Tottenham Hotspur – Football Social Media interview
Tottenham Hotspur have become a top European side in recent seasons featuring in the Champions League, and off the pitch the London side has been equally growing in stature. The London side are now the 20th largest football club on Twitter worldwide and the 5th in the Premier League (have a look at our live Premier League Twitter follower stats).
As Spurs’ aspirations to become an elite club have been evident on the pitch, so has that drive on Social Media – particularly with their fierce rivals Arsenal heading up the Twitter league in the UK. With this in mind, Digital-Football.com is very pleased to present another feature interview with the industry professionals behind the football club Twitter and Facebook clubs. This month we speak to Roberto Kusabbi – Social Media Manager at Tottenham Hotspur:
How long have Spurs been operating an official Social Media strategy?
We have always been aware of the importance of social and how it was evolving the industry. The key for us was how the fans were using those sites. I came in 6 months ago and we’ve implementing a cross-departmental strategy and match day experience on our social channels. We’ve always listened to fans, but we want to engage with them and we feel like we’ve taken steps on that journey.
What has been the biggest social media success at the club?
I think we’ve had many, we’re one of the most followed Clubs in the world and we started much later than most, especially in the Premier League. We’ve got some great plans to come soon.
In my time I suppose the Under Armour UK kit launch stands out we trended with 4 terms naturally on Twitter, including our campaign hashtag #SpursNewArmour, the engagement showed in the sales too. There was another big Premier League kit launch that day but we dominated the natural trends, which was great, it showed that exclusive content, creatively positioned is what fans want and also what works.
What has been the largest challenge you’ve faced?
There are always challenges in social, we have to move fast and we have a lot of interest and a large fan base that we try to support on our channels. We always want to be better.
Where does the club find more ROI/value? Twitter or Facebook?
The key for us on these channels is to engage with our fans, we want to bring them into the Club like they’ve never been before and social channels allow us to do that.
We see both channels differently, both have a global audience that engage with us differently and so we get different returns from each. I don’t think we find more from one or the other, we have hundreds of conversations a day across both and our job is to keep the integrity of the community and give the fans what they want.
What can we expect from Spurs on Social Media in the next 6 months?
Lots! We want to provide more engaging content and expand on our Chinese channels too which we launched earlier this month to a great reception. We want to also make more of our data and let our channels influence the products and initiatives we produce.
Generally we want engagement and we want to provide our audience with relevant content that they feel is exclusive. Ultimately we want to build the biggest community of Spurs fans online across our channels.
Our thanks goes to Roberto and Tottenham Hotspur for allowing us to post up their answers and ask them a few questions. If you’d like to read more interviews from some of the world’s top clubs – including Barcelona, AC Milan and Celtic Football Club – have a look at our Football Social Media interview category.
