Masaryk University Faculty of Economics and Administration Field of study: Business Management
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
Master’s Thesis
Supervisor: Author: doc. Ing. Alena KLAPALOVÁ, Ph.D. Ivan KOMLENOVIĆ
Brno, 2020 MASARYKOVAUNIVERZITA FacultyofEconomicsandAdministration MUNI Lipová41a,60200Brno IČ:00216224 ECON DIČ:CZ00216224 Master's thesisdescription Academic year: 2019/2020
Student: Ivan Komlenović Programme: Economy and Management Field of Study: Business Management (Eng.) Title of the thesis/dissertation: Social media campaign Title of the thesis in English: Social media campaign Thesis objective, procedure and methods used: Objective of the thesis: The main objective of the thesis is to develop social media campaign for either company or product. Work flow and methods used in thesis: 1. Literature review on all relevant topics (e.g. social media, marketing commu- nication, communication strategy, communication campaign etc.), 2. analyses related to the managerial problem and future campaign, 3. campaign development and conclusions. Me- thods: all relevant methods for the research problem, e.g. se- condary data analysis, primary research (e.g. survey, in-depth interviews etc.), market analyses according to the specific cha- racter of managerial problem and context. Extent of graphics-related work: According to thesis supervisor’s instructions Extent of thesis without supplements: 60 – 80 pages Literature: PARENTE, D. and K. STRAUSBAUGH – HUTCHINSON. Ad- vertising Campaign Strategy: A Guide to Marketing Com- munication Plans. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2015. 432 s. ISBN 978-1-133-43480-1. DIMOFTE, C.V. and C. P. HAUGTVEDT. Consumer Psycho- logy in a Social Media World. 1st. : Routledge, 2015. 306 s. ISBN 978-0-7656-4694-1. HALLIGAN, Brian and Dharmesh SHAH. Inbound marketing : get found using Google, social media, and blogs. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2010. xxiii, 226. ISBN 9780470499313. GOSPE, Mike. Marketing campaign development. 1. vyd. Si- licon Valley: Happy About, 2008. 161 s. ISBN 978-1-60005- 077-0. BLANCHARD, O. Social media ROI: managing and measuring social media efforts in your organization.. Indianapolis: Que, 2011. 292 s. ISBN 978-0-7897-4741-9. BARKER, Melissa S., Donald BARKER, Nicholas F. BOR- MANN, Mary Lou ROBERTS and Debra L. ZAHAY. Social me- dia marketing : a strategic approach. Second edition. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2017. xv, 330. ISBN 9781305502758. EVANS, Dave. Social media marketing : an hour a day. India- napolis, Ind.: Wiley, 2008. xxii, 409. ISBN 9780470344026.
Page1of 2 STERNE, Jim. Social media metrics : how to measure and opti- mize your marketing investment. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. xxxi, 240. ISBN 9780470583784. Thesis supervisor: doc. Ing. Alena Klapalová, Ph.D. Thesis supervisor’s department: Department of Corporate Economy
Thesis assignment date: 2018/05/03
The deadline for the submission of Master’s thesis and uploading it into IS can be found in the academic year calendar.
In Brno, date: 2020/07/22
Page 2 of 2
Abstract The aim of the thesis is to develop a Facebook campaign for the Fulham FC which is a professional football association based in London, England. Literature review includes all relevant topics within marketing communication, communication campaign, social media marketing, social media campaign etc. For the purpose of the thesis the author conducted research based on the online survey that explores fan engagement, as well as on the content analysis of the club’s official Facebook Page, two non-official Facebook Pages, and rivals’ Facebook Pages. Competitors’ analysis (focused on Facebook communication) and brief Five competitive forces analysis complement the necessary inputs for the campaign development. The thesis consists of the two parts – one is the theoretical framework, where the social media is analyzed, while the other one is practical part where data is analyzed, sorted and presented through the key findings and campaign proposal, all in accordance to the methods used – online survey and content analysis.
Key words:
Social Media, Social media Campaign, Facebook, Fulham, Football, England Statement of Authorship
I hereby declare that I worked out the Diploma work “Social Media Campaign” myself, under the supervision of Ing. Alena Klapalová, Ph.D., and that I stated in it all the literary resources and other specialist sources used according to legislation, internal regulations of Masaryk University and internal management acts of Masaryk University and the Faculty of Economics and Administration.
In Brno, Ivan Komlenović ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank all people that contributed to finishing my thesis. Firstly, to my mentor Ms Klapalova, who gave me a lot of ideas on how this should be done as well as for the fact that she had enough patience with me.
I would like to thank my family and all friends who supported me, during my education. There are not enough words to emphasize this fact.
Special and huge gratefulness I would like to express to my beloved little turtle whom I met while it was eagerly looking for water in the forest. Since then, my beloved turtle is my biggest inspiration.
Well, there is no empty space in my thoughts. And, my thoughts are pure imagination of how I am spending time with you.
TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1 Problem Area ...... 2 1.2 Research Objective ...... 4 2 METHODOLOGY ...... 5 2.1 Research Approach ...... 5 2.2 Research Methods ...... 6 2.3 Data Collection ...... 7 2.3.1 Primary data ...... 7 2.3.2 Secondary data ...... 14 2.4 Data Analysis ...... 14 3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...... 16 3.1 Social Media ...... 16 3.1.1 Social Media Definition ...... 16 3.1.2 Social Media Community ...... 19 3.1.3 Social Media Tools ...... 21 3.1.4 Social Media Measurement ...... 25 3.2 Socia Media Campaign ...... 30 3.3 Social Media Strategy ...... 34 3.3.1 Social Media Tactics ...... 37 3.4 Social Media ROI ...... 38 3.5 Social Media and Sports - Social Media and Football ...... 40 4 RESULTS AND FINDINGS ...... 44 4.1 Premier League and EFL Championship ...... 44 4.2 Fulham FC ...... 45 4.3 Questionnaire ...... 45 4.4 Content Analysis ...... 51 4.4.1 Fulham FC Official Page ...... 51 4.4.2 Rivals ...... 58 4.4.3 Fulham FC Foundation and Fulhamish ...... 66 4.5 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis ...... 67 4.6 Social Media Campaign ...... 70 5 CONCLUSION ...... 79 5.1 Limitations and Future Studies ...... 84
PUBLICATION BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 85 APPENDIX I ...... 95 APPENDIX II ...... 101
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Tables: Table 1. Measures of fans’ engagement……………………… ………………………8 Table 2. Coding………………………………………………………………………11 Table 3. Social Media Measurement in SMEs – BCCP goals and metrics…………..39 Table 4. Championship Social Media Table………………………………………….41 Table 5. Posts on Players and Promotion Afterwards………………………………..52 Table 6. Extracted from the previous table – matches, players, likes………………...53 Table 7. Man of the Match…………………………………………………………...55 Table 8. Posts on Ocassion days……………………………………………………..57 Table 9. Rivals………………………………………………………………………...58 Table 10. Teams’ current value……………………………………………………….68 Table 11. Social Platforms’ Total Number of Followers……………………………..69 Table 12. Activities by codes…………………………………………………………74
Figures: Figure 1. Social Technographics Groups Ladder……………………………………20 Figure 2. Social Media Groupings…………………………………………………...21 Figure 3. Facebook profile page layout……………………………………………...23 Figure 4. CRM Model…………………………………………………………...... 25 Figure 5. Facebook Insights………………………………………………………….27 Figure 6. Buffer Page………………………………………………………………...30 Figure 7. Important Social Networks for Social Communication……………………32 Figure 8. Social Media Design Framework………………………………………….36 Figure 9. Age………………………………………………………………………...46 Figure 10. Social Media Usage……………………………………………………….47 Figure 11. Favorite clubs in London………………………………………………….47 Figure 12. Discussions and Argumentations about Content………………………….48 Figure 13. Products and Services from the favorite club……………………………..50
Figure 14. List of features on the main pages……………………………………..59 Figure 15. Link Buttons…………………………………………………………...60 Figure 16. Page Posts Fulham (purple) vs. Brentford (red)……………………….62 Figure 17. Number of interactions Fulham (purple) vs. Brentford (red)………….63 Figure 18. Best content comparison……………………………………………….63 Figure 19. Page Posts Fulham (purple) vs. Leeds United (red)…………………...64 Figure 20. Number of interactions Fulham (purple) vs. Leeds United (red)…….. 65 Figure 21. Best content comparison……………………………………………….65
INTRODUCTION
The claim that social networks have a huge impact on our lives is based on the fact that the decisions of both individuals and companies are largely determined by their reaction to the phenomena that occur on social media (Kapoor et al., 2017). Furthermore, certain online processes represent a cause and consequence chain, in the sense that individuals react to the actions of other individuals, firms respond to individual’s actions in aggregate, but also to the actions of other companies as a response to the nature of today's world market, which is mostly of a competitive character (Siricharoen, 2012).
Accordingly, the Internet is the medium which provides such a possibility, since it can create synchronous communication, where chat rooms and instant messages are part of it, in real- time, where Social Media, essentially influences people's daily lives, in the context of a relationship with other people, purchase decisions, education, etc. Social Media is a term that can be defined from many angles, and one of the views could be that it is an application nested on the internet with the aim to convert communication into an interactive conversation. (Siricharoen, 2012).
The number of Social Media platforms has been rapidly raised in the last 15 years and there is a huge number of Social Media websites that can be used by football clubs in order to create and develop their communication campaigns. The most popular platforms among plenty of them, that can be used in these purposes are Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Instagram, which are highly popular among younger users. One of the main benefits of the mentioned platforms is convenience, they do not demand any special software and they are free for use. (Kuzma, Bell, Logue, 2014).
As a good example of the above-mentioned claims, we should point out Facebook - a social network that has significantly and rapidly changed the world. Facebook was created in 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg. In 2009, this platform found itself on the top as being ranked as the most visited social network in the world. In the year of 2010, Facebook had already had around 500 million users. To contribute to the previous statement and to outline the importance of this social network, it has been found that during the World Cup in 2010, Nike company attached ad to the Facebook and within a few minutes about 8 million views were
1 registered on this media (Edosomwan et al., 2011). For the purposes of this thesis, Facebook is chosen to be a platform that will be used in order to propose the Campaign for the Fulham FC, the professional football club based in London – England. Despite FC Fulham is a professional sport’s business association with professionals dealing with marketing communication campaigns, the author is a big fan of football and the club, so this thesis is aimed to analyze the content and to offer an alternative perspective with substantially different resources than the club’s one, based on which the suitable campaign could be developed. Moreover, the author along with the previously mentioned wants to test and to apply knowledge gained during studies, in order to contribute to the science of Marketing by presenting the findings that comes up from this research. More concrete, the accent is put on the Fulham FC official Fan Page. Besides the Fulham FC’s official fan page, two more non- official Pages are analyzed – Fulhamish and Fulham FC Foundation in order to investigate the relationship with fans (Fulhamish) and commitment to social responsibility (Fulham FC Foundation), and how these relations can contribute to the successfulness of campaign. Furthermore, the thesis presents an analysis of examples that determine (lack of ) success of the Fulham FC’s rival(s) on their Pages. The traditional football rivals that Fulham competes with, on the pitch, are Chelsea and Brentford. Moreover, from the aspect of one city, there are few more clubs that deserved to be mentioned in the analysis. Overall, their official Pages are analyzed in order to seek successful practices that Fulham might use in its Facebook activities.
1.1 Problem Area
In relation to the television and newspapers, Social Media has rapidly enlarged its importance for the companies, in terms of the alternative mediums. This wave includes also a football teams and their business activities. In this context, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter are the most popular platforms that football clubs can refer to, on their websites. (Kuzma, Bell, Logue, 2014).
Engaging consumers, in this case – fans, with their favorite clubs and clubs' activities, became much more dynamic, thanks to the Social Media, which has a role of a hub for fan engagement. It implies more active engagement since it enables better control of the message and brings closer fans to their favorite clubs, by making the communication more interactive (Vale and Fernandes, 2018). Now, fans not only watch live matches, but they use social 2 media to engage with clubs, to share the content, information, and their own analysis. Furthermore, they interact with both clubs and their players, as well as with the league in which their favorite clubs compete (Dellea et al., 2014).
On the other side, fan engagement, through social media, lasts much more than 90 minutes of one game. This implies that demand created by the nature of social media together with the constant expectations of winning has made a lot of challenges for football clubs in their intention to create innovative solutions aimed for sustaining in the digital era. The key fact is that fans´ interactions are constantly growing, so that leads to a huge number of data emerging - data that can be tracked, collected and converted into a valuable source of information (Dellea et al., 2014). For instance, the authors van Dam and van de Melden (2014) suggest data collection framework which offers a methodology for exploring user profiles, identify segments based on these profiles, on Facebook. This framework serves as an identification step that is focused on recognizing potential customers and clustering their profiles (van Dam and van de Melden, 2014). Thus, the biggest challenge for a club is to try to reach the full potential of that data (Dellea et al., 2014).
As it is already mentioned, the main focus of this thesis is Fulham FC’s campaign on Facebook. More concrete, the official Facebook Page of the Fulham FC is chosen to be analyzed, as well as the fan engagement with the English football clubs in the best two leagues, through Social Media. In order to come up with a valuable solution for a Campaign, several supportive things are analyzed, which have emerged from the following questions: What can be 'read' from the non-official Fulham FC Pages, such as Fulhamish and Fulham FC Foundation? This research analyzes content from both non-official Pages and tries to explain the relationship with the main Page and if this relationship creates influence on engagement and interactions; On the other side, are the rival clubs on the pitch also the rivals on Social Media? The thesis offers answers to those questions through content analysis and tries to frame them by using Porter’s Five Forces model; In comparison with the rivals what are the Fulham’s advantages and disadvantages that need to be considered in creating the Campaign? Despite the previously mentioned, the content analysis offers a good practice from the rivals' official Pages that can be used in the Campaign.
All the above-mentioned shows need to find out what is the aim of the Fulham FC on Facebook, for developing a valuable Campaign as an alternative approach to Social Media Marketing. 3
1.2 Research Objective
As the idea is to give recommendations for a valuable Social Media Campaign for the football club on Facebook, the purpose of this thesis is to try to deal with all relevant factors that could influence all aspects that a campaign is made of. Accordingly, the purpose of the thesis equals to the main research objective which can be formulated as – analyzing fan engagement within the English football clubs in two leagues and making an assessment of the current Facebook activities of the Fulham FC, its non-official Pages, and Pages of its rivals, aimed to deliver the results which can be used in developing a valuable Facebook Campaign for the Fulham FC. In order to be in compliance with the main purpose or the objective of this research, there are five research questions that need to be met. Thus, they are formulated as follows:
1. How do fans interact with clubs in the English best two leagues, on Social Media? 2. How does Fulham FC address fan interactions on their Page? 3. What is the content from two non-official Pages that can be used for empowering the engagement? 4. What are the successful rivals’ practices on Facebook that Fulham can emulate and use? 5. According to the previous questions, what are the things that can be applied to the Facebook Campaign for the Fulham FC?
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2 METHODOLOGY
The methodology is defined as systematic and theoretical analysis of the methods used in certain research, thus it does not solve the research question but offers the understanding of which method or combination of methods can be applied to a certain field of research (Igwenagu, 2016). Therefore, by creating this kind of analysis it implies that (Igwenagu, 2016):
i. Methods articulate solutions; ii. Term methodology does not equal to a term method.
The research could refer to using a combination of experience and a rational (logical) thinking in order to deliver new knowledge (new value, new truth). Research methodology can be explained as a set of techniques used in a certain research study, i.e. a guide for research and the way how research is organized (Igwenagu, 2016).
2.1 Research Approach
When research needs to be conducted, firstly there is a need for an approach determination. Thus, the approach must be defined, and the author of this research finds that the most suitable one can be found in Creswell's work: "Research approaches are plans and the procedures for research that span the steps from broad assumptions to detailed methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation.” (Creswell, 2014).
According to the author's knowledge, based on current education and experience, the research approach could be compared with the business plan which represents a valid framework filled with strategic, tactical, and operational plans in order to deliver new value and to sustain. Three approaches are dominantly mentioned and can be defined (Creswell, 2014):
1. Qualitative; 2. Quantitative; 3. Mixed
In this case, with the aim of proposing a successful Social Media Campaign of the FC Fulham, the qualitative approach is the base of this research (since there is no essential statistical analysis). Qualitative approach primarily seeks for textural data (Williams, 2007),
5 where it is used for the institutionalization of meanings of humankind towards a human or a social problem (Creswell, 2014). The new value of this approach is a flexible form build from the researcher's interpretation of the data meaning, and the data is collected in the setting of a participant while analysis goes inductively from particular to general (Creswell, 2014).
2.2 Research Methods
In general, research can be conducted based on primary data and/or secondary data. Primary research means that new data is extracted and collected in order to develop a particular hypothesis. In other words, primary data did not exist before, or it is not available so the researchers need to attain it by collecting it from customers or companies. Secondary research means marketers/researchers collect already existing and published data from a certain source (Stokes, 2013). Primary research compared to a secondary requires more time, in general, since new data needs to be researched, then collected after it is put into a base of social knowledge while secondary research is easier and faster to conduct, because it reuses the data from researches previously described. It is a faster and cheaper option, but a disadvantage could be that data reused was originally collected for different purposes which assumes risks of not reaching the optimum in collecting it (Hox, Boeije, 2005).
Internet nowadays, represents are valuable research tool that can be used to conduct research by using both primary and secondary data – as for the primary research, there was a need for knowledge in HTML, however, technology is evolving rapidly, so researchers are able to develop researches collecting primary data (Benfield, Szlemko, 2006). According to Reips (2006), there are four types of Internet-based data collection (Reips, 2006):
1. Nonreactive Internet-based methods, 2. Internet-based surveys and interviews, 3. Internet-based tests, 4. Internet-based experiments.
Additionally, it is important to mention snowball sampling, since this type of sampling is specific for researches that involve Social Networks. Also known as chain referral sampling, this method is based on fact that participants who are already in contact with researchers use their social network profiles to refer the researcher to other users who might participate in the
6 study. Moreover, this method is used to reach so-called hidden populations, which is hard to achieve with other methods (Mack et al., 2005).
2.3 Data Collection
This section provides information on what kind of data is obtained for the purposes of research. In, general there are two types of data – qualitative and quantitative (Saunders et al. 2009). For the purposes of this research, both types of data are used. For the purposes of emphasizing fans' engagement within Social Media, an online survey has been conducted as a form of quantitative data collection, whereas, the qualitative data has been collected within the content analysis of the Fulham FC official fan Page, club’s two non-official Facebook Pages along with the official and non-official Facebook Page of Chelsea FC, and official Facebook Pages of Brentford and Leeds United. Both methods are combined in order to give qualitative answers which would be the background for developing the Facebook Campaign.
