20 Great Ways Social Media Can Help Your Football Club

John McGrann

If you are involved with a football club at any level you may be wondering how social media can help your club.
 
We have thought of a few ways and hope you and your club gain some real benefits.

• Grow Your Brand – there are over 800 million users on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and many of them are footy fans!
• Free mini website – yes having a Facebook page is like having a free mini website! The standard functionality and Facebook applications can deliver much of what you get from a website and it’s free!
• Target sponsors – keep your social media points interesting and go find new sponsors. LinkedIn hosts many potential sponsors in your area or globally.
• Sell your merchandise – yes either on your Facebook page or via a link to your website!    
• Promote your match day offers – use Facebook as the hub and Twitter to target prospects in your area!
• Target talent – it’s a global world now so get the feelers out for new football talent! Get fans to upload video of potential talent!
• Target corporate fans – their CEOs etc. are all on LinkedIn! Go connect with them and build relationships!
• Join targeted LinkedIn groups and share best practises, knowledge and ideas about the football industry!
• Leverage your current fanbase and make sure your great content goes viral!
• Bring your club to life online! Engage your fans and followers!
• Connect with local businesses on Facebook and Twitter! Promote each other!
• Great content - post your fixtures, statistics and events!
• Great content – share all your latest news first on your Facebook page and Twitter!
• Great content – share great stories about your club! Share its history too!
• Great content – feature players, staff and fans! Get them on video too!
• Great content – ask questions and ask for help! Your fans will be happy to help!
• Great content – be a Thought Leader in your industry and raise your club profile! Get blogging!
• Great content – host quizzes and competitions
• Great content - Host discussions on forums – create real emotional attachment to your club!
• Great content – video the football action and match interviews of your club and load to YouTube! Then Share it on Facebook and Twitter!

We love the Beautiful Game so please join us on Facebook at:

Football Crazy World and Drive Social Media  

   

     

We would love to hear your suggestions and ideas so feel free to comment!

  Cheers!

  John McGrann

  CEO Drive Social Media

Prospects will be IN-TE-REST-ED...

John McGrann

“The truth is Mr Client you are so boring!”

That probably sounds a bit harsh doesn’t it? But in some cases it’s true. Some businesses are boring and lifeless. My guess would be less than 5% of them. They are in industries which attract little interest. I wouldn’t care to name them though. 

As for the rest, they have no excuse. They are interesting to many of their stakeholders.  Their products, services and people are interesting. So why do many of these businesses still complain that people are not interested in their Facebook page or LinkedIn group or blog, for example? In other words they are boring!  In fact, they appear boring – although in reality and offline they can be very interesting. Simply, they are boring online only – it is just their online content that is boring.

Great content is essential for success in leveraging social media for business. Yes you need a strategy and you need to be out there in the right places. Growing a large social media network is a must so you can connect with your targeted audience. But connections alone are of little value. You have to engage your connections – talk to them. Great content facilitates that engagement – now we have something to talk about.

Some clients are slow about opening up and that is understandable. They are cautious. That’s fine, as over time confidence will grow. When their content is shared online the benefits can be magnified many times as fans and followers share their content. 

So what is Great Content? Here is an aid my team use to generate it themselves and from our clients.

What do you think?

More Soon!

John McGrann

CEO Drive Social Media

The Final Steps

This is the fourth and final series of posts on business blogging initiated by the blog post:
‘Don’t make your blog a slog!’

The previous blog post shows you how to create your own blog and how to add content to it, but the next question is… How do you attract followers to your blog? You want people to read your posts, but how would you do this?

Always remember that people will be interested to follow you, if they find you interesting.

Writing insightful articles will help people understand what you, or your brand is about, and will keep reading to learn more about it.

Add other blogs from your niche - follow other blogs that you find interesting, and they will hopefully follow you back. Engage with your followers; converse with them so they can get to know you better. You could also refer to other similar blogs in your blog posts, and then comment on their blogs to inform them that you've mentioned them in your post.

RSS feeds, like Google Reader or Outlook, are also very powerful tools you can use to help you generate followers for your blog. RSS feeds (also known as Really Simple Syndication feeds) help you keep track of other blogs and let you know when they've posted new content, so you can easily read them and comment on their posts.

So are there any other ways of letting people know about my blog?

Social Media Sites are also very useful when you want to attract followers. For example, you could let your followers on Twitter know that you've posted a new blog post and encourage them to follow your blog after visiting it.

Use Linked In to update your friends and colleagues there about your blog posts. Don't forget to direct them to your blog by adding the URL in your update as well. Linked In has a lot of groups; join the ones that are in your field of interest and inform them about your blog.

Facebook is also very useful as you can post on people's walls and kindly ask them to share your update with their friends whom they think will be interested in your blog. If you have a Facebook Page, you could post the same message you posted on Twitter and Linked In to keep your fans updated on your blog.

NetworkedBlogs is an application for Facebook that when added to your blog and Facebook page, will automatically pull through your blog feed and post it on your wall. You will have a separate list of followers for NetworkBlogs too.

Another website that's useful for generating followers for your blog is Technorati - one of the most famous search engines for blogs and blog posts. Find and follow similar blogs and promote yours there too.

What are the business benefits of blogging?

Blogging certainly increases your credibility and lets everyone read about your passion and what you're all about. Over time, with an increasing number of followers, people will trust you more and this in turn, leads to an increase in sales for your business.

All your posts will always be available in your archives, so even new users, or new visitors to your blog will be able to go back to those posts to read about you.

Using social media sites correctly will ensure that people will be able to see your blog on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn.. etc. Good brand awareness leads to trust from your target audience and customers.

Any widgets that can help?

Google Friend Connect, LinkedinABox, My Blog Log, Feedburner and Shout List Icons are great widgets to add to your blog to make it easier for your readers to connect with you, so make sure to add a few.

If you have any questions, please feel free to let us know :)

Ayna Gonzales
Marketing Executive
Drive Social Media