Which Aviva Premiership team has the most followers on Twitter?

With elite players, historic clubs and devoted fans, it’s no surprise the Aviva Premiership also sees a loyal following across social media with fans consuming content on a daily basis and always eager to learn more about their club and favourite players. Over the last season the match day attendance in the division was over 1.9 million across the league and therefore our analysts team wanted to understand how clubs were embracing social media and whether they were adequately using it. 

Social Media has become a dominant force in the Sports landscape with brands attempting in some way or another to connect with their fans. Fan engagement via social media, ensures that these clubs can communicate with the audience in a more direct way and which bolsters loyalty and support as well as commercial opportunities. The growth in the smartphone has also led to the explosion of social media awareness, with fans being able to engage either in stadiums or whilst second screening at home, without missing a minute of the action. With the nation’s interest in rugby union, both at International & club level as well as live converge across numerous channels, we would expect to see clubs constantly growing across their social media channels.

Therefore the fiacuity analyst team examined how many followers clubs had between January & June, who was using the Twitter platform most successfully as well as researching the growth rates for the league and determining which clubs were seeing ‘standard’ growth and which were performing above the league benchmark. There are of course other metrics to measure success, including engagement, however growth can provide marketing teams with an insight into their brand’s reach and audience size, which clearly can be leveraged for commercial purposes.

Who has the most followers on Twitter?

Twitter is the most popular social media platform for fans of the Premiership and therefore it provides clubs with the largest reach to engage their fans.

Leicester lead the way on Twitter with 143k followers, which is comfortably higher than 2nd place Gloucester. Newcastle Falcons sit bottom of the chart despite their heroics this season, and title winners Saracens are surprisingly mid-table, for a club of their stature and history.

Who had a good Twitter strategy?

As one would expect, Leicester’s Twitter account primarily focuses on match updates, teams news and ticket sales, however Leicester have approached this in an innovative and interesting way. For example, the club have taken something fairly simple such as a match update, and injected it with a little humour such as a GIF, thus adding some personality to the account:

Arguably there is an emotional reason for Leicester’s high numbers of follower, as the club have a firm grasp on the fact that sport is emotive and fans want to feel like they are part of a wider family. Therefore Leicester consistently post content regarding the inner workings of the club, for example thanking a long serving ticket office employee for their service or tweeting messages of encouragement for Tom Young’s, during his wife’s incredible battle with cancer.

By engaging their fans in this manner, the club has been able to foster a spirit of community and creates a relationship which transcends ‘rugby’ and instead creates a bond between club, fan & player. Obviously, fiacuity isn’t advising that all private matters should be used for the sake of social media, but the fact is that connecting with Rugby fans on issues outside of just the 80 minutes on the field can have an incredibly rewarding effect.

What about the clubs’ growth?

Whilst these league tables tell us who is leading the way in terms of followers, it is important to look at the growth rate of these clubs as well. In 2018, the Premiership had an average growth rate across Twitter of 0.76% from January until June.

The above chart presents us with an alternative image of Twitter performance, for example Newcastle are currently bottom of the Twitter Rankings, and yet since Jan 1st, they have posted the most impressive growth figures with 1.55%. Conversely, Northampton who are third in our overall followers table, actually came under the division benchmark with a growth of 0.60% and in between April & May saw a negative growth of -0.03%, meaning they lost followers. 

Interestingly, in spite of Leicester’s positive Twitter strategy it could be argued that the on pitch disappointments this season have contributed to slower growth, whereas Newcastle conversely performed above expectations and therefore receiving more attention. Whilst employing a savvy Twitter policy is important, it’s also worth noting that on field results have a natural impact in on growth and what marketeers should look to do is limit this to the best of their ability in difficult times and capitalise when there is optimism.

That being said, any top tier sports team should be expected to grow week on week, month on month, however our insights have determined that club shouldn’t just accept that average growth can’t be improved. As an example, Sale Sharks saw a 0.45% growth in their Twitter followers Feb- March, which equated to approximately 200 followers. Whilst this is still a very positive uplift, had the club hit the benchmark for this period of 0.98%, they could have been looking at an additional 240 followers, which is potentially 240 more individuals to retain as fans and target commercially. In stadium terms, that’s 2% of the AJ Bell Stadium. 

So what can rugby clubs do to improve their Twitter growth?

