Between on-air promotion and daily feed interactions, ESPN is aggressively ramping their Facebook usage (perhaps they are watching the NBA's success?). As an example, hit ESPN2 show SportsNation is quickly approaching 750,000 fans (was 600,000 April 1st). In fact, they are now advertising for the page:
It is unclear how much growth is from the campaign - but it is interesting because the page itself is not directly monetized. Clearly this is an opportunity to ESPN to understand:
- the relationship between on & off-air consumption - the ability to incorporate social activity in live airings - the beginning values of online, off-ESPN.com users
And perhaps it is something bigger: the roll-out of deeper social integrations on ESPN.com.