Understanding adolescentsport participation through

online social mediaNorm O’Reilly

School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

Ida E. BergerTed Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

Tony HernandezCentre for the Study of Commercial Activity, Ryerson University,

Toronto, Canada, and

Milena M. Parent and Benoit SeguinSchool of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the potential role and use of online social media toinfluence sport participation in youth aged 12 to 17 years by responding to two specific researchquestions: what is the nature of the online “marketplace” among youth?; and what is the nature ofadolescent sport behavior as revealed through activities on online social media?Design/methodology/approach – The paper outlines and then implements the researchmethodology of netnography to achieve its purpose. Netnography involves a researcher joining anonline forum, e-tribe or other open-source social media to observe and record the discussions for analysis.Findings – The overarching finding is that online discourse related to sport participation amongyouth is very limited. When discussion does take place, five themes emerge: benefits, advice-seeking,finding common interests, learning new sports, and challenges.Research limitations/implications – This research provides impetus for future work in thecontent area and in the use of the netnography method. It is limited by the lack of online content on thetopic area by the target group.Practical implications – The paper’s results provide important understanding, direction andguidance to sport administrators working for government, sport organizations and organizations whomarket their products and services to youth through sport.Originality/value – This paper is original in two respects: the use of netnography as the researchmethod in this context, and the focus on social media and sport participation in youth.

Keywords Sports, Adolescents, Social media, Netnography, Sport participation, Sport marketing

Paper type Research paper

Brands, products and consumption behavior are platform agnostic (Santomier andShuart, 2008) and, as such, there is no pre-determined structure of media to successfullyreach target consumers. Consumers seek connections to the social marketplace,including brands and products, through a multiplicity of media and mediums. Foryoung consumers (i.e. teenagers), this search is increasingly executed using onlinetechnologies (Leung, 2007) as part of what has been called electronic tribes (see Adamsand Smith, 2008). These “e-tribes” are characterized by online activities betweenparticipants in a multiplicity of media including chat rooms, social networking web

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available atwww.emeraldinsight.com/2042-678X.htm

Sport, Business and Management: AnInternational Journal

Vol. 2 No. 1, 2012pp. 69-81

r Emerald Group Publishing Limited2042-678X

DOI 10.1108/20426781211207674

The authors would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and SportCanada for supporting this research (grant no. 862-2006-0001).

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sites, discussion boards, blogs, photo and video sharing, news aggregators, e-mail groups,instant messaging, tweets, wikis and forums. The increasing global popularity of thesesocial media has made this the fourth most popular online activity, now representingone eleventh of all online time (Nielsen, 2009). There are hundreds of social media sites(e.g. MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Orkut) and hundreds of millions of users, leading toincreasing interest and use of these platforms by commercial marketers to engage withconsumers and promote their products and services. Internet advertising firms thatspecialize in social media-based marketing services are now proliferating (Lievenseet al., 2008) with many advertisers now simultaneously using television ads and onlinepromotions to launch new initiatives and create interest, engagement and buzz aroundtheir products.

This research adopts a consumer behavior approach to better understandproduct/service marketers’ increasing use of online social media and the potential ofthese media to influence socially desirable behaviors, in this case adolescent sportparticipation. Based on the literature reviewed, the issues around adolescent sportparticipation, and the netnographic method, we have framed our exploration around twobroad questions: first, what is the nature of the online “marketplace” among youth? (inthis question, sport represents the content domain for understanding adolescent onlinebehavior); and second, what is the nature of adolescent sport behavior as revealedthrough activities on online social media? In this question, the online social media is thecontext for understanding adolescent sport behavior. The paper considers the potentialuse of online social media and e-tribes to stop the precipitous decline in sportparticipation among adolescents in western industrialized countries (Berger et al., 2008).

