IPL Wars: Chuck Bats for Hashtags

The date for IPL-5 may be set for April 4,but the nine teams (minus Kochi Tuskers) are already battling it out on various social networking websites. With games,contests and feedbacks,the IPL teams are doing everything they can to hike up the number of fans and supporters.

So is it working? Well,statistics reply in the affirmative. Delhi Daredevils has more than 11,000 followers on Twitter and more than two lakh fans on Facebook. Chennai Super Kings has more than 29,000 Twitter followers and Mumbai Indians has 31,000 of them.

But how are the teams managing to grab so much attention? For Delhi Daredevils,it’s by holding contests,the winner of which gets to travel with the team during the tournament. Mumbai Indians,on the other hand,have started an initiative “Players Become Friends”,and as a part of the campaign,they are using personalised video messages from key players — Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh — to gain the support of fans. With more than two million fans on Facebook,Mumbai Indians seems to have discovered the right moves to rake in the moolah online.

More than the teams’ initiative,it is the fans who are having a ball,battling it out on social media. The website Iplwars.com gives a chance to the players to discuss,critique and debate on numerous important issues and trivia about the IPL. “Which team has the best logo in IPL,” asked Pramod Acharya,one of the IPL enthusiasts. And what followed was a detailed discussion on the pros and cons of various team logos. Royal Challengers Bangalore seem to be the favourite in this case. Given the hyperactivity on social networking sites,no wonder the teams have chosen to go the social media way to reach out to millions of fans in the country.