Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey
The BCCI’s social media efforts have come under criticism many times before, but this is something else. BCCI’s fan engagement is nothing compared to the likes of Cricket Australia, but this is something else. Fans and cricketers poured out their hearts in their tributes to Dhoni’s great career. But, the BCCI’s response was seriously something else.
As even rival nations shared their messages about one of India’s greatest ever cricketers, the BCCI, of whom Dhoni dedicated 15 years of incredible service to, hit an all-time low in terms of their social media and digital strategy.
Whoever thought a one-liner would suffice is clearly deluded. Some two or three hours after Dhoni announced his retirement on Instagram, the BCCI’s priority was driving traffic to a news story that everyone had already known about. There was no emotion about it at all. It’s as if it was a simple, every day news story.
At the time of writing, there has been no further activity from the BCCI account. This latest episode is an example of how out of touch the BCCI’s digital strategy is, where they spend far greater time suspending accounts rather than engaging them with quality content.
Surely Dhoni is worth more than an uncreative, useless one-liner? Where is mention of Suresh Raina, another excellent servant to Indian cricket? Don’t fans, who have helped BCCI become the powerhouse it is today, deserve a more heartfelt story about two of their favourite sons?
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Indeed, if any social media manager in the world, no matter the niche, implements a strategy such as that of the BCCI, they’d be out of a job. That the BCCI has a following of 12 million, when the likes of Virat Kohli have over 37 million, is evidence enough that millions of fans want more than live score updates and stale digital content that fails to create an emotional response.
The world of social media is moving fast, and the BCCI is stuck in the 2000’s. There was no video. No heartfelt tribute. No desire to satisfy desire for memories that will now last a lifetime. And fans noticed.
It’s now time the BCCI looks at its digital strategy. If not, fans will continue to feel disappointment towards the board’s lack of engagement. This latest episode is certainly one of its worst.
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