Social Media in Sport Marketing

From the Preface: "Not surprisingly, companies of all sizes are using social media as part of their marketing and public relations efforts. The growth of the social media phenomenon and constant advances in technology obviously create unique and powerful opportunities for those able to capitalize on them. The question is how best to do so? Social Media in Sport Marketing has been created to help answer this question as it pertains to sport organizations."

Written from the perspective of sport professionals, this brief but thorough text explores the concepts, tools, and issues surrounding social media and marketing, with reader-friendly examples and applications specifically from the world of sports. The authors connect industry-specific content with current trends in social media and provide readers with a balance between theory and experience. Instructors and students can use the book as a primary resource for teaching and learning about traditional sport marketing/public relations principles as they relate to social media. Instructors will appreciate the inclusion of case studies, which can be used to generate discussions; students will benefit from the numerous examples. The book can also serve as a guidebook for those who want to put ideas into action immediately.

The experienced author team includes a sport marketing professor as well as practitioners involved in social media project management and development.

Tim Newman is an associate professor at York College of Pennsylvania, US. As a member of the United States Sports Academy's national faculty, Newman works with distance-learning students and has taught courses in Botswana, Malaysia, and Thailand. He sits on the National Board of Directors for the Leaders of Tomorrow Foundation and the Board of Commissioners for the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation. His primary areas of research include marketing, social media, social networking, and issues related to leadership.

Jason Peck is a social media strategist with business-to-business and business-to-consumer experience in sports, entertainment, and ecommerce. He works at LivingSocial, where he focuses on social media and online marketing for the company's one-of-a-kind experiences and events. He also serves as Vice President of Digital Content and Community for the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Social Media Club, the world's largest community of social media professionals.

Charles Harris has worked in college athletics, professional baseball, and professional hockey, serving on senior management teams with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Anaheim Ducks and the University of California, Irvine, Anteaters. He also has extensive experience in the technology sector, first serving as president and founder of an Israel-based marketing and communications firm and later as a marketing technology consultant to top U. S. companies. A graduate of the University of California, Irvine, Harris has served as an adjunct professor in the sport management graduate program at California State University, Long Beach, since 2004.

Brendan Wilhide is an emarketing and copywriting specialist at ForeSite Technologies in Connecticut and is a contributing writer for Macworld and Macworld.com. He served as play-by-play broadcaster and public relations coordinator for a number of minor league baseball teams including Ripken Baseball's Aberdeen IronBirds and the Vermont Expos. His work cataloging the sports industry as part of his Sportsin140.com website project was featured in the Wall Street Journal and on ESPN's "Outside the Lines."