Abstract

Women notably make up a large proportion of sports fans in Australia. Women sports fans do not just attend matches, but also view, listen to, and read about sport and also follow leagues, clubs, and athletes on social media sites. In addition, female fans come from all walks of life; they are different ages and are from different backgrounds and locations. In recent years, social media has become a significant platform upon which sporting clubs and sporting organisations have worked to build profiles, interact with fans/members, communicate, and share information about their identity and brand. The aim of this article is to examine how female members of the Greater Western Sydney Giants Football Club (Giants) use, communicate, and interact with social media around the club. In a wider study of both male and female members of the football club, an investigation into how social media has impacted members of the Greater Western Sydney Giants (GWS) Football Club as they support, follow, and interact with the club, athletes, and other fans was conducted. This specific study (on female members only) takes an exploratory qualitative research approach using an online questionnaire for data collection and social network and thematic analysis to extract pertinent themes.