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WNBA’s Atlanta Dream use Facebook to give tickets, get fans

posted by ...Because I Played Sports
Friday, March 13, 2009 at 6:22pm CDT

I love what I’m seeing from WNBA marketing teams lately .

They’re finally catching on to the fact that if they engage directly with fans online, they will start to generate some attention (without much investment).

Here’s the latest…

The Atlanta Dream is holding a contest on Facebook - if they get 1,500 fans to their fan page by Wednesday, March 18, they will give a free ticket to everyone who has joined for their May 27th “Dream game” against Connecticut.

Looks like they sold themselves short.

It’s only March 13 (11am EST) and they have 1,045 fans.

So not only are they going to hit their mark likely today (five days early), but they might be giving away a significant amount of tickets come Wednesday.

This isn’t a bad thing.

It’s worth the investment. They’re establishing a hell of a fan database, where they can continue to engage with people (if they choose), and they now (likely) have the attention of the entire league (not to mention sports 2.0 folks and social media marketers).

I love it so much that I just became a fan of their page.

Looks like I’m going to get a ticket. Only, I don’t know how I’ll be able to get down to Atlanta in May, but I’d love to be there in person to see how many people actually show up for the game.

On the local level (for me), I’m thinking maybe the Washington Mystics should wise up and do this too. This is much more effective than a “Dad’s and daughters contest” - which I think is a great idea, just not as “catchy.”

I hope to see more teams (and other women’s sports) engaging in new ways online in the coming months.

By the way, hat tip to Twitter-friend @beingthere (Brendan Wilhide, a long-time UConn lady huskies fan) for the heads up on this. Brendan has a great list of athletes on Twitter, if you’re interested in checking it out - it’s pretty cool.