UFC's social media strategies could give the sport a leg up in a mobile sports viewing universe
Credit Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for breaking new ground in mobile sports broadcasting. The professional mixed martial arts circuit was a disappointment to pay-per-view audiences of the main card fights during its UFC 130 Championship event held Saturday, but innovative use of Twitter for two preliminary fights broadcast live on Spike TV and the remainder of the preliminary fights broadcasts exclusively on Facebook underscored its willingness to leverage social media to competitive advantage.
The online success of UFC came just days before June 1 launch of an innovative plan to compensate atheletes for developing fans via the social media power of Twitter.
The UFC 130 main events, which showed Quinton “Rampage” Jackson versus Matt Hamill and poorly conditioned Roy Nelson defeating an utterly inconsequential Frank Mir, were a huge disappointment to the 12,816 fans who put up $2.57 million to watch the event live at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It was two exciting preliminary bouts, replete with Twitter feeds and broadcast on Spike TV, that compensated for the two main event duds.
Spike TV carried a best tweets features on its television broadcast. In arguably the best fight of the night, which pitted Miguel Torres against Demetrious Johnson, live tweets from supporters of both fighters updated regularly above the action.
UFC 130, held May 28, came just three days before the UFC will begin rewarding fighters for developing the largest number of followers on Twitter.
Beginning June 1, UFC will award fighters $5,000 apiece for showing the largest percentage increases in followers, as well as additional $5,000 prizes for fighters judged the most creative in their tweets during the upcoming year. Across all UFC weight classes, a total of $240,000 will be given out.
The promotion is believed to be the first time a major professional sports organization has offered incentive to athletes for social media. By contrast, the National Basketball Association and the National Football League have fined players for Twitter activity.
With over 1 million Twitter followers, UFC’s president, Dana White (@danawhite), is a force in 140-character communication and one of the first commissioner-level sports executives to regularly send @reply responses to fans who post on his account. To build your own Ultimate Fighting Championship Twitter Follow list is a right of passage for most first-time attendees of a UFC event, and a highly recommended activity by Mobile Sports Report — your No. 1 resource for outstanding sports viewing experiences.
UFC was not the only recent indication that Twitter is primed to take a larger position in the average experience of sports fans during the era of mobile sports viewing. According to Twitter’s @twitterglobalpr, there were 6,277 event-related tweets per second when Barcelona’s David Villa scored over the outstretched arm of Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar to cement Barcelona’s UEFA Champions League finals victory on May 28 at London’s Wembley Stadium. That’s believed to be record volume for social-media responses to a live sports event.