2.3.1 Primary data
Primary data is collected within two methods - online survey using questionnaire and content analysis.
2.3.1.1 Questionnaire
The questionnaire made by three students from EMLyon Business School in France is used, reformulated, and adjusted to the needs of this research.1 The mentioned survey was conducted for the purposes of getting the answers regarding fan engagement and ROI for football clubs online. The reason why this survey is used is that it asks proper questions in order to perceive fan engagement where the results can help in identifying what is the current condition which can be used in what should be done for improving the fan engagement. The area of their research were football clubs and leagues all across Europe. In this thesis, the survey takes the form of the original one in the context of the structure of the questionnaire, some of the questions are reformulated, since now the problem area is sticked to the English Football Clubs and their fans’ engagement online – area of Premier League and EFL Championship.
In Section 1. compared to the original survey, the second and third question are reformulated:
1 The survey can be found at: https://fr.surveymonkey.com/r/football-social-media 7
2. What is your favorite club (local and international)? to What is your favorite club? (One in EFL Championship, one in the Premier League)? The reason is that questionnaire is addressing the popularity of football clubs in the mentioned two leagues – a popularity that is also reflected through Social Media.
3. Within this list, what is the international club that you follow the most? to Which football club from London do you sympathize with? Instead of choosing among the most popular clubs in Europe, this reformulated question serves to emphasize the significance of the city's derbies in the mentality of the fan. This question might extract answers to which derbies in London are most popular for Fulham fans, and is aimed to help in preparing the derby content in the campaign.
One question is added aimed to extract the answers of which of the two leagues might offer better marketing benefits, that confirms whether the business goal is always to reach better- ranked league or no:
1. Which league do you find to be more interesting? (offered: Premier League or EFL Championship)
Following sections 2.,3. and 4. are presented through Table 1. The first column represents the feelings and the second one the items, where the scale from 1 to 5 is given, where 1 represents ‘Strongly Disagree’ and 5 means for ‘Strongly Agree’
Section 2. – aimed to realize the way of usage and feelings towards the Page of favorite club Stimulation and inspiration These pages make me think about the club in new ways. It inspires me in my own life. It stimulates my thinking about lots of different topics on football and on the club itself. It makes me a more interesting person. Some stories on these pages touch me deep down. Social facilitation These pages often give me something to talk about. I bring up things I have seen on these pages in conversations with many other people. I use things from these pages in discussions or arguments with people I know. Temporal Watching these pages is part of my routine. I always go to these pages while I am surfing the Web. I use it as a big part of getting my daily news about the club. It helps me to get my day starting in the morning. Intrinsic enjoyment Going to these pages is a treat for me. Going to these pages improve my mood, make me happier. I like to kick back and wind down with it. I like to go to these pages when I am eating or taking a
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break. While I am on these pages, I don't think about other sites I might go to. Participation and socializing I do quite a bit of socializing on these pages. I contribute to the conversation on these pages. I often feel guilty about the amount of time I spend on these pages socializing. I should probably cut back on the amount of time I spend on these pages socializing. Community I'm as interested in input from other users as I am on the regular content on these pages. A big reason I like these pages is what I get from other users. This page does a good job of getting its visitors to contribute or provide feedback. I'd like to meet other people who regularly visit these pages. I've gotten interested in things I otherwise wouldn't have because of others on these pages. Overall, the visitors to these pages are pretty knowledgeable about the topics it covers so you can learn from them. Section 3. – aimed to investigate the relationship between fans and their favorite club Brand love This is a wonderful club. This club makes me feel good. This club is totally awesome. I have neutral feelings about this club. This club makes me very happy. I love this club! I have no particular feelings about this club. This club is a pure delight. I am passionate about this club. I am very attached to this club. Brand Loyalty This is the only club from which I would buy products and services. I don't even notice the competing clubs' products and services. If my store is out of this club's product, I'll postpone buying or go to another store. I'll "do without" rather than using another club's product or services.
Word of Mouth I encourage my friends to support this team. I "talk up" this club to my friends. I try to spread the good word about this club. I give this club tons of positive word-of-mouth advertising. Self-Expressive Brand This club contributes to my image. This club adds to a social "role" I play. This club has a positive impact on others think of me. This club improves the way society views me. Section 4. – aimed for better understanding of purchase of the favorite club's products and services Purchase intention I would purchase tickets for a football game that involves this club. I would purchase the merchandising of this club. I would purchase any item that is suggested by a sponsor of
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this club. I would consider buying merchandising at the price listed. I would consider buying items suggested by sponsors at the listed price. The probability that I would consider buying merchandise is high. The probability that I would consider buying items from sponsors is high. Table 1. Measures of fans’ engagement (adopted from: https://fr.surveymonkey.com/r/football-social- media) In addition, purchase intention is intentionally left in the questionnaire, in order to investigate its relationship with fan loyalty i.e. to analyze how fan loyalty can influence purchase decisions – is it driven by passion about favorite club. In the other side, it is aimed to answer the question of whether neutral fans might be attracted by the trademark and color of the kit or not.
The fifth section includes demographic questions where compared to the original one, Gender question is modified by ages: 19-22, 23-26 into a 19-26; 27-30, 31-34 into a 27-34. In this survey, the question Where are you from? is modified by replacing the answer bracket with two options: England and Rest of the World. The reason for this modification is to divide results about fans' feelings and according to this categorization to set two different directions in the campaign. The last question is modified where instead of Position the Status is put with the modified offered answers: Student/Pupil, Employed, Retired and Other.
The whole questionnaire consists of 65 questions and it can be found in the Appendix.
2.3.1.2 Content Analysis
In this thesis, content analysis is used as both a qualitative and quantitative method to collect and analyze data. Data can be characterized as verbal, printed, or electronical (online) and the main purpose of this kind of analysis is to discover a contextual meaning of data (Hsieh, Shannon, 2005).
For the purposes of this thesis, content analysis has been conducted from three parts:
1. Analysis of the official Facebook Page of Fulham FC, 2. Analysis of the Facebook Pages of rivals (Chelsea, Brentford, Leeds United) 3. Analysis of the two non-official Fulham Facebook Pages – Fulham FC Foundation and Fulhamish.
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Analysis of the official Facebook Page of Fulham FC
The content is analyzed within November and December 2019. Monitoring is done for the time and the amount of likes, reactions, and shares, which is collected and labeled into eleven coding categories where content is also described by text followed by suggestions. The two most important tools used in this research are Like (and all other Impressions) and Share, which reflects the importance of each category and every single content quantification. Impressions are important to be aware of when trying to forecast the success of the campaign. The next table represents coding categories.
The most common and most important category. Interactions are the highest during match day, so Match Day this code is included to investigate Fulham's activities towards the match. Incorporated in order to investigate how many Individual Player Segment times a certain name is mentioned. Related to players Extracted from the previous category, in order to investigate fans' favorite players, by comparing the Man of the Match amount of impressions each player gets when being Man of the Match. Made to analyze how posts about former popular Former Heroes players contribute to the engagement. This is also related to the past successes of the whole team. During the whole season, and especially during the transfer period, stories about potential transfers Transfers and Contracts occupy media. The aim is to investigate how Fulham fans' reaction to it.
Q&A (questions and answers) To analyze the nature of customer relationship. This category will analyze how often club's products are being promoted and how often Merchandise sponsor related merchandise is promoted. Also, special ticket actions and eventual new apps are accountable A football club usually aims to be the pillar of the Community community. This category analyses relationship with the community This category focuses on the relationship with the Supporters Items supporters
Video Aimed to realize how popular the content from the 11
video is, and what is the number of videos posted. The category “other” will include the posts that Other couldn’t be coded into one of the categories above. Table 2. Coding (source: Facebook, 2019)
In addition, this coding categorization is not based solely on the questions regarding the content analysis. In order to bring closer two methods and align them, the coding has found its roots in the survey where football fans were responding. Thus, the idea is to seek for behavioral and verbal patterns by following all above-mentioned questions.
Analysis of the Facebook Pages of rivals (Chelsea, Brentford, Leeds United)
Starting from Chelsea FC, what is analyzed are Facebook official Page (Chelsea Football Club) and non-official Page (Chelsea Football Club News). The number of followers is compared with Fulham's.
By a simple reading of existing features on the official Page, a visual comparison is made. The reason is that author wanted to 'benchmark' the practice from the club with one of the biggest fan bases in the world, in order to apply it for Fulham’s official Page. As mentioned, a visual comparison is made, and a textual explanation of the features is following the picture. Features explained are tabs: Reviews, Groups, Fundraisers, Shop as well as the Link buttons: Use App Shop Now, and Blue Badge – informational character By explaining what the mentioned features are meant for, the author tends to interpret the need for having them on Fulham’s official Page.
For the same purposes – ‘benchmarking’ the practice for the campaign to be based on the best practices - video content from Chelsea’s official Page is analyzed in a descriptive manner. Namely, the video was launched as a part of Chelsea’s buzz-building campaign aimed for growing the international fan bases. The content in the video is described, with the information on the number of Likes, Comments and Shares reached, after which the argument for the Video as a type of Social Content is presented.
As for the Chelsea Football Club News, the number of followers is compared with the Fulham’s rival Brentford, to show the difference between one non-official and one official Page. The reason for analyzing this Page is also a benchmarking of a best practice. Tab Reviews and Link button Send email explained and used to suggest the changes on a Fulham FC’s official Page.
Divisional rivals – Leeds United and Brentford (also a traditional rival): 12
“Divisional rivals” means that Fulham FC competes with the mentioned two clubs for direct promotion to the Premier League, and eventually for Playoffs. Categories analyzed are Page Posts and Interactions, during the chosen period which is from April 19th until May 19th. More concrete for the categories is shown below.
Page Posts:
1. Sum of Page Posts, 2. Average Page Posts Per Week.
Interactions:
1. Maximum Interactions per 1000 fans, 2. Minimum Interactions per 1000 fans, 3. Sum of Interactions per 1000 fans per period.
Data is collected and extracted by using Social Bakers which is a social media analytics tool that gains insights and compares stats from Facebook Pages. On the platform, the URL of the Fulham’s Facebook Page was put in one bracket, and in the other bracket URL of both rival clubs, but separately. Next to the brackets, there is a Submit button after which the results can be sent to a personal email.
On one side, the reason why the author includes the analysis of these rivals is to interpret the possibility of the influence of the number of Page Posts to the number of Interactions. On the other side, the aim is to compare two best posts (in the terms of total Interactions) one from each club, in the chosen period, thus to interpret which content is more attractive.
Additionally, this analysis serves to investigate how the rivals deal with their Facebook activity plans, so as to find where they are more successful than Fulham. Important to mention is that both clubs have less followers on Facebook than Fulham. Thus, those findings are aimed to be interpreted in order to find more valuable practices to be base for Fulham’s campaign.
Analysis of the two non-official Fulham Facebook Pages – Fulham FC Foundation and Fulhamish.
In this part, the author observed features within the Fulham FC Foundation main page, and Fulhamish main Page - data is collected from Facebook. Already explained tabs Reviews and
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Fundraisers are observed on both Pages, then interpreted in the sense of how can be utilized. The reason why these Pages are analyzed is to investigate:
1. Ability to increase engagement with environmental commitment activities, 2. The relationship with fans aimed to increase engagement and interactions.
2.3.2 Secondary data
Data was also collected from various online publications – books, journals, newspapers, social media networks – published in the previous 15 years, mostly. Keywords used in collecting online data: social media, social media marketing, social media campaign, Facebook, internet, marketing, etc. Additionally, since the research was not conducted in a structured form, findings interpreted from data collection and analysis should serve only as the inspiration for the Facebook Campaigns.
2.4 Data Analysis
After the data is collected, the last stage is data analysis. This means that now, data collected needs to be analyzed and sorted, guided by the research approach and design (Kothari, 2004). From the point of view that fits the most to this research, the author of this research finds the simple definition where data analysis “includes ways of working with information (data) to support the work, goals, and plans of your program or agency”2 (Introduction to Data Analysis Handbook, 2006, p.13)
Data collected through a questionnaire that brings answers to the fans' engagement with their favorite clubs, as well as data collected from the Facebook pages of both Fulham and rivals, are sorted and analyzed. Regarding the questionnaire, the specific number of questions is asked, being labeled into several sections, where the answers are verbally interpreted and sorted into the mentioned sections. Regarding the results, they are based on the answers of a total of 101 valid responses, and the Respondents are separated into two groups: England and Rest of the World. Such a categorization is important because FC Fulham, and like the other clubs in England, is full of international players, and also because of the fact that two most ranked leagues are popular not only in England but also in all over the World.
2 Citation retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED536788.pdf 14
As for the content analysis, the data from the Fulham’s official Page is structured within the table of the described coding categorization, where the behavior is monitored in order to seek for the pattern. The statistical data is added in the form of Likes (Reactions) and Shares, so the results can be shown quantitatively in order to make a more completed analysis. Additionally, data collected from the non-official pages and rivals' pages are sorted and analyzed:
1. Chelsea FC, Chelsea FC News, Fulham FC Foundation and Fulhamish – results interpreted in a descriptive manner 2. Leeds United and Brentford – statistical data added in the form of Page Posts and Interactions, then results described.
Based on the material description and statistical data, founded patterns are transformed into the interpretation of the results and conclusions regarding the results. In the end, Porter’s Five Forces have been adjusted to the football industry and used with the aim to frame the results gained from both methods. This would be the last step before suggesting the Social Media Campaign.
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3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The aim of this part is to discover what is Social Media, which platforms, tools and measurements are in the function of Social Media Marketing, what the campaign is in the context of Social Media Marketing, as well as the themes related to football clubs, and how they deal with business through Social Media. In other words, basic theoretical terms are provided in this section.
3.1 Social Media
In order to perceive Social Media and what the success of marketers depends on, it is important to understand how people reacted to the content in early online communities. Members of those communities were developing interaction between themselves and by doing it, the content would be made. That was much more preferable for members than to read some official content made by certified experts in any field. (2008, Evans).
In the context of business, the most important word, or better said factor is ‘trust’. ‘Trust’ between friends, when buying some product, is the element which drives the marketers in making decision about creating some content and it applies for both word-of-mouth and social media. Thus, when marketer is sharing the content, ‘trust’ is the basic question on which the use of social media is built and the transparency is a platform for raising the trust. Accordingly, need for the truthfulness of information of what is the smart choice for purchases is essential for social media. (2008, Evans)
3.1.1 Social Media Definition
Addressing the definition of Social Media is also argued and has more different perspectives where it is not possible to stick at only one of them. The simple definition can be found on internet (Wikipedia, 2019): ‘Social media are interactive computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.’3
3 Citation retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media 16
More technical definition is presented by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), where social media is defined as: ‘a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user- generated content.’4
Furthermore, broader definition and how it differs from traditional media, perspective of Social Media is offered by Zeng, Chen, Lusch and Li (2010): ‘In a broad sense, social media refers to a conversational, distributed mode of content generation, dissemination, and communication among communities. Different from broadcast-based traditional and industrial media, social media has torn down the boundaries between authorship and readership, while the information consumption and dissemination process is becoming intrinsically intertwined with the process of generating and sharing information.’5 By exploiting this definition, it is possible to realize one of the differences between social media and traditional media, thus to assume how social media is changing the world both in social and business context.
According to Evans (2008), Wikipedia often offers short-term definitions which does not have to be accurate and is rather one example of social media than its explanatory: ‘The Wikipedia process for arriving at a definition of “social media” is an excellent example of social media: social media is used in this context to tap the collective expertise and arrive at an acceptable conclusion. It is the wisdom of the crowd, with all caveats fully present.’ (Evans, 2008, p. 32)
The same author adds his view of social media: ‘Social media involves a natural, genuine conversation between people about something of mutual interest, a conversation built on the thoughts and experiences of the participants. It is about sharing and arriving at a collective point, often for the purpose of making a better or more-informed choice’.(Evans 2008, p.31)
One of the narrower definitions of Social Media are explained by Howard and Parks (2012) in the terms of what Social Media consists of ( Howard, Parks, 2012): ‘i. the information infrastructure and tools used to produce and distribute content that has individual value but reflects shared values;
4 Citation retrieved from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14241277.2015.1120014 5 Citation retrieved from: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5678581 17 ii. the content that takes the digital form of personal messages, news, ideas, that becomes cultural products; and iii. the people, organizations, and industries that produce and consume both the tools and the content.’6; where one more perspective is offered and hint for realizing the differences between social media and traditional media. One of the perspectives where differences are reflected (Evans 2008, p.34):
‘1. Social media involves a number of different social channels and especially online social channels, just as traditional media utilizes a number of different channels. 2. Social media changes over time. The Wikipedia entry will continue to evolve as our collective understanding and acceptance of just what constitutes “social media” evolves. 3. Social media is participative: the “audience” is assumed to be part of the creative process or force that generates content’; where the author is giving the credibility to the Wikipedia’s explanation.
Regard to the question in one of the previous paragraphs, how social media is changing the world – one of the explanations are by Zeng, Chen, Lusch and Li (2010) and they see it in fact that nowadays, social media platforms took attention of majority of people, different groups of people and organizations, where social media is significant source of information which can be used in a decision-making processes – for purchases, business related decisions and moves, governmental information gaining on public opinion etc. (Zeng, Chen, Lusch and Li, 2010).
About infrastructure, platforms, tools for metrics and measurements that social media includes, some of the following subchapters will gave insights and description. However, it is important to mention that main drive for the rapid development of social media is IT (Internet and mobile technologies) which enables more interactive communication, information distribution and circulation and content creation (Zeng, Chen, Lusch, Li, 2010). Following section discovers who are the participants on Social Media.
6 Citation retrieved from: https://academic.oup.com/joc/article- abstract/62/2/359/4085822?redirectedFrom=fulltext 18
3.1.2 Social Media Community
People, groups of people and organizations – if this can be used as some kind of classification, they can be labeled as actors in social media who are considered to build relations (what is the nature of their communication, how do they interact and what do they want to gain from each other) where they form mutual ties. They all are assigned to the specific positions, where the criteria can be the level of influence they make through the ties, all according to their roles (occupation or dealing). (Gruzd, Haythornthwaite, 2013).
Above mentioned is very important for the business context, since marketers are obliged to know the nature of the audience which they are trying reach and attract. Thus, next significant to the marketers is categorization of users (see Figure 1.) which can be found at the Social Technographics, by Li (2007). The author extracted 6 categories of users by creating a participation ladder (Li, 2007):
1. Creators – they create, publish and mantain content online; 2. Critics – they comment and rate posts; create review posts; 3. Collectors – usage of RSS, tagging Web pages; 4. Joiners – leisure usage of social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.); 5. Spectators – do not differ significantly from Joiners; reading blogs, watching videos; 6. Inactives – not any of the above mentioned activites.