Value of sport participationThe drastic rise in obesity and diabetes among adolescents in western industrializedsocieties is a recent phenomenon (International Association for the Study of Obesity(IASO), 2008). The lifestyles of youth have become much more sedentary over thepast three decades, resulting in significant increases in the percentage of overweightchildren and adolescents. Consider, for example, the following information on thestatus of children’s health in Canada. In 1978, the combined percentage of overweightand obese children (ages 2-17 years) in Canada was 15 percent. This percentage grew toan alarming 26 percent by 2004 (Merrifield, 2007) with only 7 percent of today’sCanadian youth aged 7-16 undertaking enough physical activity for health gains(Colley et al., 2011). Some researchers are already predicting that today’s youth may bethe first generation in history to not outlive their parents (e.g. Tremblay et al., 2009).Similar trends have been reported in the USA (Ogden et al., 2006) and around the world(Moore, 2007).

One of the known protective factors against obesity and ill health is regularexercise, such as active sport participation. For example, respondents to one Canadiansurvey (Statistics Canada, 1998a) were asked to rank the benefits of sport participationin order of importance. For 15-19-year olds, physical health and fitness was the highestranked benefit (69 percent ranking it “very important”), followed by recreation andrelaxation (67 percent), sense of achievement (62 percent), meeting new friends andacquaintances (46 percent) and finally, family activity (30 percent). Related researchalso suggests a positive relationship between sport participation and increased lifesatisfaction (Statistics Canada, 2005); “improvements in cardio-respiratory fitnessassociated with short and long-term positive effects on depression, anxiety, moodstatus and self-esteem; and higher academic performance” (Ortega et al., 2008, p. 10).

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This reality is also supported by “Canada’s report card on physical activity forchildren and youth” (2008) that concluded that school sport participation servesas a protective factor against anxiety, depression and low self-esteem (Active HealthyKids Canada, 2008).

Trends in and determinants of youth sport participationDespite the known health and social benefits, the 2005 “General social survey”indicated that only 66 percent of males and 52 percent of females aged 15-18participated regularly in sport (Statistics Canada, 2005). These statistics represent asubstantial drop from the 1998 participation rates, when 80 percent of male and55 percent of female adolescents participated regularly (Statistics Canada, 1998a).Those who were not active in organized sports listed lack of time (30 percent), lack ofinterest (26 percent), health/injury (14 percent) and age (10 percent) as their primaryreasons for not being involved (Statistics Canada, 2005). Tremblay et al. (2009)established empirically that Canadian children are taller, heavier, weaker and lessflexible (multiple measures) than they were in 1981 regardless of sex or age, which mayhave implications in accelerating non-communicable disease development, increasinghealth care costs and loss of future work productivity.

Researchers have identified gender, age, household composition, educationalattainment and income as key drivers and modifiers of sport participation rates (Bloomet al., 2005). Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, Berger et al. (2008)reinforced these findings highlighting the impact of household and community context,parental education, social/gender factors, self-perceptions and competing behaviors onsport participation. One of the more interesting insights from that study pointed tothe value of considering sport within a constellation of other behaviors and factors.Particularly intriguing was the finding that body weight or physical activity is seenby adolescents as a “lifestyle” choice whereby physicality – whether athletic, sportyor obese – defines and is related to lifestyles, the types of people youth hang outwith and the types of activities in which they engage. Such a psychographic lens onyouth lifestyles, normal in commercial marketing, quickly reveals that while sportparticipation is decreasing in value and meaning online activity is not only growingbut in fact is deeply embedded in adolescent lives. Canadian adolescents spend over35 hours a week on average in front of a screen (using the computer, playing videogames and watching television), accounting for more time than is spent in theclassroom (Berger et al., 2008). Furthermore, the increase in screen time among youth isbelieved by many to be a significant contributing factor to lowered levels of physicalactivity and sport participation.

Online social mediaOnline social media are an established social phenomenon, especially amongadolescents. They initially came to prominence in the 1990s with the development ofonline newsgroups, forums and chat rooms which then evolved to include discussionboards and social networking web sites. These online spaces are a conduit for socialactivity and represent electronic versions of “town forums,” defined not by a commongeography or physical location but by a commonality of interest and involvementin products, services, issues or lifestyles (Kozinets, 2002). These virtual networkspossess many of the advantages of print media forums, in that many-to-manycommunication occurs asynchronously (Klein, 1999). Furthermore, online socialqmedia are less expensive than print media forums because the author of each

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respective post creates the content, and the audience views it electronically, eliminatingthe shipping, reproduction and distribution costs of traditional publishing processes(O’Reilly et al., 2007).

