Mid Sweden University

The main purpose of the study was to analyze and investigate the possible impact of the corona pandemic on a sport club´s external relationship-building communication on Instagram. The corona pandemic, and the audience restrictions it has brought, have meant that most sport clubs have been forced to create and maintain their relationships with their supporters in other ways than through the traditional arena experience. Several scholars suggest that social media has become an excellent platform for sport clubs to strengthen their relationship with their supporters. The method used was a qualitative content analysis of 60 Instagram posts. 30 of those posts where published before the pandemic and 30 during the pandemic. The theoretical framework consisted of relationship marketing and based on a version of Matthew Miles and Michael Huberman’s three-step process this study seeks to understand the possible difference between the relationship-building Instagram posts under a period before and during the pandemic. Based on our problem statement the findings show that Luleå Hockeys communication on Instagram, both during the analyzed periods in October 2019 and December 2020, overall was on monetary and social level. The findings also suggest that Luleå Hockey mainly used informing, sales, community and personal themes in their relationship-building communication during these months. In conclusion, the result of the study could not show that the corona pandemic had any significant effect on Luleå Hockeys external relationship-building communication on Instagram during the analyzed periods.