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Figure 1. Social Technographics Groups Ladder (source: Forrester Research, 2017)
Among several other user typologies, one that can be very beneficial for the marketer’s analysis in the context of reaching the target audience is constructed by Golder and Donath (2004) where the outcome in the form of classification is derived from in-depth analysis of the frequency and the content of posts. Namely, they present following four groups (Golder and Donath, 2004):
1. Celebrities – public figures contributing the most in community; 2. Newbies – new members, who ask questions; 3. Lurkers – they read discussions, but do not participate neither they ask questions; 4. Flamers, Trolls, Ranters – subgroups; negative behaviour and with intent ruining the discussion..
Following section provides an overview of the Social Media platforms that enable virtual space for communication and interaction, and that are main tools for the marketers in creating various kinds of businesses and campaigns 20
3.1.3 Social Media Tools
The claim that social networks have a huge impact on our lives is based on the fact that the decisions of both individuals and companies are largely determined by their reaction to the phenomena which occurs on social media. Furthermore, certain online processes represent a cause and consequence chain, in the sense that individuals react to the actions of other individuals, firms respond to individual’s actions in aggregate, but also to the actions of other companies as a response to the nature of global market, which is mostly of a competitive character. (Smith, Vardiabasis, 2010) Social Media categorization is presented by Figure 2. This section gives a look at some of the most popular social networks, as well as the different forms of social media tools.
Figure 2. Social Media Groupings (Source: Evans, 2008, p.204)
3.1.3.1 Facebook
Social network that has significantly and rapidly changed the world. Edosomwan, Prakasan, Kouame, Watson and Seymour (2011) in their report (The Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 2011, Vol. 16, No.3) state that Facebook which was created in 2004, already in 2009 was ranked as the most visited social network in the world; by 2010 it had already had 500 million users, and as an enchanting contribution to these findings (and generally, to how big is the impact of this social network), it has been found that during the 21
World Cup in 2010, Nike company attached ad to the Facebook and within a few minutes about 8 million views were registered on this media. (Edosomwan, Prakasan, Kouame, Watson and Seymour, 2011).
In the article Facebook: A literature review by Caers, de Feyter, de Couck, Stough, Vigna and du Bois (2013), Facebook is described as a platform with a highly standardized layout of accounts where users after signing in and creating a profile can consume multiple features, but mainly to start with searching for friends and sending friend requests: two main pages are Profile and Home where Profile page contains personal details about user, profile picture and cover photo, along with the wall where user is presenting itself by posting and sharing music, pictures, videos etc. Additionally, other options can be seen at the Figure 3. (PC, laptops) together with the mentioned features. Home or News Feed users can see what others post and they get informed about activities of other people. (Caers, de Feyter, de Couck, Stough, Vigna and du Bois, 2013).
Engagement of users on Facebook is manifested through the following actions: like, comment and share. Using these options, by liking, commenting and sharing the content (posts) reflects their behaviour (Kim, Yang, 2017) and this is actually a very valuable for the marketers, since it shows engagement of users and shows a lot about their mentality, where the forecast of their intention can be created in a more certain way. In that sense, Facebook is realiable for the business since it offers a various range of benefits, such as: customer interaction, reputation management, new customer acquisition, feedback mechanism, branding, drive web traffic (Milestone, 2019). Facebook used in this research, for the purposes of the campaign.
Additionally, several features deserve to be mentioned as both the analysis and the Campaign use them. Features can be found on the left side of the main Page. Reviews is a feature that enables to users to recommend Page and to rate it on a scale from 1 to 5. Groups feature enables for the editors to link other groups to the Page they are responsible for. Fundraisers feature serves for creating fundraisers for non-profit organizations and personal causes. Shop enables to the users to reach brands products and services. What is more, on the right side of the main Page, several possible link buttons are able be incorporated, and this thesis has mentioned: Use App, Shop Now, Send Email, Send Message. Use App links to the website for application download, Shop Now links to the brands’ site where products and services can be
22 purchased, Send Email links to the application (e.g. Outlook), Send Message links to the Messenger chat (Facebook, 2020).
What confirms the authenticity of the brand, is Blue Badge. It appears next to the name of the brand (Facebook, 2020).
Figure 3. Facebook Profile Page Layout (Source: https://www.freecreatives.com, 2019)
3.1.3.2 Blogs
One of the possible definitions of blog is that it is given by the one of the famous blogging websites, WordPress.org: ‘“Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe websites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog features diary-type commentary and links to articles on other websites, usually presented as a list of entries in reverse chronological order. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.’7 Everybody can create blogs, and in a business context, it can also be effective channel if defined and used in a right way, and
7 Citation retrieved from: https://wordpress.org/support/article/introduction-to-blogging/#what-is-a-blog 23 the purpose of blog is that it offers insights what customers might like or dislike (Evans, 2008)
Blogs enable communication and interaction, readers can express their opionion, and content can be shared; furthermore, blogs can contaion pictures, videos and audio sounds (NCTA, 2008). Some of the popular websites for blogging are Tumblr.com, Blogger.com, Wordpress.com etc. Additionally, Evans (2008) extracted corporate blogs in his book, such as Ted Blog, Bazaarblog etc.
3.1.3.3 Microblogs
Surely, one of the most famous examples of microblog is Twitter. Microblogs have similar concept like blogs, except that difference lays in the fact that microblogs are shorter and size limited (Ebner, 2018). It is described as a platform for posting shorten content in the form of small-sized texts, pictures, links, videos etc. (Yazdanifard, Obeidy, Wan Yusoff, Babaei, 2011). Twitter as above mentioned, is the most popular and by creating the profile on this platform, everybody is able to create and post content, so called Tweets and each of Tweets cannot be longer that 140 signs. (Ebner, 2018).
Important queston is can the business be done on Twitter. Evans (2008) is giving the straight answer – with the example of Dell, where Chief Blogger, Lionel Menchaca reported: ‘Not too long ago, we added @DellSmBizOffers to the mix. We recently surpassed $500,000 in revenue through Twitter’ (Evans, 2008, p.219).
3.1.3.4 Photo and Video Sharing
Popular platforms for photo and video sharing that has to be mentioned are Youtube and Instagram. Simple definition of these kind of platforms are automatically derived – platforms that enable sharing the content in the form of videos and photos. Youtube as a platform has 1.9 billion users, covering the 95% of internet population, and launched in over 91 countries (Brandwatch, 2019). Instagram, as the most popular social platform among U.S teens, is used by 1 blllion people every month and its stories are used by 500 million people every day (Hootsuite, 2019). Other platforms that are popular are also Flickr, Vimeo, Pinterest etc.
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3.1.4 Social Media Measurement
How to measure Social Media is a general question which includes more than a few metrics. Berkowitz (2009) mentions 100 metrics8, which marketers can use for the analysis, research and campaign. However, the same author asks which of those can be used in a specific business. That is the question for marketers, where they need to identify business objectives, then to imply adequate metrics (Berkowtiz, 2009).
For the purposes of this work, Facebook metrics will be explained. However, to be able to measure, there is a need to define what is supposed to be measured. Thus, engagement is one of the category for quantification of metrics. By Sterne (2010), engagement has many definitions, where he chooses one: ‘Engagement is when somebody cares and interacts, and both are necessary’. (Sterne, 2010, p. 106) To bring closer how people can engage in Social Media, Figure 4. shows Customer Relationship Model (Stokes, 2013):
Figure 4. CRM model (source: Stokes, 2013, p.204)
The fact is that maintaining a good relationship with the customers means that all their needs are met. The best case scenario is when, as it can be seen on the Figure 4., in the engagement process or better said journey prospects become customers with the good marketing, customers grow into loyal customers if their needs are satisfied in the best manner, where they will eventually start to be advocates. (Stokes, 2013).
8 Found at: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/117581/100-ways-to-measure-social-media.html 25
It is crucial for a successful campaign to measure the effectiveness of a campaign after it ends. In that sense, measurement of the campaign through the social media networks needs to be determined in order to gain more accurate feedback on the campaign which would contribute to the whole marketing strategy. Moreover, the purpose of measurement enables more accurate ROI calculation and practice valuable for some future campaigns (Kim, 2017).
It is important to state that measurement of the communication campaign cannot be fully accurate, since the evaluation is based on outputs as the parameters. Those outputs are just indicators of the activity on Social Media. That is the reason why every campaign needs to be taken through SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based) goals. In accordance with that, measurement is based on the impact or the result of the campaign. Thus, every campaign has to define goals which are SMART and outcome based (Kim, 2017).
Additionally, it is crucial to realize the difference between measurement and counting, since people tend to align these terms by understanding the measurement as a simple gathering and counting of numbers emerged from online interaction. Measurement of social media activity requires the expertise from the marketers of the data gathered which serves to a creation of an adequate application (Kim, 2017).
Counting means counting things up to getting the total value, while measurement analyses this total value in the sense of what is the meaning of the value, then takes result of meaning in order to improve the campaign practices for the projects in future (Paine, 2011)
Variety of metrics are used for the measurement, on a different platforms, through a different stages of evaluation of campaign. Three stages are mentioned: preparation, implementation and impact (Kim, 2017)
According to the nature of this research, some of the Facebook Insights is presented (Figure 5.) here and additionally in the subsection 3.1.4.1 Facebook Insights also called Facebook Analytics, are reachable for any business that possess the official Facebook Page. For the purposes of gathering the data Facebook offers seven tabs that with the each of those tabs having its own specific purpose and information relevant for the campaign and the campaign evaluation (Kim, 2017).
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Figure 5. Facebook Insights (source: Kim, 2017)
In the other side, there is another view on the levels of measurement which implies two main ones (Hemann and Burbary, 2013):
1. Conversations in the social media properties owned by business, 2. Conversations out of the social media properties owned by the business.
Conversations in the social media properties owned by brand means that content posted to the social media properties is commented, followed, shared or mentioned by the end user (or member) on their own social media. Conversations out of the social media properties owned by the brand is based on the analysis of interactions which are not part of the brand’s social media activity. In other words, some interaction occurred are relevant for the business but it does not mention the brand directly. Example could be even wrongly created hashtags about the business made by end users. Another could be end user questions on social media that are completely unrelated to a planned content posted by the business, but highly relevant for the nature of dealing of a business (Kim, 2017).
Measuring performance is crucial for the needs that implies adjustments, i.e measurement is possible not only after-campaign evaluation, but also during the campaign. This means that performance can be monitored in real time and near real time, where immediate changes can be made (Levy,2010). It is enabled by the following key performance indicators (Levy, 2010):
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1. Status, 2. Bid, 3. Type (Cost per Click or Cost per Thousand Impressions)\ 4. Clicks, 5. Impressions, 6. Click Through Rate, 7. Average Cost per Click (CPC), 8. Average Cost per Thousand Impression (CPM), 9. Amount Spent.
In addition to measurement, Facebook offers three campaign reports (Levy,2010):
1. Advertising Performance, 2. Responder Demographic - who is clicking on Ads, 3. Responder Profiles - types of users in the terms of their interests stated on their profiles (Facebook, 2020)
All three reports contribute to measuring the campaign and making changes while still in progress, and on the other side, enables a better use of investments and more effective audience targeting (Levy,2010).
Regarding information about users, in compliance with Facebook policies ethic as well as with the permission of users following information can be recorded and analysed as well (Kosinski et al. 2015):
1. Demographic profile - user ID, name, profile picture, age, gender, relationship status etc. 2. User-generated content - status updates, photos, videos, comments, comments on other profiles etc. 3. Social network structure - list of friends, followers and connection types ( spouse, siblings, etc.) 4. User preferences and activities - Likes of Pages, group memberships, events, apps, tags, etc. 5. Information about users’ friends - demographic details and activities of other user that is listed as friend (if visible to a given user).
In this case, all the rules and requirements of GDPR must be followed and kept.
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3.1.4.1 Facebook Insights9
Insights (which is reached by clicking Insights on the top of business’ Page, Fugure 5.) are actually information about business performance on Facebook, i.e. the performance of the business’ Page. Within the Page insights, data can be gained for the last two years, moreover, demographic data (age, gender, location etc.) can be accessed when there is at least 100 people engaged. (Facebook, 2019). Page insights are used to (Facebook 2019):
i. analyze the way of engagement with the Page; ii. see the performance metrics; iii. see which posts are with the highest engagement and when people are active on Facebook.
To be able to differ insights, Facebook offers three categories: page views, reach and impressions; page views are number of times Page’s profile has been viewed by audience; reach is estimated category and means number of people that has seen any content on Page or about Page; impressions are number of times users entered the content from the Page or about the Page. (Facebook, 2019)
Something that is learned even from the leisure activities of every user are the following Facebook metrics (Facebook, 2019):
i. the number of people reached; ii. post clicks; iii. likes (and several other reactions), comments and shares; iv. total video views
For the marketer’s analysis, important to know is the difference between two metrics, one is paid reach and another is organic reach. The main difference is whether the post is paid or not, i.e. paid reach presents the total number of people that has seen the post which is paid from the business to appear, while organic reach is total number of people that has seen post which is unpaid. From organic reach, two are derived – viral and nonviral. Viral is when the
9 Source from: https://www.facebook.com/help/794890670645072/?helpref=hc_fnav 29 content from the page is reached indirectly (e.g. friend engage to a content), and nonviral is when the content is reached directly. (Facebook, 2019). All about Facebook Insights, what are the key metrics and what they measure, where to find them etc. can be found at Facebook Help Center. Moreover, marketer has the possibility the extract data from insights, by clicking the Insights at the top of the Page, then to click Export Data at the top right side. Data type, range and file format can be chosen, along with the layout, after Export Data need to be clicked again. (Facebook, 2019).
Figure 6. Buffer Page (source: https://buffer.com/library/best-time-to-post-on-facebook, 2019)
3.2 Socia Media Campaign
As the aim of this whole research is to derive an effective Social Media Campaign for the football club, it would be beneficial to bring closer what the Social Media campaign is.
Broader meaning of the term campaign implies that definition of it depends on a context in which the campaign is used. Generally speaking, most suitable definition can be found in Cambridge Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2019), where campaign is referred to a: ‘a planned group of especially political, business, or military activities that are intended to
30 achieve a particular aim’10. From this definition, the author of this research came up with the statement that the term campaign could refer to a marketer’s set of marketing activities that are applied in order to achieve marketing goals beneficial for the whole business.
Main focus in developing the marketing campaign is Integrated Marketing Plan (IMP) (Gospe, 2008), Integrated Marketing Plan or Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is a marketing communication framework which contains set of tools used for creating a communication with the customers, such as: advertising, public relations, sales promotions, personal selling, direct marketing, sponsorships, internet marketing, mobile marketing and social media marketing. The importance of social media marketing nowadays is crucial with the such a rapid development of IT (Bin Yamin, 2018).
According to the above mentioned, by the author’s opinion, the answer of what the term campaign presents, in the context of Social Media, can be found in the article Evaluation of Advertising Campaigns on Social Media Networks (2018) where it is stated that the campaigns create a frameworks through the Social Media platforms which enable better way to communicate with and inform customers; to understand the customer needs and change of their needs; to gain insights about customers interests and activities; and to get a feedback in order to improve what needs to be improved. (Raudeliuniene, Davidaviciene, Tvaronaviciene, Jonuška, 2018).
To cover the previous statement, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc. enable connection of millions of people in the world, their direct mutual communication with the speed of responsiveness within seconds or minutes. Thus, this is the advantage of social media, that is very important to businesses since they are able to push through and distribute their products, firstly by attracting the customers in a certain way, based on developed campaigns – where the nature of Social Media offers possibility for business to gain insights, place the campaign, receive a feedback, evaluate the whole campaign process in order to improve future actions (Sabbagh M, 2018). In Figure 7. the most important social networks are presented through which advertising campaigns are created:
10 Citation retrieved from: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/campaign 31
Figure 7. Important Social Networks for Social Communication (Source: Sabbagh, 2017)
Since the use of Web 2.0 Social Media increased rapidly, its availability and ability to contribute to a marketing promotion increased to the highest levels. Furthermore, Web 2.0 Social Media has the power to develop the viral marketing (word-of-mouth or buzz marketing). In other words, the components of a viral marketing provide tools which are in the function of information sharing in a more simple and faster ways. Before using social media as a platform within the marketing plan, or in this case platform for the Campaign, business needs to validate this decision by finding the answers to a several questions. Targeting the audience which is the most suitable for using Web 2.0 Social Media and costs of such promotion are the two most important questions for the marketers. However, the previous ones cannot be accomplished without finding the objective for such kind of promotion. For example, using Web 2.0 Social Media has to have some positive implications for the customers – need that can be met, lower costs for customers, reduced barriers etc. (Thackeray et al., 2009) Promotion of brands through a Social Media might be realized within two very significant categories - viral advertising and user-generated content.
Viral advertising is an effective way for marketers to present the brand, but with more information and details. Characterized as an approach to online marketing, it creates an advantage since the communication is more specified, i.e it is adjusted to the target audience. Marketers have wider range of options for making the creative content where viral communication derives more intimate and personalized message, thus it makes easier for the
32 message to be delivered to the targeted audience (Bampo et al. 2008). Large number of studies has proven that humor, sexuality, stealth, and positive experiences are the factors that determine the success of viral advertising, and therefore the success of marketing in overall. One of the examples can be found in the research of Golan and Zaidner (2008). The focus of their research was viral Ads of multi-corporations, where it is found that humor and sexuality are the most successfull when it comes to entertainment of consumers and their intention to pass the content to the other people (friends and family). (Golan and Zaidner, 2008)
User-generated content creates a social currency which is then used by marketers as a help in defining the values in forming a brand. It represents all possible ways in which end users consume Social Media i.e. ways in which they create a specific content and expose it publicly. Thus, social currency could be defined as value of a brand generated by the brand or information about the brand that are provided by the end users. Zinnbauer and Honer (2011) mention six components of social currency: affiliation, conversation, utility, advocacy, information, and indemnity. Social currencies are generated within the communication between end users (consumers, customers) and they are often out of the direct control of businesses. Consumer generated advertising raise when brand is already established into a consumers’ mentality as a product which satisfies their values and when consumers feel convenient to communicate online regarding the brand (Zinnbauer and Honer 2011). The term Consumer Generated Advertising (CGA) is described as a form of user-generated content, characteristic for the situation where end users (consumers) are those who ‘define’ a brand by creating a specific messages aimed to inform, persuade and remind other people (friend, family, etc.). (Campbell et al. 2011)
One of the main differences between viral advertising and user-generated content is that within viral advertising an identified business is connected with the Ad, which shows where the Ad comes from i.e who creates the Ad. (Paquette, 2013)
For the purposes of this research, Facebook is described in more details. Facebook has over a billion users in the world (Sabbagh, 2018) and it is the most popular online platform with the large quantity of information, and its user-friendly nature is very attractive for all users, both for leisure activities, advertising, trading and promoting products (Sabbagh, 2018). To start building a campaign through Facebook, company needs their marketing department specialized for Social Media to create a business page which is simple and for free to do. Afterwards, the page can be modified visually according to the company’s identity - logo, information about company’s dealing, link which takes to the company’s website, additional 33 features like contact, address etc. By liking the page, users become fans of the page where the process of engagement already started. For the purposes of engagement, Facebook enables for the companies to create different features which include options for discussions, reviews, commenting, liking and sharing photos, videos, posts etc. Ability for users to interact and share content and dynamic online environment makes content on Facebook likely to become viral and that is one of the most significant aspects of the social media campaigns (Halligan, Shah, 2010).
