1 in 4 American Fans Follow Sports via Social Media [STUDY]

Sports fans are consuming news and other content via social media and mobile devices more than ever, according to a recent study.

26% of sports fans use social media to follow leagues, teams and players in 2012, says the survey by the Perform sports media group. In a similar survey conducted last year, that number was just 15%.

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22% of sports fans queried said they used connected mobile devices to get breaking sports news. In 2011, just 13% of fans said they received breaking news via smartphones and tablets.

Fans aged 25 to 34 are the most mobile savvy, with 35% saying that’s one way they get breaking news — compared to 28% of 18 to 24-year-olds, and 15% of 35 to 44-year-olds who answered yes to the same question.

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This is all according to a survey of more than 1,000 adult American sports fans conducted by Perform during February and March of this year. Overall, American fans spend an average of 8 hours per week consuming sports content, the study found.

In terms of how American fans follow sports via social media, some of the findings are a bit surprising. While Twitter is often thought of as the most sports-friendly social platform, Perform found that just 33% of fans who follow on social networks use Twitter to do so. By contrast, 65% said they use YouTube and 89% said they use Facebook. 18% said they use Google+ to follow along.

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The most popular content accessed via social networks? 51% of fans who use the social web follow teams and leagues, while 46% follow individual players. 48% use social networks to access video highlights, 48% to access written articles and 35% to access news bits or interviews.

Streaming video is also a big winner in the Perform study. While 2 in 3 American fans said they use the Internet in general to follow sports, 45% of those who do said they stream video of live events. Nine in 10 fans who said they stream live video coverage claimed to do so only via official feeds.

Use of Internet-enabled TV sets, however, remains low, with just 5% of respondents saying they’ve used that method to watch sports. But more fans said Internet-connected television will have the greatest impact on sports consumption over the next two years than any other medium.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, adamkaz

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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