National Football Teams and their fans: An analysis on the adoption on and engagement of Social...

THE UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

[MIM PROJECT]

Title: National Football Teams and their fans: An

analysis on the adoption of and engagement on

Social Media across countries.

Name: Benoît Loïc Vaysse

Year of Completion: 2012

Title: National Football Teams and their fans: An analysis on the

adoption of and engagement on Social Media across countries.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of the degree of

Master of Science in International Management of the University of

Strathclyde

THE UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

Name: Benoît Loïc Vaysse

Year of Completion: 2012

Supervisor: Dr Sean Ennis

Statement of Academic Honesty

I declare that this dissertation is entirely my own original work.

I declare that, except where fully referenced direct quotations have been

included, no aspect of this dissertation has been copied from any other

source.

I declare that all other works cited in this dissertation have been

appropriately referenced.

I understand that any act of Academic Dishonesty such as plagiarism or

collusion may result in the non-award of a Master’s degree.

Signed …………………….……… Dated …….……………………

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Project Feedback

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Acknowledgements

The first person to be acknowledged is Dr Sear Ennis. Without his

precious guidance, advice and knowledge, this project would have never

been possible.

For their help in correcting, translating the entire participation sheet,

letter of consent and questionnaire, Alfonso Melero, Ana Miguel Fonseca

Pêgo, Camila da Fonseca, Chloé Millet, Francisca Monteiro and Itziar

Iranzo Marco have to be thanked.

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Abstract:

This project has been undertaken to analyse the Social Media’s Strategies and Management of

National Football Teams. (France, Spain and Ireland) involved in the Euro2012. One of the

objectives was to draw recommendations for National Football Team to make better use of

Social Media.

The literature reviewed the core concept and evolution of the Web and its link to Social Media.

As this project focused on Sports, the adoption of Social Media into Sports were analysed.

Secondly, the concept of Customers Relationship Management and its link with Social Media

and Football have also been studied. Furthermore, in order to have a better understanding of the

Football’s Industry, a brief description of majors’ football institutions and countries studied had

been done.

To reach these objectives, the researcher collected quantitative and qualitative data. Firstly, the

researcher analysed the use and adoption of Social Media by National Football Team with the

use of netnography. Secondly, to understand the Social Media Strategy adopted by federations,

the researcher run phone interview with their S.M. executive. Finally, via the send-out of an

online questionnaire to supporters of teams studied, the researcher analysed the Social Media

behaviour and expectation of supporters.

Findings show that, at a certain degree of difference, federations are lacking in behind in their

adoption of Social Media platforms. Moreover, according to the questionnaire and the feedback

from interviews, they use Social Media as a broadcasting tool rather than as an engaging one.

According to analytical tools, supporters talks in a positive way of their teams online. As a

result, supporters tend to influence their fellow supporters to follow their teams on Social Media

platforms. Furthermore, according to the questionnaire feedback, supporters would like their

National Football Team to make more use of Social Media. Consequently, to keep themselves

updated on the latest news, federations tend to attend conference, follow group study on Web2.0

platform and get advice from S.M. agencies.

As a result, recommendations have been oriented over a short, medium and long term period.

Short period are essentially based on the readjustment of current platform and on the adoption

of new ones. The medium term period concern the improvement of the core website in order to

make it more Web2.0 friendly. Finally, the long term period concern the adoption of platforms

that require a certain technological advancement such as Google Earth or 360° Photos

Audience.

Keywords: Web2.0, Social Media, National Football Team, Euro2012, France, Spain, Ireland.

