Purpose

Social media has revolutionized marketing communication (MC). Rugby is South Africa’s most professionalized sport, leading the industry in its business management structure as well as its high-performance achievements. However, below the professional level, local rugby clubs face a large disparity compared to their professional counterparts, often relying on volunteers or part-time employees to manage the organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how non-professional rugby clubs use social media as a MC tool.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was exploratory, and a cross-sectional sample of twelve organizations was selected and employed a multiple case study approach. Club managers responsible for MC or social media participated in semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data analysis software, ATLAS.ti, facilitated the researchers’ use of an inductive approach to develop codes and themes for further analysis.

Findings

The findings revealed a high level of adoption of social media by the multiple cases (i.e. rugby sports club respondents), with only slight variations in the usage of specific social media applications (viz., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp). The sports clubs perceived that employing social media added substantial value to their MC. There were six emergent themes related to the organization’s perceived benefits from adopting social media MC, namely: brand awareness, relationship-building, player recruitment, attracting sponsors, storytelling, and information sharing.

Originality/value

The study makes a novel contribution in terms of how rugby clubs use social media as an MC tool. The paper advances scant knowledge and awareness of the relationship between South Africa’s sports marketing and social media. The conclusions will aid non-professional sports organizations in enhancing the effectiveness of their social media marketing by ensuring that their objectives and target audiences are well-defined.

中文翻译：

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非专业体育俱乐部采用社交媒体作为营销传播工具：多案例研究方法

 目的

社交媒体彻底改变了营销传播 (MC)。橄榄球是南非最专业化的运动，其业务管理结构和高绩效成就均处于行业领先地位。然而，在专业级别以下，当地橄榄球俱乐部与职业同行相比存在很大差距，往往依靠志愿者或兼职员工来管理组织。因此，本研究的目的是调查非职业橄榄球俱乐部如何利用社交媒体作为MC工具。

设计/方法论/途径

该研究是探索性的，选择了十二个组织的横截面样本并采用了多案例研究方法。负责MC或社交媒体的俱乐部经理参加了半结构化访谈。定性数据分析软件 ATLAS.ti 促进研究人员使用归纳方法来开发代码和主题以进行进一步分析。

 发现

调查结果显示，多个案例（即橄榄球运动俱乐部受访者）对社交媒体的采用率很高，特定社交媒体应用程序（即 Facebook、Instagram、Twitter 和 WhatsApp）的使用情况仅略有差异。体育俱乐部认为使用社交媒体可以为其 MC 带来巨大的价值。有六个新兴主题与该组织通过采用社交媒体 MC 所感受到的好处相关，即：品牌知名度、建立关系、招募球员、吸引赞助商、讲故事和信息共享。

 原创性/价值

这项研究在橄榄球俱乐部如何使用社交媒体作为MC工具方面做出了新颖的贡献。该论文提出了人们对南非体育营销与社交媒体之间关系的了解和认识。结论将帮助非专业体育组织通过确保明确的目标和目标受众来提高社交媒体营销的有效性。