Football clubs’ social media use and user engagement

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is threefold: to measure and compare the degree of social media use (SMU) by football clubs, to assess football fans’ engagement with content posted by football clubs (FCs) and to evaluate differences in user engagement with commercial social media advertisement targeting football fans, based on the advertisements’ appeal.Design/methodology/approachThis paper employs three approaches. First, it uses the corporate social media use (CSMU) model to analyse 20,954 Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter postings from 78 European FCs. Second, it develops a categorisation for social media postings and uses ANOVA and Scheffè tests to conduct a pairwise comparison. Third, it uses a fictional hedonic low-involvement product (chocolate bar) to conduct an experiment by creating a Facebook advertising campaign with three advertisements that are manipulated regarding their general appeal.FindingsStudy 1 demonstrates that individual FCs show big differences between their degree of SMU. There are, however, no differences between European leagues, social media platforms, or more/less successful FCs. The results of Study 2 indicate that social media users like, comment and share postings by FCs independently of the content of the posting. Study 3 reveals that both user engagement and reach of advertisements can be substantially increased by employing football-related appeals.Originality/valueThis paper helps understanding consumer engagement in social media. The results presented are relevant and helpful for a multitude of actors, including FCs and other sports clubs, companies targeting football fans and researchers interested in social media and sports marketing.