GAA and social media.

finuge

Hi everyone,

Any suggestions on where I can get some information either the GAA and social media, or both ideally? My Masters thesis will be looking at the adoption of social media by the GAA. How has the GAA adopted social media and why?

Any information on previous work/academic research on either of these areas of both would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks.

MickySticks

Do your own homework.

finuge

I would like information on relevant journals/articles/books. I have looked up DIT, UL and UCD catalogues and found some information but need more. Any information would be great. Thanks.

liammur

finuge wrote: »

I would like information on relevant journals/articles/books. I have looked up DIT, UL and UCD catalogues and found some information but need more. Any information would be great. Thanks.

contact the gaa. see what they have

Clareman

A lot of my job in the real world revolves around Social Media and how it can be used, there are an awful lot of studies out there on the impact, as well as theroies as to how it will all come to an end (if it will), I would suggest the below video as a great starting point and from there use google

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs

Frank Spencer

Hopefully this will be of help.

http://www.mediafire.com/?0z93kh6ahf5dnbg

charlesh

have a look at the zomboclub app. its got 100's of local clubs of all sizes. many from overseas. its a free service. you can update your fixtures/results/training/news etc all for free.
just search for zomboclub on the appstore or on the android market ( google play )

padgo

This is a funny one.
I actually done my masters thesis on something similar but more aimed at the whole online marketing activities of the GAA.

From personal experience your wasting your time actually contacting the GAA.

I asked them for a quick telephone interview and even mailed in the questions. The girl who I could name basically told me where to go!

Well it kind of sums up the organisation. The players get nothing and the idiots in the office are probably on 30K +

Also if I can give you a tip:
You will have to use journals no older than 1 year.Anything older is out of date.
You should also use a competitor analysis on how other sports organisations are using it.

munchkin_utd

The first 2 documents here are related to the gaa social media policy
http://www.gaa.ie/about-the-gaa/publications-and-resources/

There's pages of other documents so maybe something else there may be of use if you have a good rummage?

ProudDUB

I think that you should start following GAA players on Twitter, and track and notate what they tweet about. They do more as individuals to market and promote the GAA than the GAA itself does as an organization.

For example, the 2012/2013 Parnell Passes went on sale this week. I found out about it when Bernard Brogan and Eamonn Fennell tweeted about it, not thru anything that the GAA or the Dublin County Board did. Same with the recent Dubs easter eggs, and all the Dubs books, DVDs,calenders etc that appeared after we won Sam. The Dubs players tweets also a great resource to find out where Sam was as he made appearances in pubs, schools and shops around the county. God forbid the GAA or the DCB get the finger out & organize something like that.

LongTail

finuge wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Any suggestions on where I can get some information either the GAA and social media, or both ideally? My Masters thesis will be looking at the adoption of social media by the GAA. How has the GAA adopted social media and why?

Any information on previous work/academic research on either of these areas of both would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks.

I don't think the GAA has adapted to social media well at all. The main organisation has a very limited profile on youtube, twitter and facebook. I think the individual players do a lot more for the game than the head office.

Players who are active on twitter will often let you know when they are going training, when they are heading to matches, their reactions to matches and will promote other clubs and players with the retweet function on twitter as an example.

I can't point you in the direction of any studies but if you spent a while doing your own research I'm sure you would turn up something. Results for a thesis study don't just fall in to your lap.

Good luck with it.

IsMiseJoe

Not sure about the main GAA association, but a lot of local clubs here in Galway/Mayo all have Facebook & Twitter pages to help them keep in contact with players and fans.
It's an easy way to keep people up to date on everything that's happening with the club.

charlesh

IsMiseJoe wrote: »

Not sure about the main GAA association, but a lot of local clubs here in Galway/Mayo all have Facebook & Twitter pages to help them keep in contact with players and fans.
It's an easy way to keep people up to date on everything that's happening with the club.

at the risk of repeating myself - surely zomboclub is the answer? its basically an app for each club ( within an app ) if you know what I mean. check it out.

Frank Spencer

charlesh wrote: »

at the risk of repeating myself - surely zomboclub is the answer? its basically an app for each club ( within an app ) if you know what I mean. check it out.

Do you mind if I ask if you have a connection with this app?

munchkin_utd

Frank Spencer wrote: »

Do you mind if I ask if you have a connection with this app?

was thinking that myself too!

anyhow, as I mentioned above, the GAA has a policy on social media as laid out in this 22 page document : http://www.gaa.ie/content/documents/publications/digital_media/Social_Media_Policies_Guidelines_2012_Final.pdf

I've also come across this list of all counties social media outlets
http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-videos/social-media-list/

im sure theres more info and resources if you dig more, and without need to download a heavily plugged app onto your mobile device.

finuge

Many thanks for all of your replies. I will be conducting interviews with senior members of the GAA communications and IT committees and I have a considerable amount of research done. The GAA use social media primarily as a communications tool and not for marketing purposes so the area is relatively new. As part of my thesis I will be comparing the GAA adoption with that of a similar organisation like the IRFU, also how the GAA has adopted social media and why? What forms of social media are used? Why is one employed over another? Has the political economy of the GAA impacted on how it uses social media? If so, how? How does their current use of social media compare with that of other similar organistions?

Blue Magic

Just to get another conversation going here. Anybody here running their GAA Club Twitter Page / Facebook page? I'm having no trouble whatsoever with the Twitter page, it's running like a dream. Find it very hard to get interaction with the Facebook page though... Is it that people just aren't on it that much anymore or are there some tips that people may have? I have been posting a lot of pictures. It's fascinating how much people love any types of pics but there are only so pics to go around... What else do people here do?

beggars_bush

People are signed up to so much crap on Facebook that they ignore most of it.

Blue Magic

Another thing lads.

What do your clubs do to control the cost of texting for communications. Costing us a small fortune at the moment. Need to clean it up a bit with some streamlining, etc. but after that what else?

Idea that struck me is texting apps (i.e. WhatsApp or Viber)... Anybody use those? Successfully or not?

Another thing is possibly Facebooking?