THE BEATIFUL GAME RULES SOCIAL MEDIA

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1 by apple tree communications TWITTEROSCOPIO #06 - October 2013 UPDATED VERSION WHAT IS TWITTEROSCOPIO? It is a quarterly report published by the apple tree lab which analyses trends and the overall evolution of Twitter and other social networks. We look at: - The 100 most followed accounts in Spain and worldwide: the audience leaders - How Twitter audience compares with traditional media audiences. - What people are talking about on Twitter. - How brands are using social networks to establish and foster relationships. THE BEATIFUL GAME RULES SOCIAL MEDIA IN PREVIOUS TWITTEROSCOPIOS WE HAVE SEEN THAT SPORTS LEAD THE SOCIAL MEDIA CONVER- SATION, BUT FOOTBALL TOWERS OVER ALL OTHERS Love for sports, especially football, sets the news agenda in most parts of the world and generates huge amounts of money especially on advertising. Social networking sites are not exempt from this passion for football and supporters become followers of their favorite football players or teams and exchange views with other fans worldwide. WHY TWITTER? - Because it is the preferred social network for opinion leaders to share knowledge and information. - Because in Spain it has recently reached 5,4 million users, making it one of the most influential medium. Did you know that football trounces the NBA and the NFL in social networks? Who profits from the money generated by sports on the social networks? Have football clubs managed to professionalise their communication in social networks? How is it possible that Cristiano Ronaldo has twice as many followers as the Real Madrid team? SEE THE ANSWERS AND MORE IN THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS 1. Football: The king of sports 2. Football players: Global brands 3. Leading football clubs tell us about their social media strategy 4. El clásico online 5. Image rights in social media 6. Google+ jumps to the playing field 7. Annex: The Premier League in social media

2 1. FOOTBALL: THE KING OF SPORTS Passion for sports is felt throughout the world, but not all sports are equally important in different countries. Baseball and American football are the most cherished sports in the U.S.A., in South Africa cricket is the bestliked, and rugby is the most popular in New Zealand, while football is the undeniable favorite in Europe, Africa and Latin America. But which sport is more relevant in social networks? In this study we compare the number of online fans of three major sports: football, American football and basketball. In order to do this, we have analyzed three main clubs of the American National Football League (NFL), the three major UNITED STATES IS THE COUNTRY WITH MORE SPORTS FANS ON SOCIAL NETWORKS, BUT FOOTBALL SPARKS INTEREST WORLDWIDE NBA basketball teams and the top three teams from the best leagues in Europe: the Spanish League, the German Bundesliga and the English Premier League. The U.S. has the most Twitter users (more than 27% of the total 1 ) and Facebook users (over 157 million 2 ), thus setting the trend for the overall behavior of the masses within these platforms. American favorite sports are: baseball, American football and basketball. One would think that these big U.S.A. leagues gather the most twitter followers worldwide; however, despite the biggest numbers in social networks, United States sports fans lag behind those from other countries. 2

3 Thus, football is the sport with most supporters in Social Media worldwide, and therefore is crowned as king of sports also in the internet. Football clubs such as Real Madrid, F.C. Barcelona and Manchester United have managed to establish themselves as global brands with relevance beyond their respective leagues or cities. If we analyse the teams with the most followers, we must highlight F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid s official profiles are way ahead of the rest. In the case of Twitter, the sum of the followers of the major basketball and American football teams along with other leading European leagues, do not reach the staggering 10 million followers that Real Madrid currently has, which head the microblogging network together with F.C. Barcelona (with over 16 million followers). On Facebook we can see a similar case: even though NBA teams are much stronger, they still remain far from the 40 million fans who like the two biggest Spanish teams. There may be more films about the NBA, but football moves a large number of supporters worldwide and generates big television audiences. Gradually, football has proven to be the sport that has more fans on social networks on a global scale. IN TWITTER, BARÇA AND REAL MADRID ACCUMULATE UP TO 5 TIMES MORE FOLLOWERS THAN OTHER TEAMS 3

