Özet:

Due to the development of social media platforms and the increasing interest in social media, sports clubs have started to see social media as a tool to communicate with their fans. Businesses can easily be aware of the demands and needs of consumers thanks to the interaction feature of social media. Due to the industrialization of football, sports clubs have also started to be incorporated. The transformation of clubs from an association form to a company has also revealed the fact that they should gain a commercial perspective. In this regard, it has become as important for sports clubs to understand and interact with their target audience as well as their sportive success. The main objective of the study is to reveal the effects of the fans' social identities and their identifications with the club which they support, on their motivation of social media usage and social media behaviours. Social identity is a concept that emerges with the motive of belonging to a group in individuals and brings along a social role. Social media platforms are one of the most effective tools by which individuals can reveal their social identities. The fact that social media platforms offer interaction feature without time and place limits enables the fans to perform their social roles. Studies on the reflection of social identity acquired by being a supporter on social media are limited in the literature. The results of the research are thought to contribute to the sports clubs gaining information about their fans, developing social media strategies, and sports marketing literature. Accordingly, 1488 participants were reached using the convenience sampling technique on Facebook and Twitter platforms. Using the scanning method of the quantitative research method in the study, the effect of the identification of the fans with their social identities on their motivation to use social media and their social media behavior was examined through Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regression analyzes. It has been found that the social identity acquired by being a fan has an impact on their social media usage motivation and social media behavior. Identification, like social identity, has been found to be effective in motivation to use social media and behaviors other than Facebook content consumption.

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