How have Leigh Centurions optimised their Internet Profile?
Coverage of sports has been changing over the past few years but, not in huge strides. The power of sports coverage may have shifted and changed how it look’s on the surface but, scratch beneath the surface it has the same two principle of journalism; Print and Broadcast.
It is always good to see your team feature in a double page spread in the local or national newspaper. Even get some broadcast time on the radio or TV but, this normally requires your team to be in the top division of their sports. Especially in Rugby League, many teams outside of Super League don’t get the coverage they deserve.
To make up for the lack of coverage, lesser division teams are moving their presence online. They look to use the growing number of people on the internet to gain popularity and get ahead of the larger teams who get more coverage. There are teams which have optimised their online profile; the team I will look at in particular is Leigh Centurions.
Above shows the basic structure in which Leigh Centurions could use the internet to increase their profile and gain more coverage. While that may look like the profile that most teams will be wanting, Leigh Centurions networked all those together so then they could achieve a better online presence.
How did Leigh Centurions achieve it? I explore how Leigh Centurions expanded on all the elements of the first picture to create a much more complex profile.
As you can see there are a few ways in which teams have been adapting to the internet. Most have been inclined to use social media to provide score updates and to give their fans the latest media releases.
Social Media sites, such as Vimeo, have also allowed teams to set up their own television stations. Unlike Manchester United TV, internet TV is a cheaper way of bringing the same form of material and of course internet televise on means teams don’t have to have a satellite channel, unlike MUTV, which is Sky Channel 418 and Virgin Media Channel 526.
Internet radio and radio apps are also allowing Rugby League teams to branch out into broadcasting and to get their publicity up. But how can the internet be optimised to give the best coverage all round?
Social Media
The large majority of people think the common way of covering a Rugby League match using the internet, is to use social media to bring live score updates to fans who can’t be at the ground. Leigh Centurions use twitter to provide the live score updates, but there are two accounts which can be followed to track the match.
Mark Taylor, Leigh Reporter Journalist, covers the match for the local newspaper. He uses his twitter account to make notes about the match. His tweets therefore have a bit more detail to them. (Pictured left) not only does he have to provide the basic information, he has to have details of the event so he can write a reaction piece and match report for the newspaper.
Twitter has its draw backs, because you only have 140 characters to get your message across, not everyone takes Mark Taylor’s approach. Social Media Officer of Leigh Centurions, Darren Lilly, takes a much simpler approach to letting people know, what the score is and who scored. The official account uses pictures of each player from the team, along with a graphic of Try or Goal, lets the audience know what is going on.
Social Media accounts can also be linked together, Leigh Centurions official twitter page is linked with their Facebook page. This make easy work of posting larger pieces of media to both accounts.
Leigh Centurions Facebook account is an electronic replacement of a newspaper. Mike Latham, Media Officer, of Leigh Centurions uses it to post match reports and press releases. The more immediate approach to large news breaking, like a new player signing for the club, will reach the fans faster than if they had to wait for the next newspaper. Just because the news appeared on the Facebook account first does not mean it won’t be appearing in the local paper. The press release will be stripped straight from the website and put straight into a printed form, so then the news reaches the fans who don’t have internet.
Leigh centurions have a very inventive way of using Facebook as well. They have set up a self-administrated fans page were news can be posted to. This page will e scattered with links and news updates throughout the week and were Leigh fans will be able to voice and discuss their opinion which the executive staff can pick it up. The page also provides an excellent platform for the volunteers of their TV channel, LCTV, to post when games are going to be up on the video website for them to watch.
Internet TV
The video website that Leigh Centurions use is Vimeo, a very simple and easy way of getting game footage online. The footage is not accessible to the public but, is kept behind a paid firewall. Fans have to pay a small price to be able to access the videos but, once they are logged in, they can access any video that has been posted there.
Leigh Centurions TV is a much cheaper than any equivalent team TV service, LCTV took £6000 to set up; compared to the Wigan Warriors TV set-up cost of £250,000; and cost the club around £3000 a year to keep it running. Leigh Centurions fans pay £32 a year or £3.50 a month and with its 1262 subscribers, the service is self-sufficient. For that price Leigh Centurions fans will be able to watch the full game, highlights, coach’s corner and a weekly highlights ad review show. The highlights show, has its own twitter account which is used to promote LCTV and let people know when videos are online. Another link formed between the different elements of an online profile.
Internet TV has many benefits; other than being cheaper. It can be accessed from around the world because, internet is becoming more easily available in developing countries as well as more economically developed countries. People who have emigrated or are more simply on holiday can still watch the game.
The map to the left shows in which country people have logged into LCTV and viewed something on the website this season. Some places of course may be a bit surprising, as a very local rugby team is getting views on its TV channel all the way in Japan or even Saudi Arabia.
Internet TV does have a good correlation however, with whether or not the games are at home or away; whether the team won or lost or even if the game is live on TV.
The graph below shows the number of views and loads videos within the season have had per week. As you can see it peaks and troughs a lot because of game weeks at home and away, when the graph hits its lowest is when the team loses. The graph also tends to drop in the middle and at the end. The middle is due to Leigh’s unbeaten run, therefore more people were making the trip to watch the game. The tailing off at the end is due to the Centurions unsuccessful Super 8s qualifiers campaign.
Internet TV has more pros as well, because the matches are always being filmed for the fans, there will always be archive footage for larger TV companies to use. For Example when Fuifui Moimoi scored his first try for Leigh, BBC North West Tonight got in touch to see if they could use the footage from the game to make a news story about it.
As you heard BBC NW tonight, kept the original commentary which was provided by Dave Parkinson, Joe Wood and Christopher Stott. The commentary is originally done for a radio internet and app called mixlr.com. Another way in which Leigh Centurions have been optimising their online presence.
Internet Radio
Internet radio is a very simple way of broadcasting without being allocated wavelengths for FM or AM radio, it does have the draw back meaning you need the internet to access it but, it is a cheaper way of covering games.
Leigh Centurions have had the same commentator, Dave Parkinson, covering their games for 14 years and, when he needed a platform to use to get his live match commentary out he found mixlr.com, which is a free broadcasting service.
Mixlr.com is used by many clubs including, Hull FC Rugby League, Crystal Palace Football Club and Boreham Wood Football Club. Mainly because it is a very cheap service which provides people with the actuality of being at the game when they are unable to attend.
The joys of providing your own radio service to a specific fan base means you can really be hyper local. Dave Parkinson said; “We offer a professional service but, we personalise it” because he knows his fan base he knows his following will be able to understand what he is saying.
Internet radio is growing though, as Dave added; “At our first broadcast we were listened to by 25 people, but we had over 300 listen in against Wigan.” Within 6 months Dave had managed to up his following by a staggering amount. Due to the networking he did on Twitter and getting the word out there.
As we can see from the picture above, Leigh Centurions only profile has become the way it is now because of how they have linked together each element of their online following. Whether it’s a Twitter update only the score or whether it is a Facebook status informing the fans that a new video on LCTV is up and ready to be watched, all of it is linked together so then the hits they are getting continue to grow, therefore they are getting even more coverage than ever.
