The impressive reach of the social media channels of the German Bundesliga

adhibeo: Mr. Prof. Gröner, you supervised a student research project last semester, conducted in collaboration with the sports marketing agency W-com. What was it about? On the one hand, within the project, 162 football fans from four different fan typologies were surveyed regarding the use of club offerings on social media. In addition, thanks to W-com's contacts, the students were able to interview various social media experts from the Bundesliga environment about their strategies. The results of both surveys were then compared. How extensively do German football fans use social media offerings? The majority of fans are associated with one or more football clubs on social media. Not surprisingly, these offerings are used more intensively the greater the identification with and enthusiasm for football. Clubs are now active not only on Facebook, still the largest social media platform in Germany, but also on Instagram or Snapchat. Which social media channels are most popular among fans? Facebook is still highly popular among most fans. Instagram and YouTube are also in high demand. Twitter has low significance, despite clubs sharing a lot of information through this channel. On the other hand, Snapchat has a considerable reach among very young fans. From the fans' perspective, what makes a good social media presence? What kind of content do clubs need to share from the fans' point of view? Firstly, it must be noted that even the most dedicated fans only want truly relevant information from their clubs. Apparently, one to three posts per day seem to be sufficient. The willingness to be inundated with information decreases significantly with age. Should clubs use social media as entertainment media? Not necessarily. From a fan's perspective, the right mix between brief information and entertainment seems to be important. However, according to the results, the casual football fan can be reached more easily with entertaining elements rather than pure information. Therefore, the entertainment factor should not be neglected, especially in terms of attracting new fans – particularly from young target groups. Do different platforms demand different types of content? Definitely. In football as well, Facebook seems to be shifting more towards an information platform. Image and video content or behind-the-scenes insights are increasingly demanded on Instagram or – especially by younger target groups – on Snapchat. However, on these platforms too, not only pure fun content is popular, but rather a mix of information and entertainment. Clubs also use social media for marketing their own products or integrating sponsors. How do fans perceive this? In general, the majority of fans barely use further links to such offerings. Sponsor links, in particular, seem to be not very relevant and are sometimes even considered annoying. It is crucial to establish a creative content connection between sponsor offers and club information to avoid provoking sustainable rejection. The era of simple contests aiming to activate as many fans as possible quickly is definitely over: More than 90 percent of respondents stated that they rarely or never participate in their club's contest activities. To engage more people in participating, according to the survey results, prizes should mainly include unforgettable experiences – not just products from sponsors or partners. In addition to fans, various social media experts from the Bundesliga environment were also surveyed about their activities in the study. What was the most surprising insight, or what did the comparison with the fan survey results show? It is interesting that clubs seem to align their content very closely with the core functionality of the respective channels, such as primarily using Twitter as an information medium or spreading entertaining content on Instagram. Considering the results of the fan survey again, especially on platforms like Instagram or Snapchat that are popular among rapidly growing and younger target groups, it seems advisable to offer a stronger mix of information and entertainment. Clubs also overestimate the necessary frequency of posts. From the fans' perspective, the motto "Less is more" seems to apply – at least when providing the mentioned mix of entertainment and information. When it comes to contests, fans and social media experts disagree: While clubs still attribute great importance to contests in terms of engaging and activating fans, at least the standard formats seem to attract little interest from the majority of respondents. To the profile of Top100Speakers Stefan Gröner: https://www.speakers-excellence.de/redner/stefan-groener-digitale-disruption.html More articles on the topic: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Media https://www.onlinemarketing-praxis.de/social-media/was-ist-social-media-und-wie-wichtig-ist-es-fuer-unternehmen You might also be interested in: https://www.speakers-excellence.de/se/blog/das-trump-drama/

Stefan Gröner in an interview about social media

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