By Brad Rees, Mediacells CEO
Ahead of UEFA’s decision on where to host the Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester City, who is winning over fans most on Twitter?
Chelsea have more than double the engagements per social post than Champions League final rivals Manchester City – why is that?
It could be argued that the fan engagement battle of the Blues was won because Chelsea have twice as many followers on Twitter than City but, in the world of football and social media, it’s more complicated than that.
A glance at the Club Social engagement league ranked by engagements / per post / per 100k followers places Leeds United as the most-engaging club in the Premier League and Wolverhampton Wanderers at #3 in the first week of May, despite both clubs having less than one million followers on Twitter. Chelsea are #2 with 17 million followers.
Context and content are the keys to unlock why Chelsea have more than double the fan engagement rate than Manchester City in Champions League semi-final week.
Context
Both English clubs had a home advantage but Chelsea went into the second leg at 1-1 with Real Madrid, the stage set for a battle of two of football’s global Goliaths.
Manchester City went into the second leg with a 1-2 advantage over visitors PSG and the second leg unfolded as a comfortable win for the Sky Blues.
The Real game at Stamford bridge was brilliantly entertaining and a tough slog for Chelsea due to intensive Real possession – but the Blues multi-strikes at goal kept the excitement levels at fever pitch.
Content
Manchester City FC’s tone and language, post-match, was spartan, fact-driven, sometimes emoji-heavy with the dialogue framed at club or tournament level.
Chelsea’s posts were teeming with personality quite literally, when Blues favourite N’Golo Kanté was voted man of the match. The language was bursting with emotion, often SHOUT-Y, and positioned with a feelgood narrative that blended relief with elation.
There is no sugar bullet to become the king of social media but a consistent, compelling tone in posts that is relevant to what is happening, just happened on the field increases engagement and loyalty.
