As we approach Super Bowl Sunday, most marketers are preparing for the inspiring commercials that'll require blog posts to be written the next day, and tweets to be sent right away, hoping for their real-time marketing glory moment.
Many social media platforms are well-prepared for the day already. Twitter, as always, is the main player with their chronological timeline, recent Moments introduction, and Periscope integration. Snapchat scored a deal with the NFL back in September to share original content on the field and in the locker room for their subscribers via Explorer. Even Instagram has tried to compete by highlighting some of their most engaging videos in their new 'Video Collections' feature.
So you must now be wondering... what about Facebook?
Facebook's dabbled in the live video space with their Livestream service, enabling public figures to send notifications to viewing subscribers for when they're recording a new live video to promote themselves. But on January 20, 2016, Facebook decided to step-up its competition in the real-time marketing space more directly by introducing 'Sports Stadium'.
Facebook Sports StadiumToday we're launching the Facebook Sports Stadium, a dedicated place to experience sports in real-time with your friends and the world. Check out our product announcement here: http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/01/facebook-sports-stadium With 650 million sports fans, Facebook is the world's largest stadium. People already turn to Facebook to celebrate, commiserate, and talk trash with their friends and other fans.Now we've built a place devoted to sports so you can get the feeling you're watching the game with your friends even when you aren't together.
Posted by Sports on Facebook on Wednesday, January 20, 2016
According to Facebook, Sports Stadium is a "dedicated place to experience sports in real-time with your friends around the world." While Facebook is intelligently starting with American football to accommodate the Super Bowl, the service does plan to expand to other sports like basketball and soccer soon.
Features of Sports Stadium includes following live play-by-plays of the game to comment and share, and following what friends, experts, and strict stats are sharing across the different tabs.
Facebook Sports Stadium is only currently available on the Facebook app for U.S. users after searching for a specific game.
While we can't say for certain how well the new app feature will perform on February 7th, it will be interesting to see which social media platform will attract the most users on the day. Will they stick with what they know, or get curious about the newest player in the field?
Only time will tell, but when it comes to advertising dollars, hashtags, and ability to quickly join a bigger conversation - my bet would be on Twitter. At least for now.
Which social platform do you think will win? Share your thoughts in the comments.
This post originally appeared on the Pagemodo blog.