Traditionally, an online forum was developed around a main page that organizeddiscourse through hyperlinks into subtopics where members could read, create andreply to conversational “threads” (Moloney et al., 2003). The modern social media site isorganized similarly, however, the main page is typically a personal page of theparticipant with links to the personal pages of his/her invited friends. In either case,“netizens” (a term used to describe online participants) are encouraged to participate inconversational threads, even when the conversation is not necessarily directed towardthem personally (Granitz and Ward, 1996). This practice differs from traditionalface-to-face interaction where eavesdropping and interrupting are considered rude,and are not culturally sanctioned (Granitz and Ward, 1996). Online, by contrast, it isconsidered totally appropriate for netizens to eavesdrop (read passively) onconversational threads, and/or to interrupt (actively provide their own contributions)(Kozinets, 2002). Most importantly, the online social media enable influential andinformative one-to-many, and sometimes many-to-many communications to extendthrough indefinite amounts of time and space (O’Reilly et al., 2007), facilitating thedevelopment of complex, global networks of relationships among many participants(i.e. e-tribes) (Adams and Smith, 2008).

Users of these online social media have expressed their need for a more private formof online activity as a consequence of the growing number of scandals, such as theendorsement of illegal activities among minors. Un-invited and un-anticipatedparticipants have accessed these online gateways for their own purposes, such aschecking on potential job applicants, stalking and enticing minors, etc. The overalltrend of online social media use is shifting from online chat rooms and open blogs andforums to a more private, secluded and protected online culture in which members canmanage the privacy settings in their profiles and communications. The shift frompublic online forums to private profile-based social media web sites becomes evidentwhen one considers the current number of users of these sites. Today, Facebook hasmore than 500 million members. In turn, each member has his or her own series of“friends” that can access his or her page, photos, posts and memberships, and varioustheme groups that allow mass communication among all members by subject content.The growing popularity of these specific networking web sites is due, in large part,to the fact that members are able to customize their profiles by including verypersonal information such as relationship status, interests and political preference.Indeed, members are able to create and produce new, desired or aspired-to identities,where their page “is not just a home in that place, it’s actually who they are online”(Kornblum, 2006). Users also have the capability to exist, interact and browse throughthe basic profiles of complete strangers (i.e. “socializing”). In summary, these onlinenetworking web sites are a gateway to an active online social life where members canbuild relationships with “complete strangers” with whom they could never ordinarilyinteract.

NetnographyThe internet is filled with information on every topic imaginable. It is an outlet forpeople to express their ideas, emotions and opinions. For over ten years, researchershave been using this pool of data for a variety of research purposes by means of amethodology called netnography. Robert Kozinets, a pioneer of netnography, first

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defined and used it in 1997 in a study about fans of The X-Files, a television drama thatfirst aired in 1993 on the Fox television network. He defined netnography as “a writtenaccount of online cyberculture, informed by the methods of cultural anthropology”(Kozinets, 1997, p. 472). Netnography, or online ethnography, involves a researcherjoining, recording, analyzing and interpreting the content of an online e-tribe or socialmedia site Thus, netnography, like ethnography (see Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995)is about a researcher observing and recording, for an extended period of time, the actsand discussions of a target population.

Netnography is unsolicited, realistic and unobtrusive; it is less time consuming andexpensive than ethnography (Kozinets, 2006). It allows the researcher to gain deeperinsights into consumers’ opinions, motives, worries and concerns in an inconspicuousmanner (Langer and Beckman, 2005). Observing the behavior of individuals onlinerather than face-to-face eliminates the human aspect of the observation. All of the datacollected from an online forum is usually in a textual format, and, therefore, cannotinclude data that could be relevant to an ethnographer, such as body language, eyecontact, tone of voice, posture, general mood and movements. However, it does followthe same epistemology as ethnography in that results are not generalized to broadercontexts but simply represent a particular observation of a lived experience which caninform decisions or future research (Kozinets, 2006).

