Journal No. 8

Chapter 11, Question No. 6

Choose a company and see what is being said about it in the social-media space, including blogs, any complaint sites, and what the company is doing with social media, if anything. Discuss your findings and suggest any ways the company should do a better job in social media.

I chose the UFC as my company to discuss. I think the UFC does a pretty good job with its social media sites. The UFC stays pretty active on their Facebook page. They make posts every day and the weeks leading up to a fight, the UFC will have many posts about the upcoming event. For the UFC I think they have been marketing themselves very well because they were not very well known a little more than a decade ago. Dana White, the president of the UFC has stated many times, how important it is to use every avenue of advertising. He says that one person might hear about an upcoming event on the radio, another person might see it on a commercial, and someone else might hear about on Facebook or Twitter. The UFC is very active on its social media sites. When I look up complaint sites or blogs about the UFC, I usually find the same two complaints over and over. The first is about Dana White. He is very outspoken, I do not personally have an issue with what he says, there are many people who are. He has no problem cussing out fans or giving strong opinions on many different topics, not just fighting. This is not normal behavior for the president of a large company but they have showed no signs of changing the rules or White's behavior. The other complaints are usually made soon after a fight card is completed. If a fight card does not happen to live up to the hype, fans will voice their opinion.

The UFC recently signed a long term deal with FOX to air events and advertisements on FOX, FX, and Fuel TV. They have stated that their is a direct correlation between the number of people that watch their events when they are advertised during the NFL season and during the off-season. Football season is the time of year when FOX will attract its most viewers and therefore be able to advertise (to a larger audience) about the upcoming UFC events. It is perfect for the UFC because it is the same demographic. I think that the UFC should try to figure out other ways to try to make up the difference from the football season. They should advertise during other sporting events like the NBA and MLB. They do not get as many viewers but they still get a lot and they are a similar demographic. And always explore the new social media that are being created.

I believe the UFC has done a great job with its PR and expansion in the last decade. There is not much I would change but part of the question was to make a suggestion and that is mine.