Case Study on Atlanta United FC Task 1 The team I have selected is Atlanta United FC, who began play in Major League Soccer this past season. Task 2 Atlanta United FC is on a variety of social media platforms. They have a presence on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, as well as a YouTube channel. The team has a Google+ page and a LinkedIn account as well, but those accounts are not advertised through the team’s official website. The team is not on platforms such as Flickr and Pinterest, not seeing these avenues as an effective way to reach their target audience. Atlanta United FC has 188,238 followers on Facebook, with 186,312 that “like” the page. The team was announced by Major League Soccer as an expansion team on April 16, 2014, and the teams Facebook page was started on July 7th, 2015. Despite the page not being opened for over a year of the team’s existence, Atlanta United puts a great emphasis on posting on their Facebook page. As of November 6th, they had posted eight times within the previous 24 hours. That is really saying something considering that their season is over, and they have started a more dead period of the year. Even though there are no more games, their feed is filled with links to vote for “Goal of the Year”, “Save of the Year”, season recaps and pictures of their fans, links to their other platforms for the ability to win free AUFC gear, and many more activities. Atlanta United FC was much quicker to establish a Twitter presence. Their Twitter account is credited with opening in March of 2014, a month before they were officially announced as a franchise and while the team was still in advanced discussions with MLS. The organization capitalized on that early start in their development, as they currently have 778k followers on the platform. That is a staggering number, considering the other expansion team beginning play this past season, Minnesota United FC, have 73,000 followers. In fact, Atlanta United FC have a sizeable number on any other MLS team. Seattle Sounders FC, the team with the second most, have only 492k. All of this is reflected in AUFC’s Twitter usage. They have over 7,000 tweets, and remain very active day to day. They use a great amount of photo and video, with over 4,300 tweets of that nature. They retweet posts from their players, from some of their notable followers, and other key Atlanta companies, celebrities etc. They do a very effective job of engaging Atlanta in this fashion, and it is part of what has made them so successful initially. Atlanta is also active on Instagram, but less so than their other platforms. They still post daily on Instagram, but not as often as Twitter certainly. They have 132,000 followers and have posted over 1,900 times. As there is no ability for users to “retweet” content from their Instagram page like they can on Twitter, or “share” posts as they can on Facebook, it may not be totally surprising that Instagram followers for AUFC are lacking. However, there does seem to be less of an emphasis on sharing content through that avenue. Instagram though used daily, is used a couple of times per day, a fraction of the usage of the more popular platforms. They were more active several weeks ago while their season was still ongoing. They would post pictures on gamedays to engage fans, and posted a considerable number of pictures showing their capacity crowds and passionate fans at home games. The team also has a Snapchat account linked with the team. The number of followers is not readily available to the public as they don’t have an official page that can be viewed, unlike other platforms. The number of “snaps” sent by the club is also privately held information by the club, but I can say that they have not posted any “stories” since I personally added their account on November 5th. This may have something to do with how the team professes to use their account. On Atlanta United’s website they have a link to add their account with the caption “For behind- the-scenes action, game coverage, contests, player takeovers, and more exclusive Atlanta United content, follow us on snapchat by using the snapcode below…” (https://www.atlutd.com/snapchat) In the team’s dead months, there aren’t games or behind-the- scenes action to show off to fans, yet this account does not seem like as large of a priority for the organization as their first three accounts. Atlanta United also has a presence on several other platforms, but do not use them regularly, and do not advertise their usage on their site. AUFC has an official, verified Google+ page, but have only 161 followers, and have not posted since 2014 as the platform has ebbed in popularity. They also have a Youtube channel that currently has 11,653 followers. The team posts several times per week and often include things such as highlights, interviews and analysis of team performances. They also have a number of player profiles and video of local events that the team has a presence at. Finally, they have a LinkedIn account. That accont has 972 followers and 91 listed employees. They use this very infrequently, every few months or so, and is used to promote job openings within the organization. Twitter LinkedIn Youtube Twitter is by far the largest platform the team uses, but there is a tremendous amount of Google+ crossover among Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in Facebook terms of content. (fan promotions, game and event announcements/recap, video highlights and player engagement) Instagram Snapchat Atlanta United has quite the advantage within Major League Soccer as it is owned by Arthur Blank, who also owns the Atlanta Falcons. As Blank owns both teams, the teams share a stadium, the newly opened Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and accordingly share many of the same sponsors. As there are a number of major national corporations based in Atlanta who wish to be associated with the Falcons, these brands also do business with Atlanta United. This has added legitimacy to the brand new club. Some of the teams more notable sponsors include Delta Airlines, Lyft, SunTrust Bank, Home Depot, and AT&T. Additional sponsors include NovaCopy IT and Printer Services, and American Family Insurance. As for how these sponsors are represented in social media; Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the title sponsor for the team’s Training Ground, was given its own series of posts on the Facebook page as well as the website. In the series, different aspects of the training facility are showed to loyal AUFC fans, in the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground Insider Series. A little bit of a mouthful, but it is an example of a sponsorship activation through the team’s social media platforms. On the day of their playoff game (OCT 26), they had a post describing where to watch or listen to the game in a variety of languages. The post was sponsored by NAPA KNOW HOW, with a link to their page and their logo in the corner of the post. On their twitter account that same day, Atlanta United offered their Man of the Match, sponsored by Heineken. Heineken’s logo was included underneath the text. On Instagram, each post that included the final score of the game that was posted at the conclusion of games, was sponsored by Novelis. Novelis is an aluminum products and recycling company based out of Atlanta, and their sponsorship of the team allowed them to have their name associated with the club in 20+ Instagram posts over the course of the season. It should be mentioned that American Family Insurance is the official jersey sponsor of Atlanta United. They show up less obviously that some of these other examples, but every time an Atlanta United player is featured in a post through any platform, their brand is depicted on their jerseys. Task 3 Young Professionals and “hipsters” seeking non-traditional sports https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/aug/21/atlanta-united-mls-soccer- popularity-average-attendance Race, ethnicity, absolute or Pop. % of total Pop. % of % change change foreign-born 2010 2010 2000 total 2000 2000-2010 2000-2010 status Black 286,126 54.0% 249,829 57.4% 36,297 14.5% White 211,365 38.4% 138,352 33.2% 22,763 16.5% White non- 183,294 33.3% 135,322 31.3% 22,155 16.8% Hispanic Asian and Pacific 28,071 5.1% 16,873 3.9% 11,198 65.8% Islander Hispanic or 56,142 10.2% 32,643 7.5% 23,499 72.0% Latinoof any race Foreign-born 33,621[19] 8.0%[20] 27,352 6.6% 6,269 22.9% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Atlanta Some of the demographics that Atlanta United are striving to reach, as well as the rest of Major League Soccer, are Hispanic-Americans and Millenials. Atlanta United FC seek to capitalize on reaching young professionals and “hipsters” that are specific to the city as downtown Atlanta is growing. These people are seeking more non-traditional American sport experiences, something AUFC is aiming to market to them. Atlanta also seeks to capitalize on its diversity, notably with foreign citizens, many of which grew up in nations where Soccer or Football is the dominant cultural sport. To reach out to Hispanic-Americans, Atlanta United has spent a great deal of effort promoting players from South and Central America.