Playback on Sport for Business Social Media Webinar

We were joined for our Live Webinar by Stephen O’Leary from Olytico, Gareth Maher of the FAI and Maeve Galvin from Electric Ireland to look at the many ways that Social Media has come into its own for sport and wellbeing over the past number of weeks.

The conversation flowed across the ways in which brands and sporting bodies have acted to maintain a connection with their audiences, at how sports have engaged at a much more human level with players, coaches and others who would have been more reluctant to be involved before, and at how social media has been a powerful force for social good through fundraising and campaign awareness.

We were delighted afterwards to hear that a number of those present had been in touch with Maeve to offer support and assistance with the Electric Ireland Sunrise Appeal, taking the interim place of this year’s Darkness Into Light.

It was also great to hear from Gareth about the success of the different campaigns that the FAI have and are creating and to get an insight into the decision and execution strategy that applies to how they are being built.

A poll of those in the room showed a pretty even split across the way in which social media was being used for News, Entertainment or Conversation and feedback again from the session was that it had gone down really well.

Looking to the future Stephen looked at the positive way that players and teams might emerge.

“For many, there was a real fear about criticism of performance and needing an escape away from public scrutiny.”

“Without performance, there is now a greater sense of connecting with people in a supportive way and they will come out of this with a stronger, more human connection to fans.”

“That, in turn, will give them stronger leverage to work in smart ways with brands over time.”

Thanks to Carla Reynolds, one of our Sport for Business 30 under 30 from last year for sharing the image above and for taking such good notes.