The Premier League is the most talked about football league in the world – and certainly the wealthiest.
The teams, the games and their star players dominate the sporting and, sometimes, news agendas – and fans devote enormous effort and time on debating the relative merits of goals, transfer targets, refereeing decisions, managerial sackings and club ownership to name but a few.
However, there has increasingly been a feeling among many football supporters that they are being ignored or taken for granted in their club’s headlong rush to rake in even more money and attract bigger sponsors.
Of course, fan websites, forums, messageboards, chatrooms and social media networks are buzzing around the clock with the latest views, queries and complaints of how particular clubs conducts themselves.
As most corporations are now fully aware of the importance of tapping into these channels and platforms to gauge consumer sentiment and build brand loyalty, we decided to test the UK’s 20 top teams online approach to their supporters and how they engaged with them.
Following the example of our European colleagues (you can read about the Spanish findings here), we spent weeks examining a range of factors such as the number of Twitter and Facebook followers, level of interaction with fans, ease of online access, quality of content and app development and attached a score to each.
You can check out how the clubs scored in our full story here.
Perhaps surprisingly, Chelsea, a club often associated with the demands and desires of its all-powerful billionaire oligarch owner, came out as the social media Premier League champions for the positive way they interacted with their fans. Our analysis found that Stamford Bridge executives had developed a meaningful dialogue with supporters and were not only interested in broadcasting top-down messages.
Contrast this approach with reigning champions Manchester United who, despite having by far and away the biggest Facebook following, were not doing as much as they probably could to interact with their fanbase. Of course, it could be argued that United have more supporters to monitor and respond to, but we found that more could be done to build up a better online relationship.
Perhaps showing how it can be done are two of the clubs’ star performers, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand who are the most successful tweeters of all Premier League players. Whereas there is little interaction on the official club Twitter feed, both Rooney and Ferdinand regularly engage with their followers, albeit sometimes in a negative way.
We think there’s also a lesson for some of the league’s smaller or more unfashionable clubs. Swansea, Bolton and Blackburn take up the bottom three “relegation places” in our league and perhaps these clubs need to do more to energise existing fans and excite potential ones by properly exploiting the digital landscape.
Herein brings us to ultimate message about Premier League clubs and their online and social media channels. Yes, it is crucial in this digital day and age to embrace the internet to connect with fans – but clubs must also having a fully-developed strategy to maximise their opportunities and protect themselves against its challenges.
It’s critically important for clubs to have a clear strategy for social media and guidelines for players and staff about what’s acceptable and what isn’t.
With the global appeal of the Premier League, fans from around the world will increasingly look to engage with clubs and players via social networks.
Those that don’t get a handle on it risk scoring a huge own goal online.
Keep abreast of the debate by following us on Twitter @lewispruk and using the hashtag #LEWISPREMSM
Tags: communications, Digital, Facebook, LEWIS, LEWIS PR, Social Media, Sport, Tweet, Twitter
