Nowadays, social media has become a part of every sports team’s identity. Whether they use social platforms to reach out to fans, or to maintain a more corporate image, the online audience is judging every move.
With this in mind, leagues like the Barclay’s Premier League in England are taking action and have set up social media guidelines for all clubs. These guidelines are not only a way of instructing the teams and players on how to behave online but also a way to teach the clubs the value of social media and fan interaction.
More and more clubs are seeing the light and realizing social media is not just for merchandising purposes, although some are still struggling in the shadows. They have found that conversation and engagement with the fans is much more important and are embracing the conversation. Here, I take a look at the Top 3 Premier League teams who are best at engaging their fans.
3. Southampton F.C.
The Saints come in at number three on this list. Since they are the smallest club of the three, Southampton has to really assert themselves when it comes to marketing, and they include it in their social media strategy admirably. The result of this well-executed strategy is that fans are not thrown off by their marketing efforts.
Understanding the need for fan conversation, Southampton F.C.’s social media team embraces it and often begins the debate. They would, however, benefit from some creativity and risks, since their social time lines are at times rather generic in their content. Nevertheless, the Saints understand the value that social media holds and gets them closer to their fans.
2. Arsenal
The Gunners are one of the biggest clubs in England and, as such, they have a large presence on social media. Their main hub is their website, which seems to fair better at winning awards than the actual team.
Their content has great quality and they do a superb job at promoting their players’ official accounts for other fans to find them. Their official Instagram account publishes outstanding training and match photos that quickly gain thousands of ‘likes’.
Where Wenger’s club could do a better job is replying to their fans on Twitter. All the great content they publish would go great with some acknowledgement that there’s an actual human being behind the account. Although, surely the following video counts as fan engagement – and it’s pretty funny.
1. Manchester City
The Citizens are not only champions of England; they are champions of the social media game in the Premier League. City brings innovation, creativity, engagement and high quality content to every social media timeline they own. They have mastered how to promote their content across all platforms. As one of the biggest and best clubs in England they understand perfectly how to engage, not only with their fans in England, but across the globe, thanks in part to the acquisition of teams in Australia and New York City. They engage with their fans accordingly, but it’s high quality video content like the video below that has gained them so much praise and goes down so well with fans.
And if that wasn’t enough, their house Etihad Stadium became the first in England to offer high-speed wireless Internet access for phones and tablets, changing they way fans interact on match day.
Social media is not a one-way conversation. Even with examples like these, some teams still don’t fully engage. This Top 3 shows that with determination and a good strategy and knowledge of the importance of fan engagement, all clubs can reach the status of these teams.
Sure, the bigger the budget, the better the toys available to play with, but this can be countered with creativity; finding a way to reach fans, tell a story, tap into their passions, get them excited and feel rewarded for following the team. That’s what social media is about for sports teams today.