Conceptual contributionsThis paper represents an empirical study that employs netnography to learn moreabout social media and youth sport participation. Two frameworks from consumerbehavior theory provide the backdrop for understanding. First, consumer economicscan describe the nature of online media as a forum or conduit of exchange. Second,consumer psychology can illuminate online media as a forum or conduit of socializationand social behavior.

The field of consumer economics proposes that consumers come into the socialmarketplace as rational exchange agents seeking to maximize their utility through theexchange of their resources for desired benefits (Haines, 1969; Lipsey et al., 1999). In thecontext of online forums, consumer economics inspires a series of sub-questions relatedto the online marketplace (column 1 of Table I) and adolescent sport behavior (column 2of Table I). For instance, netnography is used to explore the kinds of benefits soughtand exchanged online (Question 1), as well as to understand what benefits sportparticipation might offer (Question 2).

Q1: Nature of online marketplace Q2: Nature of adolescent sport behavior

1. What benefits are sought/exchangedonline?

2. What are the sources of informationonline?

3. How do exchanges take place online?

4. What mechanisms facilitate or impedeexchange online?

1. What benefits do adolescents seek from sport?

2. What benefits provide the highest levels of utility?

3. What resources are they willing to give up for sportrelated benefits?

4. What are the core competing activities and whatbenefits do they offer?

5. How does sport stack up against competingactivities?

Table I.Research questions andsub-questions accordingto consumer economics

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The consumer psychology literature likewise suggests that consumers comeinto the social marketplace to solve problems. However, it is herein understoodthat consumers are limited processors of information and imperfect decision makers(Solomon et al., 2008). In this regard, consumer behavior is understood to be highlyinfluenced by other social actors, social activities, social networks and socialcontext. Classic consumer psychology models behavior as a function of attitudes andsubjective norms as articulated by Fishbein and Ajzen (1981) in their theory ofreasoned action where attitudes – defined as evaluations of a product, brand orbehavior – and subjective norms – defined as what people in a person’s life spacethink an individual should do – are seen as the fundamental antecedents ofbehavioral intention and behavior. Attitudes, in turn, are understood to bedetermined by cognitively accessible and evaluated beliefs, while subjective normsare determined by compliance with the obligations and expectations of referentothers (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1981). This theory has been augmented to includethe notion of perceived behavioral control in the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen,1985). Perceived behavioral control refers to people’s perceptions of their ability toperform a given behavior and is determined by control beliefs – beliefs about thepresence of factors that may facilitate or impede performance of the behaviorweighted by the perceived power of each control factor (Ajzen, 1985). This literatureinspires a second series of research sub-questions related to both original researchquestions (Table II).

MethodologyA netnography of a large online forum was carried out in order to respond to theresearch questions. Given the large number of online public forums available tointernet users, the researchers conducted internet key word searches to narrow theoptions to forums that fit within the research parameters. These specificationsincluded topic/sports and age/teens. Due to the uncertainty of age online, age for theforum was only specified in broad terms as “teenager.” It was assumed that a forumintended for teens would draw a mainly teenaged demographic.

The selected forum was chosen for its large number of members and highly activenature, as well as for its focus on teens. It had over 160,000 active membersfrom many different countries, including Canada, the USA, the UK and Australia. Itcontained over 25 forum sections devoted to topics as varied as teen alcohol and

Q1: Nature of online marketplace Q2: Nature of adolescent sport behavior

1. How is information shared online?2. How is information verified?3. Who are the opinion leaders?4. How is opinion leadership established and

exercised?5. What information or sources of

information is attended to?6. How much effort is expended to search for

and evaluate information?7. How are decisions made?8. Are decision consequences shared?

1. What beliefs do adolescents have about sportparticipation?

2. What do they believe to be the consequences ofsport participation?

3. What is the valence (good or bad) of thoseconsequences?

4. What significant others influence sportparticipation?

5. Which sources of influence are complied with?6. What impediments prevent sport participation?7. What are the most important impediments?

