The LeagueApps marketing team recently attended an event hosted by Hootsuite and LiftMetrix at the Amazon Web Services office in downtown Manhattan.  LeagueApps was represented by Director of Marketing Ammad Sheikh and Partnership Development Manager Jim Ambrose.

The event highlighted various speakers and experts in social media including the data expert on the Obama for America campaign and marketing leaders from Facebook, Huge Inc. and Red.

 Each speaker talked about different examples of how social media was a catalyst of change. Whether it was how big data on Facebook allowed a young upstart politician from Illinois to become the President of the United States, to a small web company selling South Asian clothes to a distinctly non South Asian customer base find their customers on Facebook by targeting those that had “liked” Eat, Pray, Love.

We learned the Facebook is still the platform with the most far-reaching influence. Why Facebook? Last quarter Facebook announced that they had 1.19 billion users. YES, that is billion with a B! If Facebook was a country they would be the largest country in the world, even larger than China.

So, with the advent of Social Media how does it help or hinder a sports organizer?  When it comes to marketing being on Social Media is essential.  If yoou can’t master all of the mediums, you should go after the biggest one: Facebook.

A few simple steps:

• Create your page on Facebook

• Solicit likes from your members.

• Use your Facebook page to solicit feedback about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it

• Identify what your participants like, build segments around what they like and target others who like the same things

You will be surprised at the level of engagement.  At the end of the day your organization will be better as a result of this.

Here at LeagueApps we recognized that social media would be essential for our partners to grow their organizations.  That’s why in 2011 we created a connection between our platform and Facebook. Being sports organizers ourselves, we recognized the difficulty in promoting programs and attracting new participants.  Connecting the LeagueApps platform to Facebook was a no brainer.

Allow your participants to share the fact that they have joined your program!  More shares = more exposure and more exposure = more participants.

Communicate with your participants via your Facebook wall! Increase engagement and increase exposure of your organization to all of their Facebook friends.

Four years ago we launched this feature for our partners.  Since then it has been an integral part of our partners growth strategies.  We have seen year over year growth of 15% for our partners who are using LeagueApps.  We welcome you to look at our Facebook integration and use it for your organization to help your organization really grow.

Here is an article that we had written that guides you through the Facebook process with LeagueApps.

It’s one thing to be on social media.  But in this day and age you need engagement. As Kunal Merchant of Facebook told us  “Go where the people are, don’t try to take them to another place.  If you are working with LeagueApps and want to know how to get Facebook working for your organization just email support@leagueapps.com.