AS Roma’s 3-1 victory over the MLS All-Star side was refereed by Hilario Grajeda who can be seen in the supporting video wearing a headset to record the game and provide fans with amazing content. Whilst it might not be “behind-the-scenes” it certainly gives football fans another view of how fast paced a football match can be, as well as an insight into just how moany footballers are on the pitch.

Ref Cam isn’t new to the US, with the Women’s NBA already having trialled the concept to great success. Unfortunately for us, FIFA doesn’t allow this type of technology in any official football match so we will have to be content with this perhaps being used in solely friendlies in the future.

Undoubtedly, it’s a fantastic idea for generating content and could one day be used by referee’s to justify why they made certain decisions based on what view of the ball they had.

The post MLS create Ref Cam for 2013 All-Star game using GoPro appeared first on Digital-Football.com - Football Social Media & Digital Sports news.

Fans are clearly a huge part of what make the team and this reflects in their digital stats, they have the second most amount of followers and likes after LA Galaxy. Digital-Football.com had a chat with Digital Marketing Manager Shane Evans to discuss how they’ve built such a large following, despite being one of the youngest teams in the MLS.

Q. How would you describe your average 9-5? Are there any routines?

A. There is rarely a routine in this job. There are patterns depending on what point in the season we are in or if we are playing home or away, that kind of thing. Things are thrown at me from all different angles and departments and I react accordingly based on need or urgency and go from there.

Q. The football experience often involves huge amounts of tradition and unity, as a relatively young club, how do you use digital to try and instill tradition alongside fan involvement?

A. Well one thing that football fans most certainly are is passionate, so it doesn’t take much of a push in the right direction for little things to become certified team traditions. As far as the digital side of that goes, we just keep things fresh in the minds of our supporters and make the things they hold most dear apparent in everything we do.

We also make a point to let things grow organically. We don’t overdo certain phrases or hashtags and let our supporters decide what they like best and go from there.

Q. How do you engage with fans who may also be engaged with a NBA, NFL, NHL & MLB team. Is there an Inter sport rivalry or do you just focus on the MLS fans.

A. The Sounders and the Seattle Seahawks are actually under the same umbrella (and office/stadium for that matter) so there is a huge overlap in our staff/projects/goals that kind of thing. We encourage a healthy relationship with the Seahawks and our supporters react tremendously well when we mention them in posts and that type of thing.

Typically, you’ll see supporters stay loyal to an entire city rather than just one sport. If you’re a Sounders fan, you’ll most likely enjoy the Seahawks and catch a few Mariners games a year and we encourage that behavior as its reciprocal. When the Sounders are successful, the Seahawks highlight that and vice versa.

Q. How do you use digital to build a loyal fan base?

A. At the Sounders we’re extremely lucky to have one of the biggest fan bases in all of MLS so we use our digital arms to maintain it and grow steadily. To contradict my last answer, we do compete with the Seahawks/Marines at times for media attention and the like so it’s important to stand out, even within our own market. As such, ensuring our content is unique and eye-catching, while not being too over the top, we help to grow our following.

We want to reflect the passion of our supporters in what we do and have them engage accordingly.

Q. When are your busiest periods?

A. Typically after matches we see the biggest engagement of our supporters as everyone wants to know more about the action and the take of our players/coaches/analysts is scrutinized, whether good or bad.

Q. What do you do on match day for digital engagement?

A. We do a lot on match days to get our supporters involved. Aside from the typical live tweeting of match action, we post numerous photos in an effort to capture the atmosphere of a Sounders match, as well as video, polls, pre-match articles and basically anything that we believe our supporters will enjoy…all of which on a strict schedule that doesn’t seem like we are force-feeding content.

We want our supporters to connect just as much with the content as they do with the match itself.

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The Sounders currently sit with just over 62,000 Twitter followers and despite being the 97th largest club on Twitter worldwide, have the 3rd largest following in the MLS – with LA Galaxy and New York Red Bulls leading ahead. On Facebook, the Seattle side have a very commendable 290,738 Likes and an even more impressive 63,000 check-ins at their stadium, something many European teams are still lagging behind on.

We want to say thanks to Shane for taking the time out to give us a behind the scenes look at how the Sounders are engaging on Social Media and wish them all the best in the future.

The post Seattle Sounders show how MLS use Social Media [INTERVIEW] 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  ★ ★ ★ ★

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