Words Count: 17,362

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Table of Contents

Project Feedback ..................................................................................................................... iv

Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ vii

Abstract: ............................................................................................................................... viii

1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................14

1.1 Introduction: ............................................................................................................14

1.2 Research rationale: ...................................................................................................14

1.3 Research Aims: ........................................................................................................14

1.4 Research Objectives: ................................................................................................14

1.5 Nota Bene: ...............................................................................................................14

2 Literature Review ............................................................................................................15

2.1 Chapter Introduction: ...............................................................................................15

2.2 Web 2.0: ..................................................................................................................16

2.2.1 Core concept: ...................................................................................................16

2.2.2 Web 2.0 and Social Media: ...............................................................................18

2.2.3 Adoption of Social Media into Sports: ..............................................................21

2.3 Customer Relationship Management: .......................................................................23

2.3.1 Customer Relationship Management and Companies: .......................................23

2.3.2 Customer Relationship Management and Social Customer Relationship

Management:...................................................................................................................23

2.3.3 Adoption of Customer Relationship Management into Football: .......................24

2.4 Chapter Conclusion: ................................................................................................25

3 Industry Profile ...............................................................................................................27


3.2 Fédération Internationale de Football Association: ...................................................27

3.2.1 Objectives: .......................................................................................................27

3.2.2 Notion of Confederations: ................................................................................27

3.2.3 Notion of Associations: ....................................................................................27

3.2.4 Financial: .........................................................................................................28

3.3 Union of European Football Association: .................................................................28

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3.3.1 History: ............................................................................................................28

3.3.2 Objective: ........................................................................................................28

3.3.3 Financial: .........................................................................................................28

3.4 U.E.F.A. Euro Cup: .................................................................................................29

3.4.1 History and General Rules: ...............................................................................29

3.4.2 Case of the U.E.F.A. Euro 2012: ......................................................................29

3.5 Members Association: .............................................................................................30

3.5.1 Fédération Française de Football: .....................................................................30

3.5.2 Real Federación Española de Futbol: ................................................................31

3.5.3 Football Association of Ireland: ........................................................................31


4 Methodology ...................................................................................................................33


4.2 Marketing Research: ................................................................................................33

4.3 Research Method and Justification: ..........................................................................33

4.3.1 Netnography: ...................................................................................................34

4.3.2 Interviews: .......................................................................................................35

4.3.3 Online Questionnaire: ......................................................................................35

4.4 Sampling: ................................................................................................................35

4.4.1 Step 1: Define the population of interest ...........................................................35

4.4.2 Step 2: Determine whether to sample or census ................................................36

4.4.3 Step 3: Select the sampling frame .....................................................................36

4.4.4 Step 4: Choose a sampling method ...................................................................36

4.4.5 Step 5: Determine sample size ..........................................................................36

4.4.6 Step 6 Implement the sampling procedure ........................................................36

4.5 Final Analysis: .........................................................................................................36

4.6 Recommendations: ..................................................................................................37


5 Analysis ..........................................................................................................................38

5.1 Chapter introduction: ...............................................................................................38

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5.2 General feedback on the questionnaire: ....................................................................38

5.3 General user behaviour on Social Media: .................................................................39

5.4 Analysis of the French Football Team: .....................................................................40

5.4.1 Involvement: ....................................................................................................40

5.4.2 Interactions: .....................................................................................................42

5.4.3 Intimacy: ..........................................................................................................43

5.4.4 Influence: .........................................................................................................43

5.4.5 Insight: .............................................................................................................44

5.4.6 Impact: .............................................................................................................44

5.5 Analysis of the Spanish Football Team: ...................................................................45

5.5.1 Involvement: ....................................................................................................45

5.5.2 Interactions: .....................................................................................................46

5.5.3 Intimacy: ..........................................................................................................47

5.5.4 Influence: .........................................................................................................47

5.5.5 Insight: .............................................................................................................48

5.5.6 Impact: .............................................................................................................49

5.6 Analysis of Ireland: ..................................................................................................49

5.6.1 Involvement: ....................................................................................................49

5.6.2 Interactions: .....................................................................................................51

5.6.3 Intimacy: ..........................................................................................................53

5.6.4 Influence: .........................................................................................................53

5.6.5 Insight: .............................................................................................................53

5.6.6 Impact: .............................................................................................................54


6 Conclusions, Recommendations, Limitations ...................................................................55

6.1 Conclusions: ............................................................................................................55

6.1.1 Chapter Introduction: .......................................................................................55

6.1.2 Objective 1: Social Media’s adoption by National Football Teams....................55

6.1.3 Objective 2: Strategy adopted by National Football Team:................................56

6.1.4 Objective 3: Expectation of supporters in their use of Social Media ..................56

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6.2 Recommendations: ..................................................................................................57