4 2. FOOTBALL PLAYERS: GLOBAL BRANDS Despite being team sports, football and basketball have exalted some athletes to the category of super stars. Signings of these celebrities cost millions of euros; they sign advertising contracts worldwide... and obviously attract the masses. The players and their managers have found in the internet an invaluable asset to help enhance and promote their personal image, in cost-effective way while avoiding barriers. Most of the leading football 3 and basketball 4 players in the world have active social network profiles with thousands of followers, even though there are some notable absences. So, in this Twitteroscopio, we wanted to analyze which is their true community on the internet. Sports stars seem to have found the key to success online: sharing part of their personal life with their fans. Apart from those 90 minutes on the playing field, athletes share photos of what they do during their trainings or CRISTIANO RONALDO IS AN AUTHENTIC FOOTBALL STAR EVEN OFF THE PITCH, BRIN- GING TOGETHER MORE THAN 60 MILLION FANS ON FACEBOOK while at home, and they also share comments and opinions which are read and swiftly repeated by millions of people. The brands that sponsor them have quickly taken advantage of this great exposure, but are clubs taking advantage of the great potential of their players accounts? Among the biggest sports stars, Cristiano Ronaldo stands out with more than 60 million fans on Facebook and over 20 million followers on Twitter. Right behind is Leo Messi with just over 48 million fans on Facebook but, oddly enough, he doesn t have an official profile on Twitter. However, the Argentinean winner of four Ballon d Or is repeattedly a Trending, due to the amount of people who mention him. The case of Kaka, who recently left Real Madrid or Neymar Jr. who just joint FC. Barcelona, also stands out for having a huge amount of fans in social networks. 4

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6 Behind these three mega stars, we find some of the best NBA players such as LeBron James (Miami Heat) and Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers). Together, they account for almost 32 million fans on Facebook and over 13 million followers on Twitter. In the American Basketball League s case, the total amount of followers of other players is steadier but still shows important figures, except Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs), who has turned his back to social networks. Meanwhile, there are some players in the Spanish League who have not yet opened a profile on the social networks or simply aren t interested in social media: such is the case of important players like Xavi, Sergio Busquets and Thiago Silva. CURIOSITY: WHO S FOLLOWING WHO? In this Twitteroscopio we also wanted to have a little fun and see which players follow other players, team mates, etc. Is there any particular reason why Iniesta only follows Sergio Ramos and not Piqué, who plays on the same team? Did you know that CR7 only follows Kaká, but the latter doesn t follow Cristiano back? And what about Kun Agüero? Is he following anyone? And why doesn t he follow Silva, who plays in his same team? 6

7 3. LEADING FOOTBALL CLUBS TELL US ABOUT THEIR STRATEGIES Major football clubs have long known their huge media impact. All mass media, mainly press and TV, have large sections dedicated to sports, where football often monopolizes their pages or on-air minutes. Thanks to social networks, the direct relationship with partners has grown more important: members and supporters actively seek information directly from their favorite team and now they also expect to engage and interact with it. This is why the leading clubs, in particular Real Madrid, F.C. Barcelona, Manchester United and Manchester City are making a conscious effort to boost their social media presence. WE INTERVIEWED FOUR CLUBS WITH STRONG PRESENCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA 7

8 CLUBS GOING SOCIAL AND GOING PRO Rafael de los Santos, Real Madrid s New Media Director, tells us that the club has three senior community managers dedicated exclusively to the management of its social network profiles. But it goes further than that, other areas of the club have expanded their duties, and devoted some of their resources to support digital communication activities. According to Jaume Pons, F.C.Barcelona s community manager, the most important thing is that the whole club becomes 2.0 : in the Catalan club the communication department has expanded THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THAT THE WHOLE CLUB BECOMES 2.0, PONS, F.C. BARCELONA its functions and is now also responsible for generating content for social networks. According to Pons, the outcome is always the result of teamwork and the ability to interact with different areas of the club. Diego Gigliani, Marketing, Media & Fan Development manager at Manchester City, explains that they do not have an online team as such, but those in charge of the content generated by the club are also in charge of content for social networks. Manchester City has a Social Media Executive who is responsible for the definition of the club s strategy within the social networks and is also in charge of campaigns and multimedia content. He is the person who constantly advises us on how to leverage content across a variety of channels, and is watchful of new opportunities to interact with our fans. 8

