Over the past 12 months here at Sale Sharks we have really pushed social media as a channel for communicating with our fans. During that time we have increased our follower numbers by more than two and half times, using a number of hash tags and sharing everything from behind the scenes photos to our 1 Minute Wednesday (#1minWeds) interviews. We were also the first Aviva Premiership club to be verified by Twitter - that's why we have the little blue tick on our profile picture.

This season Sale Sharks will be using standardised hashtags for all of our fixtures, which looks like it will lead to another Sale Sharks social media first. Taking the lead from Rugby League, we have suggested three letter codes for each Aviva Premiership team, which is the first three letters of the second word in a club's name. We've done this to accommodate the three London clubs, we are not ignoring the 'Sale' part of our name, as you can see on the new logos on the front of the stadium!

Sale Sharks' hashtag is #SHA. So, for example, tweets relating to our Heineken Cup openening win against Cardiff Blues including the hashtag #SHAvBLU. These standardised hashtags are being confirmed with each club as we speak, and should be confirmed in the coming week.

Sale Sharks will be using these standardised hashtags for all fixtures through the @SaleSharksRugby account, which should make game information easier to follow. Fans will know exactly what to search for when looking for updates relating to a particular fixture. Hopefully this will catch on with the other teams!

Tickets are available for our next Aviva Premiership match #SHAvIRI, online through our ticketing website or by calling 08444 994 994.