Correspondingly on the Facebook’s page – Facebook for Business, there is an overview of what the campaign structure consists of. Three parts are mentioned (Facebook, 2019):
i. Campaign – which consists of one or more ads and ad sets, where one objective needs to be choosen for one campaign; ii. Ad set – one or more ads where business determines tarteting, budget, schedule, bidding and placement; iii. Ad – as a result of the creative minds of marketer’s.
Having this structure as a guide, marketers can gain a better perspective in creating a campaign in which the content they placed could become attractive for high reaches and/or reaching peaks. (Facebook, 2019)
To see more about how marketers are planning to win the market, or the take the gain the good position among competition, next section provides more detailed outline.
3.3 Social Media Strategy
Excellent marketing strategy establishes a framework which recognizes consumer needs and anticipates their reactions; furthermore it is able for improve and modify itself. It gives answer to what is the target audience and extracts the information from customers in order to set up the objectives and it complies with the 4P principle – product, price, place, promotion. (Parente, Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, 2015)
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Social Media strategy has a recurrent aspect. It is a constant process where business firstly needs to do accomplish external analysis - to determine available technology, cultural behaviour, to target the proper market and to investigate rules and regulations; afterwhile, internal analysis is done, i.e. business defines goals and vision, determines the marketing plan, best social media practices etc.; next is defining and designing the adequate social media strategy, after which the monitoring of effects is the last instance in this circle. (Effing, 2013)
In respect to the whole framework design, Social Media strategy evolves and obtains 7 tasks where one follows the other (Effing, 2013):
1. Goals – setting the objectives that complies with business goals (Klang, Nollin, 2011; Thackeray et al., 2008);
2. Target Audience – determination of main market, market segmentation and finding proper audience (Thackeray et al., 2008; Berthon et al., 2012; Dutta, 2010);
3. Social Media Choice – picking the adequate social media platform and desired content form (Thackeray et al., 2008; Klang, Nollin, 2009; Dutta, 2010);
4. Resources – engrossment of financial investments in campaign – for staff, their expertise and training, and the quality control of the content (Dutta, 2010; Thackeray et al., 2008);
5. Policies – guidelines, rules, policies and limitations in the context of usage, privacy and ethical norms (Gotterbarn, 2012; Klang, Nollin, 2011; Marlin-Bonett, Thorntonb, 2012; Mortleman, 2011);
6. Monitoring – finding appropriate metrics for measurement; measurement and calibrating of behaviour and effects (Dutta, 2010; Berthon et al., 2012; Mortleman, 2011; Klang, Nollin, 2011);
7. Activity Plan – planning the time for activities in the context of order in which campaigns and their monitoring should turn up (Klang, Nollin, 2011; Thackeray et al., 2008).
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To put together into one whole all above mentioned about Social Media strategy desing, the author finds a proper illustrative example (Figure 8.) in the form of Social Media Design Framework (Effing, 2013).
Figure 8. Social Media Design Framework (Source: Effing, 2013)
A good Social Media strategy is based on a marketing strategies that were well established many years before the Social Media appeared. The only change is in the technology, but the strategy remains constant. (Dimofte, Haugtvedt, Yalch, 2016). To build a solid strategy, for the marketers crucial is to have an expertise on consumer behavior, thus Tuten and Solomon bring closer the reasons why consumers increase their participation in Social Media (Tuten, Solomon, 2015): i. Affinity Impulse – affinity expression through options offered for engagemen on Social Media; ii. Personal Utility Impulse – utilization of information which is valuable for the user, i.e. search for content they see in in their ‘interest’;
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iii. Contact Comfort and Immediacy Impulse – availability to reach other users easily and fastly; iv. Altruistic Impulse – to do something good or to motivate others to do it, by sharing the content which has humanitarian aspect; v. Curiosity Impulse – it is curiosity that is satisfied by following other users and seeing the content they share/publish vi. Validation Impulse – people seek for a confirmation for their belief, to satisfy their ego.
3.3.1 Social Media Tactics
In order to implement the strategy, business needs to make a certain decisions. The way those decisions are made refers as a tactics (Parente, Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, 2015). Tactics also can be referred as a short-term acion created for fine-tuning of strategy (Hillman, Hit, 1999), however in marketing context it can be considered as ‘marketing activities’ or ‘marketing actions’ (Ananda, Hernandez-Garcia, Lamberti, 2014). Mergel (2013) for the marketing needs of US govt. divides tactics in the separate parts, in the context of social media strategy (Mergel, 2013):
i. Representation – exposure of business on all chosen social media platforms; ii. Engagement – the engagement of audience into the communication with the company; iii. Networking and ‘mingling’ – maintain the customers’ attention, listen to them and stay in touch with them.
Considering Facebook, in the article The Most Effective Tactics for Acquiring Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers by Nanji (2013), there is an overview of the effective Facebook tactics, starting with the information that the most popular tactics are Facebook like buttons or links to a Facebook Page, that are visible on a particular websites and emails/newsletters (Nanji, 2013) Furthermore there is a list of effective Facebook tactics such as (Nanji, 2013):
i. Actions used for organic growth; ii. Working with influencers and bloggers; iii. Facebook contests; 37
iv. Some others such as Facebook ads (sponsored and non-sponsored), customer service on Facebook, FAQ’s and how-to on Facebook etc.
3.4 Social Media ROI
From the economical point of view, when business wants to start any activity that needs investment, the main question is – is the activity aimed to reach some business goal worth of spending money on it? In other words, is it worth of investing in it? Return on investment is one of the key indicators that says should the business continue with the activity or not. „ROI is an indicator that shows to which extent a specific business produce gain from the use of capital. It shows the extent to which the amount invested in a particular action returns as profit or loss. Thus, it enables efficiency assessment of an amount invested or, in other words, ROI allows measuring the result in relation to the means used to obtain it.“11 Formula for calculating the ROI is as follows12:
ROI = (Revenues after Investment – Amount Invested) / Amount Invested x 100
Different approaches to what is Social Media ROI does not affect the fact that there is a need for making Social Media strategy implementation to be in compliance with the business goals, where this integration drives a framework for Social Media measurement, which consists of four goals: brand building and awareness, community building and engagement, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and economic performance. The efficiency of Social Media is measured through every of the above mentioned goals, by a certain metrics (Vlachvei, Notta, 2015). Some of the metrics are proposed with the following Table 3. (Vlachvei, Notta, 2015):
11 Citation retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309516326_Return_On_Investment_- _Indicator_for_Measuring_the_Profitability_of_Invested_Capital 12 Citation retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309516326_Return_On_Investment_- _Indicator_for_Measuring_the_Profitability_of_Invested_Capital 38
Table 3. Social Media Measurement in SMEs – BCCP goals and metrics (source: Vlachvei, Notta, 2015) Blanchard in his book Social Media ROI: Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization (2011) divides Performance Indicators into a: key performance indicators (KPI), secondary performance indicators and other data, categorized into a three tiers (Blanchard, 2011). KPIs are a high important metrics which determination shows is the performance close to the forecasted level, and are the business objectives met (Stokes, 2013).
On the other side Owyang argues whether everything needs to be measured, and is it possible to have a good quality measurement, in a simple way. To contribute to it, the author of this research would like to share a quote of Owyang: ‘Social media measurement is like driving a modern car. You may have a dashboard with all the lights, toggles, gauges, and metrics, but remember, the most important piece of data to have in front of you is the GPS screen. The GPS screen indicates where you want to go (your objective), where you are now, and how to get there.’ (Owyang, 2008)13
To conclude, importance of measuring Social Media performance is essential for both maintenance and improvement. Even the best practices of Social Media Campaigns can be destroyed if there is no identification and measurement of a success. (Blanchard, 2011).
13 Citation retrieved from the Springer article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/dbm.2009.16 39
3.5 Social Media and Sports - Social Media and Football
As it is already discussed, Social Media rapidly took a prevalent position in communication and business in general (from the marketing point of view), and the sport as a business field is part of it. Most popular social platforms that are commonly used by websites of sports associations are Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. (Kuzma, Bell, Logue, 2014). What is the fans’ motivation, for consuming Social Media in order to satisfy their ‘fanship’ needs, can be found at the study Social Media and Sports Marketing: Examining the Motivations and Constraints of Twitter Users (Witkemper, Lim, Waldburger, 2012). Namely, the authors of the study derived a several motivations which might drive fans’ needs for Social Media (Witkemper, Lim, Waldburger, 2012):
i. Information motivation – is a measure for the level of motivation to achieve information on a Twitter; ii. Pass-Time motivation – is a measure for how much consumers are motivated to spend/consume/waste time on Twitter; iii. Fanship motivation – is a measure for how much the fan is motivated to use Twitter to express the need of supporting his/hers team iv. Entertainment motivation – is a measure for how much the fans are enjoying/entertaining themselves on a Twitter as their default medium for sports.
If the fans are consumers, and the ‘love’ they consume are products, how the ‘love’ can be made into a product form? Products that sports are selling are actually merchandising or in the form of events made by sport associations – which is marketing aimed to benefit those sport associations. Morevoer, there are products indirectly attached to sports – they use sports associations’ popularity to promote their products – which is marketing aimed to benefit companies through sport associations and sports in general. (Bühler, Nufer, 2013)
Football is considered to be most popular sports in the world. When it comes to the usage of Social Media, first online interaction was created during a World Cup 2006 in Germany by Nike, when online community Yoga.com was established and where people were able to share opinions among each other (Sniderman, 2010). In 2014, World Cup in Brazil is considered to be the most significant event when Social Media reached the highest
40 progression in the field of football and sports in general (Schwartz, 2014). Facebook and Twitter rated as the most visited platforms for sharing the content and opinions at that time (Nufer, 2016). Nike and Adidas was the top two companies that developed Social Media Campaigns during World Cup in 2014 (Ruvolo, 2014). Football as a global sport has a governing body on a world level under which are positioned regional and national associations, football leagues and clubs who together with the independent organizations such as media outlets, fan associations and players are creating the whole structure of events and products that are offered to consumers (fans) on a global level. Digital presence is massive when it comes to football (New Studies in Athletics, 2015).
Social Media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter enables to a sports associations to have two-way communication with the fans, moreover much more frequent which enables constant interaction. More concrete, in the field of football leagues and football clubs, there is a direct link of the clubs for the fans, during the period between match days (Peate, 2012). For the purposes of this research, one of the examples comes from the English Championship (The second best Football League, after Premier League in England) – Sportlens.com provides a Social Media Table of the all football clubs that participate in the Championship. The table (Table 4.) shows the number of followers of each club, in three Social Media Platforms and in total. Clubs are ranked from the best to worst (Sportlens, 2019):
Table 4. Championship Social Media Table (Source: Sportlens, 2019)
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Rivalrly between football clubs are one of the main categories that drives the passion among fans. Tyler and Cobbs (2015), have identified 11 elements of rivalry (Tyler and Cobbs, 2015):
1. Frequency of competition, 2. Defining moment, 3. Recent parity, 4. Historical parity, 5. Star factors, 6. Geography, 7. Relative dominance, 8. Competition for personell, 9. Cultural similarity, 10. Cultural difference, 11. Unfairness.
For the needs of this theses, rivalry categories are narrowed to a few of them, which is also based on the study of Tyler and Cobbs (2015) – divisional opponents, opponents based on geographical proximity and historical parity, as well as competition for personell (Tyler and Cobbs, 2015).
In the blog article The importance of Social Media in Sports (Reddy, 2016), there are some interesting insights about the popularity of famous clubs and athletes that could make difference between rival clubs on Social Media – so on the first place there is an information on how much some football clubs are popular on Facebook (Reddy, 2016):
1. Real Madrid – 104,7 million fans; 2. F.C. Barcelona – 102,8 million fans; 3. Manchester United – 73,7 million fans.
According to the data from 2016. FIFA holded 3rd place on Facebook by the number of fans and 1st place on Twitter by the number of followers. Football player Christiano Ronaldo is regarded to be the ruler of Social Media from the popularity point of view. This means engagement of both football club where he played and companies that wanted to become his sponsors. This could be the confirmation of the statements before mentioned about how all
42 stakeholders (sport associations, national leagues, players etc.) together create an offer for fans in order to engage them and to benefit (Reddy, 2016)14
Social Media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. have changed the way or better said, improved the distribution of the sport content which enlarged the opportunities for all interested parties and organisations like federations, clubs, media outlets, players etc. The nature of Social Media has created the environment in which everyone has a possibility directly to publish content and to influence other people in gaining their specific goals.
14 More details available at: http://promoovertime.com/infographic-importance-social-media-sports/ 43
4 RESULTS AND FINDINGS
After creating the theoretical background aimed for better understanding of the topic and all its specifics, next section provides practical part where results and findings are reported and elaborated in order to give answers to the research questions and to accomplish research objective. The Campaign is made on the basis of the findings of this research – based on the information written in this section.
4.1 Premier League and EFL Championship
Premier League is a football league with the organizing body that is called The Premier League, located in England and consists of 20 member clubs that gather every year in August and make up the League which is played until the May next year. Teams play to each other two times, once in Autumn and once in the Spring part of the season, with the total of 380 matches. Winner in every match takes 3 point, while defeated ones take 0 points. Draw brings 1 point to both teams in one match. Teams that finish the season on the last three places relegates to a EFL Championship, while another three teams from Championship are promoted to the Premier League. This format of the league is established in 1992 and it is the highest ranked football league in England, where teams compete in order to win the Premier League title (Premier League, 2019)15.
The EFL Championship is the part of EFL (English Football League), which is the organizing body that regulates the league. (EFL, 2019)16. The format of the league is almost identical as in Premier League, but the difference is that teams compete for obtaining both champions title and promotion to the Premier League, where the last three teams relegates to a lower league, first two teams are promoted directly to the Premier League, while places from the 3rd to the 6th compete in a playoffs to deserve one more place in Premier League. (Skysports, 2020) 17Fulham FC currently plays in this league, previously being relegated from the Premier League. EFL Championship is the second most important, i.e. ranked football league in England after the Premier League. (EFL, 2019).
15 From the data found at: www.premierleague.com 16 From the data found at: https://www.efl.com/ 17 From the data found at: https://www.skysports.com/championship-table 44
4.2 Fulham FC
Fulham FC is a professional football team based in London, England that currently competes in EFL Championship. The owner of the club is Shahid Khan. The club was formed in 1879 when a school teacher gathered local boys at the St Andrew’s Church, in order to create a team. In 1898 the club has gained a status of a professional club and reached the national league in 1907. In 1896 until nowadays they play on stadium that is called Craven Cottage. Home colours are with white jersey, black shorts and white socks. Away colours are striped jersey – black and red, red shorts and red socks. Rivalry is mostly raised against Chelsea, then QPR, Brentford and Crystal Palace (Fulham FC, 2020).18
Furthermore, Fulham FC owes a Foundation for charity, and according to the information on their webisite they are the leaders in supporting better quality of lives through sports, with the more than twenty years of experience. By using sport as their main activity, they support employability, health, inclusion and environmental care, all through a various educational programs (Fulham FC, 2020).
4.3 Questionnaire
This section provides data presentation and findings given by the survey which purpose was to investigate fans’ engagement on a Social Media. The answers for the first research question How do fans interact with clubs in the English best two leagues, on Social Media? is given through findings in this section.
Demographics
As already mentioned, respondents are divided into two groups: England and Rest of the World. 78.2% are from Rest of the World and 21.8% from England. Most of the respondents are in age between 27 and 34, i.e. characterized in percentage of 58.4%. The rest is shown on the Figure 9.
18 Found at: https://www.fulhamfc.com/ 45
Figure 9. Age (source: Author, 2020)
The gender is divided into a Female with the 11.9%, Male 86.1% and those ones who Prefer not to say – the rest in percentage. Status means whether the respondents are students, employed, or retired or “other”. 80.2% are employed, 16.8% are students/pupils and the rest are either retired or something else (other).
Based on the demographics, respondents are mostly males aged between 27-34 who are currently employed, i.e. having the status of being employed.
Clubs and Social Media
In general, most of the respondents follow football clubs on Social Media, more concrete 84.2% of them, while 15.8% does not follow football clubs on Social Media. Mostly of them finds Premier League is more interesting with the 82.2% percent compared to EFL Championship with 17.8%. Finally, the largest number of respondents finds Facebook as the most suitable platform for following their favorite football clubs, with the 48.5%. Along with Facebook, usage of other platforms is shown on the Figure 10.
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Figure 10. Social Media Usage (source: Author, 2020)
The most favorite clubs in EFL Championship, according to the survey answers are: 1. Fulham FC – 30.43% 2. Leeds United – 23.91%
In order to seek for city’s derby content (based on popularity, besides tradition) for the Fulham FC, the question is set for the most favorite club in London. Football clubs from London are: Chelsea FC, Arsenal, Fulham FC, Totenham Hotspurs, West Ham United, Brentford, Crystal Palace, Queens Park Rangers, Charlton Athletic. The respondents´ answers are shown below (Figure 11.). Among mentioned clubs, Chelsea FC, Arsenal, Totenham Hotspurs, West Ham United, Crystal Palace are currently playing the Premier League, the rest is in EFL Championship.
Figure 11. Favorite clubs in London (source: Author, 2020)
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Based on the previous data, it can be seen that Fulham FC is the favorite club of most respondents regarding EFL Championship, and it is third in London, so it can be concluded that Fulham FC has a potential to compete with even the best football teams in England, in the terms of Social Media marketing, more concrete in engaging neutral fans. In order to be more specific, respondents from England gave various answers to which is their favorite club, however what makes Fulham FC first in their league, and third in London, in total – is formed according to the answers from the category the Rest of the world which implies the opportunity for exploring the World’s market and gain new fans internationally.
