fans.  Here’s some ways other sports brands are engaging fans through imagery:

Promotional vehicle (Philadelphia Eagles)

Provide a visual connection to a final score (New York Knicks)

Share what it’s like behind the scenes

One of the big draws for fans to follow any social network is the chance to see what it’s like “behind the curtain.” Fans love to see what goes on behind the scenes. The opportunity to catch a glimpse of that “secret” world can create a strong connection between a fan and a brand. Photos of the dressing room before a big match or the manager’s office can get fans excited. Images such as these can help build excitement and buzz leading up to a match.

Before/After Shot of Arena with 9,000 t-shirts ready for fans for big game (Univ. of South Florida Athletics)

Team dancers practicing in-game routine (Boston Celtics)

Showcase the personality of the brand

Images posted through Instagram can tell a visual story about the brand. Visual imagery is a powerful way of  communicating the values and beliefs of a club. What does it mean to be a fan of a particular club? Each and every professional club has a tradition and “personality” that is reflected in the style of play, the fans, the stadium and the club history.  A team can use Instagram to tell that story and build a stronger bond with old and new fans.

Red Bull posts a daily “awesome” photo that reflects the nature of the brand

Engage fans through sharing user-generated content

Instagram is an excellent resource for crowdsourcing for user-generated content. Levi’s Jeans is using Instagram to find the star for their next ad campaign. All fans have to do is upload a photo of themselves and tag it with #iamlevis. Starbucks provides an outlet for fans of its brand by re-posting creative shots tagged with #starbucks.

At my job here at the University of South Florida Athletics Department, we recently had an in-venue “Instagram Photo Contest” during one of our spring scrimmages. Fans could enter the contest by tagging their photo with #USFSpringGame and one of the following categories: #Fans, #Action, #BestShot. The following week, we posted the top five photos on our website and allowed fans to vote on the winners. The winning photos will be printed and signed by our head coach.

Instagram can be a very useful tool in a club’s social media assets and provide another way to connect fans to the brand. A few Premier League clubs (Arsenal &  Manchester City) have made some forays into the world of Instagram, but I haven’t seen as a serious a commitment as some of the brands listed above.

The post Football Clubs and Instagram appeared first on Digital-Football.com - Football Social Media & Digital Sports news.

I downloaded the Matchday app for my iPhone and iPad over the weekend. All in all, I’m impressed with it. Here’s some screen shots and a brief review of the application.

Design & Navigation

First off, I love the look and feel of the app. It’s got a sleek, clean design and it’s very easy to navigate. Once you start the app, it takes you to a home screen which allows you select the club of your choice before moving to the club’s “homepage.”

The Scores page is very easy to read and makes it simple to find your desired match – click on the bar and you’ll be taken to the game center for the individual match where you can view stats, play-by-play and see video highlights.

Content & Features

Whether you’re viewing league news or team-specific news, it’s laid out in a newspaper style format similar to the popular Flipboard iPad app. You can read team news and updates on players, etc. The schedule button pops up a calendar format to find when the next game – clicking on that pops up a smaller window with time and television information.

On each team’s homepage, there’s a “Chants” tab which allows you the opportunity to hear a few of the fans’ most popular chants. Great idea!

With the number of television channels in the U.S. showing a variety of sports, the app also has a helpful “TV Info” page which shows which games are nationally televised each week and what channels are showing games.

One of my favorite features is the “Alerts” tool which allows you to select notifications on your device for breaking news as well as match notifications such as when the games start and end, goals, cards and substitutions.

Video

There’s a lot of video content available for users in the Matchday app. Outside of the ability to watch live games with an MLS Live subscription, there’s a variety of free content to watch daily. The main video tab offers the ability to choose from a category of the league’s regular programming such as the MLS Review Show, Goal of the Week, Save of the Week and The Daily. If you select a club as one of your “favorites”, the video tab will sort by “Live” “Club-Specific” and “MLS Soccer.”

If you click within a specific game that’s already been played, you can view 15-20 bite-size highlights of the match – goals, saves, close shots, etc.

Needs Some Work

When you click on a team’s roster, it simply brings up a list of players with the number and position. Clicking on the name doesn’t take you anywhere or allow you get any information about the player. I’d like to see a bio with at least a headshot of the player and perhaps some career/season statistics.

Under the “Learn” tab, there’s an option to view a listing of all of the MLS stadiums. I think this is a great idea as it allows the league to showcase many of the newer venues that were built specifically for soccer and for MLS. However, the tab leaves a bit to be desired in the information department. While you can view the name of each team’s stadium with the year it opened, there’s not even a capacity number. There is one photo beside each venue, but most of them are just a shot of a crowd and doesn’t give you any clear picture of what the stadium looks like.

Rating

4/5  ★ ★ ★ ★

The post MLS Matchday 2012 Mobile App Review appeared first on Digital-Football.com - Football Social Media & Digital Sports news.