Identifying the social media content that best engages supporter groups: a comparative study of Portuguese football clubs

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Abstract

Aim To understand if social media content during competition periods influences engagement among football clubs of different sizes. Our hypothesis is that larger Portuguese football clubs will experience greater social media engagement both in-season and off-season, regardless of content categorization. Theoretical background and literature review To develop and maintain of a group of passionate supporters, sport organizations use social media as a key communication tool to engage with supporters, even outside competition periods (Biscaia et al., 2018). In this context, Uses and Gratification theory is useful for understanding the motivations of social media consumption by sport fans (Filo et al., 2015). These motivations include information, entertainment, personal identity, and integration and social interaction (Annamalai et al., 2021). However, there is relatively little empirical evidence about social media content produced by sport teams outside competition periods, and if smaller clubs are at a disadvantage in social media engagement. Therefore, study seeks to understand if social media content engagement levels changes outside competition periods, and if bigger clubs generate greater engagement than smaller clubs. Research design, methodology and data analysis The Instagram content of 18 Portuguese football clubs was analyzed during two periods: 5-14, February 2021 (in-season) and 1-10, June 2021 (off-season). The clubs were divided into two homogeneous groups (larger and smaller) according to two criteria: annual budget and number of fans (Gouveia et al., 2020). The research design reflects other successful and leading research into the area, (e.g. Vale & Fernandez 2018) which utilized Uses and Gratifications to understand relationships between sporting clubs and their fans online. This research builds upon these studies by analyzing the Instagram content, including the content and reaction to posts to determine if there is a significant difference in the rates of engagement (likes, views, and comments). The posts’ text content, images, and videos were also analyzed to understand if there was a noticeable change in engagement based on content type rather than the dates of posting. The analysis calculated the number and frequency of posts, in addition to the engagement rate through a multidimensional approach according to Doyle et al. (2020). The categorization of the posts was based on priori categories from the literature, to ensure consistency and accuracy across the two periods. The data were analyzed using ANOVA one-way (p<0,05), and comparing the two periods, as well as the posts of larger and smaller clubs. Results and discussion The analysis of 1040 posts (in-season and off-season) demonstrated that information content (upcoming football matches) received the highest level of engagement (likes, views, and comments). In these cases, upcoming game posts (information) reached the highest engagement rate, 17.69% (x = 1.63% ± 1.59) for small clubs during the competition period, and 10.59% (x =1.74% ± 0.93) for larger clubs in the out of competition period. When we compare the average engagement rate of the larger clubs with the smaller ones, both in the period with competition and in the out of competition period, no significant differences were detected (P-value = 0.073; P-value = 0.562). On the other hand, we highlight that for all clubs there was a higher average engagement in the period without competition than in the period with competition (P-value = 0.0109). Complemetary, we identified that the information content that received most engagement included club players in their posts. In the period without competition, larger clubs used players in almost 75% of posts, while smaller clubs used players in 50% of posts (P-value = 0.022). Considering the average values of the engagement rate of the post categories, it was found that the engagement rate is significantly higher when posting information about the players’ routine (P-value = 0.0086). Conclusion, contribution and implications The results indicate that engagement levels in times of live competition were similar to out of competition period, and therefore, confirmed part of the hypothesis. However, the results also demonstrate no significant difference between the engagement rates based on the size of the club, and thus disconfirm the other part of the hypothesis. This is significant, as it suggests that larger clubs may not expect a greater engagement rate due to their popularity, as previously found (Maderer et al., 2018). Another interesting point is that while information led to greater engagement, as previously found (Annamalai et al., 2021), it was information that included players in the content that had more engagement. This was the same for in- competition and outside competition periods. These results suggest that teams, regardless of size or time of year, should concentrate on producing information content involving players to create greater engagement. The research advances the understanding of the behavior of fans in their gratification processes and suggests that gratification comes from team/club connection, independent of the size of the team or time of year of posting. Keywords: Sport; Digital marketing; Engagement; Social Networks; Sports organizations; Consumers. References Annamalai, B., Yoshida, M., Varshney, S., Pathak, A. A., & Venugopal, P. (2021). Social media content strategy for sport clubs to drive fan engagement. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 62, 102648. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2021. Biscaia, R., Hedlund, D. P., Dickson, G., & Naylor, M. (2018). Conceptualising and measuring fan identity using stakeholder theory. European Sport Management Quarterly, 18(4), 459–481. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2017.1413580 Doyle, J. P., Su, Y., & Kunkel, T. (2020). Athlete branding via social media: examining the factors influencing consumer engagement on Instagram. European Sport Management Quarterly, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2020.1806897 Filo, K., Lock, D., & Karg, A. (2015). Sport and social media research: A review. Sport Management Review, 18(2), 166–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2014.11.001 Maderer, D., Parganas, P., & Anagnostopoulos, C. (2018). Brand-Image Communication Through Social Media: The Case of European Professional Football Clubs. International Journal of Sport Communication, 11(3), 319–338. doi:10.1123/ijsc.2018-0086 Vale, L., & Fernandes, T. (2018). Social media and sports: Driving fan engagement with football clubs on Facebook. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 26(1), 37–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2017.1359655

Speakers from the University of Münster

Tickell, Samuel Charles

Professorship for Social Sciences of Sports (Prof. Meier)