Fans’ perception of clubs and experience on clubs within Social Media According to this section, most of the respondents claim they are not inspired by the Pages of their favorite clubs in their own life (29.7%). Most of the respondents are indifferent to the stories on Pages that are supposed to touch them deep down (26.7%). However, they are very stimulated to think about lots of different topics about football and their favorite club (41.6%).
Following the thinking about different topics about football and their favorite clubs, respondents, supportive is a claim that Pages often give them something to talk about (42.6%). But it might be a contradictory to the fact that they are indifferent when it comes to
using these Pages in discussions and argumentations with other people (35.6%) (Figure 11.)
Figure 12. Discussions and Argumentations about Content (source: Author, 2020)
The results from this section gives an impression that respondents maybe not be influenced by a stories which should cause emotional reactions, but they are mostly willing to discuss
48 different footbal topics and topics about their favorite clubs. So, the fan interaction could rather be directed to a more information-based content than to a content which is supposed to cause emotional reactions. This does not have to be true, since maybe the content that should cause emotional reactions is not of a sufficient quality. What makes a confusion within these answers is that people claim that Pages give them something to talk about, but they are not ready to discuss it. This might sound contradictory, but it might be that lots of people often skip to post content in public, online, to avoid a exposure which might make them feel uncomfortable.
These Pages are not part of the routine while surfing the browser (29.7%), but respondents use these pages to be daily informed about news on their favorite clubs (30.7%). This could be interpreted that respondents mostly interact on these Pages in a balanced way, it is not crucial in their lives, which is confirmed by the fact that respondents enjoy by going to these Pages (29.7%), usually when they have free time (38.6%).
Respondents do not consider these Pages to be a big part of their way how they socialize, i.e. they strongly disagree with this question (36.6%). This result fits to the previous paragraph, and this implies that more needs to be done in order to engaging the fans. The aim is not to convert fans’ life to be dedicated completely to the football club, however more needs to be worked on waking up the passion in them, which exists but apparently sleeps. Strongly supportive to the fact that most of the respondents avoid online discussion is also a result that says that most of them does not contribute to the conversation to these Pages (34.7%). The clubs should see here a huge space for improvements.
Most of respondents find the reason they like these Pages not because of the content they get from another users (27.7%). This implies actually that Pages are liked declaratively, but that that does not make fans’ engagement to be sustainable. However, they consider other visitors to be really knowledgeable about topics offered on the Pages, which signalizes that maybe more posts from fans needs to be posted and idea for Fulham is to listen to the voice of fans in order to create and share the content. Questions&Answers from the content analysis in the next subchapter will show those needs.
Brand Image on Social Media
Most of the people think their favorite clubs are great (43.6%), their clubs make them feel good (40.6%). As for the question if they are passionate about their favorite clubs, 49 respondents mostly strongly agree (31.7%). Results from this section can be interpreted together with the above mentioned implication from the previous section – in the context of liking Pages. All football fans will declare to which club they support and like, however in the context of Social Media it is a static category. To see positive movements, more needs to be done in the engagement.
In the case of brand loyalty, results show that the most of the respondents answered negatively the question if they think their favorite clubs are the only from which they will buy products and services (24.8%) (Figure 13.). This means, that clubs need to do more on empowering the loyalty of their fans in the terms of purchase and for the neutral fans to deliver a creative content which would attract them in the terms of buying it. Also, to engage fans to refer the club. For example, clubs can use the fact that respondents mostly encourage their friends to support their favorite team (24.8%), and they are mostly trying to spread the nice words about their favorite clubs (40.6%). Features on the Fulham’s Facebook Page which include shopping exist, however the content must be directed into a gaining a strong loyalty of club’s products and services and attracting neutral fans. Furthermore, what can be used in empowering the brand loyalty is the fact that respondents mostly agree that the club contributes to their image (25.7%) which also matches with the social role they have in their environment (23.8%).
Figure 13. Products and Services from the favorite club (source: Author, 2020)
Purchase of the football club’s products and services (intention) Most of the respondents would buy tickets for the match of their favorite football club (40.6%) – mostly they will purchase merchandising of the club (30.7%). However, they 50 disagree with the question if they would purchase any item offered by the sponsors of the club (29.7%). This answers might sound contradictory, but on the other side there can be an implication that fans are much more interested in a club’s products and services when the accent is put on the clubs identity on a products and services, not on a sponsor’s. To resolve this mystery, content analysis offers another view on these questions.
4.4 Content Analysis
In this section, data from the content analysis is presented as well as the findings which answer the following three research questions from the Methodology part:
RQ2. How does Fulham FC address fan interactions on their Page?
RQ3. What are the successful rivals’ practices on Facebook that Fulham can emulate and use? RQ4. What is the content from two non-official Pages that can be used for empowering the engagement?
4.4.1 Fulham FC Official Page
Match Day
Over the coded period (November and December, 2019), Fulham played 12 matches. After analysing this period it can be concluded the following pattern. There is a match promotion that usually involves a particular player. The likes are the most when this involves Aleksandar Mitrovic, current leading scorer in the EFL Championship. Fulham FC has experimented with also posting promotional videos shortly after the following the post. This however, has less response than the photo posts that involve players.
Shortly before Match Day there is a picture of the starting eleven, followed by the result of the match. Since December, they also post pictures of the match in case of a victory. The response is positive and there is a need for the Fulham FC to continue in this manner.
What needs to be criticised is that there are no posts in between starting eleven and the post about the result. Most football clubs will post a goal and the score at half time. Since the response is definitely the most on the Match Day, strong advise could be directed to the club to include this in the campaign. 51
Opponent Result Likes Reactions Shares Player used Promotion in Promo afterwards with with amount of amount of liks likes Hull City Loss 459 449 21 Aleksandar No Mitrovic 611 Birmingham Win 2100+ 265 111 Harrison None, City Reed 459 despite the victory Queens Win 2700+ 392 226 General Yes, Park picture, 1400+ Rangers 695 Derby Win 2500+ 350 144 Aboubakar None, County Kamara despite 580 the victory Swansea Win 2200 314 107 Ivan Yes, 1000 City Cavaleiro 455 Bristol City Loss 621 132 17 Alfie No Mawson 513 Preston Loss 522 183 13 None, No North End general post 421 Brenford Loss 603 217 16 Aleksandar No Mitrovic 724
Video was later used, 281 Leeds Win 3988 320 267 Cyrus Yes, 1336 United Christie 568 Luton Town Draw 1114 213 36 Neeskens No Kebano 544 Stoke City Win 2020 22 32 Initially Yes, 1558 Aboubakar Kamara 22
2th attempt Bobby Decordova- Reid 622
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Reading Loss 617 208 18 Initially a No normal picture of two club crests 6
2th attempt Anthony Knockaert 546
Table 5. Posts on Players and Promotion Afterwards (source: Facebook Page of Fulham FC, 2020)19
Individual Player Segment
As it can be seen in the table above, Fulham FC, usually promotes Matches with a picture of an individual player. The most frequent and successful choice is Aleksandar Mitrovic. This decision is partly on merit, since he won the most Man of the Match awards. This is also something the Social Media Team of Fulham has noticed, since they created a special ‘thank you’ video for the Serbian striker. This is actually a privilege that no other player has received.
In addition to the awards and the promotional coverage, there is not much engagement of the Fulham FC on this part. The only exception was a video interview with Neeskens Kebano, following a defeat against Bristol City. This interview, however, only received 115 likes, yet this can be explained by following the negative outcome. On a personal level there has been zero activity. No birthday wishes or other related posts.
Opponent Player used in Likes Promo with amount of likes Aleksandar 611 Hull City Mitrović Birmingham City Harrison Reed 459 Queens Park Rangers General picture 695 Derby County Aboubakar 580 Kamara Swansea City Ivan Cavaleiro 455 Bristol City Alfie Mawson 513 Preston North End None, general post - 421 Brenford Aleksandar 724 Mitrović
19 Data retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/FulhamFC/ 53
Leeds United Cyrus Christie 568 Luton Town Neeskens Kebano 544 Stoke City Initially 22, Aboubakar 622 Kamara 22
2th attempt Bobby Decordova- Reid 622 Reading Initially two crests 14, 6 546
2th attempt Anthony Knockaert Table 6. Extracted from the previous table – matches, players, likes (source Fulham Facebook Page, 2020)
Man of the Match The players that won Man of the Match awards during the coded period were Aleksandar Mitrovic, Aboubakar Kamara, Marek Rodak, Bobby Decordova-Reid and Anthony Knockaert. In addition to his Man of the Match awards, Mitrović also got crowned as the best player of the Championship for the month October. The consequent post received 1501 likes.
Fulham FC has followed up with the consequent promotion of players, following their Man of the Match performances. For instance, an original promo for the match against Stoke City involved Aboubakar Kamara. It received a shockingly low amount of only 23 likes. Shortly after his Man of the Match performance, a similar post was made for the eventual match against Stoke with Bobby Decordova-Reid. The result were 623 likes, so it is a clear difference.
The following promotional for the match against Reading saw a similar response and action. Initially, Fulham FC chose to promote this with a picture the two club crests. The result were just 14 likes. Learning from their previous “second attempt”, a new post was made - the most recent player who received the Man of the Match Performance, Anthony Knockaert. This promotional post did sufficiently better with 546 likes.
Therefore, it can be concluded what could be the part of the proposal for Fulham FC. By analysing all previous data, it could be interpreted that Aleksandar Mitrovic is the clear fan favorite. He needs to be used as optimal as possible in the social media campaign. As for the other players, the consequent promotion should be based on momentum. They should use
54 players like Bobby Decordova-Reid or Anthony Knockaert only after a consequent Man of the Match performance. Face recognition should be the most important factor for the social media campaign.
Date Player Likes Comments Shared 12/11/2019 13:46 Aleksandar 532 53 11 Mitrović 24/11/2019 11:29 Aboubakar Kamara 666 45 11 2-12-2019 Marek Rodák 593 35 9 14:24 23-12-2019 Aleksandar 1061 59 29 11:06 Mitrović 27-12-2019 Bobby Decordova- 587 37 9 11:58 Reid 30-12-2019 Anthony Knockaert 499 22 10 13:19 Table 7. Man of The Match (source: Fulham Facebook Page, 2020)
Former Heroes
This category turned out to be a bit of an disappointment. Former crowd favourite and Swiss International Phillipe Senderos announced his retirement on the 16th December. The consequent post only received 193 likes. The Thanksgiving post that involved former American stars as Clint Dempsey and Brian McBride, only got 490 likes. On the other side, Fulham FC fans do care about the past though. A video about the victory against Italian Juventus FC, in 2009 that was deemed the “biggest achievement of the decade” - received 1130 likes.
Therefore, the conclusion can be that an occasional post about the past is welcomed by the fan base. But from a marketing perspective, the focus should be just on the current players. They might not be of the same calibre, since Fulham FC is no longer a Premier League team. But the admiration is still higher with current players, than with world class veterans from the past.
Transfers and contracts
As mentioned, it was anticipated that there would not be much movement in this category because of the strict transfer laws and deadline days. Nevertheless, on 30.11.2019 Fulham FC announced the contract extension of two players - Aboubakar Kamara and Kevin McDonald. With a positive response of 704 likes the advise would be that this needs to be
55 promoted instantly and as frequently possible when the transfer period starts again on the 3rd of January.
Q & A There were no Q&A’s during this period. This could be incorporated into a process of campaign, since based on the questionnaire results in the previous section, the recommendation is to listen to more the voice of the fans.
Merchandise
Remarkably, despite having a very broad variety of merchandise, none of Fulham FC related products were advertised on the Facebook page. Which demands action into that direction, since survey shows that respondents are likely to buy it.
However, from all the sponsors for the 2019/2020 season, the only company that promoted merchandise on the Facebook page was “Walk London”. The shoe company tried to promote her material on two different occasions. On 5-12-2019 there was a picture of several players with shoes, scoring 224 likes. Two days later it tried again with a video campaign that involved a supporter walking through South London towards Craven Cottage Stadium. Despite the creative element and the effort to make it more appealable for Fulham supporters, the video only scored 156 videos. Therefore, it can be confirmed by the results from the questionnaire regarding sponsor’s influence on the purchase decisions - both tries unsuccessful. The effort with players only delivered 68 more likes. It can be interpreted that this kind of merchandise doesn’t work for Fulham FC. It seems that content needs to be more creative, especially for engaging international and neutral fans. For instance, Red away kit can be more promoted, since it has been scientifically proven that red colour causes reactions which might affect consumer`s behaviour into a specific direction. Colour can shape consumer’s perception of a certain brand (Hunjet, Vuk, 2017). This might be connected that fans perceive sports as a field where ‘fight’ is appreciated, which is in comply with the fact that perception of red is warmth, fire and passion (Amsteus et al. 2015).
Another less successful activity is in the terms of multiple attempts to share an application for the EFL Championship. The low amount of likes are a clear indication that the supporters of Fulham FC are not interested in the other teams in their league.
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Community
Over the coded period, the club has shown compassion and was very active. The biggest positive outcome was a post of the Crest of Fulham FC covered in the Rainbow flag, to show solidarity with the LGTBQ Community. Unfortunately, the other attempts have proven to be less successful.
The players spoke out in a video to support people that are suffering from mental health. The response was low with only 92 likes. The Thanksgiving post was aimed at American supporters (490 Likes) and a creative Christmas video received only 496 likes. However, when it gets combined with a positive result the likes go up to 1336. This was witnessed following the victory against Leeds United.
However, taking into consideration that Fulham FC will not play on Valentine’s day, a casual post should be sufficient.
Occasion Likes Comment Shared Halloween 753 97 23 Remembrance Day 531 43 19 Thanksgiving 490 54 40 Rainbow Solidarity Crest 2638 291 29 Christmas related kids 507 13 10 interaction Shared Video with 92 2 11 players giving their support regarding the importance of mental health Combined Christmas 1336 62 24 post/victory against Leeds United Christmas Video 496 27 19 New Year’s Eve Post 734 27 27 Table 8. Posts on Ocassion days (source: Fulham FC Facebook Page, 2020)
Supporters items
The only post involved pre-Christmas interaction between certain players and a few kids. Therefore, it can be stated that Fulham FC does not engage enough with their fans on Facebook.
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Videos
Overall, the videos have been received with lacklustre success. Taking into consideration that the attempts for match days were more successful with individual players, it should be improved with a more creative content.
Other
The most remarkable trend is that Fulham FC often chances its cover photo. Since the results are positive and player admiration is mostly based on merit, it is strongly suggested to do this every week, not only when following a positive result.
4.4.2 Rivals
First of all, there is a need to categorize a few levels where Fulham FC competes with their rivals. The idea is to show the difference among the rivalries on the pitch, and later (subsection Porter’s Five Forces) to discover implications on the Social Media, more concrete Facebook.
Rivals Category Character Chelsea FC, Historical and Geographical Traditional Brentford (Local) Leeds United West Bromwhich Albion Competition for League title and Brentford Divisional direct promotion to Premier Nottingham Forest League Cardiff Leeds United, Transfers Talent Acquisition West Bromwich Albion Table 9. Rivals (sources: fulhamfc.com, efl.com, transfermarkt.com, 2020)
Among the mentioned clubs, three was chosen for the analysis. Thus, this subsection provides some elements from which Fulham can learn in order to deliver the valuable campaign. It consists of:
1. Features from Chelsea FC’s Facebook official Page and one of its non-official Page, for the purposes of ‘benchmarking’ practices of the club with one of the biggest fan bases in the world. 2. Comparison of some of the parameters with the Brentford FC and Leeds United, within official Pages of the mentioned clubs. Both clubs have less followers on 58
Facebook, however analysis will show that there are some successful Facebook activities of those rivals that Fulham can emulate for developing its own campaign.
In order to start with the best practices, Chelsea FC is certainly the club from which Fulham FC can learn quite a lot. Starting from the main official page of Chelsea, there are several things observed and important which are missing on the Fulham FC Facebook Page.
Figure 14. List of features on the main pages (source: official Facebook Pages of Chelsea and Fulham,2020) From the Figure 14, it can be seen that features such as Reviews, Groups and Fundraisers are missing on the Fulham’s Page. Reviews represents a tab where fans are able to write their own comments on current events, to criticize or praise and recommend the Page. It is highly non- reasonable that Fulham has not incorporated this tab yet. Results from questionnaire which are in regard to the voice of the fans are indicating this need. This might be considered as a surprise also because if the business wants to build a strong fan base, it needs to enable channel for feedbacks. Moreover, this tab is another channel for customer relationship management, and is very popular on Facebook nowadays. As it offers a grading of the page on the scale from 1 to 5, overview of grade i.e. rating of the Page is shown on the top right side of the main Page and it can serve as a valuable data for the people who would potentially engage with the Page. Groups is the tab where the official Page of the club offers links to another non-official groups or pages, which is another way to build a communication with the fans and to offer them an opportunity to spread their voice. This indicates another gap for the Fulham FC that has to be filled. Fundraisers is tab designed for verified Pages, so this is also a thing that Fulham FC is able to incorporate as an option into its Page, since the club is well- known promoting its charity and social events (Facebook, 2020). There is a Fulham FC Foundation Page, which is analyzed together with another non-official Page called Fulhamish, in the third part of this subsection.
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What is more, from the Figure X, it can be seen that Chelsea’s Page contains blue badge that confirms authenticity of the brand, while on the Fulham FC there is no badge. In general, it might make concerns of a trust towards the content that is posted, which has to be in minds of Fulham’s marketers.
A few more certain points deserve attention and show a need to be underlined. The following Figure 15. is aimed to show link buttons of Chelsea FC (on the top) and Fulham FC (on the bottom).
Figure 15. Link Buttons (source: official Facebook Pages of Chelsea and Fulham,2020)
There are two reasons why Fulham FC should take the example of Chelsea. Firstly, on their main page, there is already a tab called Shop, where link to the Shop site can be incorporated. Thus, in order to diversify the Page, instead of Shop Now, more chances to utilize the Campaign might be increased by putting Use App. Secondly, to cover the first reason with an argument, content analysis showed that Fulham FC has already developed the App for their fans, however with no significant result of its usage, so this Link Button might increase its usage, by putting it as a link from the Page to the site from which fans could easily download the App.
Chelsea FC as many other clubs, has supportive, non-official Page called Chelsea Football Club News, with the relatively high amount of likes (344,585) which is almost two times more than the official Page of the Brentford FC. Valuable fact is that Reviews are incorporated even to this Page, with the Link Button – Send Email which links to the application where the inquiry about whatever fans are interested in, can be sent (for example, Outlook on a PC etc.).
