Which platform is best
The best ways for a football team to use each platform
Overall, Facebook has the most users, but Instagram is catching up rapidly in engagement levels. Twitter has fewer users than both but is well suited for football teams’ social media needs. TikTok is a new frontier for grassroots teams, so if you have players who enjoy creating content, it could be a great way to get the team’s attention.
Great for quick updates like fixture announcements, goal alerts and general club updates. Easy way to share other clubs’ news or announcements and have yours shared in return. Easy to share links to stories on your club website.
Great for match photos, final scores and club news.
Not easy to share links back to information on your website.
URL links don’t work in Instagram post captions, so try to post content here that the caption and images can describe.
A great all-rounder with a lot of flexibility to suit various types of content.
Avoid quick-fire updates like goal alerts; stick to Twitter for those.
You can also use a private Facebook group to keep your players up to date with essential information.
TikTok
A place to have fun. Jump on trends, post training videos or share outstanding match moments that get caught on camera.
YouTube
Teams often use YouTube to showcase the club’s culture through “meet the team” episodes, training ground challenges, etc. It tends to be the preferred platform for longer format videos such as match highlights and interviews. YouTube can also be used to host your videos and link them to your website and social media. You can get inspiration from other grassroots teams and mix up your content.
A Whatsapp group is a great way to keep your squad in the loop with match and training updates. It can also be a safe space for your squad members to talk openly to their teammates about their thoughts and feelings, give each other advice and collaborate on ideas.
Designing your profile
Teams often overlook the importance of getting their social media profiles right when they start up, but it is one of the most important things to do. Those who decide which team to join will see your social media alongside other local teams, and if yours has been neglected, you might lose out on next season’s top scorer.
Keep things visual and engaging. Templates for graphics and images from places like Canva and Crello are easy to use, quick to replicate and look great. Design some templates and share these with others at your club to decide on a theme you can stick with.
Try to avoid changing the theme of your templates as a consistent look and feel are much more engaging.
Content
Creating content that engages your followers is the first factor in how quickly your social media will grow.
It is common practice to appoint someone to be in charge of your social media content; if too many people are involved, you lose consistency in the simple things, like how your captions are written or which emojis are used.
Give your followers a reason to follow you on multiple platforms and promote this; tell your Instagram followers to follow your Twitter for minute-by-minute match updates and results, and tell your Twitter followers to come to Instagram for match highlights. By promoting fixture times and locations before the game, all platforms can encourage followers to go and support the team.
Don’t be afraid to take inspiration from other clubs. Don’t copy their content entirely; add your team’s spin to popular types.
Strategy
Work together to devise a social media strategy and a plan for your content. Don’t worry, do it step-by-step, covering a few core areas that won’t take hours and hours to accomplish. Your content strategy doesn’t have to be set in stone, and you should be able to take some creative ideas with you as they arise.
Things to include in your strategy:
- Which platforms will you use: the more, the better, but don’t spread your time too thinly. If time is limited, decide the best platform for you and focus on that first.
- Types of content for each platform (you can post the same content across your platforms). For example, you may decide to post fixtures and results on Twitter and keep news, photos and videos for Instagram.
- How often you’ll post, and when. Look to plan content around relevant events such as major tournaments or the start of a season. Consider using polls and questions to engage your followers. For example, create a poll for score predictions.
- Decide the tone of your content for each platform; for example, you may opt for a more serious and factual tone on Twitter and a light-hearted, fun and humorous tone on Instagram.
- Research the best hashtags to use. Find other grassroots teams and see which hashtags they use on their most viewed posts.
Lastly, focus on quality, engaging content and most importantly, have fun! If you post lots of irrelevant or uninteresting content, you lose your followers’ interest or lose them altogether.