6.2.1 Business Objectives: ........................................................................................57

6.2.2 Customer Segment: ..........................................................................................57

6.2.3 Periods: ............................................................................................................58

6.2.4 Resources:........................................................................................................63

6.2.5 Chapter Conclusion: .........................................................................................63

6.3 Limitations and Recommendations for future research: ............................................63

6.4 Reflective Essay: .....................................................................................................64

7 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................66

8 Appendices......................................................................................................................71

8.1 Acronym: ................................................................................................................71

8.2 Glossary: .................................................................................................................72

8.3 Questions for interviews: .........................................................................................74

8.4 Online Questionnaire: ..............................................................................................76

8.5 Participant Information Sheet: ..................................................................................87

8.5.1 Participant Information Sheet English ..............................................................87

8.5.2 Participant Information Sheet French................................................................90

8.5.3 Participant Information Sheet Spanish ..............................................................93

8.6 Consent Form: .........................................................................................................96

8.6.1 Consent Form English: .....................................................................................96

8.6.2 Consent Form French: ......................................................................................97

8.6.3 Consent Form Spanish: ....................................................................................97

8.7 Transcript of the Interview with the French National Football Team: .......................98

8.8 Good Practices: ...................................................................................................... 101

8.8.1 Facebook: F.C. Barcelona .............................................................................. 101

8.8.2 Twitter: Liverpool F.C. .................................................................................. 101

8.8.3 YouTube: Nike “My Time is Now” ................................................................ 102

8.8.4 Foursquare: Manchester City F.C. .................................................................. 103

8.8.5 Instagram: Manchester City F.C. .................................................................... 103

8.8.6 Pinterest: Liverpool F.C. ................................................................................ 104

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8.8.7 Mobile App: NHL Ice Time ........................................................................... 104

8.8.8 Website: ......................................................................................................... 105

8.8.9 Facebook Platform: London 2012 ................................................................... 106

8.8.10 Google Earth: Wembley Stadium ................................................................... 106

8.8.11 Match Day Photo Experience: Arsenal F.C. .................................................... 107

8.9 The case of the English and the Portuguese Football Team: .................................... 108

8.9.1 Participant Information Sheet Portuguese: ...................................................... 108

8.9.2 Consent Form Portuguese:.............................................................................. 112

8.9.3 Industry Profile of the Football Association and the Federação Portuguesa de

Futebol: 113

8.9.4 Analysis of the Football Association and the Federação Portuguesa de Futebol:

114

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1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction:

This chapter will outline the research rationale, the research aims and finally the research

objectives.

1.2 Research rationale:

Lots of studies have been done on the topic of Football and Social Media (S.M.). However, the

researcher has found that a gap resulted in the analysis of S.M. adoption within National

Football Team (N.F.T.). As a result, in a year of European Football Competition, the researcher

has decided to ride on the wave of this competition to analyse the S.M. strategies adopted by

three different countries: France, Spain, and Ireland.

S.M. being a new trend, the aim of this topic became as a result relevant.

1.3 Research Aims:

The aim of the research project is to study the S.M. strategy adopted by N.F.T., benchmarks

them with its competitors and finally makes some recommendations.

1.4 Research Objectives:

Objective 1: S.M. Adoption by N.F.T.

Objective 2: Strategy adopted by N.F.T.

Objective 3: Expectation of supporters in their use of S.M.

1.5 Nota Bene:

In this project, the researcher used several technical terms. Please refer to the Acronym (See

8.1) and Glossary (See 8.2) sections in the appendices.

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2 Literature Review

2.1 Chapter Introduction:

Sports which used to be a form of pass-time in the past have now become a real industry that

generates billions of dollars of revenue. Athletes practicing sports at a high level are now

considered as being professional. Such an environment has been favourable to the apparition of

marketing technique adapted to sports. Before a definition of Sport Marketing is given, the

notion of Marketing has to be defined. According to Hollensen (2011, p. 26), marketing is a

“means whereby consumers/users are made aware of the product/service and are able to

purchase it”. As a result, the adaptation of Marketing to Sports could be define as “an ongoing

process through which contests with an uncertain outcome are staged, creating opportunities for

the simultaneous fulfilment of direct and indirect objectives among sports customers, sports

businesses and other related individuals and organisations” (Chadwick & Beech, 2007, pp. 4-5).

