Abstract

     The aim of this study is to explore the evolving social media marketing strategies of football clubs involved in the English Premier League (EPL), in a constantly changing sporting and digital landscape. Interviews conducted with practitioners from a range of clubs revealed that social media marketing has been fully adopted as a key strategic marketing channel. Other insights include the importance of trust to clubs being able to harness the collective of passionate fans on social media platforms. Also, how clubs are using social media to grow their global reach and capitalize on worldwide EPL exposure. The paper also highlights some of the negatives of social media, as experienced by football club social media marketing practitioners. Finally, a social media marketing strategy framework applied to football is proposed, based on the social media marketing strategy of football clubs and their understanding of why and how their fans use social media.

Introduction

     Social media marketing (SMM) is a key strategic activity that can achieve organizational goals and create value for internal and external stakeholders.1 Focused on customer engagement and informed by analytics, SMM will be more effective and make a more significant contribution to marketing and commercial performance.2 Deeper levels of customer interaction and data insights enable trust and an increased chance of success through effective social media marketing strategy (SMMS).3 Despite increased scholarly attention on the role of SMMS in sport, there remains a paucity of insights across a variety of football leagues,4 resulting in a lack of theoretical depth.5

     The English Premier League (EPL) is the wealthiest and most popular football league in the world,6 its global success evident by the fact that all EPL clubs are again in the top 50 revenue generating clubs in the world.7 EPL clubs’ revenues totalled over £۵bn for the first time in 2018/19,8 with broadcast rights being worth 59% of this total. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted EPL clubs significantly, primarily through matchday revenues plummeting thanks to matches having to be played behind closed doors.

Discussion and conclusions

     This study demonstrates how football clubs have increasingly embraced social media while continually adapting to the digital and sporting landscape. It confirms clubs now consider SMMS to be core to their communications with fans. The research is further evidence that brands use social media as a strategic tool to build relationships with local and global fans and stakeholders, in addition to informing fans to encourage interaction.74 Trust is at the centre of a successful SMMS, with the club as the unifying intermediary between fans and the business organization that is the actual club.

     Similar to research that focused on the fan perspective,75 this study finds that passion, based on an emotional connection with the club, is central to fans following clubs on social media. Moreover, a sense of community and social interaction are key to informing, entertaining and keeping fans engaged with the football club and its SMMS.76 Every club emphasized the insatiable appetite for information their fans have from the SMMS of their chosen club. Such findings link with research claiming fans are motivated to engage with football club SMMS for information, for their own social influence with their community, and for entertainment.77 It also concurs with research that fans are motivated to engage with EPL clubs on social media for information, empowerment via influencing other consumers, social interaction, and passionate, emotional attachment.