| Of all the major social media platforms, none has quite ascended as rapidly as Snapchat. In recent years it has become a prominent part of the social media sphere, but given its relatively sudden arrival and unique nature, many teams are still trying to figure how best to use it. This research looks at why fans use Snapchat to follow sports from a Uses and Gratifications perspective in order to understand their motivations as well as ascertain what may be the best practices for teams to use on the platform. In order to do this, research was conducted in two phases. Phase I solicited open-ended responses from fans to the question, "Why do you use Snapchat to follow sports?" Utilizing these responses, Phase II built a survey to examine these motives for motivation factors. This resulted in five prominent factors: (1) Highlights/Recap, (2) Unique Perspective, (3) Behind-the-Scenes, (4) Presence, (5) Ease-of-Use. These themes were analyzed in depth using hierarchical regressions incorporating multiple factors to build a better overall understanding of the data. |
