The SSE Airtricity league gets under way tonight with Shamrock Rovers travelling to Dundalk for the opening fixture of the Premier League, live on eir Sport.
There is a new website launched to promote the league and a new marketing manager in place at the FAI with specific responsibility to work with clubs and the internal communications team at Abbotstown to get the word out that the domestic game is as worthy of attention and support as any games taking place in London, Manchester, Liverpool or Madrid.
That’s not an easy task but the League has a sense of optimism about it this season with new money in Dundalk and Cork through Europe, strategic plans coming into focus across the League to kick on over the next five years and a sense through the U19, U17 and U15 National Leagues that there is a sustainable long term structure in place for clubs to develop talent at home rather than for export in teenage years.
Sport for Business and our partner Sportego have been taking a look at the easiest method for clubs to grab hold of fans attention, through their own social media and can reveal this morning that the total digital audience being reached by the 12 teams in the Premier League now stands at 512,541.
That represents a more than 50% increase since the figures were first calculated in 2015 and almost 30% in terms of a like for like rise among the clubs that were here 12 months ago.
That provides a strong base to build on and while many fans will be active across the three social media channels of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the number of unique individuals being reached is still going to be well in excess of 300,000.
Success breeds engagement and Dundalk’s run to the edge of the Champions’ league last season saw them climb 108% in terms of an overall fan engagement through social media.
Their Overall Digital audience of 63,577 still trails Cork City in second place on 74,932 and Cork will be hoping to grab top spot this season having closed the gap to Social Media Kingpins Shamrock Rovers who have 75,794 followers but whose growth last year was the lowest in the top flight.
The kind of content teams can produce and the virality that they generate is close to what happens on the pitch with the better passages of play generating the biggest buzz in the stands. In a world where “if its not shared its not seen” social media has an important role to play in engagement with fans.
Sport for Business is a partner with Sportego in the 2017 FECKK Conference – That’s Fan Engagement Conference Kilkenny rather than a Father Ted pastiche. We will have speakers over from across Europe looking at the way the best clubs get connected to their fans.
These will include Adrian Bevington, former director of Communications at the FA and Joaquim Cardona who was Head of Digital at Barcelona.
Sport for Business members can avail of a 20% discount on the cost of a ticket, bringing it down to less than €80 for a great day of learning and networking, by quoting SFB2017 as a promotional code.
Click here for more on the FECKK17 Conference and secure your place
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