Australians like talking about sport almost as much as the weather and real estate. Someone who likes talking about sport and social more than most is Sean Callanan, founder and CEO of Sports Geek, a digital agency that connects clubs with fans and sponsors.

We recently caught up with the self-confessed geek to talk shop.

Sporting chance

Callanan worked for 15 years in the IT industry before launching Sports Geek in 2009, after seeing a gap between what sports clubs where delivering and fans wanted.

“I started Sports Geek as a frustrated fan looking at the poor deliverables in the IT area. Whether it front facing: websites that weren’t giving fans the content they wanted, or back end; poor email, bad CRM, terrible ticketing solutions, the whole shebang.”

The other impetus was the increasing popularity of social media. “Fans were building these platforms and clubs didn’t know how to engage them in these areas.”

Kicking goals

One of Sports Geek's first clients was Collingwood Football Club. At the time Collingwood was claiming they had one million supporters, but only had 50,000 Facebook fans. Callanan, a diehard Collingwood fan, set about changing this.

“We changed tactics, got the club to take the fans seriously and frame the content for the platform, not treating it like an RSS feed.”

The result was the Collingwood doubled its fan base to 100,000. 

Digital cheer squad

Callanan uses the term “digital cheer squad” to illustrate how sports clubs and brands can benefit from engaging on social.

Digital Cheer Squad is a fan engagement tool developed by Sports Geek to identify key fans and promote team digital activities. Teams who have implemented Digital Cheer Squad include Minnesota Timberwolves, West Coast Eagles and Auckland Blues.

“At every game you've got three cheers squads. Two at either end of the ground, and a third digital cheersquad that is just as noisy and passionate. If you can identify fans that will push your message, use your hashtag, retweet your content it has the ability to reach further.”

Callanan says this not only pushes the club's message, it helps other fans follow suite.

“In the same way fans turns up in the same colours every week, this behaviour can be replicated online.”

Platforms on the podium

While he says Facebook remains the main driver of traffic and nothing tops Twitter for instant feedback and conversations, emerging platforms like Google+ and Instagram are gaining traction.

“Instagram is great for behind-the-scenes, exclusive content. It doesn't necessarily boost traffic but is important for engagement. While Google Hangouts and Events lend themselves well to the sporting model. This will only increase as more people use Android devices.”

Game plan

Callanan's got a busy year ahead. He's just back from a trip to the US, known as #sportsgeektrip. It included meetings with Twitter, Pinterest, Tint, List.ly as well as pro teams Golden State Warriors, Oakland A’s, Portland Trailblazers and LA Galaxy as well as attending Social Media Marketing World in San Diego hosted by Social Media Examiner.

He's also rolling out Digital Cheer Squad to more AFL and NRL teams in 2013.

You can connect with Sean on Twitter @seancallanan and learn more at sportsgeekhq.com.

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