Friday, November 1, 2013


Company: Comcast Sports Net Bay Area
Social media page: Facebook
Status:  27,595 likes · 3,220 talking about this
 
Over the summer I had the opportunity to work with Comcast Sports Net Bay Area. Comcast Sports Net is one of the most popular networks in the Bay Area and reaches a large audience every day. As a member of their Public Relations and Events team I was often in contact with their social media websites to engage our fans and provide them with breaking news on the Giants, A’s, and other Bay Area sports teams. They have several social media pages on multiple sites including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Their most collective and comprehensive site is their Facebook page.  The Comcast website on Facebook has over 27, 500 likes and is useful for fans because it includes a variety of interactive resources that keep the fans up to date and informed on players, teams, and upcoming events. Almost every day the site uploads several photos of players or current events happening in the sports world. Some of the most recent uploads are photos from Joe Montana’s London football clinic, the Forty Niners progress during their season, and to keep it even more entertaining, a Halloween special of Bay Area sports figures in costume. Along with photos, the site also uploads many articles on what is currently happening in the sports world and beyond. Comcast keeps their fans’ attention by not simply just focusing on sporting events but also popular culture surrounding sports. One of their most active posts was an article on Kanye’s recent proposal to celebrity, Kim Kardashian at At&T Park. This article sparked a wide range of conversation topics, opinions, and comments. Not only does Comcast constantly post links to sports articles, videos, current events and photos but they also engage the fans by opening the floor to discussion, asking fans how they feel about certain topics like whether or not Harrison Barnes will start the season as the Golden State Warrior's sixth man or if $14 million is too much money to bring back Bartolo Colon. In addition to the page, the website promotes attendance to sports games by providing fans with schedules of game times and locations. They also present a comprehensive list of several other events for fans to participate in like the “Post Game BBQs” or the “Authentic Warriors Road Viewing Party.”

 However, the site falls short in a few categories. One feature that the website can improve upon is providing fans with premiums. Unfortunately, the site does not offer any free give a ways to attract the fans which definitely can hurt the fan base. By engaging the fans in promotional give a ways, Comcast can certainly increase their status on Facebook as many more fans would be enticed to join the page.  The site also has very little user-generated content and focuses more on their own products, articles, and photos rather than the fans’ materials. The site could be more engaging if fans could contribute their own threads of discussion topics and photos rather than simply replying to the one’s Comcast provides.
            Overall, though, the Comcast Sports Net Bay Area website is effective in providing an atmosphere that is appealing to their fans through a variety of means. Participation is one of the biggest components to this site as a “dialogue” environment is ultimately created through open ended questions with room for endless comments, concerns, and discussions. They also have an active content flow in which photos, videos, links, schedules, and events are posted and updated every day.
 
-Melissa Russi

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