Social Media in Football: A Change in Fan Interactions

Never has it been easier to follow a football club.

For supporters of a certain generation, it is simply impossible to comprehend how fans followed their team even a few decades ago, with limited television coverage and no available internet.

Yet today, due to technological advancements, it is possible to consume football news from almost anywhere.

“Even 15 years ago you’d probably never have even dreamed that you’d be able to chat to people in another country about Juventus,” said Dave Long, 39, from Manchester, who communicates with other fans of the Turin club via social media.

“Now, every minute of every day you can access anything you want and I’m a lot more involved and probably a lot more knowledgable,” he said.

For James Smyth, a 24-year-old Manchester United fan from Northern Ireland, social media has become necessity for keeping up to date with the latest goings on at Old Trafford.

“I’m on social media constantly, so it’s a very quick and easy way to get an update on what’s going on at the club,” he explained.

“It makes you feel a bit closer to the club, especially living in Belfast. It’s so easy to just go straight onto your phone and go onto social media. You’re able to see updates and it allows me to be kept informed of what’s going on.

“It’s easy and quick and it’s all user-friendly,” he added.

“Social media has broken down geographical barriers,” the Head of Social Media at a Premier League club told JOTB.

“In the past you’d have thought that someone who lives in Indonesia and someone who lives in London, or Manchester, or Birmingham, or anywhere in the UK, would have nothing in common, but that commonality is actually their football club.

“Now all over the the world people have a common interest and a way to communicate with each other about it,” he added.

“Social media is the only way really for anyone that’s got an affinity with any foreign club.”

Jordan Russell, 22, an Inter Milan fan from Scotland is constantly engaging with other supporters around the world.

“I find myself almost on a daily basis interacting with Inter fans from Australia, the Middle East, the United States, South America and Scandinavia,” he said.

“You come across people from everywhere on Twitter, just voicing their opinions on things.

“It’s the only way really for anyone that’s got an affinity with any foreign club. I think social media has to be the go-to medium for that.”

The ability to interact with fans regardless of location has created an online community of football supporters, many of whom obsessively consume news on their club, yet may have never been to a game.

“It definitely brings people together,” said Juventus fan Long. “There are a lot of very respectable, nice people who I’ve become friends with just online – I’m probably never going to meet any of them.”

However, following Aston Villa has resulted in Jack Grimse gaining a new set of friends, despite living over 3,000 miles away from the club.

“I’ve met some fans first on Twitter and gone on to be friends with them in real life,” said the 26-year-old.

“Of course, being an American it’s not so easy to follow Villa, but every year the North American Villains meet up – which last summer was in New York.”

Clark Gillies, a Wimbledon fan from Scotland, even uses social media to agree match-day travel arrangements with other Dons aficionados.

“I only get to three or four games a season and usually that’s when they play in the north,” said Clark.

“Since then I’ve found out there are fans in the local area. I’ve found two or three in Glasgow, there’s a couple in Newcastle.

“So it’s a good way of connecting with people, you’ve got actual people to meet up with and discuss, if we’re playing a game in the north, ‘do you want to drive down? We’ll share petrol money’, or ‘we can get a group booking on the trains’.”

Clark has even managed to connect with some of the club’s directors via LinkedIn and has previously obtained a signed football for his charity.

While the networking capabilities of social media can be beneficial to some, it is not necessarily for everyone. Liverpool fan Steven Scragg is selective with his social media engagement in this era of fake news.

“I tend to stick to one or two sources,” said the 44-year-old.

“I’ll opt for outlets that will only report things that have actually happened – not going to happen, or might happen. I’ll opt for things like the Guardian or BBC Sport, they won’t tend to deal in conjecture and rumour.

“I will pick and choose who I follow, I don’t just blindly follow – I don’t even follow the club [on Twitter] for instance. I do follow my club, but I don’t follow them on Twitter and I don’t follow everything they say. It’s like propaganda. Your football club becomes like that annoying family member that you are compelled to love.

“All of these players that you’re linked with over the summer completely passes me by. I will switch off and just wait for the picture of a player in a Liverpool kit signing the invisible contract,” he added.

In general, the interviewees agreed that Twitter was the best platform for following their team and interacting with fans. Several also highlighted that Twitter gives supporters access to players, news outlets, journalists, former players and official club news all in one space, and almost all of it is instantaneously.

Most seemed to agree that Facebook and Instagram offer certain benefits to fans, but almost no one claimed Snapchat was a worthwhile platform to interact with their side.

However, a number of the interviewees for this study believed YouTube is becoming an ever-increasing resource for supporters.

Channels such as FullTimeDEVILS and ArsenalFanTV have become hugely popular platforms. The latter, in particular, became something of a viral sensation last season as Arsene Wenger struggled against the mounting pressure exerted by Arsenal supporters.

While the group’s success is in part due to the humorous overreactions from some Gunners fans, many of the club’s followers consumed the YouTube channel even more avidly than watching their side’s games. During their prime, ArsenalFanTV’s most popular videos were gaining nearly three million views.

Another fan-led outlet, the Villa View, are an Aston Villa-focused YouTube channel, formed by 22-year-old Daniel Rolison in December 2015.

“The whole YouTube thing as a whole was disregarded initially,” said Daniel, “but there’s probably not a team out there that doesn’t have some fan-led video content now.

“Obviously, ArsenalFanTV were the first to really do it and get popular, then everyone thought ‘they’re doing that, I quite fancy that’.”

The Villa View’s content has proved to be hugely popular and on average produce around three or four videos a week for their 14,000 followers. So influential has the channel been, the platform have even begun to produce official content for Aston Villa.

One supporter of the Villa View’s work includes American Villa supporter Jack.

“With following the fans and seeing stuff like fan scenes at the match or outside Villa Park, you get a different perspective,” he said.

Jack works for COPA90, an independent football media outlet which gives fans throughout the world the opportunity to share football experiences and cultures through video and other means.

“COPA90 is the fans’ voice in the game,” he explained.

“Because fans’ voices, if they’re individual, aren’t always amplified as loud, so I think COPA90 gives a chance to share those.

“We have a ‘Creator Network’ of hundreds of thousands of contributors across the world that contribute and we amplify their voice and share scenes or aspects of football culture that you wouldn’t see on TV or a traditional broadcast.

“Anyone can join the ‘Creator Network’ of COPA90, and that’s the way that a lot of fan scenes are shared or other content,” he added.

The evolution of fan-led content in recent times, has created an extra level of competition in an already saturated market – one which is no longer dominated by the traditional forms of media.

This is the second in a five-part series exploring social media’s use in football. Click here to start the series from the beginning.