According to the Social Media monitoring platform Social Pundit, the clubs in the Premier League, the highest level of soccer in England, surpassed in November 2013 more than 100,000,000 likes on Facebook for all their pages combined.
Growth of Facebook likes
The clubs in the Premier League saw an impressive growth of Facebook likes during the last three months. All Facebook-pages combined received more than 10,000,000 likes during thestart of the Premier League season in August 2013.
Manchester United most popular
Manchester United, that won the Premier League various times, is the most popular Premier League-club on Facebook, receiving more than 36% of all Premier League-likes. Newly promotedCrystal Palace from London has the smallest fan base on Facebook with just over 35,000 likes. However, since returning to the Premier League, Crystal Palace saw their Facebook following grow by 18%.
Most likes from abroad
It is by the way remarkable, that the majority of the likes are not coming from fans from the United Kingdom. Dominant countries on the clubs’ Facebook pages include Indonesia, Egypt, Costa Rica, India, Mexico and the United States of America.
Liverpool FC launched in 2013 a Facebook page in Spanish, looking to engage soccer fans in Spain, Mexico and South American countries like Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay. At the club from Liverpool, there are various players with Spanish or South American roots, such as Jose Enrique, Luis Alberto, Luis Suarez, Iago Aspas, Philippe Coutinho and Lucas Leiva.
Sport Fans and Social Media
In the article ‘Sport Fans Using Social Media’ you could already read that fans from all over the world are using various social media platforms to share their passion for sports. Facebook is the most popular social media channel, followed by YouTube, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram. Popular fan-activities on social media include sharing pictures, watching video highlights and bloopers and discussing games.
Recent reports from Social Pundit and IMG show the significant importance of Facebook and other social media as source of information for sport fans. These platforms change the way people who are interested in sport are consuming news and information. It also gives the clubs and players the opportunity to communicate with their fans in a transparent and direct way, without other media influencing these messages.
(Sources: locowise, Social Pundit)