Social Media in Football: The Online Benefits Available for Modern Players

Rarely in football does news last long and, due in part to the advent of social media, last night’s results are almost immediately replaced with coverage of the next day’s fixtures.

Yet one story in 2018 that simply would not subside was the controversy surrounding Mesut Ozil’s decision to quit the German national team last summer, citing racism from the German Football Association.

The 2014 World Cup-winner made this extraordinary announcement via his Twitter account, highlighting again the power and reach social media now affords professional footballers.

While Ozil’s emotive comments created an online storm of hype and intrigue, in reality, most footballers’ online activity is a little more mundane.

“I use social media to keep up with my friends – to see what they’re doing and what they’re up to,” said Watford’s Nathaniel Chalobah.

“I follow influencers or actors and other people who post cool stuff on Instagram and Twitter really; and to interact with fans sometimes – it’s good to interact with them and to hear their point of view on things.”

Northern Ireland international, Paddy McNair, also uses social media to connect with supporters.

“It’s just something small, but I think the fans appreciate it”, said the 23-year-old, “especially when you’re playing an away game and you say, ‘thanks for the travelling support’.

“When I signed for Middlesbrough I got a lot of messages from fans saying, ‘welcome to the club’ and most I replied to. I try to reply to the fans. If someone is messaging about football or they say ‘well played today’, I’ll thank them.”

Footballers have also been known to interact with fans on a more personal level through social media. One such example saw Crystal Palace winger Andros Townsend, in December 2018, reach out to and meet a young fan whom he had given his shirt to after scoring in a 3-2 win against Manchester City.

While the majority of players use social media to connect with supporters of their current club, some of the world’s most high-profile stars have used their massive fanbase to market themselves globally, explains Dr Alex Fenton, a lecturer in Digital Business at the University of Salford.

“Players use social media for various reasons; raising their profile, creating a brand etc,” he said.

“If you look for example at [Cristiano] Ronaldo – his massive volume of social media followers will have helped his big money move to Juventus last summer.”

More than any other footballer on the planet, Ronaldo has tapped into the marketing capabilities now available via social media. The Portuguese international is one of the world’s richest athletes and his CR7 brand has expanded much in part to his 152 million Instagram followers and 122 million likes on his official Facebook page.

So loyal are his army of supporters, Ronaldo’s summer move from Real Madrid resulted in the Spanish club losing a million Twitter followers, while his new employers increased their following on the same platform by 25 percent.

Ronaldo’s success highlights why so many footballers are now working with professional organisations to enhance their social media presence.

Base Soccer is one such company. The London-based agency offer a range of services, including co-managing players’ social media profiles

“We’ve seen examples where some of our clients who aren’t on social media simply don’t get commercial opportunities.”

“Players each have their own motivations for wanting to be on social media,” said Doron Salomon, a Business Operations Manager at Base Soccer.

“We’ve had some clients who want to change a perception of themselves, some who have charitable interests and we have some who are on it because their friends and team-mates are.”

Base Soccer also help players monetise their large online fanbase.

“The value of someone’s social media posts can be quite lucrative nowadays and we encourage our clients to be active on social media because it’s another form of income,” Salomon explains.

“We’ve seen examples where some of our clients who aren’t on social media simply don’t get commercial opportunities.

“There are some higher-profiled players we work with who aren’t on social media at all. So if you’re not on social media you potentially miss out on some serious income.”

Salomon also believes social media has become an indispensable tool for advertising to younger demographics.

“Brands are advertising on digital because of the target markets that a lot of them want to reach, which is now anyone under the age of 25. This is the easiest way to market to them.

“This is where this demographic are active, they’re on social media. So, one of the easiest ways to appeal to them is to spend money on the kind of people they admire and aspire to be.

“In football, the demographics of your average footballer are probably skewed in favour to 18-25 year-old young men, which is a very hard demographic to reach. When brands want to get to that demographic, they will naturally look at sports people and footballers,” he explained.

While a number of players contact outside agencies to gain more exposure on their tweets and posts, Fleetwood Town goalkeeper, Alex Cairns, unintentionally created a social media storm in August 2017.

His triple save against Northampton Town caught the eye of Manchester United stopper, David De Gea, and the Spaniard’s complementary tweet resulted in the 25-year-old briefly becoming an online sensation.

“Players are role models and social media gives them a more amplified voice, so this should be used wisely,” said Dr Fenton.

“There are things you can’t say or do. In rare cases clubs have been put off from signing a player because of social media.”

Another drawback for footballers who have public social media accounts is that they often can receive abuse or trolling.

“That’s just part and parcel of it,” says McNair.

“When you look around the changing room after training, most of the lads are on Instagram.”

“We’ve all had a couple of bad games in our lifetime and there’s always going to be someone to tell you.

“It’s just the world we live in. For someone like me it’s never really been an issue getting the odd message saying, ‘you’re not very good’, or whatever.

“It doesn’t really bother me and I know whoever is messaging me has probably never played a game of football in their life,” he added.

It is also perhaps the reason why Instagram has emerged as such a popular platform for professional footballers, given there is less expectation for long-winded statements.

“When you look around the changing room after training, most of the lads are on Instagram,” said McNair.

“It’s something quite simple that connects with so many people.

“It’s not like writing an essay, it’s just a few words and a picture. I think everyone likes the picture, but I don’t think people read too much of what you say beneath.

“Now I get more likes on my pictures than when I was at [Manchester] United, but that’s because Instagram has got bigger [in that time.]”

The interviewees in this study all agreed that Instagram was the most popular platform with footballers, followed by Twitter and then Snapchat. It was universally stated that Facebook is not favoured by players, although Salomon did state there can be commercial value on the platform for athletes with a large fanbase.

However, one of the biggest growing social media sites among footballers is YouTube, with Manchester United star Jesse Lingard announcing earlier this month that he has launched his own official channel on the platform.

The England international uses YouTube to increase his ‘JLingz’ brand, which is based around the 26-year-old’s jovial, youthful character, popularity among other players, stylish clothes and his trademark hand celebration.

While a number of footballers own a YouTube channel, Lingard, along with England team-mate Raheem Sterling, appear to be among the first in a wave of athletes now taking a more hands-on approach in running their accounts on the video platform.

Lingard’s use of social media, in this instance, is an attempt to relate and interact with younger generations so as to profit commercially. This is in stark contrast to how Ozil utilised social media last summer, and demonstrates the range of opportunities it now offers footballers.

With Instagram, Twitter and YouTube growing in popularity, players’ online presence only looks set to increase.

As it evolves, greater commercial opportunities will undoubtedly present themselves to footballers, along with more interactions with those who ultimately enable their lavish lifestyles – the fans.

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.