There is also content from the Chelsea’s official Page that is valuable example that Fulham FC can use in its Campaign. As it can be observed from the Chelsea’s Official Page, there is relatively a big proportion of the content that is posted in the form of videos. The videos describe different occasions, so it means it is not only match related video incorporated but 60 also a variety of other events such as: past successes (Champions League Final), individual player involved in some past matches, external campaigns with sponsors, top goals in some of the previous seasons, pre-season goals, moments from training, paid partnership videos with the sponsors (Nike) etc. (Facebook, 2020). The content analysis, analyzed from the aspect of the coding categories for the Fulham FC, shows that not too much attention was put on the videos. Some videos are posted, even together with the sponsors, but interactions were not high. But that does not mean that videos should not be taken into account, but to put more attention into making a creative video content that would attract more fans in order to have more interactions.
In December, 2019, Chelsea has launched a first video as the part of the ‘Pride of London’ positioning, involving two after-Christmas derbies in London (Arsenal, Totenham), in order to bring closer the fans to the game and to contribute in growing the international fan base over the world. The video is titled as ‘All eyes on London’ and expresses the essence of London rivalries, by showing the celebration of London's multicultural heritage – showing a montage of shots from Brazilian barbers, American dinner and the Indian restaurants – all eyes worldwide focused on the club. Three valuable Chelsea’s players are stars of the video: Willian, Christian Pulisic and Jorginho. Besides, fans are making jokes about rivals, there are debates among fans in different languages across the world about the greatest Chelsea’s players of all time. Moreover, the video presents derbies in the past and in the present etc. Besides Facebook, the video has been launched to other platforms such as Instagram, Youtube and Twitter. The video represents one in the series of Chelsea’s brand videos, made in order to accomplish buzz-building campaign aimed to grow international fan base (Drum, 2019). The video gained around 13 thousand likes, 511 comments and 904 shares, and can also be found under hashtag #ThePrideOfLondon, on Facebook (Facebook, 2019).
Video as the argument might be in the fact that video posts are the second most popular form of content on Facebook among the best teams in England (after photos). Facebook origin videos are receiving 530% more comments than videos which are shared from Youtube to Facebook. One of the leaders in making Facebook videos is Manchester City, one of the best and richest sports businesses in the world. The Premier League, which is an ultimate sports goal for Fulham FC to reach again this season, is the most popular football league in the world and a marketing phenomenon worldwide. All football clubs that participate in it have fans across the world (Herrmann, 2018). Thus, Fulham FC’s marketers certainly have to take into account the practices of the best clubs in England and set the campaign which basis of
61 strategy and tactics would serve for campaigns when they would find themselves competing in The Premier League.
Facebook offers the option which enables Live Video, which means that the engagement to the post is even more interactive. During monitored period, there was no content within Live Video shown from the Fulham FC’s side. This is something that has to be considered, since Fulham did not post Live Videos even when they were part of Premier League back to the 2018, and they were among only three clubs in the whole League that did not use Live Videos that year (Herrmann, 2018).
By analyzing direct rivals as well as the rivals based on talent/player acquisition, regardless the fact some of them are inferior compared to Fulham from the aspect of number of fans on Facebook, it is realized that Fulham FC can be inspired by all of them, when it comes to the certain points which are described below. Data is extracted by Social Bakers, which is social media analytics tool.
During chosen period (April 19th until May 19th, 2020) Brentford, which is both traditional and direct rival, and with significantly less likes than Fulham on Facebook, has much more Page Posts.
Figure 16. Page Posts Fulham (purple) vs. Brentford (red) (source: Social Bakers, 2020)
Next parameter determines number of interactions per 1000 fans, which in this case shows not a huge difference between two clubs. Fulham is slightly better, however, the difference in number of likes of official Pages indicates a logic that if Brentford would have similar number of fans of Facebook, they would be more successful in growing interactions.
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Figure 17. Number of interactions Fulham (purple) vs. Brentford (red) (source: Social Bakers, 2020)
Thirdly, as an example of the best content in the chosen period, two posts, one from each club, are compared within the previously mentioned parameters.
Figure 18. Best content comparison (source: Social Bakers, 2020)
Fulham’s post represents photo of the starting eleven from the Europa League Final match, (the second major European competition after the Champions League) that is followed by the 63 inspirational text. It belongs to the one of the coding categories – Former Heroes that is analyzed in the Content Analysis. Brentford’s posts represent a virtual score from an E-sports virtual game, that is followed by the text which shows a virtual performance of an individual player. As it can be seen there is more interaction on a Fulham’s side, but interaction per 1000 fans is more at Brentford’s.
In overall, it seems that Brentford by increasing the number of posts is putting much more effort on raising interactions and engagement than Fulham. While Fulham, in the other side, as a club that is highly recognized over the Great Britain borders has a huge gap in its Facebook activities regarding intensity of posting. Thus, the Fulham FC definitely is not maximizing its marketing potential.
Leeds United, as direct rival, even though currently playing in second ranked competition, is one of the most famous clubs in England and in all over the world. However, comparing the number of fans on Facebook, Fulham FC is more successful. That does not mean, Fulham FC does not need to observe stats from the Leeds United official Page, since there are points where Leeds is more successful. Leeds United, as a direct rival, has around 583 thousand likes of Facebook.
During chosen period (April 19th until May 19th, 2020) Leeds United has much more Page Posts. So, the same situation like with the Brentford.
Figure 19. Page Posts Fulham (purple) vs. Leeds United (red) (source: Social Bakers, 2020)
Next is the parameter that determines the number of interactions per 1000 fans. This comparison shows that in each subcategory, Leeds United has better score, and the difference is significantly large. It might be also a reflection of a larger number of posts.
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Figure 20. Number of interactions Fulham (purple) vs. Leeds United (red) (source: Social Bakers, 2020) Thirdly, individual best two posts are compared, one from each club, within the previously mentioned parameters.
Figure 21. Best content comparison (source: Social Bakers, 2020)
As for the Fulham FC, the best post during the chosen period has been described in the previous comparison. Regarding Leeds United, the post is about the legendary player, where the part of the stadium is named after him, so now there are two posts within the same category from the content analysis – Former Heroes. In each parameter, Leeds has much more interactions.
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In overall, Fulham FC has less page posts than Leeds United. This indicates that Fulham is not maximizing its social media potential on Facebook, which can even be covered with the fact that Fulham has almost 300 thousand more followers on Facebook than Leeds United.
4.4.3 Fulham FC Foundation and Fulhamish
It is of a big importance to analyze Fulham FC’s non official Pages as well, since those Pages are also indicators of what is the intensity and nature of communication between the club and the fans. Moreover, obviously fans are creators of non-official Pages, but that does not have to be the rule. That is the reason for analysis of two Pages – Fulham FC Foundation (managed by club’s foundation organization) and Fulhamish (managed by fans/enthusiasts).
Fulham Football Club Foundation as a leading community charity organization (according the text of the charity – see footnote No. 20), provides more quality life through sport. The focus of its programme is education, employability, health, inclusion, environmental, and sport programmes20. The Page on Facebook is named the same – Fulham FC Foundation.
The most interesting fact is that on the main Page of Fulham FC Foundation there is a tab Reviews. It might be a better idea - as it is already mentioned - this tab to be on the official Page. This page has around 4 thousand followers and only 5 reviews which is not strong indicator. Putting it on the official Page might offer a chance for a feedback from a wider range of auditorium. Moreover, tab Fundraisers appears on this Page as well. This sounds like a good idea, however, putting this tab on the official Page as well, and linking to this Page within the tab might create stronger link between Foundation and the fans. This could lead to a higher number of interactions within both Pages. General impression is that no significant activity on Facebook is present, in order to engage people, even though Fulham claims that they are leaders in its community and environmental duties.
Fulhamish represents a podcast of an informal nature and fans view of all activities and events that are related to the Fulham FC. On a weekly basis Fulham fans are offering their match analysis of Fulham matches and there is a discussion in regards with all other current news and even rumours, as well. Furthermore, they give answers to the questions of other fans.21 This podcast has its own Facebook Page. Most important thing is that tab Reviews is present. Five reviews are shown, and like in previously mentioned Page, this is not a valuable
20 https://www.fulhamfc.com/fulham-fc-foundation 21 https://www.facebook.com/pg/Fulhamish/about/?ref=page_internal 66 indicator. The Page is followed by only around 1,5 thousand fans. The suggestion would be the same like with the previously mentioned Page - putting the tab Reviews on the official Page might offer a chance for an engagement and feedback from a wider range of auditorium. What is more, this Page is not Liked on Facebook by the official Page of Fulham FC. Since this podcast is very interactive, Fulham FC needs to create a stronger community link on Facebook by promoting Fulhamish and its presence on Facebook. Fulham FC through their official Page can do it by liking Fulhamish on Facebook, promoting it by posts, and by making a link to the Page through the Community tab.
All five reviews show that fans are delighted by the podcast, recommending it by 5 stars which is maximum. It also shows that fans are highly interested about club’s insights. However, it is not an indicator, because of the mentioned reasons, but promoting the Page on the official Page might rapidly increase interactions and engagement.
Next subsection summarizes results from all methods, through the Porter’s Five, which should serve as a supportive tool for the Social Media Campaign suggestion.
4.5 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
In order to frame the wider context of the questionnaire, content analysis and the current competitive environment that surrounds Fulham FC (section about the Rivals), Porter’s Five Forces analysis has been utilized, aimed to deliver some key elements valuable for the campaign. Adjusted from Porter (1980), football industry shows its own framework in the terms of Five Forces (Rossi et al. 2013):
1. Competition is a category which implies rivalry between football clubs within national or international level, and when it comes to the player acquisition (transfer). 2. New entry teams with repositioning of their business objectives (e.g. when enter the next level of competition). 3. Substitute products related to other professional sports or industries. 4. Buyers are fans or supporters. Characterized as a social phenomenon which is different than ‘regular’ consumers, since football fans have no power to influence the business and the whole industry because of their very small desire to crack down on the favorite club in case of a continuous bad results. This phenomenon could be found
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in the Experience Marketing where the emotional bondage between customer and product which differs than the conventional bondage (Same, Larimo, 2012). 5. Suppliers are classified in two categories: i. technical/economic suppliers - maintenance of stadium, sports equipment, sponsorships, TV coverage… ii. performance suppliers – players.
Following the same framework, next is to explain how Fulham FC and its surroundings fits to it.
In case of Fulham, Competition is established on several levels:
i. Traditional rivals such as Chelsea FC and Brentford, ii. Divisional rivals, for the promotion into a higher competition, which are in this case: Leeds United, West Bromwich Albion, Brentford and Nottingham Forest and Preston North End (according to the current table standings22) iii. Rivals with the similar budget aimed for a player/talent acquisition, are Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion, where they share first three places according to the current market value of the whole team23
Table 10. Teams’ current value (source: Transfermarkt, 2020)
As for the Social Media, there are several clubs that can be related to the Fulham FC, as their competitors. As it can be seen from the table, two traditional clubs Chelsea and Brentford are in extreme distance in comparison with Fulham. Direct rival West Bromwich Albion has similar number of followers. Firstly, Chelsea has much more followers and the reason might be in the fact that Chelsea is an international brand. Brentford with lower number of followers explain the same logic, but the reason might probably be found in the fact the club is a local brand. West Bromwich Albion has the same character like Fulham, it is known in a world,
22 https://www.efl.com/clubs-and-competitions/sky-bet-championship/league-table/ 23 https://www.transfermarkt.com/championship/marktwerteverein/wettbewerb/GB2 68 however speaking in the marketing terms, as a brand, both clubs are well recognized in their cities and nationally.
Table 11. Social Platforms’ Total Number of Followers (source: Sportlens, 2019)
Barriers for entry has lower significance from the marketing point of view. In other words, usually these clubs are smaller teams and the barriers to entry and be able to compete are high, from technical, economic and financial aspect (Rossi et al. 2013). Following this premise, in case of Fulham FC, these teams are the ones that are promoted to the Championship, in the season 2019/2020, and in regard to Social Media, the ones that has significantly lower reach of followers on Facebook – such as Brentfod which is rival on the pitch for the promotion into the Premier League.
Due to a high faithfulness of customers (fans) when it comes to the football as a sport, and to the specific club, Substitute products do not represent a threat (Rossi et al. 2013). The same counts for Fulham FC, since the social media is actually a strict example of this premise, because people follow the Pages according to their preferences in the sense of which sports they are passionate with.
Buyer power - in the context of football industry, fans are perceived as a social phenomenon being different than ‘regular’ consumers, which means, for example, in case of bad results on the pitch, they are not willing to constrain their favourite clubs with their purchase decisions. Condition is - no power or very small power over both football industry and specific club (as a business). There is a presence of inelastic demand to a price (Rossi et al. 2013). However, in the case of social media, voice of the fans can be very important indicator for a potential tactics in the social media marketing campaigns, which is one of the implications of survey and content analysis. Fans are at least able to criticize online. Moreover, any kind of critique or better said feedback is valuable data for the club, for shaping its campaign. Whether it is bad or good critique, it still counts as an interaction. This counts for Fulham FC, too. Besides critics, fans are able to do many other things online such as petitions, live streams, different kinds of votes (by creating a pool) etc.
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Suppliers power - assumes two categories with different levels of the bargaining power. Technical suppliers have very low power, but sponsorship and TV coverage have high power. The biggest commercial potentials are actually players and they have a very high power (Rossi et al. 2013). Online survey conducted for the purposes of this thesis shows that merchandise from sponsors are relatively low, and that interactions are with similar conditions according to the content analysis. This is a clear must for Fulham FC to do more effort in this area. When it comes to players, one of the examples is shown in the content analysis where one player can make a huge difference when it comes to the amount of interactions online if he is popular among buyers – Aleksandar Mitrovic, the Fulham’s striker and posts related to his profile and appearances.
4.6 Social Media Campaign
In this section, all results are summarized and used through forming a valuable Social Media Campaign on Facebook, for the Fulham FC. At the same time this whole section tries to answer to the last research question.
Before determining the content of the campaign, there is a need to set up the framework by defining the following tasks:
1. Goals - In accordance with the business statement there are business goals, where club’s statement clearly reveals attention to personal service which is the core of the club’s corporate values, as they are aimed to impress by their authentic approach to a personal service. Certainly, the significant part of this goal is to deliver the results, which always means wins on the pitch and tendency to compete with the best clubs in England, i.e. to strive to be part of the Premier League, which is not only one of the best leagues in the world, but also a marketing phenomenon (Fulhamfc.com, 2020). Secondly, social responsibility of the club is reflected through a Foundation commitment that states importance of ‘wellbeing and safety of all children and young people who are under the Club’s care or utilising the Club’s facilities. It is the duty of all adults working at the Club to safeguard the welfare of children and young people by creating an environment that protects them from harm’24 In order to comply with these goals, Fulham FC needs to accomplish a key goal on Facebook - to increase fan
24 Citation retrieved from: https://www.fulhamfc.com/help/faq/policies 70
engagement and interactions. That means to optimize its Facebook Page, to promote non-official Page and to create a strong community link with the fans of the non- official Page Fulhamish as well as to promote its Foundation Page. In regard to this goal, the author proposed a Campaign which implies the main objectives of the campaign – optimizing brand awareness, community engagement and fan satisfaction. 2. Target audience has been chosen in accordance with the responses from the online survey, so the author would suggest both groups – England and the Rest of the World, however aged 27-34 as target age. This does not mean the campaign will not apply for the rest of age groups. The reason the first one is chosen is simply because the survey shows the most respondents are in between that age. 3. Social Media platform that is chosen for this campaign is the Facebook, which is one of the most popular online networking sites, with the highest amount of accounts created. 4. Resources need to be aligned with the budget that is set by a corporate level (see in Limitations). 5. Policies of the campaign should be in comply with both club’s policies and Facebook policies, rules and ethical norms, in general. Additionally, all information that is intended to be taken from users, needs to be done with the users’ permission and in accordance with the GDPR. 6. Monitoring and measurement of the campaign should be based on the KPI (Key Performance Indicators). Those ones are classified in the terms of three objectives:
i. Brand awareness – increasing traffic, ii. Community engagement – Facebook followers and number of likes of the Page, iii. Fan satisfaction – complaints, recommendations.
All terms can be split into a wider context – offered by Facebook Insights through a 7 tabs
Overview of likes, reach and engagement, Likes (Unlikes), Reach, Visits, Posts (comparison of Reach and Engagement),
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Videos (Highlights of Top Videos and Time of Views), People (details about demographics of followers).
Each of these tabs are supposed to be measured within the following metrics, in real time, in order to make adjustments if needed:
10. Status, 11. Bid, 12. Type (Cost per Click or Cost per Thousand Impressions) 13. Clicks, 14. Impressions, 15. Click Through Rate, 16. Average Cost per Click (CPC), 17. Average Cost per Thousand Impression (CPM), 18. Amount Spent.
Even though target audience is set by ‘default’ to the people aged between 27 and 34, based on the results from the survey, it is stated that this does not mean other age groups will not be attracted to the content. It is strongly suggested to use both Responder Demographic and Responder profiles reports, to support the need of changes while the campaign is still in progress.
Monitoring and measurement through a KPI’s is supposed to be done on a daily, weekly and monthly basis (first month monitoring, after second month evaluation).
7. Time for the Campaign should start approximately from 12th of July 2020 and finish before the start of both EFL Championship and the Premier League, which is on 12th of September 2020. Eventual Playoffs start on 29th of July and ends on 4th of August. Fulham’s fixtures are three more matches of the regular season, before the Playoffs start.
The Campaign
In accordance with the previously mentioned tasks, this part is introducing the Campaign content. On the first place, there is a need for optimizing the Page.
The official Page of the club is supposed to incorporate:
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1. Review tab for allowing grades, comments and recommendations considering the Page. 2. Groups tab for linking to a non-official Pages that are supportive to Fulham FC – Fulhamish activities. 3. Fundraisers for linking to a Fulham FC Foundation activities. 4. Blue Badge which proves the authenticity of the business, needs to be put after the name of the official Page. 5. Use App to be put instead of Shop Now since path to merchandise already exists within the Shop tab. This link button links to the website where you can download the app for EFL, which gives information on results, fixtures and all other relevant statistics regarding the Championship. Next to this Link button, also importance of Send message button which links to the opened Messenger Chat, which offers to fans to ask questions.