Table II.Research questions andsub-questions accordingto consumer psychology

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substance abuse, music and popular culture, humor, world news and current events.The forum section devoted to sports was isolated, and the posts relevant toparticipation were collated as research material. The researchers did not participate inthe forum, but rather, observed and recorded relevant online discussions. The forumrespondent activity was followed for three months (January-March, 2008). During thisperiod, there were over 750 new threads created in the sports section, 170 of whichmet the criteria to be included in the research material. Data collection and analysisfollowed the established and strict netnographic research protocols (includingethics approval) developed by Kozinets (2002). All posts meeting the establishedcriteria (participation) were downloaded from the forum, reviewed and analyzedindependently by two researchers in a search for major themes. The analysis processinvolved open coding of themes by each researcher, where each reviewed the entirety ofthe posts and noted each theme when it appeared. Then, using software, the themeswere collected and organized for further analysis. Posts concerned with professionalsports were ignored.

Results – general findingsOverall, five major themes were identified: benefits, advice seeking, finding commoninterests, learning new sports and challenges. However, it is important to emphasizethe fact that online discourse related to sport participation is very rare at best andis – by our observations – not of high importance to most youth as indicated by therelatively small number and depth of discussion threads.

BenefitsAn analysis of postings showed that youth who contributed to this forum were able toidentify the following benefits of sport participation (listed in order of number ofmentions): source of physical activity, builds confidence and self-esteem, improvesinterpersonal relationships with friends and family, recreation, gives a certain feelingof accomplishment, and helps attentiveness during class.

The participants in the youth sports forum clearly shared the view that sports are asource of exercise. They also think exercise is important because it seems to be aprimary reason for some youth to become or stay involved in sports activities, asdemonstrated by Member A’s post: “i only do it for the exercise. not to go anywhere inlife with it.”

The participants also acknowledged and shared the idea that sports buildconfidence, give a feeling of accomplishment, and aid concentration during class:

[y] Look exercise makes me feel so good, I don’t drink or use drugs because I don’t have to. Ifeel great just so great because of exercise, training builds up confidence. NOT only that, butit also increases your health. I’d much rather keep on training and feel awake each day, thango around as a zombie, and it’s not hard at all to study and train, besides school tastes somuch better when you know that you’ll get to train after school (Member B).

Another benefit of sport participation discussed in the forum was improvedinterpersonal relations between friends and family members. Whether it meantlearning a new skateboard trick from a big brother or having a cousin take them to theski slope, the youth offered testimonies about how sports are opportunities to createand maintain bonds with close family members:

Ok. SO i didn’t get to play basketball this year, since we moved and we had “problems” athome I needed to help out with [y] . so my dad makes it up to me by signing me up in this

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one league on base with him, as his “partner.” Usually it’s reserved for adults but he’s lettingme hang with these dudes. We played in one torunament [tournament] and dominated. Mydad played spot up shooter while I tore up the court just breaking people left and right. All teh[the] while we talked and hung out during half time (Member D).

A very important motivation for many, if not most, was a real sense of fun andenjoyment. There was often disagreement on the discussion boards about which sportis best or the most enjoyable, demonstrating that these teens are passionate about oneor many sports. Sports are seen a source of recreation for many of the forumparticipants, such as Member C, who noted “Love it!! Play for 2 teams but just recentlybroke my wrist at a basketball game [y] Still luv it tho [though]!”

Youth on these forums were often passionate about the sport(s) they played andgenerally tried to encourage the participation of other users by sharing their positiveexperiences.

Advice seekingAdvice seeking was another popular topic on the forum (e.g. beginners seeking helpfrom the more experienced on specific topics, advice on which equipment to purchase).Many posed questions on which new sport to try, as demonstrated by the followingpost: “Ok so my mum says that this year i have to do a sport, and i don’t want tocontinue with netball so i am going to have to take up a new sport, so i was thinking ofdoing snowboarding but that is expensive so do you have any other ideas of what icould take up that is exciting” (Member E). With the discussion of which new sportsto try, came questions from teens beginning a new sport and looking for tips andadvice: “i just got a bmx a week or so ago and i want to know of any good but easytricks i could learn? and a description how to do it please” (Member F). Along with thenew sport questions were sport-specific questions regarding equipment from teensparticipating in all levels of sport:

right now i have a 20-2100 frame. its a gt. the bike sux balls. im looking for a new bike. imwondering if i should just buy a lighter/smaller frame. or if i should just buy a new one? imlooking at the eastern ace of spades. its a 1600 frame and it weighs 26lbs. is that a good bike orwhat (Member G)?

