The San Francisco Giants, one of the most active sports teams on social media, today unveiled a new cafe at their ballpark dedicated to all of those tweets, Facebook posts and Instagram pictures.
The @Cafe, located behind the centerfield bleachers at AT&T Park, is the first social media headquarters located in a ballpark and opened for the first time at tonight’s game against the San Diego Padres, Giants president and CEO Larry Baer said.
The cafe is a partnership between the team and Peet’s Coffee & Tea, which will sell drinks to fans visiting the site.
A 12-foot-by-4-foot screen will show social media posts in real-time from around the world, as well as updated numbers for the number of fans who follow the team on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The Giants lead Major League Baseball in total number of Instagram followers and are fourth on Twitter and Facebook, Baer said.
AT&T Park has the third-most Facebook “check-ins” in the world, behind only Times Square and Disneyland, he said.
Baer said it became obvious during the team’s World Series run last year “how much social media tended to dominate everybody’s lives in terms of following the Giants.”
He said, “It’s very much a part of our lives … you can’t do business as an organization without a presence on social media.”
Bryan Srabian, the team’s social media director, said the plans for @Cafe developed over the past three years and that the large screen will show social media posts curated by Giants staff on site.
The cafe will feature special events like Twitter chats with Giants players, and the team will continue enhancing the site throughout this season, Srabian said.
The cafe also includes a cellphone charging station, one of 10 such kiosks located around the ballpark.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
