The Role of Social Media in Sports Communication Management: an Analysis of Polish Top League Teams' Strategy

Effective media relations and direct communication with customers are essential for all sports organizations. Successful managers in sports field must have a clear understanding of how Information and Communication Technology works to manage the communication process. Instagram can be a highly-targeted visual advertising channel for sports clubs. Nowadays, most people use social media and have a profile on social networking sites. This paper focuses on how Polish Top-league Clubs are using social media, especially Instagram, to communicate with fans and supporters. Our research was carried out in three times. The first analysis was conducted in August 2014, the second in March 2015, and the last in October 2016. The study was based on both literature review and online search. Data comes from webpages such as www.sportnaukowo.pl, www.ekstraklasa.org, www.stadiony.net, www.instagram.com. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.