Jim Harshaw » Three Ways to Take Your Sports Team Mobile

Uploaded by Jim H. & Riot Staff | on Riot Sports Marketing | May 9, 2011

There is no question that mobile is changing everything. From the way we communicate with friends to the way we get our information, smart phones and even regular cell phones have, are and will continue to be a major influence in how we conduct our lives.

86% of Americans own a mobile phone
There were over 5 billion mobile subscribers in 2010 (there are 6.8 billion people in the world)
Over the next five years, more people will connect to the internet via mobile than by a computer

If you want your fans to be educated, involved and engaged, then your team needs to be mobile too. It doesn't have to be complicated. Let's break down a few options that you have for making it easy for your fans to be fans by using mobile technology.

1) Text Message Alerts: Ninety-five percent of text messages are read within the first 15 minutes of their receipt. This is far higher than email and direct mail... combined! Send fans text messages about important events, announcements or results. Sign-up for an account with EZ Texting, iZigg or Clubtexting (or just Google "mobile marketing"). You will have the options to put a subscription form on your website or have users subscribe with a keyword ("Text TEAM to 654321 to receive alerts"). Sending messages and managing your list is usually done through a simple web interface.

2) Mobile App: For your ever growing population of smart phone users among your fan base, you can take it the next step. Create a mobile app, which is really just a mobile website. These can be simple and created in a few minutes yourself or as complex as you want to make it. I suggest starting out simple with a base package from Widgetbox, MobileRoadie or bMobilized.com. You can create an mobile website that acts just like an "app". When a user pulls up your website on their mobile phone, they can be redirected to your mobile site automatically. Or if they pull up your mobile website directly, they can add it to their home screen just like an app. The best thing is, if you have an RSS feed (from a blog), a Twitter account or a Facebook Page, you can have updates from those sites show up on your mobile app with no additional work on your part!

3) Be social: Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare are social and, now, inherently mobile. There are tons of mobile apps that people use to access their own social networks. So, be social and your fans with smart phones will be able to follow you.

If you want more funding, more community support, more attendance, more awareness... if it is fans that you want, then mobile (and social) is where you need to be. The fact is, the more mobile that you are, the easier it is to be a fan.

Take action today and go mobile!