Building a sports community goes beyond creating a website and finding members. It’s a combination of user understanding, web design, and key functions. When it’s done right, it gives businesses a distinct identity and lifelong values. Today we’ll show you how to build a solid and profitable sport online community platform from scratch as well as tools and strategies to support your sports community.

In This Article:

1. Examples of Sports Forums and Community Sites
2. How phpFox Can Help You Build a Mighty Sports Community
3. Wrap Up: Start Establishing Your Own Sports Community

Examples of sports forums and community sites

A sports community can be the ideal platform to build real and strong relationships with sports lovers. Undoubtedly, these connections foster continuous engagement, loyalty, and sales opportunities. Below are a few great examples of successful sports communities that you can relate to:

1. Covers Forum

This is a very active forum and they cover a huge range of sports (NBA, NHL, soccer, basketball, tennis, horse, rugby, golf…). Besides, it provides various accesses to every sport including game schedule, scoreboard, analysis, member discussion, etc. It also has a contest section that awards members for winning small games and contests with Amazon gift cards. This is a great example of how you could engage your members with exciting activities.

2. FC Bayern Munich Forum

Fußball-Club Bayern München, commonly known as FC Bayern Munich, is a professional German sports club based in Munich, Germany. It is best known for its professional soccer team, which plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German soccer league, and is the most successful club in German soccer history. FC Bayern won a fascinating record of 30 national titles and 20 national cups, along with numerous European honors. It is not only a famous football club, it is also a German social media champion, placed at the top of the Social Media Index 2022, curated by the International Football Institute.

FC Bayern’s social media team is active on the main social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube – but it also runs its own community forum, which was founded in 2006. The forum is publicly accessible and integrated into the FC Bayern Munich website. As of July 2022, the FC Bayern Munich Forum has over 16,617 topics; 686,214 posts; and 9,083 members. Fans talk about the team, rumors of players’ changes, practice, and much more.

Through the use of gamification, community members can collect points, e.g. for starting a discussion, commenting, or liking others’ contributions. Based on these points, a ranking is built, retaining a competitive element. Through the FCB Forum, supporters from around the world have the opportunity to become not just loyal fans but also family members.

3. Cappers Mall forum

This forum is also a great choice for sports lovers because you will find the best topics to discuss soccer, horse race, football, baseball, basketball, etc. One of the best advantages of this forum is its simple-to-use community site. The navigation makes it super easy for users to find a topic they are interested in.

How phpFox can help you build a mighty sports community 

phpFox is a feature-rich community platform developed to help you build an all-around and robust online community, no matter what your niche is. Especially, it is popular for providing mobile apps on iOS/Android, add-on solutions, and customization packages to help community owners build their niche site exactly the way it should be built.

Essential features for a sports community 

phpFox is a feature-rich community platform that covers all features to build a sports community from Sign up/ Sign in, Profile update/ Profile management to Activity Feed, Private Groups, Chat rooms, Media gallery, Gamification, etc. You can also increase user engagement by giving members reward points for daily login or comments/sharing on community posts.

Unlimited customization options

By ‘unlimited’, phpFox offers a full suite of customization solutions for whatever you want your site to work or look like. To be more specific, you may ask to integrate a video gallery with your Youtube channel or other video platforms or request to redesign your website’s look and feel to make your sports community look more branded and match your brand theme.

See more about phpFox customization services that can offer to help level up your community site!

Advanced solutions to step up your game

Apart from essential features, phpFox also provides game-changing solutions to help your sports community stand out from other community sites.

• ChatPlus: What makes ChatPlus a must-have instant message tool is its helpful functionalities for online communities. With advanced instant messaging, group chats, and audio/video calls, ChatPlus works just like Facebook Messenger to let you share photos, videos, GIFs, and emojis and communicate faster with members or hold online private meetings on site.
• Live streaming: Live events or talks may help sports fans feel extremely united and connected to fellow members if done correctly. Take advantage of the phpFox Live streaming feature to host intimate live talks, Q&A sessions, and giveaway events to boost user engagement and strengthen relationships with your community members.

User-friendly mobile apps

Mobile devices are becoming irreplaceable things in our daily life. Mobile apps increase user intention for your business thanks to their popularity and especially push notifications. App owners may utilize this channel to enhance their brands. Fortunately, phpFox is available on Android and iOS platforms with responsive and friendly UI/UX for users.

Monetization strategies

After a period of operating and gathering members, you can think of different ways to earn an income with your sports community. There are tons of methods to make money from an online sports community:

– Membership: provide exclusive content for paid membership
– Charge for sponsored content or run ads
– Organize events with partner collaboration
– Open a store to sell branded merchandise

With phpFox’s various customization solutions, you can turn any of your monetization ideas into reality within a short period of time.

Wrap up: Start establishing your own sports community!

Above all, starting a sports community is not as difficult as you think thanks to its massive fanbase. You can start by building an intimate community space where fans can easily come to find people with the same favorite sports team or players and make it easy for them to talk and share. A solid online community should be built based on true connections and sharing.

Lastly, if you are nurturing an idea of creating a community for any sport, just get down to the business with the help of phpFox!

DISCUSS WITH US to learn how you can create a branded sports community and turn your successful community into a profitable business!

Social media like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are filled with online trolls and an abundance of ads. But with niche communities, you can avoid all of that. Let’s find out more about niche online communities and how people use them to better their businesses.

