The Value of Social Media in Football Business
In the competition to win over customers, providing the right customer experience is the “front line” in today’s business world. Sport is no exception – top sport entities are moving towards an entertainment company model, transforming their organizations into real global brands and attracting audiences from all over the world.
Football is leading the way in building worldwide audiences: top football teams are winning over fans in China, India, Indonesia and the US, countries that account for around 45% of world population. Social media provides convenient and efficient channels to reach and engage these people.
The impact of such increasing global reach and popularity in social media on the business of football has been ever growing. A player with a huge followership may have a higher value in the transfer market, as he can bring his fans to his new club as well.
In parallel, a club’s growing fame and the high-level of engagement of followers on these channels will increase their negotiating power with investors, sponsors or kit suppliers and thus help a club grow their matchday, commercial and TV revenues.
In addition, major clubs are investing massively to enhance their creative presence on social media. Some are also providing exposure for sponsors through standardized messages around major moments, like starting line-ups, goals, half-time/full-time updates, substitutions, etc. Manchester City’s, for example, launched a YouTube series this year entitled ‘Inside City’, partnering with Nissan, to engage fans, while they announced their team starting line-ups on Twitter in a “Here’s how City line up today!” series, in partnership with Hays Recruitment.
Another spectacular example was how the England Women’s Football Team revealed their 2019 World Cup squad on Twitter, with celebrities naming the players one by one in a thread of posts for a full day’s engagement.
Several clubs also operate multiple foreign-language Twitter accounts to personalize their fan experience beyond their home market. Manchester City has over 10 such accounts, many in Asian languages, while AS Roma has created a Pidgin Twitter account in March, run from Lagos, Nigeria to serve their West African fans.
Beyond sporting performance, superstars can also help a club grow their followership. Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Saudi Arabia as a unique example. Since the most followed athlete in the world joined the Al Nassr in January, the club have been able to grow their followership by 62% on the four main social media platforms and could establish themselves as the 4th most popular club in terms of the number of total followers.
A transfer can work the other way too – when 21-year-old Serbia striker Luka Jovic joined Real Madrid from Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer, his personal fan base grew radically overnight, profiting from the popularity of the most followed club in football, gaining almost 400k new followers on his Instagram account, an 80% increase in less than a day.
Messi’s arrival to PSG was also a key factor in helping the club grow their overall income by €53.3 million in 2021/22, an increase of €22.2 million in commercial revenues and a growth of EUR 14.2 million in matchday revenues. “The Messi effect” is expected to rub-off again, not only on Inter Miami but the whole of Major League Soccer in commercial value as he arrive USA this new season.
Athletes themselves are also keen on improving their social media presence, knowing how it can increase their market value, and also their personal marketing value to attract potential clubs and endorsements as well. While players may be advised by marketers to be personal, light-hearted and funny via their social media communication to engage fans, Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva’s Twitter controversy showed how thin the ice can be and how cautious players need to be.
Nevertheless, social media is definitely one of the most spectacularly developing tools for all stakeholders in football to raise their profile, grow their audiences, increase fans' engagement through personalized brand experience, and ultimately, monetize their passion.
