Cheers and Jeers: Team Blog Is Virtual Corner Bar

Newswise — A well-run blog can offer a sports organization a two-way exchange of information with fans to keep them close to their team even when they live far from the ballpark. In a study of the Los Angeles Dodgers team blog, Stephen W. Dittmore found that the blog was a popular and effective way for fans to learn about the Dodgers and communicate commitment to their team.

Dittmore, an assistant professor of recreation at the University of Arkansas, specializes in sports public relations. His latest research started on a personal note: He is a lifelong Los Angeles Dodgers fan and was impressed by the blog he found on the team Web site.

"Blogs are the next evolution of sports communication," Dittmore said. "The Dodgers blog is like a corner bar conversation. Yet, because it's happening on the official site of the team, the team gets to hear fans' comments and gets to control the initial message."

While there are many sports blogs all over cyberspace and while most sports organizations have a Web presence, few major league baseball teams post their own blogs. Scholars have only recently begun to study the effectiveness of such blogs from the marketing perspective.

To develop a profile of blog readers, Dittmore and colleagues G. Clayton Stoldt of Wichita State University and T. Christopher Greenwell of University of Louisville surveyed readers of the Los Angeles Dodgers blog on Aug. 21, 2007, resulting in 37 usable surveys. As an initial look at how sports organizations might use Web-based communication, the project is significant, the researchers wrote, because the communication environment "is evolving and becoming more complex and difficult to manage."

The researchers measured how effectively the blog used a conversational tone and communicated a commitment to building a relationship with fans. In addition, to understand the nature of the fan attachment to the organizational blog, the researchers examined the degree to which fans identified with the sport, with individual players and with the team.

They found the Dodgers blog readers were "voracious media consumers of Dodger games." They were frequent ticket customers, and 70 percent reported they live in the team's market and attend games as ticket holders. By and large, they were highly identified with the sport and their team, but had a low degree of identification with any individual player. For them, the blog effectively communicated a conversational tone and relationship.

Those fans living outside the Los Angeles area who could not attend games regularly expressed even higher levels of team identification than those in the market area. The nearly 30 percent of blog readers from outside the Los Angeles market area live all over the country and as far away as Canada and Australia.

While the blog eliminated geographical barriers for fans, it also seemed to open the door for women fans. The enthusiasm of women for the blog, the researchers wrote, suggested that "women might be more open than men to receiving organizational messages through weblogs and might view this form of communication as more human or personal."

Dittmore monitored the blog during games and observed fans responding in real time to the game, cheering a hit or a good catch in the same way they would with their buddies at the local bar.

Dittmore noted that blog communication between fan and sports organization goes both ways. While fans may cheer, they also may criticize. He described a lively exchange on the blog on the day the Dodgers listed the starting lineup for the next game. Comments flew back and forth as fans debated whether a certain player was ready to be a starter. Not surprisingly, some of the comments were critical of coaching decisions. Because a blog fosters two-way communication, teams have to be ready for negative feedback.

"Organizations that do not want to hear what their customers have to say, good or bad, about the organization in a public forum should not engage in weblog communication tools," the researchers concluded.

The researchers reported that, after the survey results were collected, the Los Angeles Dodgers expanded their blog involvement in 2008 to include posts from various team managers, which "further removes barriers between the team and its fan base."

As a next step, Dittmore wants to learn from the public relations professionals in sports organizations about whether they use blogs and what barriers and payoffs they have encountered.

The case study of the Los Angeles Dodgers blog was published in the September issue of the International Journal of Sport Communication in an article titled "Use of an Organizational Weblog in Relationship Building: The Case of a Major League Baseball Team."

Before joining the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas, Dittmore directed media operations for the organizing committees at the 1996 and 2002 Olympic Games. He is co-author, with Stoldt and Scott E. Branvold, of Sport Public Relations, a textbook used worldwide in sports management and public relations programs.