Developing social media models for football clubs

Following on my previous post about the Social Media Premier League looking at which clubs are doing well at social media, and which haven’t got themselves sorted out yet, we’ve now put together some thoughts about how clubs should be putting together a framework to optimise their social media activity.

The initial model we’ve developed for football clubs is based around 4 areas of activity: direct sales, relationship building, PR and affiliate marketing.

From a bottom line perspective, social media can’t be ignored as a great way of driving direct sales – whether it’s last minute tickets to fill a stadium, or club promotions to sell merchandise – like DVDs or club strips. From a brand perspective, using social media to develop stronger relationships is a given – especially helping build stronger relationships with fans all over the world. The final two areas where social media can be invaluable is in the areas of crisis management – e.g. dealing with player scandals – and affiliate marketing – e.g. helping leverage additional value for your club sponsors.

From an overall perspective, the key thing to note is that your social media strategy should fit alongside your existing marcom strategies being used to optimise the bits social media’s the best at – i.e. being social!