The discipline of Sports Marketing has the particularity to be based on the Uncertainty of the

Outcome because sport is a way in which people can publicly assert their affiliations. Another

important characteristic of Sports Marketing is the relationship between fans and sports

organisations because without interest of fans, media and sponsors will not engage with the

Sports Industry. As a result fans, take a major part in the development of Sports. By extension

Online Sports Marketing has become a major tool for sports organisation in order to reach

potential market. Already in 2003, Brown (2003) identified that sports marketers could use the

Internet as form of engagement with their fans. Nowadays, the Internet is being used by a major

part of the population – 82.5% of Internet Penetration in the UK in 2010 (TNS, 2012). It,

consequently, summarises well the importance the Internet has taken into the Internet sports

industry. With the increasing adoption of S.M. within sports, fans, sports clubs have seen in

S.M. an important tool to foster their relationship with their fans. (Walsh, 2010)

The purpose of this project is to analyse the S.M. strategy adopted by N.F.T. involved in the

Euro2012. As a result, an answer to this project will be done in five parts. The first part will be

the literature review in which all the concept and models used in this project will be explained.

In order to have an understanding of football, the football industry will be developed in the

second part. The third part will analyse the methodology adopted by the researcher to conduct

his research, while the fourth section will analyse the data collected. Finally, as a form of

conclusions, the recommendations and limits will be developed in the fifth and final part.

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For the purpose of this project, an analysis of the engagement and adoption of S.M. into N.F.T

will be done. Therefore, it is important to have an idea of several concepts such as Web 2.0 but

also Consumer Relationship Management (C.R.M.).

2.2 Web 2.0:

2.2.1 Core concept:

2.2.1.1 Evolution of the Web:

In order to understand the concept of Web 2.0, it is important to explain the evolution of the

Web and its different phase. According to Rosen & Phillips (2011), the Internet has been

developed during the 1970’s. Indeed, in 1971, the first email has been sent from one computer

to another one following by the first chat sessions and first FTP file downloaded in 1973. The

World Wide Web, which became the first and accessible form of the Internet to public, has

appeared in 1994.

2.2.1.2 Definition of Web 2.0:

Across numerous reading, the researcher noticed that the definition O’Reilly made of Web 2.0

has been commonly accepted by his peers. Therefore we will use his definition as a starting

point of our research. He (2005) defined “Web 2.0 as tools that help people build online

community for creativity, collaboration and sharing.” (Bohley, 2010). According to O’Reilly,

Web 2.0 is a mixture of seven principles.

First of all, the Web 2.0 is considered to be a platform. In Web 1.0 era, it used to have Netscape,

Double Click and Akamai, nowadays it has Google, AdSense and Bitorrent who have replaced

respectively the mentioned applications. In the past, every tool was seen as a software sold and

1 - The Web as a Platform.

2 - Harnessing Collective

Intelligence

3 - Data is the Next Intel Inside

4 - End of Software Release

Cycle

5 - Lightweight Programming

Models

6 - Sofware above the level of a single device

7 - Rich User Experience

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package to consumer in the way Microsoft did with their operating system. While nowadays,

everything is built on the basis of a web application accessible from everywhere, by everyone

and free of charge.

Moreover, one of the core assets of Web 2.0 is the availability for Internet users to find

information and their ability to engage between each other. This form of engagement can be

done via the transfer of knowledge or via the transfer of data as it is for Bitorrent. Additionally,

the concept of service of Bitorrent is to be self-improved regarding the taste of the users. For

example, on Bitorrent, more popular is a file, faster will be the download.

The second principle is the concept of harnessing collective intelligence. By this, it means that

each user improves the experience of the use of the platform by adding value to it. The peer-to-

peer concept is derived from this process where every user shares its files with his peers on a

server. Another concept derived from this, is the Open Source. Open Source is a platform built

with neither pattern nor copyright where any internet user can not only adopt it but can also

customize it to his own need.

