The Value of Public Relations Campaign: Building Positive Relationships in Sports and Strategic Communication

Sports public relations promotes teams, individual players, and sports organizations through social media platforms, websites, and channels, such as broadcast, print, and radio. Sports PR works to build and maximize an athlete’s image potential, allowing the player to focus solely on perfecting their specific craft. Social media has changed the way athletes, sports organizations, and fans are interacting with each other. According to the article The Impact of Social and Digital Media on Sport, from live-tweeting games, creating snarky memes and cheerleading from the webosphere, spectators are no longer simply watching sport, and fans can often get news, insights, and commentary straight from the source. On the other hand, it makes it possible for sporting professionals to be more accountable for their public comments and the way in which they, in return, engage with their fans and wider community.

An example of the value of a public relations campaign was made evident with the English Cricket Board (ECB). In 2012, after defamatory language from Kevin Pieterson, English Cricket team, about the opposing team captain Andrew Straussin, South Africa team, on social media. As a result, Pieterson was suspended from the World T20 finals and made a public apology in order to play again. The public relations campaign attempted an empowered approach which focused on opportunities for personal communication in social networks, but also flags the responsibilities and risks that are associated with it. 

It’s a constant struggle to maintain control over social media, but with a thorough strategic communication plan, it is possible. Strategic communication is a systematic approach to convey information or message to promote the brand in a structured format to a targeted audience to elicit an action or response. This process involves research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. A sports organization, such as Liberty University Athletics Department, could benefit from a cultural sensitivity and inclusion community outreach initiative. In 2020, the former president of Liberty University Jerry Falwell, Jr. resigned after he tweeted a racially insensitive comment. Many of the Black student-athletes transferred due to “racial insensitivities shown within the leadership and culture,” according to an article Liberty University Poured Millions into Sports. Now Its Black Athletes are Leaving, published in 2020.

In closing, the impact of social media has pros and cons in the way athletes, sports organizations, and fans interact with each other. On the positive side, real-time engagement during a live sporting event adds more excitement and builds relationships. On the negative side, one defamatory comment can ruin the experience and drive people away and cause a PR nightmare, costing lots of money, someone getting fired or resigning and much more public fallout. That’s why a PR campaign is so valuable because it restores and builds relationships between sports organizations, athletes, fans and stakeholders.

For the full articles:

The Impact of Social and Digital Media on Sport https://www.latrobe.edu.au/nest/the-impact-of-social-and-digital-media-on-sport/

Liberty University Poured Millions into Sports. Now Its Black Athletes are Leaving https://slate.com/culture/2020/08/liberty-university-falwell-black-athletes-football-sports.html