Sports stars have always held a fascination with the public. Back in Ancient Greece and Roman times, the public had their favourite gladiators, wrestlers and athletes, and would queue for hours to get a glimpse of their hero. And little has changed in that respect two thousand years later. But one thing that has changed beyond all recognition is the way that sports stars interact with their fans.
Social media, and in particular Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, is the new way for sports stars and sports clubs or organisations to connect with their fans around the world. A sports club or organisation can send information directly to its fan base about players, fixtures, results and statistics as well as real time game feeds, photographs and updates. This is all information that would take a fan hours of internet trawling to find.
FIH has adopted social media wholesale and its 26,654 Twitter followers (@FIH_Hockey) can stay abreast of all the latest hockey news from around the globe. Likewise, the FIH Facebook account sends the latest website updates directly to its large fan base, so hockey lovers can read articles and posts relating to hockey news, tournaments and developments.
Twitter and Facebook allow clubs to publish such information in an interactive and personal way, delivering it straight to the fans' news feeds with just the click of a "like" or "follow" button. The interactive element allows the fans to have their say on a public forum, whether it's about a match result, a rule change or a comment on an aspect of the game.
One of FIH mission's is to work hard to engage and interact with the sport's supporters. The international players and the national hockey associations are on board with this and work hard to develop a loyal, growing fan base. Through regular tweets and interactions with fans, there is evidence that the public's engagement with our sport is growing steadily. Lawrence West is the communications manager for Australia Hockey. he said: "We leapt from 17,000 followers of the Hockeyroos on Facebook in November to 41,000 because of the team's trip to Argentina for the World League Finals. The growth in digital profile is tremendous."
For followers of a sport, social media is a chance for the sports stars to interact and to give a personal perspective on all aspects of their sport, unhindered by various PR and marketing machines. This is a world away from the bland television interviews given by some of the best known sporting stars on the planet. Of course there is a danger that a tweet made in jest or in anger can give offence, but in so many ways that makes our sports stars much more personable.
Hockey's top tweeters: Luciana Aymar @aymarlucha has 214,000 Twitter followers; Ellen Hoog @ellenhoog – 21,7000; Jamie Dwyer @jamiedwyer1 –14,7000 and Ashley Jackson @ashleyjackson7 – 6,727. And Australia top the charts for Instagram: Jamie Dwyer @Jamiedwyer01 has 5,010 followers and Anna Flanagan @anna_flanagan has 7,895.
