AN INTRODUCTION TO WHATSAPP CHANNELS FOR SPORTS ORGANISATIONS
With 2.7 billion people worldwide using WhatApp every month, the platform has long been one of the easiest and best ways to communicate with friends, family and colleagues.
But since rolling out globally back in September, WhatsApp Channels is now providing a way for businesses, organisations and high-profile individuals to reach billions of people around the world.
Channels gives community managers a direct line to followers – and in turn a large, already-engaged audience. It strips away all of the noise from ads and a ‘for you’ style feed (who knows if this will always be the case?), leaving administrators with a one-way broadcasting platform to share updates, news and multimedia content.
Across the sporting landscape specifically, primary adopters of Channels have, perhaps unsurprisingly, been sports organisations, with FC Barcelona amassing more than 17 million followers since launch and Manchester City not too far behind, while Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 announced an exclusive partnership with WhatsApp shortly after launching their Channel.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team announced a partnership with WhatsApp after launching on Channels
So, what’s in it for a sports organisation?
1. A READY-MADE AUDIENCE
Firstly, you’re not asking your audience to change their behaviour in following you on WhatsApp Channels. Given the fact WhatsApp is already a key part of people’s everyday life – with an average of 30 minutes active time per user a day – there is a ready-made audience who know the platform.
Not only that, but WhatsApp may well provide you with the chance to engage with a slightly older demographic that perhaps aren’t across some of the established social platforms. Given they are likely to already use WhatsApp to communicate with family or friends, following a sports organisation on Channels will be a much easier sell than asking them to join a new social platform.
2. A CHANCE TO OWN THE CONVERSATION
How often is club content taken from one social media platform and shared on WhatsApp via a link? Channels offers organisations the ability to fuel conversation on the platform, and attention-grabbing content can be swiftly ‘forwarded’ onto friends to provoke debates and conversation in the group chat. This greater ease of shareability for their content will, in turn, lead to more eyeballs and higher engagement.
With changes to X’s interface and absence of clickable links on Instagram feed, organisations may also find success in sharing links out to editorial, long-form content and giveaways on owned channels – as we have seen from a number of those already using the platform.
Manchester City use Channels to promote a signed shirt giveaway
3. AN ABUSE-FREE PLATFORM
Finally, given the one-way interaction - users can only engage with content through emoji reactions - there is limited opportunity for negative comments/abusive posts. This means that from an organisational standpoint, you’re not having to closely monitor and moderate the platform in the same way you do elsewhere.
The only consideration would come around which reactions you allow, with the potential for negative emoji usage to have a detrimental impact on the Channel. Administrators do have the ability to limit the reactions to a select few, which is one way to counter this.
THINGS TO CONSIDER
1. MAINTAINING *ANOTHER* CHANNEL
Potentially already stretched for resource, organisations must first decide whether they have the time available to regularly update their WhatsApp Channel and engage their following. As we’ve seen elsewhere, joining a platform and not being able to sustain it doesn’t help anyone.
Given the fact the platform is in its early stages, and a ready-made audience is available, it may initially be a case of repurposing content from elsewhere to find out what works.
As it grows, however, a specific channel strategy with clear objectives need to be factored in, dictated by reporting and analysis.
2. DEFINING ‘SUCCESS’
Linked to these objectives, it’s critical to understand what qualifies as ‘success’ for an organisation on Channels.
Currently, data analysis and reporting on the platform appears to be limited and you’re only able to see your follower number, the number of interactions and how many users have viewed a post.
As the platform develops, however, the ability to have greater understanding of your Channel’s analytics will likely expand, with link clicks, video views and number of forwards all potentially helpful for assessing performance.
Up to this point, content from sports organisations has largely focused on news updates, linking out to owned channels, polls/quizzes and bitesize video content - both behind the scenes and from matches.
Given the rapid growth enjoyed by early adopters, it will be interesting to see how content continues to evolve and how many more sports organisations follow suit.