By Paul Nicholson
12 February – Arsenal top the Premier League table of official club Twitter followers with Chelsea close behind. But when it comes to clubs who are working hardest on the their social media, Manchester City top the league in terms of most tweets made, while Manchester United – who trumpet more than 640 million fans worldwide – come rock bottom of the ranking in 20th place, just below Stoke City.
The tables below, compiled by Insideworldfootball, look at the numbers of Twitter followers and the numbers of tweets of the official English language feeds of the 20 Premier League clubs. The figures are taken up to the end of 12 February.
In terms of followers, Arsenal and Chelsea are way ahead with 5.33 million and 5.1 million followers. Manchester United lag behind with 4.4 million, but almost double their cross-town rivals Manchester City who are in fifth with 2.3 million but are gaining fast.
Spurs are sixth with just over a million followers and then there is a long gap to Everton and Newcastle United on just over half a million each. The top of the table pretty much resembles the Premier League proper with the big clubs filling the top six places.
Interlopers Southampton who are currently fourth in the points table have a way to go to make the ‘Champions League’ spots for Twitter followers. Saints are 11th with 343,000 followers, but the stats suggest they may start to climb the table as they are seventh in the ranking of most tweets made.
Premier League Twitter ranking
Source: Insideworldfootball
The number of tweets a club makes is a good measure of the club’s attitude towards fans and social media generally.
That Manchester United tweet so few times, in comparison to other clubs, yet champion their huge supporter base to sponsors, is a surprise as one of the strongest measures of the size of that supporter base would be through the club’s digital interaction. But there is no doubt the Man United brand (and prolonged success) is a powerhouse in terms of attracting followers, whether they feed them with tweets or not.
The upwardly socially mobile clubs would appear to those making the most effort to engage their followers with tweets. QPR and Burnley are both in the top six, positions they would doubtless love to occupy in the league proper. But the numbers do reflect the ambition of both clubs to stay in the big league and if points were awarded for engagement effort, they are well up there.
Premier League ‘tweets’ ranking
Source: Insideworldfootball
Premier League table
Source: Insideworldfootball
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