Looking across Europe’s top 20 football clubs (based on Deloitte’s Football Money League) shows that clubs not only put different emphasis on social media but also approach it using different strategies. Considering the fact that international markets (and thus fans) are critical to their future success, it is interesting to see some clubs embracing the online world and social media and others putting less effort in than what could be expected from a local lower division club.
Besides the difference in emphasis, another key difference is how some clubs make good use of (external) platforms such as Facebook and others seek to develop communities and interaction with fans via their own club sites alone. A scan of sites and communities shows that the clubs that do make use of for example Facebook appear to integrate this into their overall social media approach and thereby also integrate it well with their own sites and communities. Here the top three list (as of May 8, 2010) in terms of number of members of the official club sites on Facebook:
- FC Barcelona: 1,922,976
- Real Madrid: 1,492,687
- Liverpool: 1,352,165
A few additional observations:
- Chelsea FC is 4th when it comes to Facebook members and A.C. Milan comes in at number 5
- Half of the top 20 clubs don’t have official Facebook pages – this group is being lead by the German and French clubs and some of the English clubs
- Arsenal and Manchester United have the biggest unofficial Facebook groups with 766,324 and 450,711 members respectively
- Some of the clubs that don’t make use of Facebook have strong club site communities (e.g. Juventus, BVB)
As mentioned in the beginning the competition for the international fan is bigger than ever. One way to connect with fans from a distance is of course via own club sites (and some clubs do this very well) but it is clear that a number of clubs are taking the lead when it comes to usage of external platforms (in this case Facebook) in combination with initiatives on own sites (check out what FC Barcelona does for example). Contrary to club websites, the external platforms offers the fan an easy and straight forward way to connect with the club – a connection that can be further developed and intensified as time goes by.
So, back to the beginning, different routes are being taken but there are certainly signs that some European football clubs are more successful than others in relation to connecting with fans via social media…..
Footnote: I may not be the fastest typer, but since I pasted the number in for FC Barcelona above (approximately 10 min ago) the number of fans on their Facebook page has increased by 500……I wonder how many fans in comparison signed up via one of the club sites!
