Table of ContentsBenefits of Sports MarketingConclusionDisclosure StatementSports marketing is one of the fastest growing areas of marketing communications. The international nature of the sports industry requires a global approach to sports marketing practices. Organizations must develop a good understanding of the laws, regulations, values ​​and norms of the countries and cultures in which they operate. Sports Organization Marketing presents the most effective marketing methods and tools available to sports organizations and provides practical, step-by-step offers. Step-by-step guidance for sports organizations in using social media marketing techniques. Revenue growth in the global sports market has mostly increased over the past decade. According to a study by Statista (2015), the total revenue of the global sports market was $107.52 billion in 2006 and increased to $145.34 billion in 2015; as shown in Figure 1 on the next page. 2014 was the highest revenue year in the sports market with $146.47 billion over the past decade; while 2009 recorded the lowest at $112.49 billion. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The amount of money generated in the sports industry is currently at its peak. Sponsorships, gate revenue, media rights and merchandising contribute greatly to the growth of the sports market.Benefits of Sports MarketingIt helps in raising funds for the maintenance of the sports teamIt helps the sports team to be in the minds of spectatorsIt is often helps to arrange state-of-the-art sports equipment which often costs a lot of money. This helps to make people aware of the different activities of the sports team. This is the most important way to get sponsorship. Sports teams operating in an increasingly professionalized environment must continue to adopt innovative branding techniques. in order to maintain their brand image that is both meaningful and unique from the consumer's point of view and to differentiate it from its competitors (Kaynak, Salman and Tatoglu, 2008). Most professional sports teams now maintain an online presence across multiple social media platforms and are increasingly expanding to new platforms. Sports organizations' social media practices are primarily focused on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (Abeza, O'Reilly, Seguin, & Nzindukiyimana, 2015). ; Although these platforms offer features for interacting with visual content, they rely heavily on written content as the primary means of communication for online users. Only recently have researchers begun to explore the implications of tools that use visual content as their primary mode of communication. For example, Hambrick and professional sports teams have widely adopted social media platforms (Filo, Lock, & Karg, 2015; Pegoraro & Jinnah, 2012), in an effort to cultivate and maintain an interactive mode of communication with their fans (Clavio &Walsh, 2014; Hambrick & Kang, 2015; Hambrick, Simmons, Greenhalgh & Greenwell, 2010; Parganas & Anagnostopoulos, 2015; & Farrelly, 2014; Williams & Chinn, 2010). Kang (2015) explored Pinterest (a multimedia content sharing tool) from the perspective of a relationship marketing conceptual framework. Others have studied how sports leagues can use social media for purposesscheduling (Zimmerman, Clavio, & Lim, 2011). However, less is known about using social media tools such as Instagram to create and communicate team brand associations. Some studies have examined the use of Facebook as a brand management tool in the context of American college sports (Wallace, Wilson, & Miloch, 2011), the challenges of developing a brand strategy on social media(McCarthy, Rowley, Ashworth, & Pioch, 2014), or the use of Twitter as a brand management tool (Parganas, Anagnostopoulos and Chadwick, 2015) in the context of professional football teams. Studies Examining Recent studies have examined how Instagram can be used to engage fans for sports, business, and social purposes (Kim & Hull, 2017); as a tool for self-presentation by Olympic athletes in particular (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016), or by professional athletes more generally (Smith & Sanderson, 2015). More relevant to the present study, but outside the context of professional teams, Geurin-Eagleman and Burch (2016) found that sports brands that use user-generated content on their Instagram accounts garner higher engagement from share of followers when posts are overtly product-focused. More research is needed, especially from a professional sports team. perspective. Additionally, Instagram's growing popularity among sports teams, athletes, and fans, combined with its potential marketing and branding implications as they mature (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016), merits further consideration. further exploration of this tool in the sporting context. Several researchers have called for additional empirical research on different social media platforms (cf. Frederick, Lim, Clavio, Pedersen, & Burch, 2014; Lebel & Danylchuk, 2014; Pedersen, 2014; Pronschinske et al., 2012; Rowe, 2014 ). ), particularly for marketing purposes and through longitudinal studies (Abeza et al., 2015), and above all, surveys of consumer behavior on social networks (Ratchford, 2015). The present study responds to these calls. Drawing on theoretical insights from widely adopted sports team branding models (e.g. Bauer, Stockburger-Sauer, & Exler, 2008; Gladden & Funk, 2002; Ross, James, & Vargas, 2006), we aim to analyze how two professional sports teams used Instagram to communicate their branding and its impact on the responses of their online followers. The present study responds to these calls. Drawing on theoretical insights from widely adopted sports team branding models (e.g. Bauer, Stockburger-Sauer, & Exler, 2008; Gladden & Funk, 2002; Ross, James, & Vargas, 2006), we aim to analyze how two professional sports teams used Instagram. to communicate their brand image and its impact on the responses of their online followers. Conclusion The present study begins to fill a gap in the literature on how sport organizations use social media as branding tools. Overall, this study highlighted the evolution of sports teams' use of Instagram to provide brand-related information and engage with fans. The results revealed that the existing literature on team branding can be applied in the context of social media. In particular, all brand attributes of the adopted model were part of the Instagram posts, although to a different extent. Teams using Instagram are able to produce and control their own.