Final ff

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By Caroline Early

A Look into the Social Media Aspects of

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How it all began…Login to an actual fantasy league page here.

+History of Fantasy Football- Started in 1962 – Oakland- Originally was just something to bring fans and their money

together to analyze the Oakland Raiders Football games- League consisted of 8 teams (members) then a

commissioner and a secretary to handle the trading and money all on paper

- Bull Tunnel (Raiders PR Representative) and Scotty Starline (Tribune Reporter) made the first unofficial rule book– which became the official rulebook for modern day Fantasy Football

- An original member must either be:1. An administrative affiliate of the AFL2. A journalist with direct relation to pro

football3. Someone who has purchased or sold 10

season tickets for the Raiders' 1963 season- In 1969– Fantasy Football went public in Kings X Sports Bar

in Oakland

- Kings X continues to be a Fantasy Headquarter today hosting 6 Live leagues and even a Queens Division (all women)

+Statistics of Fantasy Football...

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- Over 30 million online players- 6.5 million are women- On average, players spend $110 on their team a year- All online therefore you can play with complete strangers, or

start a league on your own with your friends- More statistics

+An Abundance of Leagues…

+Pick ‘Em Leagues

This format is offered on all fantasy sites (yahoo, ESPN, AOL, Sandbox)

Easiest, least time consuming version of Fantasy

Traditional gambling sense, you just pick the team you think will win

+Salary Cap League

Player acts as a virtual owner with a virtual bank account and receive point for individual athlete performance in game

You have to keep up with trades and manage your team on a strict budget to try and build the best outcome for each match up on a weekend

Yahoo! Offers this free, however it can reach up to $20 on Sandbox

Average salary per week is $75 million (fake money)

+Full Fantasy Football

Most popular, most time consuming

Can be played head to head like pick’em leagues, or like a salary cap league

Hosts a Draft – length and time to be decided by league officials

You chose who you want, has to fill certain position requirements, and you can also sign a number of your players up for multiple seasons, like a real manager

Free on Yahoo! But can get pricey on the other sites

Individual leagues set buy in prices

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It’s life in the Groundswell

+An Overview…

Compliments of Socialmention.com

+More Overview…

Google Trends mapped the past 90 days

Only popular in areas where football is popular

+It’s life on Yahoo!

Fantasy Football has brought more users to Yahoo! After Google had taken a lot of its popularity away

In 2006 it was revealed that "Fans spend more time on Yahoo! Sports than any other sports site" according to comScore Media Metrix

Yahoo! Competes for viewership and participation with ESPN and Sandbox, but has held a slight lead over both

+Life on Twitter…

Fantasy Football has a very active life on Twitter. Players tweet about their games, but also @YahooFantasyFootball has a Twitter and tweets stats that could be used to change players rosters.

+Life on Facebook…

There is Fantasy 2012 app on Facebook that allows user to link their fantasy team from Yahoo to their Facebook

Players often leave messages to each other on Facebook

+Life on YouTube

Series of Videos being posted weekly for comedy purpose, but revolve around Fantasy Football.

People post videos of their own teams drafts

Commercials get posted to YouTube that also get displayed online about Fantasy Football

Even more topics about fantasy football

+It’s expansion into the Groundswell according to Li and Bernoff…

+Listening and Talking

Yahoo! Does a great job of taking feedback from players over the years to build what Fantasy Football has become today

November 11, 2012 – Yahoo! Servers crashed and no one could access their Fantasy. Yahoo! Listened to everything players had to say and fixed the problem, and sent out an apology from Ken Fuchs (head of Yahoo! Sports)

Gives appropriate space to leave comments to Yahoo! About the Fantasy Leagues

+Energizing

Yahoo! Sports has outdone itself energizing it’s Fantasy Leagues.

There are commercials during sports games, souvenirs you can buy about fantasy, they have opened in all gateways including a phone app

There hired “Fantasy Experts” to keep players informed who host blogs and keep stat books

+Supporting and Embracing

The support system is great because it allows so many avenues for players to communicate with one another

The embracement's to allow players to build off of ideas and communicate right to Yahoo! Has been great because of all the blogs and open forums

It is really all online, and it’s quick popularity and structure represents the strong presence it holds in the groundswell

+The Marketing Funnel

Fantasy Football became so popular because it used the simple marketing strategy of the funnel to jump into the online community

+How to profit from free venues

+Social Media Economics

In order to keep something like this going there needs to be money

Social Media Economics article by Readwrite mentions how there are underlying costs for additives that can really build up Stat tracker

In addition to these extras, there are market for advertising on these sites to earn money, and also with growing popularity these online entities can branch out

The product is you (social media today)

+Fantasy Football moves offline…

+The League FX

Very popular TV show about a group of friends and their private Fantasy Football League

Provides Accurate Description of life in a league

+Television Commercials

+Bibliography

Aliff, N. (n.d.). Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football. Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football. Retrieved November 21, 2012, from http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/?lid=332315

Hunt, M. (n.d.). HowStuffWorks "Fantasy Football History". HowStuffWorks "Entertainment". Retrieved November 21, 2012, from http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/fantasy-football1.htm

Email. (n.d.). ReadWrite – Social Media Economics: The Science for Social Success. ReadWrite – Web Apps, Web Technology Trends, Social Networking and Social Media. Retrieved November 21, 2012, from http://readwrite.com/2011/02/15/social_media_economics_the_science_for

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press.

Schiller, M. (n.d.). Web Economics: The Product is You! | Social Media Today. Social media news, strategy, tools, and techniques | Social Media Today. Retrieved November 21, 2012, from http://socialmediatoday.com/node/625921

Yahoo! Sports - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved November 21, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org