MMA Weekly reports that the UFC will ask you to log on to your Facebook accounts again as it will show the Demetrious Johnson v. Kid Yamamoto fight this Saturday prior to UFC 126.
The UFC gained over 60,000 “likes” from its Facebook live stream for UFC’s Fight for the Troops 2.
According to Cagewriter, showing the fight arose out of a grassroots campaign by Demetrious Johnson from his twitter account.
Via Cagewriter:
This is another occasion of the UFC understanding social media like few other sports companies. In Johnson, they have a fighter who rallied fans to use Twitter to get what he wanted. The UFC was smart enough to give the fans what they wanted it, but still leverage it to expand the reach of their Facebook page.
Payout Perspective:
I believe Cagewriter says it all. The UFC does a great job in listening to its fan base and finds ways to give fans what they want. In so doing, it strategically finds ways that would make it advantageous for the UFC. So, Johnson fans get to see his fight, the UFC adds more visitors to its Facebook page. While Johnson helps his own cause, the UFC probably saw this as a way to showcase one of its new Japanese signees in Kid Yamamoto.
Few companies understand their customers as well as the UFC understand MMA fansh. And they are especially good at finding the balance between giving the customers what they want and telling the customers what they want. Another good move by Dana and Co.
Johnson will most likely regret this campaign when he gets knocked out in front of all those Facebook users… all kidding (maybe) aside, I agree that the UFC is great at using social networking to connect with fans and deliver what fans want, this is just another example. I have to admit, I was really disappointed that this fight was buried on the undercard, though it made sense after considering where Mendes and Ellenberger sit in their respective divisions. Thank you UFC.