As I have discovered and discussed in previous posts, the sports industry has a strong relationship with social media. According to the CEO of Mass Relevance, sports have always been about the fans and allowing them to gather and participate in sporting events. He explains that his company is essentially doing the same thing, but on social media, and states, "From the beginning, sports have been about fans getting together. Now you're participating with this group whether you're at the stadium or not, and that's a bullseye for social media." Mass Relevance is a a social engagement platform that allows brands to use relevant and curated content experiences in order to engage consumers. Mass Relevance has made such an impact with sports on social media that Twitter made Mass Relevance "its first official social engagement and curation partner." 
       Mashable's recent article on Mass Relevance asks CEO, Sam Decker, questions about the maturity of sports social media and how he sees it evolving in the future. Decker first is able to explain the success Mass Relevance has had because they are able to bring social media into other platforms and in a meaningful way. They understand that sports fans aren't going to be paying 100% attention to social platforms while they are watching a game, so he brings social media into other places like apps and TV channels. The company also tries to allow fans to create stories and content themselves rather than the brand doing it all. While storytelling and creating engaging content is important for everyone in the sports industry, creating content is a little more complicated for sports brands in comparison to teams and leagues. Sports brands need to understand what sports their consumers are interested in and combine that love of the sport with their product to create an impact with their content. 
       Decker believes that sports social media is still very early in the evolution process. Those that are standing out, such as MLB and Turner sports, have the entire organization utilizing and emphasizing social media. The ones farther behind in the evolution process have a very small social media marketing team and a social media presence that no one else in the organization is aware of. I agree that some brands are more ahead of others, but I think the sports social media presence is greater than described by Decker. I, myself, follow numerous teams and sports brands on different social media platforms and think they have created a strong presence. In the future, Decker believes social media will become more integrated into what fans are doing. I agree, not only is this true for social media in general but it is true for sports social media. Once teams, leagues, and brands realize the growing importance of social media they will place more emphasis on it. This will all fans to not only "like" a page or receive updates of teams, but to interact with them as well in a variety of ways. As a sports fan, I hope that teams and brands become more interactive on social platforms because these are brands I would be extremely interested in following. 

~Katie