Forum members were very supportive of other members seeking advice, often sharingtips and personal stories, indicative of their desire to demonstrate knowledge andrecruit new participants.

Finding common interestsThe forum threads devoted to finding common interests and a sense of belongingdemonstrate the importance of social contact as a benefit of sport participation. Oftenthe teens turned to online forums for support and acceptance when they felt they wereunable to find that acceptance in the sports they love, specifically due to factors such asgender differences: “im a girl and i LOVE WWE, but idk how to tell my friends er othapeeps, its kinda dorky and no 1 i know would approve of this, but i REALY like it [y]so how could i like it without being dorky” (Member J); and, “Do u think its wierd forgirls to bmx i ust to do it” (Member H)?

Along with posts aimed at attempting to fit in, there were posts from teens whoexpressed a passion for their chosen sport and appeared to be seeking other players ofthat sport or seeking to try a new sport: “i love love love field hockey and i was justwondering if anyone else did and what position do u play” (Member I).

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Challenges and reasons for non-participationFor each benefit of sport outlined by a member of the forum, multiple reasons fornon-participation or ceased participation of previous participants, also surfaced. It isparticularly interesting to observe challenges and reasons for non-participationposted online. This theme included the following challenges and reasons: interest,comprehension, money, coaches, age, health conditions, past injuries, potential risks,work, confidence, opportunities, academic standing, available training, parentalsupport and availability of extra-curricular sports. Many of the reasons stated werelargely factors that were under the individual’s control: “i dont understand basketball”(Member J); and, “Basically, I gotta go training tomorrow and I haven’t played in Godknows how long, 2 years? Gosh, has it been 2 years? Anyway, so, my old teammateswant me to start playing football again, but my knee isn’t in the best condition. Plus,I feel so unhealthy, slow and overweight” (Member K).

The posts also revealed a set of external factors that interfere with youth’s positiveintentions toward sport participation. These factors included financial resources,parental support, accessibility to training and sports teams: “I used when i was little,then i moved and we didnt have the money for it. ‘cries’ I really miss it tho” (Member L);“I would love to play hockey, but sadly, I don’t have the opportunity to here”(Member M); and “Zero, for sure. My school doesn’t offer athletic sports. Unless youcount the dance classes. People come back pretty sweaty from that” (Member N). Thesechallenges often inspired others to share past experiences or offer up advice (e.g. timemanagement, low impact activities, etc.).

Results – findings specific to research questionsA variety of important findings were generated by the netnographic analysis. First, thefollowing themes were identified as important to youth: a sense of belonging (pursuit ofpeer-groups, self-image, etc.), cameraderie (friendship, peer support, etc.); and thatonline forums are a place to demonstrate knowledge (experiences, skills or expertise)and ideas (opinions on key issues, creativity, etc.), make new friends, persuadeothers and build a network of contacts with individuals who possess similar ideals,morals and values. Second, the nature of the online marketplace for youth is observedto be more than a place to exchange products or services (e-commerce) or a venue togather/share information. In other words, social media are not simply an efficientconduit for exchange. It is an environment where youth express their identity, buildtheir social networks and convey their views to their peers. Put simply, online forumsand social media are venues for self-expression, and the online personal identitiesdeveloped by adolescents are potentially as important as the adolescents’ offline image.Social media activity represent a parallel social “life” in all its dimensions – learning,shopping, recreating, entertaining. Third, based on the difficult search to locate a sport-related forum, it appears that sport and physical activity do not play an overly largerole in this parallel life of adolescents.

DiscussionBy implementing a netnography, this study builds on previous literaturedemonstrating that online forums and social media are used in a multitude of ways,such as for seeking advice, building friendships and persuading others. This studyclearly supports previous research (Berger et al., 2008) that the topic of sport andphysical activity remain relatively absent from the online communications of youth,where image-related, mass media content dominates. Indeed, due to the growth and

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changing nature of social media (no longer publicly available and increased securityprotocols), the newsgroups, chat rooms and forums of the late 1990s and early 2000sare now very rare. In addition, the vast majority of public sites are devoted to adults.For those targeting youth members, the focus tends to be on movies, fashion, TVprograms and music. The reality is that sport participation is not part of the youthonline discourse.

