Here’s how sports fan-flags waving high on Twitter

Sports fans worldwide turn to Twitter to unite and share meaningful connections. After all there's nothing quite like the feeling of being surrounded by a group of people who share your passions. The roar of sports fans is heard the loudest on the service, their very own virtual stadium where all the live action plays out in real-time. They often drive strong communities or fan clubs on the service leading sports conversations. But how does one make the most of what’s happening and keep their fan-flags waving high? Here are some tips to stay on top of your fan game on Twitter - 

Following your favourite sports, teams, and players just got easier -  

There are more ways than one to stay tuned-into what’s happening. To stay closely looped into conversations about your favourites, you can use the following Twitter features - 

• Topics: Twitter Topics use machine learning to insert subject-related Tweets into timelines. There are several Topics that one can follow to keep themselves updated with their favourite sport - some of these are Football, Cricket, WWE, among others. One can also follow team Topics such as FC Barcelona or Kolkata Knight Riders as well as individual players like P V Sindhu, Sachin Tendulkar, Daniel Ricciardo and much more. 

• Lists: Lists let people put together several accounts that Tweet about a common subject and follow their Tweets as a separate timeline. One can either put together their own Lists of accounts such as a List of cricket players, commentators, football clubs, international and national sports authorities or follow existing Lists created by others on the service such as these Lists from Twitter Moments India (@MomentsIndia) - Cricket, India Cricket, Delhi Capitals IPL team, Chennai Super Kings Team, among others.

• Twitter Moments: Moments are curated stories about what’s happening around the world. Moment pages on Twitter serve up a chronological timeline of Tweets around a particular subject or event so people can follow all developments in one place. 

• Event Pages: Event Pages let you follow the most recent Tweets and updates around an ongoing event. For all major sports tournaments, you can check out the related Event Pages on Twitter for Tweets from fellow sports enthusiasts, athletes, official authorities and more. 

• Cricket Scorecard: For the recent cricket tournament, Twitter had also introduced a live Scorecard. During an ongoing match, a scorecard would appear on the Explore tab and live Events Page on Twitter. So while fans were on Twitter keeping up with the conversations, they didn't have to go elsewhere to check the score. They could also follow the scores from the match in real-time, while scrolling through Tweets.

Engage with your favourite players and fellow fans in real time - 

While fans are always showing support and love for their favourites, star players and legends also make sure that this love doesn’t stay unrequited. They often engage with their followers through live chats, voice Tweets, and more. 

• Fan Q&As: Several players come to Twitter to have one-on-one conversations with their fans through #Ask sessions, asking them to Tweet their questions with the conversation hashtag. Players like Rohit Sharma (@imRo45), Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25), Smriti Mandhana (@mandhana_smriti) often share interesting personal anecdotes with their fans during these chats where fans send in questions with hashtags like #AskRo, #AskShikhar, #AskSmriti, and the likes. 

• Twitter Spaces: Spaces let’s people have live audio conversations and is another great way for fans to connect with each other, as well as with their favourite athletes. Earlier this year, Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) hosted a Space with Zaheer Khan (@ImZaheer). Fans can also host Spaces with other fans on the service to discuss your favourite matches, series moments or tournaments via live audio. 

• Live-viewing/watch-parties: Fans love to live Tweet the highs and lows of nail-biting matches, using Twitter as a second screen during live events. Anyone can, in fact, along with these fans, enjoy this live watch party on Twitter and feel the rush of the stadiums, virtually. 

Additionally, don’t forget to turn on Tweet notifications from your favourite players and teams.