 |
| I league clubs using social media |
I League, the national football league of India, have never been
able to reach to a national level till now. It is true that they have received an
ample amount of sympathy and commitment from the government for taking the league
to the next level. So knowing the pace at which the government works it will
suicidal for the clubs to be solely dependent on AIFF.
The football lovers in India like to read more about
Manchester United than our very own Mohun Bagan. Reach and popularity being the
major issue, why can’t the clubs by themselves make some moves to reach the
people. There are various social platforms through which a sporting entity can
receive both attention and publicity. Social media platforms being absolutely
free and a shopping mall filled with potential audience is the best place to
start with. This medium can be a great alternative to reach out to the youth to
encourage participation and viewership. Let us have a look at some of the clubs using
social media sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
I have shortlisted 6 top clubs for this study, namely Churchill
Brothers, Dempo FC, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Pune FC and Shillong Lajong.
Facebook Stats:
Club name
|
Total Followers
|
Average posts per day
|
People talking about it
|
Rating for their about us page
( 1to 5)
|
897,256
|
4
|
11,662
|
3
|
|
59,990
|
5
|
12,308
|
4
|
|
55,329
|
6
|
1,150
|
3
|
|
73,197
|
6
|
4,121
|
2
|
|
7,408
|
1
|
85
|
1
|
|
2,777
|
2
|
222
|
1
|
Twitter Stats:
Club name
|
Total Followers
|
Average tweets per day
|
Total tweets
|
2,261
|
3
|
1,758
|
|
1,773
|
3
|
5,599
|
|
2,153
|
6
|
5,241
|
|
650
|
3
|
1,399
|
|
Dempo FC
|
NA
|
NA
|
NA
|
791
|
3
|
1,269
|
YouTube Stats:
Club name
|
Total Subscribers
|
Total videos posted
|
Total views
|
26
|
6
|
4,315
|
|
31
|
27
|
5,970
|
|
324
|
371
|
121,029
|
|
116
|
51
|
20,753
|
|
Dempo FC
|
NA
|
NA
|
NA
|
Churchill Brothers
|
NA
|
NA
|
NA
|
As the numbers are crystal clear, I will not explain it
further. The point I want to make is, if newly formed clubs like Pune FC and Shillong Lajong can work
towards developing their online presence why can’t other clubs do. All the
other clubs have failed to create an impactful social media existence.
It is easy to follow the rhetoric that government does not
do anything, but it is important that the clubs do something upfront to attract
audiences. Indian Football clubs need to tighten up their screws to be more
creative and follow on the path of big clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea
to increase awareness around Indian Football.
Social media is a free platform and the clubs must definitely take extra efforts in exploring the benefits out of it. The experts say that the country
has bright prospects for football, so it is ‘better late than never'.
Totally agree. Indian football clubs need to be creative in promoting their respective clubs. The websites of all EPL clubs is very impressive. With a little effort Indian clubs too can promote themselves on internet. Not to forget, Internet is the new 'big thing'.
ReplyDeletei m agree with your point but there are very few football club in India who take advantages of this all medium and other clubs are not interested to promote their respective club.
DeleteI feel along with the club, the media should promote sports, other than Cricket. Somehow, the popularity of Football is high among the youngsters these days, but on a contrary, only a few of them know about Indian Football.
ReplyDeleteMedia will pick it up when people will start showing wider interest in Indian football.... European matches are all updated and covered by Indian media...
DeleteGood analysis...Well to begin with, Manchester United and other clubs are more famous cause of the television broadcasters. If it wasnt for ESPN & STAR we wouldnt have been following these teams.First we got awareness through television later on we followed these clubs in the internet media. Internet is the new big thing but they dont advertise much they just show you the content. So for Indian clubs to succeed the broadcasting media shud take initiative and once the clubs understnd that people are getting aware they can use internet and other medias for promotion..Basically i would summarize that television is the key and internet is the secondary.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that television was then a major medium... but now television has been over taken by internet kn all aspects. Moreover it is true tht television is imp for making it popular but it is nt even free.... thr are lot of problems right from broadcasting rights and evrythng....so the clubs can make use of this free and popular media for reaching out to people!
DeleteI second prajin. Thought internet is an important media today, television broadcasting is still the primary medium. Lack of advertisement and extremely poor quality of coverage is to be blamed. Conflict of interest between major sponsors of I league has also been a major issue.
ReplyDelete