How Football Social Media is changing the Beautiful Game

WHO AM I?

Sean WalshHead of Social Media at BlueclawFounder of Digital-Football.com

@walshybhoysean@digital-football.com

#digisport#smsports

DIGITAL-FOOTBALL.COM

“the leading intersection between football & social media” – Mashable.com

BLUECLAWSEARCH.CO.UK

FOOTBALL SOCIAL MEDIA?•46 million Twitter users follow a Football Club

•120+ million follow a Football Club on Facebook

•Cristiano Ronaldo alone has 50m Facebook fans – more than Justin Bieber, Barack Obama, Starbucks & even Real Madrid

•Euro 2012’s final holds the record for ‘most tweets per second’ with 15,000tps

THE GOOD...

THE BAD...

?

...AND THE UGLY

GAME CHANGERFootball Social Media has radically changed the way the football fan interacts and follows his or her football club. Channels like Facebook and Twitter have given fans a platform to engage on club matters directly with the need for the mainstream press.

By 2014, we expect the number of Twitter users to be following a football club to be doubled (circa 90 million).

Clubs are only just getting to grips with how to use the channels.

The next step is monetisation and gaining return on investment.

FAN ENGAGEMENT

PRESS EVOLUTION• Twitter has become the go to source for breaking news. Twitter was circa 6 minutes faster than Sky Sports News on transfer deadline day for announcing deals.

•Journalists are increasingly using Twitter as a way to create stories and quotes without ever having to actually interview a player.

•The post match press conference will soon be overtaken by the post-match Tweet

•Mainstream press have weakened as new media bloggers grow in influence

DATATAINMENT

The data has value, previously it has been kept in-house and behind guarded doors, but there is a recognition now that clubs need to help this space develop. There are a lot of people out there blogging and doing their own research and they can do a lot more with this data. - Richard Ayers (Man City)

CONNECTED STADIUMS• Allow fans to share their game-day experiences via social media applications easily accessible from their mobile devices.

• Provide customised applications that create an immersive and interactive game-day environment

• Help ensure consistent and reliable connectivity

• In addition to this, there’s a whole spectrum of new possibilities to access content and engage with visitors during non-gaming days, aka stadium tours.

PROTECTING THE BRAND•One tweet can harm the performance of an entire season – player tweets, player banned, team loses cup.

•Transfers, tactics, publicity, even share price at risk.

•Teams still lost about how to deal with rogue players – social media is emotive.

•Wrong and right doesn’t work.

•Plan & educate players why it’s wrong and right.

LEGALITY•Improper comments may bring the game into disrepute•References on personal ethnicity, race, faith, disability, sexual orientation etc. will be punished at a higher level•Players accept responsibility for their own accounts•all comments are considered public by the FA•Disciplinary action for simply retweeting improper content – thereby removing the excuse that somebody else had made the comment. •Players are also advised that simply deleting a social media posting will not prevent disciplinary action.

MONEY.Social media needs to quantitatively show where it can improve:

- Match day revenues Gate receipts, match day promotions, season tickets etc.

- Broadcasting revenues Domestic and international

- Commercial revenues Sponsorships and merchandising

KEY POINTS• ROI – hard but a must

•Sports fans are emotive and tribal – social media should reflect this

•Give the fans what they want

•Data is the life blood for a football fan, create content around it

KEY POINTS• Connectivity – can your fans even Tweet?

• Players will always be idiots unless you educate them – easier said than done...

• Social must be integrated through the club from top down

•Listen, plan, engage & react

THE END!@walshybhoy

Sean@Digital-Football.com

Always on the look out for contributors!

Questions?