Virginia Tech Women’s Lacrosse Twitter Account Attendance Influence

Abstract

Today many businesses rely on social media platforms as a marketing tool in order to promote their brand as well as gain customer loyalty. Twitter has increasingly become a popular marketing tool for many businesses of all kinds over the past several years. Sports organizations, such as college athletic teams, have quickly caught onto the popular trend by using Twitter in efforts to increase brand awareness, create relationships among the general public, and maintain fan loyalty. College athletic teams have relied on Twitter to increase their overall fan base, ultimately leading to an increase in attendance at the team’s home games. The Virginia Tech Athletic Communication and Marketing department uses Twitter to persuade the general public to attend the various sports team’s home games but are unsure whether or not the social media platform actually influences attendance positively and if it should be a top priority when it comes to marketing tactics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of the Virginia Tech Women’s Lacrosse Twitter account and the influence of attendance at Women’s Lacrosse games that are located at Virginia Tech. After the conclusion of this study both departments had information to help them enhance the Twitter account. At the last VT Women’s Lacrosse home game, participants over the age of 18 voluntarily filled out a five closed-ended question questionnaire regarding the Women’s Lacrosse Twitter account. Data from the questionnaire was imported into an excel spreadsheet and inputted into a sum formula. The results revealed that the Women’s Lacrosse Twitter account did positively influence attendance and encouraged more individuals to come out and support the team at home games.