As graduation approaches, many sports fans at The University of Alabama will be leaving Tuscaloosa. To help keep the Tuscaloosa community alive past graduation, Kash Razzaghi and his team at Fancred have created a sports-focused social media app.
“The reason behind the creation of Fancred was essentially to allow fans to have better conversations and create a community of sportswriters, teams and other fans,” Razzaghi said. “I grew up in Starkville, Miss. Most of us grew up in the South and then went to school elsewhere. I felt a disconnect from the SEC. I’ve met fans from The University of Alabama that I would never have met outside of Fancred. It’s a really great way to connect with students, alumni and fans from other schools.”
Fancred differs from other forms of social media in that it is solely dedicated to sports. Razzaghi said the focus of the app helps users connect with an audience that cares about sports as much as they do.
“With Fancred, you know what you’re getting into when you open the app,” Razzaghi said. “You know what to expect because its sports focused. When I log onto Twitter, I follow politicians, news stations, celebrities and more. Most of my friends are having kids. They’re posting pictures of their babies and what they ate for lunch. If you’re a sports fan, you want that nugget of information about your teams, and you want to be able to connect with other people who care about the same things.”
Landon Howell, Alabama-native and Fancred head of strategy and content, said the Alabama fan base has been a valuable resource in developing the app.
“I grew up in Jasper in the heart of Crimson Tide country,” Howell said. “I grew up going to Alabama games and I had friends who played for Alabama. We started working on Fancred when Auburn won its national championship. Then the next year, Alabama won its second national championship in three years. My friends from Birmingham were a primary source to help understand how the app could work. They were experiencing the app in its most extreme form, having conversations about both good and bad. We were also able to see how fans of other teams responded after a successful season.”
Currently, users can only register for Fancred through a Facebook account.
“We want to make sure that we have real fans with first and last names,” Razzaghi said. “A problem with forums is that people can hide behind a pseudonym and say whatever they would like. It’s the quickest and easiest way to authenticate that you’re a real person. In a future update, we will allow email registration as well.”
Howell said the Fancred community has been civil and excited to participate in a sports community.
“We haven’t had to remove one user on Fancred in the five weeks since we started,” Howell said. “Compare that to a message board or comments on Youtube. We’ve managed to create a community where people are excited and want to see it grow.”
In order to create an incentive to meaningfully participate in the Fancred community, each user is given a Fancred score. Through frequent activity and a growing following, a user’s score increases.
“By using a Fancred score, users can measure how active they are as sports fans and how people respond to what you say,” Razzaghi said. “They can also verify if you should or shouldn’t listen to someone else because a Fancred score gauges if someone is credible enough. A higher score says you’re not there to just spread rumors. If you’re a guy who posts every six months and you’re just there to start trouble, your Fancred score reflects that. It encourages people to post interesting things, not just ‘Bama sucks’ or ‘Auburn sucks.’”
According to the Fancred website, “increasing your Fancred is as simple as being a sports fan. Share your sports takes, check-in to games, participate in conversations, read and post articles about your teams, and build a following. The more active you are and the more others engage with your posts, the higher your Fancred will rise.”
Other schools in the SEC, like Mississippi State University, have started using Fancred to connect with sports fans and students.
“The athletic director from Mississippi State is on Fancred,” Razzaghi said. “He’s also on Twitter. He’s been using Fancred as a way to ask students questions and keep them updated on things like the stadium expansion. He’s seen much more of a response on Fancred than on Twitter, even though he has exponentially more followers on Twitter, because he’s reaching an audience that is specifically interested in sports.”
Now based in Boston, Fancred operates with a small team of seven people and been growing quickly since the app went live on the iTunes store five weeks ago. While it is currently only available on iOS devices, Fancred is building an Android app that is expected to release this year. More information can be found at fancred.com.
