I spoke a few months ago about the need for\u00a0football clubs (and all sports teams) to ensure that their stadium was optimised for matchday social media<\/a>. At the time, I made a point of raising the issue that many fans simply cannot update their\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0account with realtime matchday content, mainly due to the lack of signal or connection within a stadium. I argued,<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Fans like to do things as they wait for kick-off, they like to upload a photo from their seat to Facebook, they like to use geo-check in to let their friends know they are at the game.\u00a0Similarly, many like to report goals and incidents from the stadium to media and message boards worldwide. But they can\u2019t do any of that if the stadium\u2019s\u00a0WiFi<\/a>\u00a0or 3G is\u00a0severely\u00a0over-burdened to the point it no longer works\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, I was delighted to hear \u00a0that Barcelona had recognised this issue and\u00a0were trying to rectify the problem<\/a>\u00a0(Credit to\u00a0@TomFaller<\/a>\u00a0for spotting this). The worlds largest football club announced on their\u00a0official site<\/a>\u00a0that they had teamed up with telecommunications giant\u00a0Telefonica<\/a>, in order to,<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018make FC Barcelona\u2019s stadium the first venue to be used to test and improve new wireless and networked technologies to improve telephone coverage and\u00a0provide the finest access for the use of social networks<\/strong>\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Over the next 3 years, the two will work alongside each another to ensure that the famous\u00a0Camp Nou stadium<\/a>has the very latest technology to ensure that Barcelona\u2019s huge social media presence can communicate straight from all the action on a matchday.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that\u00a0Barcelona \u2018get\u2019 sports social media<\/a>, but this is an excellent example for other clubs. Real social media isn\u2019t about broadcasting to your fans, but getting your fans talking and working with each another. What better place for them to talk about their club than during \u00a0a matchday, in the stadium!<\/p>\n

I do hope that clubs closer to me in the UK take notice and perhaps work with their local telecommunication providers to ensure that their matchday experience isn\u2019t spoilt by lack of signal. Luckily for Barca, they haven\u2019t had to pay a penny for this!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spoke a few months ago about the need for\u00a0football clubs (and all sports teams) to ensure that their stadium was optimised for matchday social media. At the time, I made a point of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6176122011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[69,67,63,59,19,58],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n