Celtics' Social Media Efforts Among Best In Pro Sports

The Celtics "have remained in stride with the most recent social media trends" due to the efforts of team President Rich Gotham, CMO Shawn Sullivan and Senior Dir of Interactive Media Peter Stringer, according to Chad Finn of the BOSTON GLOBE. The Celtics have approximately 6.4 million "likes" on Facebook, "the second-largest following in North American sports behind the Lakers." They were also the "first team in the NBA with a Facebook app ('Celtics 3-Point Play'), and Stringer runs a popular [online] chat during games." Prior to a recent Celtics home game, Stringer held a pregame contest via Twitter. It was "a challenge to the roughly 450,000 followers of @Celtics: He gives his location, then promises that the first person to find him will get an upgrade of two tickets near courtside." Finn notes what the Celtics "do not have is a smartphone app, though one is in the works." Gotham said, "We're in the process of surveying our fans as to what functionality they would truly value, both inside and outside of the arena, and results of over 5,000 show there's great demand for Celtics mobile content." Stringer: "We generated 90,000 fans from Facebook during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, and it helped generate in the range of $200,000 in ticket revenue. And Pinterest in particular is an interesting new avenue in terms of online commerce" (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/27).