Social media continues to grow and companies continue to look for ways to make money. Twitter continues to look for new revenue as the social network company sold a limited number of tickets to Game 2 of the NBA playoffs between the Atlanta Hawks and the Brooklyn Nets.
. . . the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks are tapping into the potential demand, announcing today that they’re selling a limited number of tickets to Wednesday’s playoff game against the Brooklyn Nets directly from a tweet. Fans can select ticket quantity and pay with a credit card without leaving Twitter.
The tweet has since been deleted, probably because they sold out their allotment of tickets for the game. How many tickets were put aside for the “limited” run should be questioned as well as where the seats were located. Ticketmaster seating chart has the sections on the corner of Phillips Arena – sections 301, 302, 305, 306, 315, 316, 320 and 321 – listed for $49.
This will be the second time Twitter sold tickets through the social network but a first for a sporting event. They picked a good test case as the Hawks experienced significant growth this season, even after reports surfaced that the majority owner sent racists e-mails in 2012 and intents to sell the team.
Fan engagement on Hawks.com and team social media accounts has reached new heights this season:
– Facebook – Acquired 243,907 fans during the 2014-15 season, an increase of 25% from the beginning of the year.
– Twitter – Acquired 94,922 followers in the 2014-15 campaign, an increase of 138% from 2013-14
– Instagram – Acquired 142,877 followers this year, an increase of 415% from 2013-14
– Hawks.com – Page views surged to 10,501,713, a 57% increase from 2013-14; 3,435,590 unique visitors to the site this year, a 113% increase from last season
What will be interesting to see how many tickets were allocated, how many were sold and how long did it take to sell them. If successful, you could see other events to buy tickets on social networks. What will prevent this from launching is how much of a percentage from ticket sales will Twitter take, even though sources told Re/Code that no percentage was taken during this case.
Smaller sports franchises like Major League Soccer, NASCAR and Indy racing should use this no matter how much Twitter takes from sales but don’t expect the NFL to do this, only if they somehow make millions of dollars on exclusivity agreements. There’s a reason why the NFL stands for No Free Lunch.
Maybe the Atlanta Falcons should do this to convince people to get really expensive season tickets when the new stadium opens.