The concept of “Data Management” is the next concept. This is the pure result of the Open

Source theory. With an increasing number of information needed, software has to update

consistently. As it has now shifted into an information era, the notion of infoware has appeared.

Amazon is the perfect example because, even though it was using the bibliography database of

Bowker for their book, they have now introduced their own identification database and has

encouraged its customers to complete the missing information. By this way, Amazon has

become within 10 years, the number one in book referencing.

The fourth principle is the “end of the software release cycle”. As we have mentioned

previously, one of the main move from the Web 1.0 to the Web 2.0 is the end of the software.

Nowadays, except in the situation of an absolute necessity (I.e.: if it is updated on a daily basis),

software should stop being developed in favour of platform. Moreover, with the required

engagement of Internet users, it is witnessing a perpetual “Bêta” version of platform.

The fifth core aspect of Web 2.0 is the programming model of platform. In the era of Web 1.0,

engineer used to develop software by using very complicated coding system. Nowadays, in the

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era of the Web 2.0, where everything is available to everyone, the coding system has been

lightened on purpose in order to make it more accessible to people. Therefore, this new system

is designed for hackability and remixability. (O'Reilly, 2005) With Web 2.0, the key word has

been “Think syndication, not coordination”. It means, as O’Reilly said, the data need to be

associated outwards without controlling what happens.

As we have drawn from the previous principles, the key aspect of Web 2.0 is the fact that these

platforms, in which application can be built on, are independent from any device. The main

objective of Web 2.0 is to be able to access them from anywhere at any time with anything.

iTunes is the best example possible as this application can be used on any mobile device. Lap or

desk tops here are playing the role of storage and control station for these devices.

Finally the last principle is the concept of “Rich User Experience”. The development of web-

application is such, that nowadays these ones are as efficient as local PC-based applications.

2.2.1.3 Adoption of Web 2.0 within companies:

Following to these core principles and according to Rosen & Phillips (2011), an average of 75%

of current companies use Web 2.0 (McAfee.com, 2010). Evidences that outline this fact show

that half of the websites present in the top ten of the most visited websites are actually Web 2.0

websites (Alexa, 2012). Due to the different advantages a company can withdraw from Web 2.0,

such as generating revenue, an increasing number of companies tend to adopt more and more

Web 2.0.

2.2.1.4 From Web2.0 to Web3.0:

The Web3.0 is the natural evolution of the Web2.0. It is an evolutionary shift on how people

interact online. According to Green (2011), Web 3.0 is composed by three components:

- The Semantic Web

- The Mobile Web

- The Immersive Internet

In definitive, Web3.0 technologies offers a more customised search which is more targeted to

Web users and who finally provide a higher quality of information in a minimum of time. Open

Graph tools are a Web3.0 application because it enables third party application to support

integration and development across various site and devices.

2.2.2 Web 2.0 and Social Media:

2.2.2.1 Definition and link of Social Media with Web 2.0.:

Following the description made of Web 2.0, the researcher will follow the reasoning of Kaplan

& Haenlein (2010) stating that Web 2.0 is the core platform of S.M. According to them, “S.M.

is a group of Internet based application that build on the ideological and technological

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foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation of users generated content.” (Kaplan &

Haenlein, 2010) The key elements of S.M. are the level of media richness and the social

process. According to them, higher is the combination, closer will be the similarity with real life

and therefore higher will be the interaction and engagement between participants.

Media Research

Low Medium High

Social

Process

High Blog Social Networking

Site

Virtual Social

Worlds

Low Collaborative

Project

Content

Community

Virtual Game

Worlds

(Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010)

According to Berthon, et al. (2012), S.M. content can either be under the form of text, picture,

video and networks. Rosen & Phillips (2011), regarding to the previous aspect of S.M., defined

websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Virtual Worlds and Virtual Goods as being Web 2.0

applications. Therefore, S.M., which is highly accessible, can be used to reach a large audience.

(Brogan, 2010; Zabella, 2010). A recent study in Rothschild’s (2011) article shows that

countries such as Poland (43%) and Britain (43%) are countries in Europe using the most S.M.

