Conquering the World | FC Barcelona's Utilization of Social Media
Written by Quinn Shepherd
Over the past few decades FC Barcelona has put a major focus on not only appealing to the Catalan culture but also on building a larger international stage presence. FC Barcelona's international area is a strategic key issue for the club and a source of revenues in continuous expansion efforts. One of the main platforms FC has utilized in order to spread its wings in this digital revolution is through the usage of social medias including Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Vine, Facebook, and Pinterest. This process began at the end of 2010 with the creation of an Online Department. Head of the Club's Area for New Technologies Didac Lee said that this strategy consists of 3 areas, "Creating Content adapted to each territory through the Club's International websites, utilizing social media as a platform for distributing this content and generating engagement through the employment of mobile apps, promotional marketing and management of the global community of FCB fans". This digital strategy was strengthened in November 2011 when the club integrated a new platform that introduce a fresh design and broader structure adding up to more than 6,000 pages featuring several languages such as Catalan, Spanish, English, Japanese and several more.
Since introducing this digital tactic FC Barcelona has experienced immense amounts of success. In 2012 and 2013 FC won the Social Star Award naming Barcelona the top sports club in the world for social media management. There success has only grown in the past years as they have continued to open 40 channels on more than a dozen social media networks in up to 9 languages. In 2015, Barca was the first sporting organization to break the 200 million followers adding an outstanding 1 million followers per week. With Superstars like Leo Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suarez, the club has drawn the attention of fans across the globe.
Of course in today's digitally obsessed society, a properly run social media campaign in necessary for any major football club. However, FC Barcelona's obvious strenuous efforts suggests their desire to dominate the international market competing with clubs like Real Madrid and Manchester United. This brings into question if FC Barcelona is a club or a business, as they represent Catalonia, yet focus on attention from outside markets. This statement is supported by a quote within the FC Barcelona website, "Barca doesn't wait for its fans to come to it; Barca goes out and actively searches for them".
- Quinn Shepherd
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/club/barca-2-0/detail/article/season/2014-2015/fc-barcelona-on-the-road-to-the-top-of-social-media
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/club/barca-2-0/detail/article/fc-barcelona-more-than-200-million-followers-on-social-networks
I found this post very interesting and relevant. The Deloitte Money Report shows a graph of the top 10 money clubs' social media followers in relation to the clubs' revenue. The graph shows somewhat of a trend that the teams with more social media followers have higher revenue-- with FC Barcelona and Real Madrid being numbers 1 and 2. Big name players such as Messi and Ronaldo definitely help with the clubs overall social media success. In order to maintain a global fan base it is essential for teams to take advantage of social media to keep their fans who are harder to physically reach connected.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in the past I interned for a startup minor league football club in the United States. We kept spreadsheets of all of the teams' in their league social media presence on the platforms of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I find it interesting that social media is something that local no-name teams and the biggest clubs in the world are monitoring to gain fans and increase their presence.
@KateCroghan Those are some interesting points, I completely agree with you. To me it makes a lot of sense that teams with strong followings are capable of earning commercial, match day, and broadcast revenue. Winning and star players give football clubs publicity and hype through several different kinds of channels.
ReplyDeleteOn the other end of the spectrum, I think social media provide lower level teams with an opportunity to grow themselves and their viewership without major investment- social media can be an incredibly strong marketing tactic that any team can use. I am interested to see how the top level teams maintain their social media standing in the future.
-Quinn Shepherd
I think too often people try to separate the club from the business when in my opinion they are one in the same and both find the most success when they are viewed as the same. While a lot of would like to think they are separate entities, in reality one cannot live without the other. There would be no soccer team if it wasn't run as a business and there would be no business without the soccer team. And I think that F.C. Barcelona's social media campaign shows that perfectly. They use the soccer players and their social media to help draw in fans and engage their fans in other ways besides just in game events. By being able to engage with their fans in various aspects of their life, it ingrains F.C. Barcelona into their way of life to the point where they become a natural partnership.
ReplyDelete@MaxCurewitz I also agree with your viewpoint. I think it is in FC Barcelona's best interest to utilize their relationship with secession, as well as social media campaigns to capture the biggest audience they can possible. It is also worth noting that additional loyal fans and viewership promote more money for the club as a business which in turn provides the club with more expendable money to distribute to player contracts. This may play a small role in FC Barcelona's high profitability among the worlds clubs and their ability to acquire several top tier players like Messi, Suarez, and Neymar.
ReplyDelete-Quinn Shepherd
I agree with Max's comment above. While clearly using their social media reach as a marketing strategy, this does not mean that they are only a business and not a club. Without fans, there would be no club. The social media is to reach out to more fans and give somewhat of an inside look at the club and its players to appease the fans who cannot make it to the games, and who do not live in the vicinity of the team. It's an easier way for all fans to get close to a team they support, and while it can help the team economically, I don't believe building their social media presence makes them less of a club.
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