As you know, social media nowadays has a much greater role in society than any other media. It is a new feature of media that is very interesting because from the past media, no matter how good the content is, in the end, it is one-way communication. It is hard to get a response from the audience, yet social media is different because it is a two-way communication where publishers and viewers can talk to each other via chat or comments. They need this format is because every club can exist because of the fans. Without fans, neither the club nor the players would be able to go forward. They have to care for the fans as much as they can. The importance of the media is not only this. This article will certainly delve into the cause why football tries to use social media as a solution strategy to develop or lead the club forward.
Expand the fan base
Selecting social media to increase their fan base is a smart choice as it is the most cost-effective and accessible option. Nevertheless, to successfully grow the fan base. Achieving this well requires choosing the right social media platform for that market segment. For example, if they want to be in the European market and most citizens tend to use Twitter as their primary channel for news or communication, thus choosing a Twitter platform is the answer. Finally, it is better to use every platform to reach their fan base as much as possible similar to other clubs such as Arsenal, Gamba Osaka, and Sao Paulo used every social media platform to access their fans as much as possible. In addition, utilizing social media has also increased the number of football fans many times compared to using the media or print. As I said in the intro, the channel in the old days was one-way communication where it was tough to get a response from the fans but in the present, there is two-way communication or the social media platform we see today. It makes it easier for the club to get feedback from fans. For that reason, it is a magnificent tool to grow their fan base hugely.
Easily manipulate prices in the transfer market
The transfer market will be one of the things that will definitely be affected by the arrival of social media because, as everyone knows, the power of social media is that it is fast and accessible to everyone. Of course, this also has a negative consequence of trying to create fake news to stir up the player price. For instance, the European media often use Twitter to spread the word about football and social media; it takes only a few minutes to reach people. They often release the news to the public that this player is being attracted by many clubs around the world. Because of this, it makes the price of players higher than they should be or over-priced and in the end, we do not know that this player is really attracted by teams around the world. It is one of the sharp strategies for adapting to social media. It is playing with people’s minds by creating demand for itself to push the player prices higher. What I talk about might make you think that only the Western uses social media to drive football. In fact, Asia and even South America are trying to use social media to manipulate the prices of the players in the market as well. Nonetheless, with the fact that they still can not bring out the capabilities of social media to the fullest. Therefore, it makes the agency look inconsistent with the progress of football.
Make it more reachable
It must be admitted that watching football matches in the old days. You will need a TV to watch it or have to catch it abroad, which is a limited option. It affects not only the football fans but also affects the football industry as the revenue may not be as expected. That is why football decided to lead social media as one of the approaches to generate income and increase the reach of the fans. Especially, this situation with the COVID-19 pandemic affects the world’s population traveling to watch football abroad. It disconnects a lot of people who want to come and watch the games at the stadium but the advent of social media can more or less alleviate this pain point since you only have a smartphone that can use social media, you can access your love team through social media or streaming platforms. Besides, Nowadays, the demand for football fans is growing not only to watch matches but also to follow everything related to the club such as team training, interviews after the game, and the lifestyle of the players. If it was media in the distant past, this would have been highly demanding to happen, yet social media can instantly make it easier. In particular, football clubs like to distribute this content through Youtube, Twitter, or even Instagram to spread the news about the club to the most football fans.
Adapt and compete
Social media on digital platforms allows everyone to be a medium to deliver content to their target audience without the need for media as a mere presentation as before and as online media grows against the old media like print and people in today’s generation turn to social media. It caused the sales of the publication to drop dramatically. As a result, there has been fierce competition between old media and social media for the attention of fans. They also have to compete with each other among other clubs under conditions of restrictions, target groups, and different advantages and disadvantages. However, if we try to match between sports clubs and sports media. It is true that sports clubs have an advantage over sports media in that sports clubs have more insiders than sports media that do not feature specific teams. It is rougher to interview footballers, yet they can select issues and new sources to interview more teams than club media. We can see that both media have their pros and cons. The crucial thing about online sports; they need to build their credibility and focus on spreading the news widely in order to attract people to their news agency. In the end, competition between media will definitely be a quality catalyst for the evolution of the sports media industry.
As a tool to combat abuse
Today, many people in sports are subject to abuse, including racism. The latest victim of abuse is Anthony Martial, Manchester United footballer after Manchester United opened a home draw with West Bromwich Albion. Anthony has been sending threatening messages to his family via social media, which has worsened his mental state. As a result, football has begun to think about using platforms in the opposite direction by using its power in spreading the news quickly and accessible to everyone. They apply social media to send their message to society that they are against all forms of discrimination and no room for racism. After they launched this content, the number of people in the sport that has been abused has decreased. According to this situation, social media is similar to a tool for people who are neglected by society because their behavior is like those who are not socially warm, so they use social media platforms to find a place in society but they do not know that using social media is the same as a double-edged sword that will always hurt them if used in a poor way. So in order to avoid the online society full of offensive messages and being branded by society as the most toxic people when utilizing social media, they should be more careful.
Anyway, Planning to apply social media as a new strategy in football is an idea to develop in football, yet there are still some shortcomings and doubts about its pros and cons. Do we have a way to deal with it if something goes wrong? For example, using media and social media to condemn and combat racist abuse and how? in the end, that person came back to be racist again. To illustrate, one Premier League footballer chose not to kneel before a game and shared the content about against racism on social media in order to demonstrate his anti-racism. The reason is he sees that doing something like this is not powerful enough to make a person change or even the advent of social media has created a competition between media companies and online media. It does not make them only produce quality news, yet it makes them diligent in creating a rumor for calling all the whims and building a reputation for themselves. It resulted in some turmoil in football. Therefore, it is the idea that the football industry should develop football personnel while developing social media in order to generate a foundation and sustainability in football. It is a quality project for the evolution of football industry.
