Celtic FC explain Twitter should complement, not replace, existing fan communities

This afternoon Glasgow side Celtic FC launched their first official Twitter presence in the cyberspace. The 1967 European Champions announced that they would be launching 4 accounts in order to accommodate with different audiences and needs – @CelticFC, @CelticFCTickets,  @CFCCommercial and@CelticFCShop. Celtic fans are well known for being incredibly vocal and active both offline and online – so the move into Twitter is one hugely anticipated by Hoops fans.

Digital-Football.com managed to speak with Tony Hamilton (who has given an interview about the clubs Digital Strategy on this site previously) around why the club has decided to adopt Twitter. Celtic are not strangers to Social Media, having launched their Facebook Page early last year and Tony (Digital Director) has been using his own personal account to act as an “unofficial club presence” on a regular basis.

Hamilton told Digital-Football.com that Celtic are,

“In this space because we believe there is a need to be there – simple as that. We want to be there because we want to be part of the conversation, we just don’t want to be the focus of the conversation.”

He also added that Twitter was specifically chosen because “the demographics are not the same”  in comparison to Facebook.

“Clearly Twitter and all Social Media gives us opportunities about how we reach people, which would not have been available to us in the past.” – Tony Hamilton

Most interestingly, the club’s reasoning behind launching their Twitter channel is “to complement but not replace the great online Celtic community, which already exists through many conventional forums and sites like KDS, CelticWiki, CQN, CelticMinded, Huddleboard, ETims and many, many more emerging on Twitter”. Celtic fan forums and communities are notoriously active online, so it’s refreshing to see a football club recognise both the importance and influence of fan-lead sites.

In conjunction with the launch, the Glasgow team have also provided a dedicated Twitter page on their official site that outlines how fans can use their Twitter account as well as begin to answer questions such as “when will the stream be active?” and “what are the different feeds for?” Additionally, the club has provided a full list of all 28 staff and players who use Twitter – which is useful for weeding out fake accounts.