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Bekah
Student
Frankfort, Kentucky
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What do I need to know about fan engagement?
What do I need to know about fan engagement? What degree would you recommend for pursuing fan engagement in college and professional sports? What extracurriculars would you recommend to give experience in this field?
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Shannon Wei, CPA
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Shannon’s Answer
Hi Bekah! Fan engagement is a pretty broad area, which is actually a good thing because there are a lot of ways to get into it. It can include social media and digital content, game day experiences, promos, events, community outreach, ticketing, sponsorship activations, and even using fan data to understand what keeps people interested and coming back. If you know you want to work in sports, I’d look at majors like marketing, communications, business, or sport management. You don’t necessarily need a sports specific degree either. The NCAA specifically says that people can enter college athletics without one, and its own internship programs look for backgrounds such as marketing, communications, business, event management, and sport management.
I’d honestly focus just as much on experience as the exact degree. If your college has athletics, see if you can work or volunteer with the athletics marketing team, social media, game day operations, ticket office, or events. Student organizations, campus radio, creating sports content, running social media for a club, and internships with college teams, minor league teams, or local sports organizations can all help too. The NCAA’s championship internships, for exp, involve event planning, game presentation, social media, corporate partnerships, and improving the fan experience, which gives you a good idea of the skills employers in this area are looking for. I’d try a few different parts of fan engagement while you’re in school because you might find that you love the creative social media side, the live event side, or even the data and strategy side much more than the others.
I’d honestly focus just as much on experience as the exact degree. If your college has athletics, see if you can work or volunteer with the athletics marketing team, social media, game day operations, ticket office, or events. Student organizations, campus radio, creating sports content, running social media for a club, and internships with college teams, minor league teams, or local sports organizations can all help too. The NCAA’s championship internships, for exp, involve event planning, game presentation, social media, corporate partnerships, and improving the fan experience, which gives you a good idea of the skills employers in this area are looking for. I’d try a few different parts of fan engagement while you’re in school because you might find that you love the creative social media side, the live event side, or even the data and strategy side much more than the others.