Social Media Showdown Part 1

Next week is Super Bowl 50, but the Panthers and Broncos are not the only ones preparing for the championship game. Social media platforms have been preparing to out perform each other this year. Facebook is launching an app called Sports Stadium where fans can talk about all things sport and it includes features like play by play, game statistics, and commentary from sportcasters. 

Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram are typically busy during major sporting events. From criticism about the officials to Game Day pictures, if something is happening in the Sports world it is being mentioned on social media. For Facebook to step up and make an app solely for sports is a major step and could possibly put it ahead of the pack for fans. Twitter is normally the platform of choice for live events because it's short and sweet and in real time. (Let's be honest no one wants to see you update your Facebook status ten times in a row during the game, but I will gladly favorite your tweet as i'm scrolling down my feed.) 

Snapchat has also brought some fun to the game with having geofilters and stories specifically for sporting events. You can easily see what your other couple thousand Falcons fans are doing while watching the game live or at home. Instagram has recently introduced a feature that allows you to see posts related to the same live event all in one place similar to Snapchat's story feature.

Twitter has been called "The World's Biggest Sports Bar". Who can forget Oreo making light of the lights going out at the Superbowl XLVII by tweeting that you can still dunk in the dark. That was a great way for advertisers to take advantage of an unexpected situation during a live event. For the Sports Stadium app it is set to be adfree, but will it eventually include advertising?

Twitter is a big competitor for Facebook with it's other apps, Vine, Q&A, Camera and Challenger and Periscope. Twitter has reported $132 million loss while Facebook has reported $1.56 billion in profit with advertisers so having an ad free app may not hurt them, but it may not last long either. There is just as much anticipation and excitement if not more for the Super Bowl commercials as the game every year, but could this eventually be a future Super Bowl commercial replacement as advertisers and marketers look to social media to further promote their brand? Or an additional part to the multi-million dollar 30 second tv spots? Probably not this app alone if it ever does begin showing ads, but as social media continues to become a major part of our world it could be the beginning of some major changes for advertisers and marketers.

The app will be released in time for next Sunday's big game which will be a great test to see how well the app will do with sport fans.