The use of social media is now ubiquitous in all areas of our society. Rugby clubs have adopted, in particular, Twitter and Facebook as platforms for the communication of news including match day scores and club activities. Some clubs have been using such media for many years, whilst others have been later adopters.
For supporters unable to get to home or away matches, regular tweets of score-by-score updates are hugely appreciated. There’s also a commercial dimension for clubs who are trying to work closely with sponsors and advertisers. So it’s interesting to see the penetration of Twitter in the communities served by the 47 National League clubs.
Fylde was one of the early adopters and have worked hard at recruiting followers, some hundreds, even thousands, of miles away from the Lancashire Coast. The two principal metrics giving insight into clubs’ adoption of Twitter is (a) the number of people who follow the tweets, and (b) the number of tweets issued by clubs.
In respect of clubs’ official Twitter accounts, Fylde rank 4th amongst the 47 National League clubs in terms of followers and 2nd in the numbers of tweets issued.
We are very grateful for the interest amongst our followers and their willingness to spread our tweets (by ‘re-tweeting’) and engage in two way communication. Follow the club at @fylderugby
We will produce similar figures for Facebook usage in the near future.
NB: Some clubs (such as Leeds, Blackheath and Barnes) have changed their account names over the years and this helps to explain what looks initially as very low numbers.