9 GETTING THE MOST FANS IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME For the two major Spanish teams, social media is another communication channel, an important one, to bring the club closer to their supporters. De los Santos, from Real Madrid stated that: there are commercial and brand goals, but the primary motivation set by the Committee management is to reach as many fans as possible. Meanwhile, Pons reaffirms that Barça is more than a club, and that means providing our fans with something more than just what happens on the playing field. For Real Madrid it is very important to strengthen its presence in all social networks, starting with the ones with highest penetration rate amongst their fans. The digital strategy is something that evolves along with the social networks themselves, and every case has to be studied separately. In addition, we keep checking new formats and new markets, always adapting the content to the needs or opportunities we detect. In the Catalan club the strategy seems to have two complementary tracks: on the one hand we seek global projection, translating our content in to eight languages. We also have a local strategy in which we try to show our core values to the close-to-home environment. The case is not that di- WE MUST THEREFORE SEEK A BALANCE, AND AVOID PUT- TING ALL EFFORTS IN ONLY ONE PLATFORM, SUCH AS FACEBOOK.... SANTOS, REAL MADRID fferent for major English teams. Manchester United s communication team declined to comment on their strategy, and how the club is facing the challenges of the digital world. Manchester City, however, proudly talks about the platforms in which they have presence. The position of Head of Social Media was created in 2009, coinciding with the launch of our new website, says Gigliani. He adds: we decided to activate all these platforms to facilitate interaction with fans from all over the world. Generalist social networking sites rapidly get loads of followers, but other smaller platforms such as Pinterest or Flickr often provide us with quality content produced by fans. We must therefore seek a balance, and avoid putting all our efforts in only one platform, such as Facebook... thus missing the value that other channels can offer. 9

10 GETTING TO KNOW THE FANS All of the clubs we interviewed, agreed that the analysis of their communities is the next and most important step. We try to have a clear segmentation that allows us to learn more about our fans, and that somehow helps us to better adapt our content, said de los Santos. In this regard, F.C. Barcelona comments that: an ongoing analysis is an essential part of the learning process....and AWARE OF WHAT THEIR PLAYERS DO! The major unresolved issue for both teams is aligning with their players profiles. In some cases, some celebrities followers clearly outnumber their own football teams profiles. None of the clubs have a defined policy on this issue; however they say that they are very aware of their publications. For Barça we follow their profiles because they are part of the Barça family. We do not intervene because we are fully confident in our players good judgment. Also, we are at their disposal to advise them on whatever they may need. Real Madrid has not been restrictive with its stars either and they state: we are LUCKILY, WE HAVE SOME PLAYERS WHO ARE VERY ACTI- VE IN SOCIAL NETWORKS. GI- GLIANI, MANCHESTER CITY currently studying what the best way to establish synergies between the club and the players profiles is. Gigliani, from Manchester City, smiles in relief and says: Luckily, we have some players who are very active in social networks and, so far, they have performed flawlessly. We offer them some general advice, but trust their judgment. For Gigliani the main advantage of players possessing large communities of followers is that they can easily reach them, spread quality content and gain visibility. Edin Dzeko, for example, has allowed us to reach and get closer to more people of his native Bosnia, than what we could have done as a team. 10

11 4. El clásico online For Spaniards it has often been the match of the century, and went from being the most important derby to what now is popularly known as el clásico. It is a sporting fixture between F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid which brings some of the best players in the world onto the same playing field, and is generally broadcasted worldwide. In this Twitteroscopio we wanted to see these giants on the social media field: on the one hand there are the two teams official accounts on social networks and, on the other hand, the players accounts and their own followers. IF WE ADD ALL MADRID FANS TO THOSE OF ITS PLAYERS, REAL MA- DRID BEATS BARÇA ON THE SO- CIAL MEDIA FIELD 11

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13 5. IMAGE RIGHTS IN SOCIAL MEDIA This great community around the players is not just a coincidence. It is not simply that sports celebrities need to feel loved by their fans and thus choose to repeatedly interact with them, but rather, these sports stars have begun to understand how this interaction affects their own careers. By being close to their fans, they are loved, praised and betterknown, and this directly affects the number of advertising contracts they are offered for products and services all around the world. This is probably one of the most important cases of personal image marketing, in which looking after their social media profiles brings better economic rewards. But, what s in it for the clubs? Clearly, football teams will sell more T-shirts with the names of their star players, but beyond that clubs seem to have not yet seized on the potential of this situation. Is it maybe the time to set out an image rights contract that in- IT SEEMS THAT CLUBS HAVE NOT SEIZED ON THE OPPORTU- NITIES OFFERED BY THEIR PLA- YERS SOCIAL NETWORKS PRO- FILES cludes online image credits? So far there have been very few examples of intervention by coaches or teams in the management of players social profiles, and these have always been regarding content or advice. Some national teams were especially watchful during the London Olympic Games last year, and advised players not to tweet or, in some cases, directly prohibited their athletes to publish anything in their social networks throughout the competition. In Larry Johnson s case the controversy went further. The NFL player insulted the management team, at Kansas City. After a vigorous discussion between the player and his followers, more than 32,000 fans requested Johnson s expulsion from the team, and they succeeded. In another case, Chad Ochocinco was fined $25,000 for using Twitter during a preseason game. All these examples show us that football clubs should consider implementing policies to manage this phenomenon, which has proven to be unstoppable. IT S MY TWITTER AND I LL TWEET IF I WANT TO Is a football player as ready to play in the social networks as he is on the field? Most football stars manage their own profiles on Twitter, but they are not alone. We have spoken with Oscar Megia, manager at VOS Sportsmarketing and Entertainment; a Valencian company that represents athletes and has among its clients first class football players like Pepe Reina, David Villa and Gerard Pique. Megía confirms that the initiative to venture into social media comes from the players themselves, and companies like his include counseling, representation and communication services. We are lucky that our clients are quite active in social networks: they know that it should be this way, because it facilitates the interaction with their supporters, he says. VOS Sportsmarketing s job is not to increase the number of followers our clients 13

