Facebook popularity - Football clubs

I've just been having a look at the officialsaints facebook page and noticed that it has over 40,000 'likes'. I thought that was pretty good - after all it's about 10,000 more than the capacity of SMS. But then I thought didn't we used to have over 250,000 fans on the database (in 2003)? I decided to compare to a few other Premiership clubs to see....I expected we may have less than a lot of teams, but there are some teams who are miles ahead of us. I think the Sainrs FB page is quite good at posting stuff, so why aren't we very popular? Should we be doing more to get a wider audience?...at the moment it seems we're pretty rubbish at it.

Man Utd - 30,559,000 likes (approx.)

Chelsea - 15,115,000

Arsenal - 12,622,000

Liverpool - 11,119,000

Man City 4,450,000

Spurs - 1,582,000

Villa - 936,000

Newcastle - 352,000

West Ham - 299,800

Everton - 297,000

Fulham 189,000

QPR - 170,000

Swansea - 92,000

Sunderland 68,000

Stoke - 60,000

West Brom - 55,000

Norwich - 52,000

Reading - 49,000

Saints - 41,000

Wigan 26,000

For those who care about our fiercest rivals:

Pompey 22,000

Bournemouth 3,000

(yes, I have very little to do at the moment if anyone asks)

Did you seriously spend the afternoon checking how many "likes" clubs have on facebook?

Yes. Did you seriously spend the afternoon being a tedious **** on a football forum?

Yes. Did you seriously spend the afternoon being a tedious **** on a football forum?

Ouch

Yes. Did you seriously spend the afternoon being a tedious **** on a football forum?

no. i've been down outside St Marys waiting for the Sky cameras to announce our new signing. I was left disapointed. *inserts sad face*

Surprised by qpr, swansea and fulhm having that much fb interest.

Surprised to see reading have more followers on facebook! I do not like Saints on facebook...... Hmmm

Most of our fans are either over the age of 60 or mentally disabled. Therefore they have limited interest in Facebook.

I like a lot of other crap though!!

Perhaps not surprisingly I see we have now rocketed to over 1m 'likes' overtaking a number of teams that were previously above us. Sad I know, but I think it's quite an interesting way of seeing how popular Saints are worldwide considering our traditional status as an unfashionable club.

Perhaps not surprisingly I see we have now rocketed to over 1m 'likes' overtaking a number of teams that were previously above us. Sad I know, but I think it's quite an interesting way of seeing how popular Saints are worldwide considering our traditional status as an unfashionable club.

Not at all. Its as good a way as any to see how much of a global outreach we have and are gaining in the globalised world of sport.

Much as anyone might not like it, this sort of thing matters. And the potential for our club to achieve this kind of audience and popularity worldwide is a large part of why the Liebherr group bought us in the first place.

Facebook is so yesterday

Jawilly, redo the list now with the current Premier sides (or upcoming to involve Bournemouth) - that would make for more interesting reading.

Turkish I'm sure won't revisit this thread, you'll be safe.

Most of our fans are either over the age of 60 or mentally disabled. Therefore they have limited interest in Facebook.

Why either/or?

Yes. Did you seriously spend the afternoon being a tedious **** on a football forum?

LIKE

no. i've been down outside St Marys waiting for the Sky cameras to announce our new signing. I was left disapointed. *inserts sad face*

Good pivot.

Perhaps not surprisingly I see we have now rocketed to over 1m 'likes' overtaking a number of teams that were previously above us. Sad I know, but I think it's quite an interesting way of seeing how popular Saints are worldwide considering our traditional status as an unfashionable club.

7th in popularity at this point? 8th? 10th?

We must still be below all those who finished above is in the league plus probably Everton, West Ham (who everybody famous seems to support for some reason), Villa so I'm guessing we're 10th....

Ooooo I like this topic..

For those wanting more information on these numbers, just ask and you shall receive

Here's how we currently stack up against other Premier League clubs, including those recently relegated/promoted:

A couple of quick points:

- At the start of this season we were still well behind the likes of Fulham, Hull and Swansea - we're now comfortably completing with the best of the rest outside the global 'Big 6' (pink).

- If anyone's wondering why Sunderland are growing so quickly, this quote on their website should help to explain:

Sunderland AFC’s commercial director, Gary Hutchinson said: “The club is continuing to grow globally and it’s important that we engage with fans in their native country and language."

