If there’s one thing Boston Celtics fans like, it’s feeling connected to their team.
Before, the team connected with you through on-camera interviews and local sports coverage. Today, it means getting news straight from the horse’s mouth and showing your support through social media. As demand for interaction has increased over the last few years, the Celtics have reacted, creating more nodes of communication in online forums. Their best efforts have been rewarded on Facebook and Twitter and at Celtics.com.
To make sure we give the Celtics a fair shake, we hit up Celtics Internet Operations Manager Peter Stringer to get the 411 about the team’s Internet presence. He gave us a buzzer-beater of a response. Here’s what he had to say in full:
The Celtics are always looking for new opportunities to engage our fans in the digital space, and this season we’ve taken it to the next level across several different platforms. Our philosophy is simple: The Celtics need to have a presence on all of the social media outposts where our fans are congregating.
We continue to enhance our main digital property, Celtics.com, with new features to continue to engage our fan base. After beta-testing the system last season, we’ve relaunched GameTime Live on Celtics.com, our interactive real-time game tracking application that features live stats, tweets and blogging from the Celtics.com staff. GameTime Live launched last season and was the first of its kind in the NBA. During last year’s Game 6 triple-overtime game vs. the Bulls, we had over 45,000 fans engage with GameTime Live. You can check out GameTime Live by visiting Celtics.com while the game is in progress.
Continuing with our innovative approach, in conjunction with Molecular of Watertown, Mass., we launched a first-of-its kind statistics prediction game on our Facebook page called Celtics 3-Point Play. Looking to leverage a massive audience of almost half a million fans on Facebook (among the top 15 Facebook fanbases in professional sports), we developed 3-Point Play to reach Facebook fans in a unique manner, allowing them to predict stats for their favorite Celtics players on a nightly basis, giving them a chance to win great prizes like tickets, merchandise and unique experiences.
As for Twitter, we have the fourth largest Twitter audience in the NBA, and while we’re careful not to spam our fans, we do offer frequent, real-time tweets from press conferences, the locker room, and wherever else Celtics news and information is breaking.
We also launched our YouTube page this offseason, where we feature exclusive video content that fans can embed into their favorite websites and blogs as well.
We’re also exploring how emerging social and digital platforms like Foursquare, for example, may be of use to our fans and our marketing efforts.
Thanks go out to Celtics.com for taking the time to provide us an official team statement. It’s awesome to hear that the Celtics are on the ball enough to know about Foursquare and want to get involved on new platforms. However, we were shocked that they’re not hosting more of a forum for fans to engage directly. What do you think about Celtics.com and their online efforts to connect with fans? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
For more on the Celtics, be sure to check out Celtics.com, fan them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
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