There were some clear stand-out performers in terms of overall community size across Facebook and Twitter. The high value clubs Manchester United (86.9m), Chelsea (57.6m), Arsenal (49m), Liverpool* (38.2m) and Man City (30.8m) have the most followers, and generate the widest global appeal.
But we wanted to level the playing field (so to speak) when it came to our rankings. To do this, we looked away from community size for a metric that would show how engaged fans were with their clubs, basing our table on ‘engagement per 1,000 fans’.
Manchester United’s regular focus on emotive content helped push them to the top of the table, above the newly-promoted Huddersfield Town. Huddersfield’s strong performance stemmed from their most successful season in years resulting in promotion. Their engagements were triggered by excitement and celebration, with fans wanting to share their joy with the club on Facebook. In third place, West Ham’s custom video segments and visual representation of stats proved popular with fans.
*The initial version of this article on Campaign incorrectly showed Liverpool’s Facebook community as 8million, due to a reporting error in Socialbakers. These figures have now been updated to reflect the club’s true performance.
Thought Leadership
