INDUSTRY INSIGHT ‘Can You Tweet Something Like…’ 18 November 2021 By Toby Warner Account Manager “Either be on it yourself with your own thoughts or stay off it completely." These were the strongly worded thoughts of ex-Manchester United footballer and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville around a subject that is gaining traction in the national discourse: should professional footballers manage their own social media accounts? At first this might seem like a slightly mundane and unimportant topic, but it digs deeper into our relationship with professional sportspeople and what we expect of them. At an initial glance, it is very easy to see why top-level footballers pay for social media experts to manage their accounts. By playing in the Premier League, footballers can easily accumulate follower counts that reach the millions, not just the thousands, meaning every message will be scrutinised by both supporters and rival fans. When you take into account that for a significant number of players English will not be their first language, it seems highly logical to hand over your social media management to an expert in the field. Ultimately, this is all a part of professional footballers looking to protect their brand. The word ‘brand’ can be viewed as an ugly word as it portrays their fans or followers as ‘consumers’. However, in pure monetary terms, a social media account can be highly valuable for athletes and therefore is worth investing in expert management of those channels. For example, the Instagram Rich List estimated Cristiano Ronaldo could earn up to $1.6 million per post. So what’s all the fuss about? The issue, which has been argued by Gary Neville, is that footballers’ social media interactions are so evidently not written by themselves and it’s damaging their reputations with fans. One of the supposed benefits of social media is that it allows the general public to interact on a genuine level with their favourite celebrities. However, after every poor defeat or rousing victory, fans are not getting to hear how the players genuinely feel but instead are treated to mundane, almost identical messages. In an interview with SportsPro, the Manchester United CEO of Media stated the club produces fan sentiment graphs for each player and “then start to work with the player and his team individually to try and counter that narrative a little bit.” This builds into the growing belief that what we, the public, see on social media is not telling the full story. Or as Neville says, “creating robots on and off the field.” This delegation of social media duty can also lead to some embarrassing gaffes for players, such as a post meant for Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli ending up on Man Utd’s Bruno Fernandes’ page. Or Victor Anichebe’s media manager taking his request slightly too literally… There is another argument that social media managers offer a layer of protection for the players from the unacceptable abuse they are subject to. The subject hit front page news following the racist abuse Bakayo Saka and other England players received following the Euro 2020 Final defeat to Italy. A recent survey conducted by the Professional Footballers Association found 43 per cent of players had received targeted racist abuse at some point in their career. This is a shocking stat and backs up why some players do not want to handle their accounts directly. Martin Odegaard, the Arsenal and Norwegian midfielder, recently revealed how he deleted his Twitter account to protect himself from such abuse. There are obvious pros and cons for handing over the keys of your social media account for a top-level athlete. At brand brewery, we believe that, like any great campaign, it’s about creating genuine connections with your audience. For some players they will feel more comfortable having an expert to manage their accounts, however, there needs to be a level of authenticity in order to create these strong connections with fans. For others, they will feel more comfortable managing it themselves. One only needs to look at Marcus Rashford’s campaign around Child Poverty to show how powerful social media can be when it’s used correctly. Whichever way footballers turn, hopefully we’ve seen the end of ‘Can you tweet something like…’ MORE FROM Toby Warner 21 October 2021 Kraken Screamfest 5: Dread and Breakfast 13 May 2021 That’s Just Not Cricket 15 April 2021 The Great British High Street INDUSTRY INSIGHT Imposter Syndrome WE RECOMMEND It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Tintagel House 92 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TY +44 (0) 203 828 0470 Sign up to our quarterly newsletter Privacy Policy © 2021 All Rights Reserved Brand Brewery Ltd | Cookie Policy