The digital transformation of football clubs based on the example of social media

Abstract

Purpose: Digital transformation has significant growth potential for countries and organizations, and this also applies to sports. One of the examples of digital transformation is the use of social media by football clubs. Their goal is to arouse interest and maintain relationships with as many fans as possible. The article aims to present the significance of social media in football clubs, as well as to identify factors that may affect the number of clubs’ followers.

Design/methodology/approach: The article presents which football clubs are the most popular on social media today, and on the example of FC Barcelona, Juventus F.C., and Paris Saint-Germain F.C. shows how the number of followers has changed in last few years. What's more, on the example of the top Polish football league – Ekstraklasa, it was checked what factors affect the number of clubs’ followers.

Findings: In the analysed clubs, the highest increase in followers was recorded among Instagram users. The study based on Ekstraklasa, showed that there is a significant correlation between sports results and the number of followers. This means that a better position in the league is associated with more followers on social media. The example of the Ekstraklasa also showed that the club's city population is strongly positively correlated with the number of its followers.

Research and practical limitations/implications: The limitation of the study is that it focuses only on football and selected clubs. Accordingly, in some countries or sports may occur different dependencies.

Originality/value: Nowadays, the number of social media followers is an indicator of a club’s popularity and commercial appeal, all of which is directly related to the finances of a club. Therefore, identifying the factors that may affect the number of football clubs’ followers seems to be important from the perspective of the whole professional sport.