RELATED: Advantages of Online Communities over Traditional Communities

In This Article:

1. What Are Niche Communities?
2. The Uses of Niche Communities
3. How to Create Niche Communities
4. How Niche Communities Change Online Conversations
5. Conclusion

Niche Communities – the Key to Growing Your Business, Increase Conversion, and Gain More Customers

What Are Niche Communities?

Before anything else, you need to know what a niche community is. A niche community is a group of people who have come together because they share the same interest, values, or objectives.

You probably have heard of Rotten Tomatoes; it’s a site where people join and share their thoughts and opinions through the film reviews. All of the reviews can be read and accessed by everyone in the community. For instance, if you are into movies, a movie club is your place. 

The Uses of Niche Communities

Niche communities provide us with the exclusivity and sense of belonging we want. People nowadays want to connect with a community, such as a group of similarly passionate about anime or Game of Thrones plot theories.

In a niche community, you don’t have to go through dozens of useless postings to discover individuals who want to chat about the subjects that interest or intrigue you. All you have to do to connect with individuals who share your interests is join a community.

Niche organizations can do what Facebook cannot. They cut through the digital noise to provide safe spaces for people to debate specific issues without being interrupted by judgment, trolling or irrelevant information. I appreciate these sites because they allow folks to tap into a hive of shared information.

How to Create Niche Communities

There are quite a few niche online communities out there already:

Instructables

Instructables is a DIY project community on the internet. You may connect with other creators by uploading your newest craft project or audio masterpiece. A group is also a place for folks who need assistance with a DIY project.

Simply make a post about your issue, and you’ll likely obtain solutions from individuals who are more knowledgeable than you. You may also watch lessons and work with other users on projects.

BlogHer

BlogHer is a discussion forum for female innovators about digital marketing, blogging, and business. What began in 2005 as a conference has grown into one of the largest online specialized groups. A job portal for female creatives, yearly conferences, and women-led community support and feedback are available.

Quora

Quora may be able to assist you in building your brand and establishing yourself as a thinking leader. Millions of people use the site each month, asking and answering questions on various topics. You may use it to identify what people are dealing with or to uncover your next product idea and resolve your audience’s most pressing problems.

Behance

Are you a skilled designer? Behance might be the community for you. Adobe founded it, and it now has over 10 million members globally. You may post your portfolio, look for employment, discuss projects, and receive community comments.

Stack Overflow

Not only is Stack Overflow the hub for all things IT, but its job board may help you find your next full-time or freelance developer job. The website allows you to obtain answers to your code issues from millions of users, contribute to open-source projects, answer queries, and get insights from developers worldwide.

These are only some of the very unique and useful niche communities for you to join. However, for those of you who want to expand your business and attract more potential customers, then thinking about getting your own niche online community is the way to go!

phpFox is a feature-rich social network platform that allows you to create robust niche communities where your audience can interact and actively participate (IM chat, live broadcast, threads, polls, quizzes, games, etc.). In addition to the online version, phpFox provides white-label mobile apps, live streaming, and sophisticated chat solutions known as ChatPlus. By allowing you to develop a white-label, stylish, and easy-to-customize website, phpFox saves you time and effort. 

With phpFox and its included features and solutions, you will be able to build your niche communities quickly.

Find out here: Different Steps for Building Different Online Communities

How Niche Communities Change Online Conversations

Niche Communities Are More Personalized

Because these communities are isolated from the rest of social media, they tend to become safe spaces for people to share their views, feelings, and interests.

You’re connecting with folks who understand what you’re going through and why you feel the way you do. This develops an accepting culture, which may be difficult to obtain on traditional social media platforms.

According to Plan International research, 39% of females have experienced online abuse. As a result, 13% modified the way they presented themselves.

Niche Communities Help You Meet People With Similar Interests

You may feel as if you are the only person in your life who is interested in the Impressionist art movement or backpacking across Africa.

Niche online communities allow us to avoid feeling solitary in our interests and connect with others who share our passions.

Niche Communities Provide a Sense of Belonging 

We are hardwired as humans to seek out communities, and as much as we may hate admitting it, we desire collective approval.

These little groups provide us with a sense of belonging that we would not have had otherwise.

Social media can be used to build significant social spaces, although, on larger sites, this is not always viable. As a result, individuals want more true online relationships and locations where they can “fit in” by engaging with others who are interested in SEO, hiking, or prepping for the zombie apocalypse.

Niche Communities Create and Encourage Meaningful Conversations

According to a Global Web Index research on online communities, 45 percent of respondents were upset by harsh language and bullying on traditional social networking platforms. Furthermore, 36% felt they didn’t have a meaningful connection with other users.

Community chat applications like Chatplus from phpFox enable users to engage in meaningful conversations that aren’t common in other public venues.

The app covers everything from mental health issues like anxiety and depression to identity areas like gender transition, racism, and coming out.

It allows you to share your experience, discover a support system, and have conversations that you would be too afraid to do in person.

Conclusion

Niche communities are a trend that all marketers should be aware of. As people lose faith in social media companies and platforms grow increasingly congested, locating and engaging in the online venues where your specialty exists is more crucial than ever.

Whether you’re an eco-friendly e-commerce firm or a business coach, a specialized community will provide you with greater access to your audience, the ability to grow as a thought leader, and the potential to enhance conversion rates.

Create niche communities with phpFox and connect with your customer in a more personalized approach. Give us a call to get your online community up and running now! 

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