Our platform and team specialises in analysing brand’s entire digital activity to help identify opportunities, threats and return-on-investment.

It’s been an exciting twelve months for Rugby League in England with the national team reaching the final of the Rugby League World Cup in December and the Super League season as always providing thrilling entertainment. The Super League is the UK’s top Rugby League competition, and since being founded in 1996 has been the pinnacle of the sport in the northern hemisphere. The league attracts huge support with the overall matchday attendance for the 2016-17 season exceeding 1.1 million.

This avid fan base are constantly interested in team news both on and off the pitch and thus the birth of social media has been vitally important for the Super League clubs as a method of creating more personal relationships with the fans which results in loyalty and for clubs, can also contribute to commercial benefits. This has prompted our analysts to take a look at how Super League clubs are using Instagram, which is both newer than rivals but also others a more visual service when compared with the linguistic nature of a blog sharing site such as Twitter.

When properly realised, Instagram offers Super League clubs certain opportunities that are more difficult to achieve on other platforms.. Primarily, Instagram is a smartphone app, which harnesses the emotive powers of videos and pictures to connect with the user whilst they are on the go or even at the matches themselves. For an Instagram account to work, a team needs to be authentic, consistent and engaging as well as being easily digestible. 

Who has the most followers on Instagram?

Leeds Rhinos are the most successful team in Super League with eight titles and therefore one would expect them to place highly in this table, whilst Catalan Dragons, the newest team in the division sit fifth in the ranking, a much higher position than they are on the Twitter (12th) & Facebook tables (8th). Perhaps most interesting is the lowly position of St Helens, in spite of being a historic Super League club who are also performing very well this season.

What did Leeds do well?

Leeds’ command of Instagram has been excellent over the last 12 months with daily posts ensuring consistency, and consequently relevancy. The posts are also authentic, with the behind the scenes footage allowing fans to see the inner workings of the club such as how the team prepares for games and how they behave off the field. This authentic content allows for the curtain of TV coverage to be removed, and creates an element of transparency. Moreover, posting pre-match content on Instagram allows for the fans in the stadium to see what the players are doing who may only be a few hundred feet away. This creates a cohesive mini-society within the stadium on match. Finally the content is also extremely current and engaging, such as wishing fans a ‘Happy Star Wars Day’ on May 4th or video which filmed a Fornite session that some of the players had taken part in. Fornite is a big part of the cultural zeitgeist at the moment and many of the club’s followers would have been playing the game as well.

As inconsequential as these type of posts may appear they are huge in creating a connection between the fans who are playing the same game at home and the players. Bonus points on the account’s humorous criticism of the players’ ability in the game, as it’s not often competitive professional athletes are bad at a game.

How are Catalans using Instagram to beat the language barrier?

Like Leeds, Catalan Dragons have also successfully used Instagram to their advantage, albeit for a very different purpose and as of June sat higher than league leaders St Helen’s. Whilst the Dragons sit bottom of the Twitter charts this is more than likely due to the language barrier. Twitter is a platform built for quotes or thoughts and therefore this is more difficult to do when your team is based in a foreign country and must cater for the majority of their fans who are French whilst as Instagram is first and foremost an image sharing site. Therefore Catalans have sought to reach foreign fans through the use of their Instagram account which allows them  to transcend the language barrier.

Their account expresses many factors about the club, not only what happens on the field but also how their players behave off it and what the club’s ethos is. The club’s content includes Catalan have engaged their fan base through easily understandable posts such as post match dressing room coverage which allows fans a glimpse behind the curtain, whilst posts of the players giving blood brings Catalan’s social agenda into the public sphere as well. Moreover, the great success of Catalan’s Rugby League Armchair team is also a constant fixture on the Instagram page, which celebrates success but also shows that there is more to the club than just the men’s Super League team and creates a more dynamic image for the brand.

It may seem fairly basic, but fans want to support a club that has a personality and a social conscience as it helps them during more troublesome times. A fan’s loyalty stems from more than just the results on a pitch, and all sports teams should work towards Barcelona’s sentiment of being ‘more than a club’. Building a relationship with fans was traditional based on the field whereas now clubs have been gifted the chance to dedicate time to building loyalty and sentiment away from the stadium as well.

So what can rugby clubs do to improve their Instagram followers?

Our platform and team specialises in analysing brand’s entire digital activity to help identify opportunities, threats and return-on-investment.