The field behind the screen: Social capital and the social media communications of a football club brand Alex Fenton Salford Business School University of Salford, Salford, UK Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 28/03/2018 Table of contents Index of figures ......................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... x Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... xi 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1. Social and digital media ............................................................................................................. 1 1.2. Social media and sport................................................................................................................ 2 1.3. Football clubs, fans and social media research ................................................................... 2 1.4. The rise of Salford City FC and the Class of ‘92 ..................................................................... 4 1.5. Theory construction .................................................................................................................... 5 1.6. The growth of digital marketing .............................................................................................. 6 1.7. Information Systems, marketing and digital marketing ................................................... 7 1.8. Social capital theory .................................................................................................................... 8 1.9. Research questions ....................................................................................................................10 1.10. Research problems and research questions ....................................................................12 1.11. Research problem ...................................................................................................................14 1.12. Purpose statement ..................................................................................................................14 1.13. Aim ...............................................................................................................................................14 1.14. Objectives...................................................................................................................................15 1.15. Summary of methodology .....................................................................................................16 1.15.1. Ethnography ...................................................................................................................................................16 1.15.2. Netnography ...................................................................................................................................................16 1.15.3. Blended methods..........................................................................................................................................17 1.16. Organisation of the thesis......................................................................................................19 1.17. Timeline of research ...............................................................................................................20 1.18. Researcher motivation and values .....................................................................................20 1.19. Summary of introduction ......................................................................................................23 2. Digital Marketing ............................................................................................................. 25 2.1. Introduction.................................................................................................................................25 2.2. Literature gaps ............................................................................................................................25 2.3. Digital marketing and brand...................................................................................................27 2.4. The buyer persona spring........................................................................................................29 2.4.1. The buyer persona .........................................................................................................................................30 2.5. Social media channels ...............................................................................................................31 2.5.1. Brand communities........................................................................................................................................31 2.5.2. Social media tribes .........................................................................................................................................32 2.5.3. Social media channels and TV .................................................................................................................. 33 2.6. Social media content .................................................................................................................35 2.6.1. Negative social media content ................................................................................................................. 36 2.6.2. Superstars and online controversy........................................................................................................ 36 2.6.3. Social media algorithms and content ................................................................................................... 37 2.7. Data, social media and fan segmentation ............................................................................38 2.7.1. Sports fandom and social media ............................................................................................................. 38 2.7.2. Football fans and segmentation .............................................................................................................. 39 2.7.3. Social media and football fan behaviour ............................................................................................. 43 2.7.4. Rituals ...................................................................................................................................................................44 2.7.5. Online superstars and buyer persona .................................................................................................. 45 2.7.6. Fake social media fans ..................................................................................................................................46 2.8. Digital marketing summary ....................................................................................................48 Alex Fenton – PhD ii 3. Social capital ..................................................................................................................... 50 3.1. Social capital literature review ..............................................................................................50 3.2. Bourdieu and social capital - red chips for the elite .........................................................51 3.3. The darker side of social capital and social media ...........................................................53 3.4. Coleman and the communitarian view of social capital ..................................................53 3.5. Putnam and the decline of social capital .............................................................................55 3.6. Social capital and computer mediated networks ..............................................................55 3.6.1. Beyond the foundational authors ........................................................................................................... 57 3.7. Networked society, individualism and social capital .......................................................57 3.8. Nan Lin, cyber-networks and the rise of social capital ....................................................58 3.9. Types of social capital ...............................................................................................................60 3.9.1. Bonding social capital and family ........................................................................................................... 61 3.9.2. Bridging social capital ..................................................................................................................................61 3.9.3. Linking social capital and weak ties ...................................................................................................... 61 3.10. The 1% rule of Internet culture ...........................................................................................62 3.11. Internet user types and social capital ................................................................................62 3.12. Lurkers .......................................................................................................................................63 3.13. Lurkers, sponsorship and commercial value ...................................................................64