Clearly, there is an opportunity here for sport practitioners and social marketers toenhance their efforts in achieving behavioral change (i.e. increased physical activity inyouth). In this regard, marketers could use social media forums to engage youth andprovide input on the benefits of sport and outline opportunities for participation. Forexample, sporting goods companies could advertise their products on these forums, agovernment health official could develop an online forum or portal that is attractive toyouth and also educates vis-a-vis the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Similarly, theassociation cool sports (e.g. snowboarding) and popular athletes could provideattractive technical skills training applications. The potential tactics and strategies fororganizations involved directly and indirectly in health, physical activity and sport areconsiderable (e.g. a sports club could advertise their programs, schedules andpromotions). Similarly, National Sport Organizations, such as Speed Skating Canada,could use these forums to promote their star athletes and coaches (role models), engagetheir key stakeholders in online communications (coaches, judges, technical experts,manufacturers), exchange best practices virtually and encourage participation(targeting both parents and participants). The online environment also providesmarketing opportunities for sport tourism and events, and the potential for amateursport groups, often suffering from a lack of funding, to cut costs by establishing virtualwork environments and moving conversations and resources online.

For public policy makers the results suggest powerful, unique and interactive waysto connect, build and engage youth with the value of sport participation. For example,the NFL launched an online program for youth encouraging 60 minutes/day of activity.In Canada, ParticipACTION partnered with Coca-Cola on SOGA active, an online tool(see www.sogoactive.com) where youth can track activity, win prizes and interactonline about physical activity.

These results contribute conceptually to future research and the literature related tosport participation. First, with respect to the mechanisms that exist to encourageonline exchanges and behavior change related to sport participation, results suggestthat two key triggers of change exist and can be manipulated. The first is the theme ofpersuasion: adolescents use forums to attempt to persuade others on key issues thatare important to them. Second, networking and friendship building are importantfunctions of online forums for youth. In both cases, programs could be built aroundthese triggers to introduce sport participation as a topic to champion and a support forfriendships and networks. Second, with respect to social marketing, the exchange thatmust occur between a youth and the organization attempting to promote a change inbehavior (sport participation) is clarified as a challenging and barrier-laden process.In this regard, the benefits that youth seek online (i.e. the various noted themes) areidentified and can be translated into marketing tactics and tools. Third, in taking a“competition” lens, we note that adolescents’ online activity – which may include videogames, chatter about personal issues, self-image development and promotion andnetworking – are in direct competition with sport or physical activity, which normallyoccurs off-line. However, it is important to note that many of the benefits adolescentsseek on-line (such as having friends, being a team player, looking out for teammates

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and sportsmanship) are central outcomes of sport participation. Clarifying adolescentgoals and providing their link to sport could be successfully translated by socialmarketers into off-line participation.

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Further reading

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About the authors

Norm O’Reilly is with the School of Human Kinetics in the Faculty of Health Sciences at theUniversity of Ottawa. His research areas encompass sport marketing, sport finance, marketingand social marketing. Norm O’Reilly is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:norman.oreilly@uottawa.ca

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Ida E. Berger is with the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University.Her research interests are invested in social identity, ethnic diversity, social alliances, consumerbehaviour, and advertising.

Tony Hernandez is the Eaton Chair in Retailing at Ryerson University. His current researchinterests include business GIS, retail geography & location planning research, spatial analysis,data visualisation and decision support.

Milena M. Parent is with the School of Human Kinetics in the Faculty of Health Sciences at theUniversity of Ottawa. Her research focuses on organization theory and strategic management,primarily in the context of major sport events.

Benoit Seguin is with the School of Human Kinetics in the Faculty of Health Sciences at theUniversity of Ottawa. His research interests include sponsorship, consumer behaviour, brand,Olympic Games, and ambush marketing.

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