The Role of Social Media in Sports when Developing Long-Term Relationships with Fans: The Case of the St. Louis Rams and the LA Galaxy.

摘要

This study investigates how professional sports organizations are using social media to develop long-term relationships with supporters as well as to explore additional functionalities social media have within their marketing and communication strategies. This qualitative comparative case study uses relationship marketing as the base theory and semi-structure interviews as the method of data collection. The interviews were performed to key marketing and communication personnel of the Saint Louis Rams (Rams) of the National Football League (NFL) and the LA Galaxy (Galaxy) of the Major League Soccer (MLS) in order to gather valuable insight into this phenomenon.