In opposition, France (36%), Spain (34%), Russia (33%) and Germany (33%) are ones of the

least countries in Europe. These differences in S.M. adoption within countries have been

explained by Berthon, et al. Indeed, they (2012) have outlined five evidences based on countries

that explain the reasons of adoption of S.M by companies. The first axiom is based on the

country technological advancement, cultural adoption and finally governmental rules and

regulation. It states that more open a country will be on new technology, easier will be the use

of S.M. in the country. The second axiom is the local environment. When a company is being

present on S.M., its content will be available from everyone and from everywhere. Therefore, it

has to be careful on local impact because a misadventure can blow up into a major global

catastrophe for the company and vice-versa. As the researcher has stated before, when a

company uses S.M., all its data are available by anyone. Therefore, in the situation of general

issues, as the word is being spread very fast, it is very difficult for a company to keep the issue

internally. This was the third axiom. The fourth axiom is working very closely with the first

axiom as it relates to the actions and creations of creative consumers. Indeed, according to

Berthon, et al. (2012), countries will follow the trend of creative consumer by adopting up-to-

date technology. Finally the fifth axiom transmits the lesson that technology is dependent of the

history of a country. Actually, the technological evolution of a country is very dependant of its

history and its adoption.

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2.2.2.2 Adoption of Social Media within Companies:

As it is a relatively new trend, S.M. has not been integrated into the marketing mix fully (Glynn

Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Meanwhile, companies such as G.E. and P&G have integrated S.M.

into their Marketing Communication in order to facilitate the interaction between customers /

customers / companies. S.M. has a huge power in bringing awareness to companies

(Edosomwan, et al., 2011); however it is very often feared by them because of the “inability of

managers to control the content, the timing and the frequency of information about a product or

service”. (Glynn Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Nevertheless, since the Internet has been ranked as

the favourite source of media for consumers on their place of work and at home, companies

have to learn how to deal with this new platform. Nowadays, consumers change their habit in

product and service consumption and they are less likely to listen traditional channel of

communication. Therefore, they tend to pay more attention to advice from their peers. Besides,

they are more willing to be the master of their own decision and tend to move toward a

customization of product (On-Demand product). As a result, S.M. is considered by customers as

being a trustworthy source of information. (Glynn Mangold & Faulds, 2009) Following to what

have been said before the control of the content by manager, even though they cannot control it,

they can still influence and shape people’s post in order to match the guideline of the company.

2.2.2.3 Social Media Strategies for companies:

Wilson, et al. (2011) outlined four different S.M. Strategies that companies adopts regarding to

their profile and their expectations.

For example a company driven by a low budget and willing to avoid uncertainty by monitoring

with established tools will generally adopt a strategy focused on Customer Service. A second

example could be the one of a company seeking to embrace uncertainty. In such circumstances,

it would rather try to listen and engage with their customers and employees on platform such as

Twitter and Facebook. Both strategies provide usually good results and they usually play as a

springboard for larger involvement. If a company with large resource is willing to get

foreseeable result, it will tend to use in this situation third parties such as external application or

external collaborators/customers. Such a strategy has generally a snow ball effect by

encouraging initiative in and out of the company. Finally when a company wants to empower

engagement at a large scale, it will tend to create and use internal platform to expand its

business. Such a strategy requires huge investment. However, it has a major impact on the R&D

and on the operations channels of the company and its partners, customers. (Wilson, et al.,

2011)

However, as S.M. can be positive for a company, badly managed, it can have terrible

consequences on companies and brand. Indeed, United Airlines staff broke the tailored guitar of

one of his customers. After trying to deal with the customers service of the company, this little

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known country singer produced a series of video clips called “United Breaks Guitars” and

posted them on YouTube. The videos promptly generated over 10 million of views. In

exchange, the company gain a terrible reputation online for breaking the belonging of its

customers. (Fournier & Avery, 2011)

As we have seen the impact of S.M. onto Web 2.0, we will now look at how S.M. is used into

Sports.