Fulhamish needs to be promoted on the official Page. This group is led by fans. The club does not manage the Page. Promotion by Liking the Page, sharing its content on the official club’s Page, followed by appropriate text which represent a call to support the Page. This empowers Q&A, voice of the fans and increase interactions of the official Page. When it comes to Fulham FC Foundation Page, it is managed by the club. In this case, optimizing this Page should pay attention to the Reviews tab. It can stay there, but to be monitored if the reviews are increasing after linking from the official Page or no. If there is no change in increases, there is no need for this tab to stay there. Sharing its content on the official Page is important. In order to underline previously mentioned – this is one way to increase Page posts which was also recommended by the analysis, and it empowers Q&A, voice of the fans, thus increase interactions and engagement of the official Page.
Social Content is the next thing that should be clarified. All Social Content should be used, but some of them as Facebook origin, some of them as promoted and shared from another websites on official Page:
1. Photos (both Facebook and shared); 2. Videos (both Facebook and shared); 3. Blogs (shared); 4. Podcast (shared) – Fulhamish Page Content primarily.
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The author suggests to include Live Stream from Matches too, as a new way of interactive communication with the audience.
Following the previously stated, next is to organize activities through the coding categories. What needs to be incorporated is shown below in the Table 12.
Match Day Pre-match post, During match post in the form of video with highlights, after match result post and video with full highlights, Live stream from Fulhamish Page Individual Player Segment Most popular players, on the first place Aleksandar Mitrovic and his statistics after match Man of the Match Always post the content if any of Fulham’s player wins his award Former Heroes Team’s past successes and historical matches Transfers and Contracts Photos with information not only about Fulham, but about the whole transfer market activities in Europe and World, include rumours from Fulhamish Page Q&A Create pools, enable petitions, live stream not only during matches, be very responsive within Messenger, cooperation with bloggers, organize contest posts Merchandise Make links in the Shop tab, and promote it on the main Page, by making photos and videos, partnership paid ads with sponsors and allies (Adidas, promoting team kit and sleeves, mostly red away shirts Community Support for minorities, promote Fulham FC Foundation on the main Page, use culture from various countries that players are coming from Supporters Items Boobleheads (most popular players) Video Facebook origin videos, based on momentum within the time of campaign – playoff for entering the Premier League, and euphoria caused by it (sponsored, non-sponsored) Other Change of cover photo every week, birthday wishes Table 12. Activities by codes
Facebook Video Ads – in order to round out the whole campaign, it is necessary to use motivation based on momentum. Momentum is reflected through the euphoria within Playoffs and the rest of the league matches for reaching the Premier League. Video campaign has to be
74 divided in two categories. One is for England fans and the another one is for Rest of the World.
The campaign for English fans delivers the next videos: 1. Based on the analysis the author suggests the video content that includes: Reminding on the moment when relegated last season in order to show the difference between the Fulham’s situation last year and the current situation, i.e to emphasize the results made through the season which changed the situation, Individual player segment – using Aleksandar Mitrovic and highlights of his goals through the whole season, Individual player segment – using Aleksandar Mitrovic in a red away kit for saying the sentence which also could follow the video in the form of hashtag – the text that invites fans for the support in Fulham’s tendencies to be promoted Using red background at the end of the video, with the same sentence as hasthag – the analysis implies the significance of red colour in football marketing.
2. As for the second video the following content is suggested: Former Heroes - Past team’s success in the seasons between 2000 and 2002. More concrete: promotion to the Premier League, FA Cup Semifinals, Intertoto Cup qualifications (European competition) Former Heroes – most valuable players from that time - Edwin van der Sar, Steve Marlet, Steve Finnan and Louis Saha and highlights team performances with these players involved. Individual player segment – using Aleksandar Mitrovic in a red away kit for saying the sentences which also could follow the video in the form of two hashtags – the text that invites fans for the support of Fulham in Playoffs fixtures and the text that invites fans for the support in Fulham’s tendencies to be promoted to the Premier League,
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Using red background at the end of the video, with the same sentences as hashtags – the analysis implies the significance of red colour in football marketing.
The first video needs to be posted while the League matches are still ongoing. And to be posted every time before the match. In case Fulham FC would not qualify directly to The Premier League, the both first and second video should be posted before the Playoffs start. Both videos should be visible for both English fans and the Rest of the World, however the point is that the aim of videos are to engage mostly English fans.
The video that will try to engage fans from the Rest of the World, and also with the goal of attracting neutral fans is following:
1. The video is based on a derby content - highlights of London derbies in the past, more concrete Fulham matches against Arsenal, Chelsea and Totenham which are one of the most popular and successful clubs in the World, while supportive content is: Individual Player Segment - Aleksandar Mitrovic in a red (away) kit, sharing his experiences in playing in the best derby in the world – Partizan vs. Red Star (Belgrade derby). Individual Player Segment - Mitrovic’s highlights while he was playing for Partizan Belgrade, his experiences in playing The Premier League in the past, with the highlights of all of his goals in The Premier League. Individual player segment – using Aleksandar Mitrovic in a red away kit for saying the sentence which also could follow the video in the form of hashtag – the text that invites fans for the support in Fulham’s tendencies to be promoted, Using red background at the end of the video, with the same sentence as hashtag – the analysis implies the significance of red colour in football marketing.
This video should follow all of the matches in the League, and should continue if Fulham would play Playoffs.
In the end, in case Fulham will not reach The Premier League, the club should continue to do all activities written in this Campaign, based on optimizing the Page and Social content where Transfers and Contracts should be priority. The Transfer Market is open now, until the new season will start. During those periods, in Europe and whole World, transfers from one to another club, and transfer rumours are always highly in the focus of football public. 76
Why the campaign could be valuable for the club’s benefits?
In the absence of financial metrics, data that has to be collected and analyzed in order to create budgeting for the campaign, the author suggests the campaign based on examples of what could be the possible benefits on the relation Facebook impressions and a revenue.
With the example of Norwich city (currently playing in the Premier League) it is shown that momentum and popular player could be a key factors that could generate engagement based on which the Campaign should be made. Thus, the Campaign then, is aimed to transfer the ‘value’ of impressions (engagement) to the revenue (Selesti, 2020). Namely, Norwich City made a sponsored campaign based on two events (Selesti, 2020):
1. Stricly Come Dancing – dancing show, where the popular ex-player Robbie Savage is main star. The post is with his picture and with the text calling people to join the event. 2. An Evening of a Queen – event that promotes performance of the former members of We will rock you musical. The post is photo which shows information of the event (the date and time) which is followed by the text of calling to purchase the tickets.
Momentum was important since these events are something that is important for people in the area where the club is popular. Also, besides fans of Norwich, fans from former clubs that Savage was playing for were engaged. The results showed 250% gained on ROI, with the 66% of budget saved (1/3 of estimated budget spent) based on more than 14k impressions generated. Time for this achievement lasted for just two weeks, and two weeks before the end of the estimated time. According to the Google Analytics, every 1 pound spent on the campaign delivered 2.5 pounds in the revenue. (Selesti, 2020).
Campaign for the Fulham FC took ‘knowledge’ from this evaluation, while preparing the Campaign. Additionally, Premier League is a dream of every club in England. Fulham has the chance to win the promotion. Momentum is there. When it comes to popular players, image of a football player is a factor that can generate profit by in case of its transfer and indirectly by selling his image sports club’s products (Bolesław, Perechuda, Chynal, 2014). Aleksandar Mitrovic is the most popular player in the club, which is confirmed by the analysis. He is not interesting only for Fulham fans, since he played for Partizan and Newcastle. Neutral fans from Serbia who like him are also potential fans that could engage. The song about him, made in England, is popular among all football fans in England and even broader. This campaign is a suggestion for not only generating the revenue, but also for saving a budget, which is
77 extremely important nowadays, especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic, that will, for sure, lead the world in to a new economic crisis. Moreover, saving budget is something that is a core of Social Media world.
In regard to the task Resources in the means of finance and budgeting, those ones are not in the focus of this theses. The campaign is based on the research that implies analysis of the online content. However, the reason also lies in the fact there is no available metrics (gained from the club) that could be used in making such constructions. (see more in Limitations subsection).
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5 CONCLUSION
The vast majority of businesses are using Social Media nowadays with an aim to engage with their customers and promote their products and services. Thus, usage of Social Media implies a significant influence on companies’ brands, i.e. Social Media can improve products and services of companies in many different ways as well as the quality of customer relationship (Kemal, 2019). However, Social Media Campaign success depends on knowledge, but channeled through an adequate strategy and tools that Social Media offers.
With the aim to answer to the first research question RQ1 - How do fans interact with clubs in the English best two leagues, on Social Media? – general finding from the online survey is that fans mostly prefer Facebook. This finding is strongly supportive for the fact that Facebook has been chosen as the most suitable social media platform for developing the Campaign.
Secondly, certain trends can be stated. The vast majority of respondents are males aged between 27 and 34. Only 21.8% is from England, while 78.2% is from abroad. When combine this finding with the fact that Fulham FC is the most popular club in the EFL Championship and ranked as the third most popular club in London (according to the survey) it can be stated that Fulham FC is fairly suitable for developing Facebook Campaign with the aim of attracting international fans and neutral fans.
Thirdly, there is a clear difference between the Premier League and EFL Championship when it comes to the popularity. Most of the respondents stated that they prefer more Premier League than EFL Championship (82.2%). The Campaign part of the thesis has tried to use the fact that Fulham is highly ranked in the league and competes for the direct promotion to The Premier League, in order to transfer this momentum into a higher amount of interactions.
As for the fans’ perception and experience on club within Social Media, survey shows that respondents are not influenced by the stories which should cause emotional reactions, however they are willing to discuss different football topics. This does not have to be true, since maybe the content that should cause emotional reactions is not of a sufficient quality. The proposed Campaign has incorporated user-generated content, and also suggested the emotional content improvement, to cover both directions. Moreover, answers made a confusion when people claimed that Pages give them something to talk about, but they are not ready to discuss it. It sounds contradictory, but it might be that lots of people often skip to
79 post content in public, online, to avoid an exposure which might make them feel uncomfortable. Furthermore, users consider other visitors to be knowledgeable about topics offered on the Pages, so the thesis offered a solution that more posts from fans needs to be posted where the idea was to listen to the voice of fans from the non-official group Fulhamish and promote the content.
As for the brand image, survey results show that most of the people are passionate about their favorite clubs. However, all football fans that are following their favorite clubs on Social Media will declare to which club they support and like, but in the context of Social Media it is a static category. Campaign was aimed to offer solution which could transform fans’ passion into a higher amount of engagement. In the case of brand loyalty, results show that most of the respondents answered negatively the question if they think their favorite clubs are the only from which they will buy products and services. Idea for the Campaign was to do more on empowering the loyalty of their fans in the terms of purchase. The author is aware that the purchase is not driven only by loyal fans, so the Campaign incorporated content which might attract neutral fans. Moreover, empowering the brand loyalty of products and services can be based on the results which show that respondents mostly agree that the club contributes to their image.
Even though it is clear that fans would buy tickets to see the match where their favorite club is involved, results from the survey also show that fans mostly disagree with the question if they would purchase any item offered by the sponsors. It could not even be driven by sponsors’ ads since content analysis shows that there was a huge lack of such activities.
Content analysis has been conducted with an aim to find the answers to the three research questions. As for the RQ2 - How does Fulham FC address fan interactions on their Page? - content analysis extracts findings from the official Facebook Page of the Fulham FC.
The most important thing is that most of the interactions on the Facebook page is during Match Day. On the other side there is no interaction with the fans on social media during the match. Besides his admiration of football and the club, this finding strongly supports the reason why the author has chosen Fulham FC for the purposes of the whole research. Logically, this has to be changed so the Campaign suggested activity during match in the form of video on a half time with highlights on the first place.
Fulham FC is active when promoting posts which are categorized as Individual player segment. The most frequent and successful choice is Aleksandar Mitrovic. This decision is
80 made based also on the success of the player, since he won the most Man of the Match awards. Along with post in the form of the picture, during monitored period Fulham created a special ‘thank you’ video for the Serbian striker. The Campaign is intended to follow and enrich this practice. Furthermore, content analysis shows that Former Heroes category did not make any significant success but also not much of activity was done in that field. Swiss International Phillipe Senderos announced his retirement on the 16th December. The consequent post only received 193 likes. The Thanksgiving post that involved former American stars as Clint Dempsey and Brian McBride, only got 490 likes. On the other side, the content that includes team’s past success is attractive for Fulham fans. A video about the victory against Italian Juventus FC, in 2009 that was proclaimed as the “biggest achievement of the decade”, received 1130 likes. The Campaign intends to follow this practice.
Transfers and Contracts category shows significant results in the terms of engagement to one post but there is a lack of further activity to maximize this category. At the end of November 2019, Fulham FC announced the contract extension of two players - Aboubakar Kamara and Kevin McDonald with a good response. This is extremely important to promote, especially when transfer periods are ongoing, which is suggested by the Campaign.
Questions and Answers category was not used during this period, while survey shows that these forms of content are very welcomed on the Page, so the author suggested more interactive content in the Campaign.
As for the Merchandise two most important findings emerged from content analysis. Firstly, during monitored period, none of the Fulham FC related products were promoted on Facebook, and the survey shows that respondents are likely to buy it. This gap implied the possible solution through the Campaign. Secondly, from all the sponsors for the 2019/2020 season, the only company that promoted merchandise on the Facebook page was “Walk London”, while survey supported this lack of activity when it comes to sponsors since fans responded with lack of interest by stating they are not likely to buy items offered by sponsors. The author tried to suggest more sponsors Ads, since ‘Walk London’ is not the only one25 (according to the relevant source – see footnote No. 25). Additionally, there were no Ads during monitored period.
Community, as the analysis shows, is very important for the club. The most successful content was a post of the Crest of Fulham FC covered in the Rainbow flag, to show solidarity with the
25 https://www.fulhamfc.com/sponsorship 81
LGTBQ Community. On the other side, all other attempts were not successful. Content analysis shows weak connection between official Page and non-official Page (Fulham FC Foundation), and findings show a need to do a better promotion of this non-official Page.
As for the Supporters Items just one post involved pre-Christmas interaction between certain players and a few kids which also implies that Fulham FC does not engage enough with their fans on Facebook. Videos did not show success. Taking into consideration that the attempts during match days were more successful with individual players, the Campaign tries to contribute within a more creative content. The argument might be in the fact that Chelsea’s video as a part of buzz-building campaign received impressive amount of interactions. Furthermore, analysis shows that Facebook origin videos are very popular among fans. Other assumes trend that Fulham FC often changes its cover photo and results show that fans do engage often with this activity.
In regard to the RQ3 - What are the successful rivals’ practices on Facebook that Fulham can emulate and use? – general conclusion is that Fulham FC is missing some of the important features of the main Page. This fact also strongly supports the reason why the author has chosen Fulham FC for the Campaign. Chelsea FC is the club with one of the biggest fan bases in the world, so on the first place, its official Page has been compared with Fulham’s and several things has been founded. Features like Reviews, Groups and Fundraisers are missing on the Fulham’s Page. Besides that, Blue Badge is missing next to the name of the Page, which confirms authenticity of the brand. Additionally, it has been found that Chelsea has a link button Use App on its main Page, which is suggested for the Fulham to use in order to promote the Application they have developed. On the Chelsea’s Official Page, there is a significant proportion of the content posted in the form of videos. Different occasions are described, so it means not only a match related video are used but also a variety of other events such as: past successes, individual player involved in some past matches, external campaigns with sponsors, paid partnership videos with the sponsors (Nike) etc. Chelsea has launched one video as the part of the ‘Pride of London’ which involves two derbies in London in order to bring closer the fans to the game and to contribute in growing the international fan base over the world. This video has received around 13 thousand likes, 511 comments and 904 shares, which might serve as a great example of what kind of content can be used for the Fulham FC.
Chelsea FC has supportive, non-official Page called Chelsea Football Club News. The analysis shows that Reviews are incorporated even to this Page, with the Link Button – Send 82
Email which links to the application where the inquiry about whatever fans are interested in can be created and sent. This finding is aimed to suggest to Fulham to put at least link button Send message, since it directs to a Messenger chat and direct conversation with the Page editors, and can create a higher volume of engagement and interactions.
By analyzing divisional rivals during chosen period (April 19th until May 19th, 2020), Brentford, which is both traditional and divisional rival, and with significantly less followers than Fulham on Facebook, has much more Page Posts. Fulham is better when analyzing interactions, however, if Brentford would have similar number of fans of Facebook, they would be more successful in growing interactions, because they have more Facebook activities than Fulham. Similarly, Leeds United has less followers on Facebook and more Page Posts, but also much more interactions than Fulham (within the same period). It has been concluded, according both examples, that Fulham is not maximizing its social media potential on Facebook. Again, this is one more reason to support the reason why author has chosen Fulham for developing the Campaign.
In regard to the RQ4 - What is the content from two non-official Pages that can be used for empowering the engagement? – answers are through the findings of two non-official Facebook Pages – Fulham FC Foundation and Fulhamish.
As for the Fulham FC Foundation, general conclusion is that there is no significant activity on Facebook in order to engage people, which is opposite to the Fulham’s claims that they are leaders in its community and environmental duties. Maybe they are, but through a Social Media perspective they are not showing it. But what might be done, is to distribute Reviews and Fundraisers features to the official Page and to share Fulham FC Foundation posts by official Page, in order to increase engagement and interactions.
Fulhamish is a Facebook Page that is managed by fans. This Page is not Liked on Facebook by the official Page of Fulham FC. Main suggestion is to create a stronger community link on Facebook by promoting Fulhamish and its presence on Facebook, since the analysis has been found this podcast is very interactive. Fulham FC through their official Page can do it by liking Fulhamish on Facebook, promoting it by posts etc.
According to the whole analysis, more concrete, results and findings, the Campaign has been suggested, so the answer to the last research question RQ5 - According to the previous questions, what are the things that can be applied into the Facebook Campaign for the Fulham FC? – is imagined to be given in the form of a Campaign. Based on the findings from
83 the analysis, the author’s biggest impression is that motivational content created with the momentum as a background might be a key for developing a valuable Campaign. On the other side, players as stars, especially those ones who are most popular among fans are always a good choice when trying to determine subjects of a content.
5.1 Limitations and Future Studies
Regarding the online survey that has been conducted, small number of respondents has limited the results and made the findings to be narrower. As for the content analysis, main factor that has made obstacles for the validity of findings is that no interaction has been made with the club. This means that there are no insights gained, including one of the most important metrics - financial metrics aimed to construct budget and calculate ROI for the Campaign. Additionally, there was no access to any information from the Facebook editors of the analysed Pages about the usage of Facebook Analytics. The author has tried to contact the club by sending emails to the official website, sending notes to the club’s social media managers through LinkedIn, as well as by sending a message through the official Facebook Page of the club. Every message was with no answer.