For those interested in how our numbers are split per country:

The changing global landscape:

- At the start of 2014, 59.6% (68,591) of our 'fans' were living outside the U.K. That figure has skyrocketed to the current total of 88.3% (912,370).

IMO, the clubs who best connect, grow and capitalise on their global markets will be the ones who succeed in 5-10 years under the FFP umbrella. That's more a comment on teams outside the 'Big 6' who are already miles ahead of the rest of us globally.

Some interesting quotes from clubs we should be competing with, and beating, in the global supporter race:

Sunderland: We can't ask much more from the fans and businesses in our area. In order to keep pace with what is happening at other clubs, we have to make use of the international appeal of the Barclays Premier League.

Aston Villa: Aston Villa’s Asian marketing executive, He Rongtian, does not see his club competing for share of voice with the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal, but with what he calls second tier clubs. In China, following multiple teams is not uncommon, and Aston Villa aim to be the biggest of the second tier clubs through localised marketing initiatives delivered through China focused channels.

West Brom: Albion’s Sales and Marketing Director, Adrian Wright: “The club has a long-term plan in India and we hope to establish strong relationships with the ISL and its member clubs. “We recognise that the ISL has huge potential in so many areas – whether it be by expanding our own audience or identifying talent for the future.”

A few other quotes from different sources:

Tim Bridge, a consultant at football finance experts Deloitte, says: “There is an opportunity to engage with a global population – inexpensive access to potential customers – [and] to give the “club message” free of any subjective opinion from outsiders. And an opportunity to direct people to their merchandising or ticket sale portals.

Dao Insights (The world's first Chinese social insights platform for global marketers):

However for clubs other than Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea, is there an opportunity to grow a fan base in China? Qumin’s research shows a rise in mentions for clubs performing successfully during the season, and with more interest in clubs competing in the top half of the table. Clubs such as Everton (have since added a Weibo account) and Southampton gained a large number of comments, yet neither has any owned Chinese social media channel. On field success in 2014 drove a large volume of posts, and there was a big opportunity to capitalise and develop a following.

AC Milan:

Head of web and new media, Giuliano Giorgetti: "Social media is really a fantastic tool for the process of internationalisation of an Italian football club."

"It enables us to have direct communication with international fans, and we tweet in a number of languages,"

Ian Ayre (Liverpool): “Central to our international brand strategy is the Club’s revolutionised digital output, which is interactive, inclusive and localised to individual territories – delivering content which is tailored to specific markets and accessible in local languages.” “We can create added value for our corporate partners and maximise the international commercial opportunities that benefit everyone at the Club, including the players, coaching staff and the global community of fans across the world.”

Most of our fans are either over the age of 60 or mentally disabled. Therefore they have limited interest in Facebook.

There are some of us who are both over 60 and mentally challenged and have no interest in Facebooking or Twitering

Guilty as charged M'Lud!!

However I can still do simple maths in my head quicker than a lot of youngsters can do with a calculator.

I'm really impressive at Supermarket Tills!!

Ooooo I like this topic..

 

Loads of data

Nice work! Thanks for sharing.

Bournemouth have certainly grown from the 3,000 jawillwill originally mentioned.

I am disillusioned with the 0.9% growth in our Polish fan base. Cortese out!

As buying Japanese players were for increasing our support over there the fact that Japan doesnt even feature on that list that is disappointing.

For those interested in how our numbers are split per country:

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From that, I can only conclude we're about to sign Kyaw Ko Ko or Kyi Lin. You heard it here first.

Most of our fans are either over the age of 60 or mentally disabled. Therefore they have limited interest in Facebook.

My son is a big Saints fan and he's mentally disabled, I don't know if he has any interest in FB though but I 'll be sure pass on your regards next time I visit him.

Yeesh, Saints have nearly 5 times the growth of Man U but that still translates to them adding 650,000 more fans a month.

This is what we're up against, people.

I've been on holiday to Vietnam recently so I'll take some credit for that increase.

I've been on holiday to Vietnam recently so I'll take some credit for that increase.

Did you pick up any of the local dialect? There's actually a pretty active Vietnam Saints group on Facebook: Southampton F.C - Việt Nam

A few young local lads took a liking to the Saints a couple of years ago and are now doing a fantastic job in promoting the Southampton message. Even matching up a Vietnamese translation with the club's motivational video from the start of the season SFC Vollywood style..