The most read sports social media stories from this week’s #Sports include YouTube becoming a broadcasting outlet, how the leader in sports stays social, the New York Jets and their fan involvement plan, three ways sports teams are engaging fans on Twitter, and how EA Sports is leading the way in sponsorship activation.  1. YouTube Throws A Curveball by Becoming a Sports Broadcaster  ...Even as other forms of entertainment have digitized rapidly in recent years, sports for the most part have remained carefully locked in the walled garden of cable subscriptions and expensive all-access digital passes. But a surprising new player in sports broadcasting may soon change that: YouTube...    2. ESPN How the Worldwide Leader In Sports Stays Social ..."At ESPN there are very few people who are not touching social media in some way. Our PR and Communications group, our Programming team, our Digital Media team: I can’t even think of a group that isn’t working on social media or with social media in some way at this point"...    3. New York Jets Exec: Mobile and Location Improves the Fan Experience ...“We’re trying to make the stadium as great of an experience as possible, whether the team wins or loses, so to do that we saw that location especially for our in-stadium experience will be a great way to reach out to fans,” he said...    4. 3 Ways The San Francisco Giants, Oakland Raiders, and Golden State Warriors Engage Sports Fans On Twitter Sports fans are some of the most fiercely loyal fans I know of. They are passionate, dedicated, and willing to go to great lengths to do what they can to help their teams win. And earlier this week I got the inside scoop on what some teams are doing to reciprocate this dedication....    5. EA Sports Leading the Way in Best Sports Activation Practices As dollars continue to pour into sports sponsorship, brands are looking for the best ways to connect to their fans in new and innovative ways. Increasingly, brands are seeking to connect the physical and digital components of their sponsorships. The goal of this is to get fans using social and digital media platforms while attending the games in order to further connect those people to the brand...

One powerful social platform that often gets overlooked is Spotify. The music live-streaming app announced earlier this year that it added another 1 million paying subscribers to its active user pool, increasing the percentage of paying users to 25% (Hypebot). Every day, there are 1 billion instances of app activity via Facebook and 110 million songs, albums and radio stations have been played 40 million times via other apps integrated with Spotify. Crank up those tunes! (more...)

The most read sports social media stories from this week’s #Sports include the best and the worst social media-savvy NFL teams, the increase in Twitter takeovers (and believe us, there are a lot more than you think!), the rebelling of some UEFA brands from traditional practices, enhancement of Fantasy Football due to new Xbox partnership and the NHL teams who don't just battle on the ice, but also on Facebook.   (more...)

This Saturday’s 58^th Champion’s League Final will be an all-German affair, with Bayern Munich playing Borussia Dortmund to see which team will reign as Europe’s best soccer club. Bayern already has made history this year, clinching their domestic league title earlier than any other team has clinched theirs by winning with 91 points – 25 points (approximately 8 wins and draw) more than the second place team (which happened to be Borussia Dortmund). (more...)

The Great Gatsby was released today -- the highly-anticipated film based on the book that you said you read in high school but didn't actually read. Since Baz Luhrmann took the reins of the latest film adaption, fans can expect a stylized, visually-stimulating update of the novel, which was originally published in 1925. Another Baz-trademark? An amazing soundtrack. (more...)

This week's #SoMash is here with the top stories from last week, including how much a Facebook fan is worth, insights on social ads from Buzzfeed, and touchscreen paper.   How Much is One Facebook Fan Worth?   Researchers have recently come up with an improved value of how much one Facebook fan is worth. So just how much is that little thumbs up worth per fan? About $174, which is a 28% increase since 2010, according to the social media marketing firm Syncapse. The firm did a study based on thousands of panelists in January and February comparing Facebook fans and non-fans in categories such as product spending, brand loyalty, propensity to recommend, media value, cost of acquisition, and brand affinity. Althought $174 is an average, it varies from brand to brand as seen in the graph below:   (more...)

This week's #SoMash is here with the top stories from last week, including Facebook's role in the MTV movie awards, tips on finding time to use social media, how top brands tell their story through social media channels, and LinkMe's new tech wrist band. (more...)