Building a team from the ground up is no walk in the park, and clubs and their board members know that better than anyone else, with the owner potentially investing billions of dollars in buying the club and shaping it's squad. But what makes a club successful is their fans. The fans are the most integral part of any team and the clubs know it. So what should any club do to increase their fan following and try an do to keep the already one's on board - loyal.
The football industry has come long way since it began about 150 years back. With advancements in technology come the ever demanding fans, with almost two-third of them having an access to the internet. Social media opens up many opportunities to sports teams of all sizes, but in order to be successful, teams need to use it strategically.
When we talk about social media in sports the majority of studies and practices come from big clubs team profiles and we tend to focus on how these teams engage with their fan base through social media.
But the question today is what if your team doesn't already have tens of thousands of fans - how can you utilize social media to grow your fan base?
1) Knowing Your Audience:
The first and the most important thing is 'listening'. Listening is one of the most overlooked aspects of social media, and many organizations and businesses are reluctant to invest time or money into it.
Listening is a key factor in successful use of social media and is the first step to building a successful strategy. Understanding your current fans online behaviour will not only help your team when it comes to identifying opportunities to grow your fan base, but it will also help you to better understand your fans and identify other opportunities to engage and drive sales.
The three major aspects of getting to know your fans is: Who, what and where.
2) The 'Who' part:
Who is currently talking about your team online? Where do the come from? Are the with you or against you? Are the able to get more traction? Can you turn them into a fan if they are not yet? Can they advocate for you team as a fan?
If you can turn influencers into advocates of your team then you create a great channel to reach both current and new fans.
3) The 'What' part:
The what part basically comprises of what topics do people talk about? What content do they share? For example after a lose, there are a lots of troll and meme' page who mock the club. Sentiment is also important to measure. Are these post positive or negative? If there’s a lot of negative messages about your team floating around this may put potential fans off.
4) The 'Where' part:
Where do people talk about your club online? What social networks do they use? What forums are they on? What blogs do they read? You need to understand what they like and what they don't and what makes fans follow a club after reading an article or report online.
5) Bringing the fans to a common platform:
Networking website like Thefootballmind.com, gives a platform for all entities of football and brings clubs and fans on the same portal which allows a more personalized approach by clubs. These websites help understand the current fans behavior, which not only help your team when it comes to identifying opportunities to grow your fan base, but also help you to better understand your fans and identify other opportunities to engage and drive sales – after all social media is about business and has to make business sense.
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