Accordingly, the future research should be based on two things. Firstly, the survey has to include larger number of respondents, and to try to engage participants to refer the research to the other people. Method that can follow such direction has been already mentioned in the Methodology part – snowball sampling. Secondly, as a part of the content analysis, the distinction between mobile app and PC might be distinguished, so the nature of engagement and interactions can be analysed from more perspectives. Additionally, based on the obstacles in the content analysis the author suggests stronger cooperation between businesses and the researchers so both the organization and science can benefit.
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Kemal, M. (2019): Impact of social media on society. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333671238_Impact_of_social_media_on_society
Footnotes:
European Football Clubs and Social Media – Survey. Available at: https://fr.surveymonkey.com/r/football-social-media, accessed on 19/12/2019
Introduction to Data Analysis Handbook (2006): Migrant & Seasonal Head Start Technical Assistance Center. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED536788.pdf, accessed on 20/11/2019
Social Media (2019). available at: 91 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media, accessed on 15/11/2019
Kaplan, A.M. (2015): Social Media, the Digital Revolution, and the Business of Media. International Journal on Media Management, 17:4, 197-199, DOI: 10.1080/14241277.2015.1120014. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14241277.2015.1120014, accessed on 16/11/2019.
Zeng, D., Chen, H., Lusch, R., Li, S.H. (2010): Social Media Analytics and Intelligence. IEEE Intelligent Systems.Volume: 25. Issue: 6. 2010. Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5678581, accessed on 10/7/2020.
Howard, P.N., Parks, M.R. (2012): Social Media and Political Change: Capacity, Constraint, and Consequence. Journal of Communication, Volume 62, Issue 2, April 2012, pp. 359–362. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/joc/article-abstract/62/2/359/4085822?redirectedFrom=fulltex, accessed on 18/11/2019
Wordpress (2019). Introduction to blogging, available at: https://wordpress.org/support/article/introduction-to-blogging/#what-is-a-blog, accessed on 24/11/2019.
Cambridge University Press (2019), Cambridge Dictionary, available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/campaign, accessed on 25/11/2019.
English Football League, available at: https://www.efl.com/, accessed on 14/12/2019.
Facebook Insights, Available at: https://www.facebook.com/help/794890670645072/?helpref=hc_fnav, accessed on 24/11/2019.
Fulham FC. Available at: https://www.fulhamfc.com/, accessed on 24/10/2019.
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Berkowitz, D. (2009): 100 Ways To Measure Social Media. Available at: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/117581/100-ways-to-measure-social- media.html, accessed on 20/11/2019
Fisher, T. (2009): ROI in social media. A look at the arguments. Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management. Volume 16. pp 189–195. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/dbm.2009.16, accessed on 27/11/2019.
Premier League (2019): Available at: www.premierleague.com, accessed on 14/12/2019.
Reddy, K. (2016): Infographic importance Social Media Sport. Available at: http://promoovertime.com/infographic-importance-social-media-sports/, accessed on 25/11/2019.
Sky Sports, available at: https://www.skysports.com/championship-table, accessed on 02/01/2020.
Official Page of Fulham FC. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/FulhamFC/, Accessed on 24/10/2019.
Page of Fulham FC Foundation. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/FulhamFC/, accessed on 15/03/2020.
Fulhamish Page. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Fulhamish/about/?ref=page_internal, accessed on 15/03/2020.
Zamfir, M., Manea, M.D., Ionescu, L. (2016): Return On Investment – Indicator for Measuring the Profitability of Invested Capital. Valahian Journal of Economic Studies. Volume 0 (0). Issue 0.2016 . Available online at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309516326_Return_On_Investment_- _Indicator_for_Measuring_the_Profitability_of_Invested_Capital , accessed on 22/07/2020.
Sponsors for the season 2019/2020, available at: https://www.fulhamfc.com/sponsorship, accessed on 19/12/2020
Championship Table, for the season 2019/2020, available at:
93 https://www.efl.com/clubs-and-competitions/sky-bet-championship/league-table/, accessed on 22/7/2020.
Overall market value change in all clubs in championship. Available at: https://www.transfermarkt.com/championship/marktwerteverein/wettbewerb/GB2, accessed on 30/04/2020.
Rules and Policies of the club. Available at: https://www.fulhamfc.com/help/faq/policies, accessed on 01/07/2020.
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APPENDIX I
Coding explanation:
Match Day
The most common and most important category. It can be stated as logical that the amount of likes go up with a positive result on match days. Therefor it is more important to look at potential follow up following a potential victory. A promotional for a match will also be included and can be combined with the category “Individual Player Segment”.
Player categories
Every club has favourite players. The following categories have been created to recognize potential fan favourites, to decide which players are most marketable for the Social Media Strategy. By monitoring the “Individual Player Segment” we can analyse how often certain names are mentioned.
Naturally a “Man of the Match performance” is earned by a sportive accomplishment on the football pitch. But if you monitor the amount of likes that a certain player receives in contradict to his teammate, you can conclude certain fan favourites.
The category “former heroes” will focus on former players. Based on this you can analyse how much the average Fulham fan cares about social media posts that include the past.
Because of the strict Season related transfers laws, we will not see that many new players and contract extensions. Nevertheless, it is a category that fans deeply care about and it will coded under the name “Transfers and Contracts”
The average supporter wants to learn the person behind the player. Therefor these kinds of interactions are coded under the name “Q&A”.
Merchandise
The Facebook page of Fulham has a Shopping category. On this subpage consumers can purchase: Shirts, Jerseys, Mugs, Caps, Training gear, Rings, Music inventory and bobble heads of their favourite players. This category will analyse how often these assets are being promoted. 95
The sponsors for the 2019/2020 season are: Adidas, Buxton, Charles Tyrwhitt, Corney & Barrow, Dafabet, Europacar, Football Index, HH Global, Metro Bank, Skillinger, Tattinger, Teng Tools, Walk London and Western Union26. Therefore, It will also analyse how often sponsor related merchandise is promoted. This also counts for special ticket actions and eventual new apps.
Community
A football club usually aims to be the pillar of the community. It needs to strive to included supporters, celebrate national holidays and promote social justice. The category “supporters items” will look strictly at supporters. The category “Community” will take a look at the other activities that include the community. This also includes national holidays and other festivities.
Other
The category “other” will include the posts that couldn’t be coded into one of the categories above. It is created to look at potential social media targets that Fulham included over the coded period of two months. Most posts will consists of usual Facebook posts. Therefor I will also code the amount of videos and will look how well they were received.
Date/Time Title or Act Likes Reactions Shares Category 31/10/2019 Halloween Post 753 97 23 Video/Community 13:57 01/11/2019 Promo 70 3 0 Merchandise/Other 16:17 Championship App 02/11/2019 Match Day promo 611 42 23 Match Day/Individual Player 09:06 vs Hull City, with Segment Aleksandar Mitrović 02/11/2019 Starting XI 340 28 21 Match Day 14:07 Photo vs Hull City 02/11/2019 Remembrance 531 43 19 Community/Video 15:58 Day Post 02/11/2019 Result vs Hull 459 449 21 Match Day 17:01 City (0-3 Loss) 04/11/2019 Cover Photo 832 81 9 Other 11:23 Update 06/11/2019 Player of the 1192 123 47 Individual Player Segment 11:33 Month (Professional Footballer’s Association) Aleksandar Mitrović 06/11/2019 October Goal of 117 7 2 Individual Player Segment
26 https://www.fulhamfc.com/sponsorship 96
16:42 the Month 08/11/2019 Player of the 1501 146 55 Individual Player Segment 09:57 Month (Professional Footballer’s Association) Aleksandar Mitrović 09/11/2019 Match Day promo 459 36 10 Match Day/Individual Player 08:01 vs Birmingham Segment City with Harrison Reed 09/11/2019 Starting XI Photo 411 21 20 Match Day 14:03 vs Birmingham City 09/11/2019 Result vs 2424 265 111 Match Day 16:59 Birmingham City (1-0 Win) 10/11/2019 Player 1289 132 32 Individual Player Segment 09:03 Appreciation Post Aleksandar Mitrović 11/11/2019 Player 2018 280 80 Individual Player Segment 11:29 Appreciation Post Aleksandar Mitrović 12/11/2019 Man of the Match 532 53 11 Man of the Match 13:46 – Aleksandar Mitrović 13/11/2019 Match Day Promo 84 4 0 Match Day/Other 12:18 Fulham Women vs Dulwich Hamlet 18/11/2019 Historical Footage 359 231 84 Other 10:18 of Ground Renovation 19/11/2019 Player 73 2 2 Individual Player Segment 16:05 Appreciation Video Marek Rodák 22/11/2019 Match Day Promo 695 76 36 Match Day 07:52 vs Queens Park Rangers 22/11/2019 Promo 51 1 10 Merchandise/Other 14:02 Championship App 22/11/2019 Starting XI Photo 640 42 25 Match Day 18:48 vs Queens Park Rangers 22/11/2019 Result vs Queens 3038 392 226 Match Day 21:42 Park Rangers (2-1 Win) 23/11/2019 Cover Photo 303 19 1 Other 07:43 Update 23/11/2019 Photos vs Queens 1643 187 11 Match Day 10:32 Park Rangers 24/11/2019 Man of the Match 666 45 11 Individual Player Segment 11:29 - Aboubakar Kamara 25/11/2019 Women’s Team 494 35 12 Other/ Match Day
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13:46 Promo 26/11/2019 Match Day promo 580 48 23 Match Day 08:35 vs Derby County with Aboubakar Kamara 26/11/2019 Match Day promo 396 46 22 Match Day 17:23 video vs Derby County 26/11/2019 Starting XI vs 703 70 21 Match Day 18:48 Derby County 26/11/2019 Result vs Derby 2836 350 144 Match Day 21:46 County (3-0 Win) 27/11/2019 Cover Photo 627 55 4 Other/General 12:12 Update 28/11/2019 Thanksgiving Day 490 54 40 Video/Community 13:45 Post featuring former American Fulham stars, Clint Dempsey & Brian McBride 29/11/2019 EA Sports 53 6 3 Merchandise/Other 11:02 Promotion for FIFA 20 29/11/2019 Promo 65 1 2 Merchandise/Other 12:32 Championship App 29/11/2019 Match Day promo 455 46 11 Match Day 15:02 vs Swansea City with Ivan Cavaleiro 29/11/2019 Starting XI vs 517 33 15 Match Day 19:00 Swansea City 29/11/2019 Result vs Swansea 2200 314 107 Match Day 21:51 (2-1 Win) 30/11/2019 Photos from 1000 96 20 Match Day 08:30 Match against Swansea City 2/12/2019 New Cover Photo 278 3 3 Other 11:59 2/12/2019 Man of the Match 593 35 3 Man of the Match 14:24 Marek Rodák 4/12/2019 Rainbow 2638 291 29 Community 13:20 LGBTQ Sollidarity Crest 5/12/2019 Promotional foto’s 224 14 10 Merchandise Sponsor “Walk London” with players 5/12/2019 Christmas related 507 13 10 Community/Individual Player 13:09 player/kids Segment/Supporter Items interaction 7/12/2019 Match Day Bristol 513 31 14 Match Day 07:36 City with Alfie Mawson 7/12/2019 Promotional 156 20 15 Merchandise/Video 09:20 Video sponsor “Walk London” 7/12/2019 Starting XI vs 460 70 15 Match Day 15:14 Bristol City 98
7/12/2019 Result Bristol City 621 132 17 Match Day 18:08 8/12/2019 Post-Match video 114 19 12 Individual Player 13:22 interview Segment/Match Day/Video Neeskens Kebano 9/12/2019 New Cover Photo 285 4 2 Other 17:15 10/12/2019 Match Day post 421 35 11 Match Day 11:52 Preston North End 10/12/2019 Starting XL vs 441 35 11 Match Day 19:45 Preston North End 10/12/2019 Match result vs 421 35 11 Match Day 22:47 Preston North End 11/12/2019 Christmas Season 55 36 0 Community/Merchandise 11:53 Ticket Gift 13/12/2019 Shared Video 92 2 11 Community/Video/Individual 14:24 Mental Health Player Segment Foundation “Mind”/several players speak out/big role Harry Arter 14/12/2019 Match Day photo 724 49 25 Match Day/Individual Player 08:32 vs Brentford, Segment involving Aleksandar Mitrović 14/12/2019 Promotional 281 11 21 Video/Match Day 10:30 Video match vs Brentford 14/12/2019 Starting XL vs 281 11 21 Match Day 15:03 Brentford
14/12/2019 Result Match 603 217 16 Match Day 17:57 Brentford 16/12/2019 Video 10 years 359 46 23 Video 14:10 anniversary Europe League victory Basel FC 16/12/2019 Retirement video 193 37 3 Former Heroes/Video 16:55 former player Phillipe Senderos 20/12/2019 Video of the the 1130 174 106 Video 10:43 moment of the decade, legendary victory again Juventus 20/12/2019 Re-Shared Video 47 0 2 Community/Video 20:30 Mental Health Foundation “Mind”/several players speak out/big role Harry Arter 21/12/2019 Match Day Photo 568 59 23 Match Day/Individual Player 09:22 with Cyrus Segment Christie 21/12/2019 Starting Xl match 515 69 15 Match Day 15:14 Leeds United 21/12/2019 Result vs Leeds 3988 320 267 Match Day
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17:59 United 22/12/2019 Photos of the 1136 62 24 Match Day/Community 09:55 victory against Leeds United/Christmas Post 22/12/2019 Match Day Promo 23 1 1 Match Day/Individual Player 13:00 Stoke City with Segment Aboubakar Kamara 23/12/2019 Man of the Match 1061 58 29 Man of the Match 11:06 Aleksandar Mitrović 25/12/2019 Christmas Video 496 27 19 Community/Video 09:17 26/12/2019 Match Day photo 544 52 18 Match Day/Individual Player 09:24 Neeskens Kebano Segment 26/12/2019 Staring XI versus 451 67 18 Match Day 15:03 Luton Town 26/12/2019 Result match 1114 213 36 Match Day 18:00 Luton Town 27/12/2019 Man of the Match 587 37 9 Man of the Match 11:58 Bobby Decordova-Reid 29/12/2019 Second attempt 623 49 24 Match Day/Individual Player 09:17 match Promo Segment Stoke City, involving Bobby Decordova-Reid 29/12/2019 Starting XI match 313 37 14 Match Day 15:02 Stoke City 29/12/2019 Match Result 2020 76 79 Match Day 17:58 Stoke City 30/12/2019 Photos of victory 1558 22 32 Match Day 08:13 against Stoke City 30/12/2019 Promo Match 6 0 2 Match Day 08:42 Reading 30/12/2019 Man of the Match 499 22 10 Man of the Match 13:19 Anthony Knockaert 30/12/2019 Contract extension 704 59 11 Transfers and Contracts 17:35 Aboubakar Kamara & Kevin McDonald 31/12/2019 Promo 66 12 0 Merchandise/Other 13:30 Championship App 1/12/2019 Happy New Year 734 27 27 Community 01:01 Post 01:01 UK Time
1/1/2020 Match Day Promo 546 32 21 Match Day/Individual Player 08:51 against Reading Segment with Anthony Knockaert 1/1/2020 Starting XI 436 113 18 Match Day 15:00 against Reading 1/1/2020 Result against 617 208 18 Match Day Reading 100
APPENDIX II
Questionnaire adopted from https://fr.surveymonkey.com/r/football-social-media and can be found at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVlkRSrwgEqGWuC2a3oRYqZpx1vZlf2GTM uFLi08rj5edO-g/viewform?usp=sf_link
Questions: Section 1. 1. Do you follow football clubs on social media? 2. What is your favorite club? (one in EFL Championship, one in the Premier League) 3. Which league do you find to be more interested? 4. Which football club from London do you sympathize with? 5. Which Social Media do you prefer?
Section 2. – aimed to realize the way of usage and feelings towards the Page of favorite club Stimulation and inspiration These pages make me think about the club in new ways. It inspires me in my own life. It stimulates my thinking about lots of different topics on football and on the club itself. It makes me a more interesting person. Some stories on these pages touch me deep down. Social facilitation These pages often give me something to talk about. I bring up things I have seen on these pages in conversations with many other people. I use things from these pages in discussions or arguments with people I know. Temporal Watching these pages is part of my routine. I always go to these pages while I am surfing the Web. I use it as a big part of getting my daily news about the club. It helps me to get my day starting in the morning. Intrinsic enjoyment Going to these pages is a treat for me. Going to these pages improve my mood, make me happier. I like to kick back and wind down with it. I like to go to these pages when I am eating or taking a break. While I am on these pages, I don't think about other sites I might go to. Participation and socializing I do quite a bit of socializing on these pages. I contribute to the conversation on these pages. I often feel guilty about the amount of time I spend on these pages socializing. I should probably cut back on the amount of time I spend on these pages socializing. 101
Community I'm as interested in input from other users as I am on the regular content on these pages. A big reason I like these pages is what I get from other users. This page does a good job of getting its visitors to contribute or provide feedback. I'd like to meet other people who regularly visit these pages. I've gotten interested in things I otherwise wouldn't have because of others on these pages. Overall, the visitors to these pages are pretty knowledgeable about the topics it covers so you can learn from them. Section 3. – aimed to investigate the relationship between fans and their favorite club Brand love This is a wonderful club. This club makes me feel good. This club is totally awesome. I have neutral feelings about this club. This club makes me very happy. I love this club! I have no particular feelings about this club. This club is a pure delight. I am passionate about this club. I am very attached to this club. Brand Loyalty This is the only club from which I would buy products and services. I don't even notice the competing clubs' products and services. If my store is out of this club's product, I'll postpone buying or go to another store. I'll "do without" rather than using another club's product or services.
Word of Mouth I encourage my friends to support this team. I "talk up" this club to my friends. I try to spread the good word about this club. I give this club tons of positive word-of-mouth advertising. Self-Expressive Brand This club contributes to my image. This club adds to a social "role" I play. This club has a positive impact on others think of me. This club improves the way society views me. Section 4. – aimed for better understanding of purchase of the favorite club's products and services Purchase intention I would purchase tickets for a football game that involves this club. I would purchase the merchandising of this club. I would purchase any item that is suggested by a sponsor of this club. I would consider buying merchandising at the price listed. I would consider buying items suggested by sponsors at the listed price. The probability that I would consider buying merchandise is high. The probability that I would consider buying items from sponsors is high.
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Questions from the table are in accordance with the scale from 1 to 5, where 1 represents ‘Strongly Disagree’ and 5 means for ‘Strongly Agree’
Section 5. 1. Where are you from? 2. Age 3. Gender 4. Status
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