Today it seems like most companies and brands are conquering their fear of social media, one step at a time. They realize that online presence and reputation matters. A multi-million business like the professional football world can not leave behind. The main goal of this whitepaper is to understand how professional football clubs in Belgium use social media. Not by looking at numbers of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, but by exploring the field, by visiting clubs and interviewing communication and marketing managers. 13 out of 16 first division clubs agreed to talk to me. The data you find in this white paper is varied and covers different aspects of social media. On the 5th of December, during a Cleverwood Trends Session to the 4th anniversary event of Cleverwood, I've presented some of my findings. But my main objective of the dat was to make people aware of what real fan engagement and passion is all about. The presentation create context, the white paper delivers the data.

1. Download via
www.cleverwood.be
Football and Social Media in Belgium

2. In the week I’m a New Media consultant, In the weekend I’m passionate
about my football team Club Brugge. Today I want to talk about 2 mayor things.

3. 1. Football fan engagement

4. 2. What can brands learn from
football fan engagement?

5. 1. Football fan engagement

6. Why is a football fan not an average fan? Because it’s in our DNA, it’s a
way of live. There are two values that football fans really hang on to.

7. 1. Loyalty

8. We them both!
19 %
16 %
11 %

9. Do you have the guts to them both?
1%
5%
5%

10. Overall increase
30000 1
3
25000
5
20000
7
15000
9 Attendees
Rank
10000 11
13
5000
15
0
1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 -
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Red = average attendees of Club Brugge. Blue = ranking. Quality of product
went down but number of clients increased. What other brand can say this?

11. 2. Honour

12. Fans are the soul of a club. Barcelona has a policy where 800 ‘Socios’ are
consulted with every important decision.

13. Unconditional support. The supporters of Union Berlin dedicated
all their free time to renovate their own stadium with their own hands.

14. Football is more than 22 man who run 90 minutes behind a ball. It’s about the
experience.

15. Why use social media

16. 1. Use social media to strengthen the experience –
Before, during and after the game. Create climaxes!

17. 2. Use social media to build relationships 24/7 – Before you had 90
minutes to convince and connect with your audience, now 24/7.

18. 3. Use social media to Improve and optimize the relationship between
players and fans. Bring you players closer to the fans.

19. Example – Fansourcing – Thy asked their fans to design a new shirt, they
received 60.000 unique submissions.

20. Example – Turn your image around – Ryan Donk used Twitter in a
remarkable way is in constant dialogue with his fans.

21. Example - 122 Tweets per minute – Barcelona generated over 2
Tweets per second during the opening of their new training centre.

22. Example - Second screen - Manchester City experiment

23. Difficulties

24. You’re dealing with an emotional community. How do you handle
those conversations and turn them in your benefit?

25. Abundance of platforms and content . The platform and content
you provide need to be excellent. If not you'll loose your audience.

26. Players are the stars – They are little brands on their own but at the
same time they represent your team.

27. 2. What can brands learn from
football fan engagement?

28. Like is the beginning, not the end

29. Understand your fans

30. Create experiences

31. Status Access
SAPS
Power Stuff

33. “All those questions
about social media!
We would like to
keep this internal. We
don’t show our
financial results
either!” – anonymous

34. YES NO
53% 47%
Is it the purpose to start a conversation?

35. YES NO
38% 62%
Are you planning to invest more money
and/or resources?

36. Who questions much, shall learn
much, and retain much.
- Francis Bacon

37. Thank You !
Pieter Maenhout
Jr. Consultant
Direct: +32 2 888 79 34
Mobile: +32 (0)489 91 53 76
Email: pieter.maenhout@cleverwood.be
Cleverwood – Rue des Pères Blancs, 4 – 1040 Brussels – Belgium
www.cleverwood.be
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