Facebook Sports Stadium
What It Is:
Last week, Facebook announced the debut of its newest communication hub, focused solely on sports, sports statistics, and sports scores. So aptly named Facebook Sports Stadium, this page allows Facebook users to follow live updates, read and watch commentary from experts and journalists, and even find information about where to find the game on television. However, the most interesting aspect of Sports Stadium is the potential for conversation. Users will be able to post pictures, share links, and write statuses, all of which will be contained within Sports Stadium, allowing users to simulate game time conversation with friends (or friendly rivals) online, rather than in person. While Facebook wins out in content sharing and connectivity with friends and family, online conversation is most frequently dominated by Twitter; Sports Stadium is Facebook’s attempt at getting its own online, real-time conversation started.
Opportunities:
According to AdAge, while Facebook is currently holding off on running advertisements within Sports Stadium, it is likely, though not certain, they will eventually allow ads. That being said, Facebook boasts 650 million sports fans, and over 1.5 billion users worldwide. To boil it down: that is a huge audience, which allows for a huge number of eyes on your ads. Plus, the sports-only nature of Sports Stadium will let advertisers bring more sports-centric content to a highly specific audience, and even go so granular as to target fans of individual sports teams, players, coaches, or conferences. An added benefit, ads could be served in real-time, as the games progress.
Challenges:
Because of the newness of Sports Stadium, there are some challenges that accompany its launch. First, as mentioned earlier, Facebook is going up against conversation giant, Twitter, so pulling those already active Twitter chatters to Sports Stadium will take real effort. Sports Stadium is also currently only supporting football content, but plans on opening its doors to more sports as time goes on (maybe going so far as to showcase the 2016 Olympics). Lastly, the Sports Stadium page is only available to iPhone users and is nearly impossible to find within Facebook itself without resorting to a Google search. Facebook plans to expand Sports Stadium past iPhone-only platforms, make locating the page easier, and begin supporting a wider variety of sports as the page grows.
So this Super Bowl 50 (Feb. 7th), be sure to join the conversation on Sports Stadium!