14 have, because their accounts grow daily, and by the thousands; our aim is that these platforms help to transmit the values of the player. The control of the accounts is in the hands of each player, but they are not the only ones responsible for their publications. Sometimes, their agencies are the ones who determine how advertisements, etc. should be included. Megía does not speak about numbers, but he says that there is a value for promotional messages, which always depends on the brand, the player and the type of message: every case is special and advertising messages are always published with caution, because a promoted tweet could annoy followers. 6. GOOGLE+ JUMPS TO THE PLAYING FIELD Internet giant Google has also sought to venture into the social stratosphere and created Google+, a platform that integrates several of their services. Within its first two years of life it has been ranked as the second largest platform, just behind Facebook 5. It has over 500 million registered users and almost 60% are active 6 using their most popular services. Despite being the most recently created social network, it has taken advantage of the full potential of Google to grow rapidly and even outnumbered Twitter on registered users. For Google+ football is a key element of their platform. For instance, in Spain there is a unique community that brings together supporters from all clubs: Once +1. This initiati- ENGLAND S LEADING TEAMS HAVE SPECIAL INTEREST IN THE GOOGLE+ PLATFORM. ve is also supported by the Professional Football League (LFP), and enables football fans a closer look at their favorite clubs within the Google+ platform. These communities are thriving thanks to Google+ s star tool: the Hangouts. Hangouts are videocalls that enable both one-onone chats and group chats with up to ten people at a time. They can also be streamed live, and in the case of Once+1 have brought football players face-toface with fans and club members, so that they can ask questions and chat with their favorite players. Some examples of these Hangouts On Air include a chat with Andrés Iniesta and Alexandre Pato, or other special Hangouts that were carried out right before the Confederations Cup. 14

15 A PLATFORM FOR THE FUTURE In view of the increasing number of users, many football clubs have already created an official page on Google+. This is the case of several clubs playing in the first division of the Spanish League, where the majority of teams have created a Google+ page; and some of the more modest clubs have already gained more followers on Google+ than on their Facebook pages. It is not only clubs, some football players have also created their own profiles on Google+ to share content with their fans. Perhaps the most significant case is that of Cristiano Ronaldo (2.4 million people have him in their circles), although David Beckham reaches a staggering 6 million followers. Certainly, clubs and football players communication advisers and C.RONALDO 2,975,045 FOLLOWERS sports marketing consultants are increasingly considering Google+ as a social network with great potential, so we can expect the creation of lots of new pages and new innovative ways of sharing content. D.BECKHAM 6,523,197 FOLLOWERS 15

16 90 MINUTES AHEAD Although the phenomenon is television broadcasting rights: global and unstoppable, we it is about how football clubs are only at the starting point. are going to capitalize on the From here on out, teams will incredibly open and changing surely be more active on social world that is the social web. networks and will explore the possibilities of the internet to Will social networks and the keep growing their marketing internet help out only the 20 efforts. leading clubs, or will they also help to smaller clubs gain more It is too early to tell the most followers than they could ever effective way to capitalize on dream of? Either way, they this potential, but users should all stay in the game behavior is adapting fast, so it will depend on the ability of the clubs to keep up with their fans. Sports have a history of setting trends and economically exploiting the interest that they generate. But this time it is not about players transfers or SOURCES AND STATISTICS (1) Semiocast: Twitter reaches half a billion accounts publications/2012_07_30_twitter_ reaches_half_a_billion_ accounts_140m_in_the_us (3) Selection from FIFA ranking (4) Selection from ESPN ranking (5) Mashable google-plus-500-million-members/ (2) Fortunecat.it (6) Business Insider google-plus-is-outpacingtwitter apple tree 16

17 7. ANNEX: PREMIER LEAGUE IN SOCIAL MEDIA 17