Representatives from several social networking sites gather at WPS league office in San Francisco to discuss social media strategy  

SAN FRANCISCO (April 1, 2010) – Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) today hosted a roundtable of guests from various social networking sites to discuss social media strategy. Representatives from DemandMedia.com, Slide.com, Digg.com, FanPul.se, Pereira & O'Dell and YouTube.com all came together to participate in the league’s broader conversations to enhance the fan experience and generate awareness of the one-year-old league through the use of social media. The league is based in San Francisco’s SoMa (South of Market) neighborhood, one of the hubs of new media and social media technology.

In its grassroots-first approach, WPS has embraced social media as a platform for the league and its fans to interact and engage, and has been ahead of the Twitter trend in sports as select players tweeted thoughts and reactions from the sidelines during the 2009 WPS Inaugural Season. Twitter and Facebook postings will be incorporated into the league’s television broadcasts in 2010, and the league boasts almost 250,000 followers on Twitter.

WPS and its eight teams activate on a daily basis on such social networking platforms as Facebook.com, Twitter.com, YouTube.com, Delicious.com and the WPS Fan Corner driven by Ning. Most recently, WPS has added a registration function to womensprosoccer.com in order for fans to populate columns, news articles, and WPS match previews and reports with ratings and commentary. The functionality is powered by Pluck, part of the Demand Media Network.

About Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS)

Headquartered in San Francisco, Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) is the world’s premier soccer league for women with eight teams across the United States featuring the best players from around the world. WPS completed its inaugural season in August 2009 as Sky Blue FC of New Jersey became the first-ever WPS Champions. In 2010, eight teams will each play 24-game schedules from April 10-September 12 including six original WPS teams – Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, FC Gold Pride (Bay Area), Saint Louis Athletica, Sky Blue FC (NJ/NY) and Washington Freedom – and two expansion teams Atlanta Beat and Philadelphia Independence. The top four finishers in the regular season will qualify for the 2010 WPS Playoffs scheduled for September 19-26. For more information, visit the WPS official website at www.womensprosoccer.com or follow all the news at www.twitter.com/womensprosoccer.