2.2.3 Adoption of Social Media into Sports:

2.2.3.1 Notion of Fandom:

Before to have a look at the adoption of S.M. into Sports, it would be interesting to analyse the

behaviour of fans over sports and therefore defines the notion of Fandom. According to Cova &

Cova (2002), consumer tribe consists of a gathering of people that share the same passions ad

commitment to a product, service, organisation, concept or idea. Their particularities are that

their boundaries are not only based on geographical, ethnic or familial, modern tribes have their

foundations on concept. In the case of Football, this can be seen in the behaviour of football

fans not willing to support the opponent team while maintaining a good relationship with the

opponent fans. However, as Rein, et al. (2006) have outlined in their book, there is a paradox of

commercialisation. Indeed, according to them there is a conflict between sport as a business and

sport as a game. Consequently of this assumption, sports should be considered as a product and

fans as a product. Therefore, this can lead to debate as sport is generally associated to the

innocence of youth, the spirit of competition and finally the integrity of the game.

As a result according to Dionisio et al in Ennis, et al.’s (2011) article, fans with the highest

dedication to their clubs will be those who actively commit to the team and proactively engage

in sustain behaviour.

With the proliferation of media channels and mobile technology, new technology has the

potential to narrow people’s interests to their preferences and shut out the rest of the world.

According to Josh Robinson (campaignlive.co.uk, 2012) in an interview given to

“campaignlive”, 59% of fans claim to support more their teams by engaging with them on S.M.

As we have seen previously, the most important for a S.M. campaign is to generate and support

engagement even though the relation sport/fan is commonly stronger than the one of

company/customer. As said by Josh Robinson and Lucien Boyer, S.M. has a huge commercial

impact for the reason that S.M. fans can interact with their teams 24 hours per day and it enables

sport clubs and nations to provide a unique content and enables fans to set their own culture

(Ham, 2011; campaignlive.co.uk, 2012). Therefore it is very important for sport franchises not

to neglect this new channel of communication. However, S.M. will have a powerful impact if it

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uses traditional S.M. platforms because according to them, sports should reach fans where fans

are located. However, it can use several platforms in order to diversify the content and multiply

the engagement. (campaignlive.co.uk, 2012)

2.2.3.2 Adoption of Social Media into football:

Since football club intend to talk at their fans rather than with them, several studies have shown

that there is generally no engagement between football club and fans. (Ugaz, 2011; Hamill,

2011; Hamill, 2011). This has been seen by the Klout result and by the extensive use of Twitter

as a broadcasting channel rather than an open channel for fan to engage with their club; a few

exceptions being Liverpool, CF America, Chivas with an higher percentage of response.

With such a development of S.M. some avant-gardist clubs such as Manchester United who

created its own network or Manchester City with its early partnership with YouTube have

already start using intensively S.M. Some others clubs, such as Marseille, to engage with their

fans, gave them the task to design the brand new shirt of the season. (Fox, 2011)

2.2.3.3 Future Trends to be adopted in Football in Europe:

However, as this wave is just hitting Europe, in the USA, there are actually trends that could be

adapted into European football. In Europe, clubs tends to emphasize a lot on goods that can be

sold. Instead in the USA, they try to market the experience of the match day by communicating

and highlighting the atmosphere. Another trend is to give the command of S.M. tools during a

game to an influential fan. By doing this, as the S.M. fan knows what to expect from his

position as fan, he usually delivers pertinent content and engages more with the others fans.

Afterwards, this one usually focuses on its experience which generates free communication for

the club. The concept of Fans Night is very popular across of the Atlantic. This is usually done

to reward fans of their support all over the year and enable them to meet their fellow follower on

Twitter. The concept of the fan generated content has been developed over the past few years. It

consists of encouraging the supporter to create content such as biographies, match reports or

even YouTube video for the club. Finally the last trends came out from the appearance of one of

the latest S.M. sharing site called Pinterest. This one is used as a collaborative sharing sites in

which competition are organised.

Finally, according to Josh Robinson and Lucien Boyer, an impact during the Euro2012 on S.M.

will be noticed if and only if teams perform well on the pitch. In any circumstance, the

Euro2012 will be a good trial in general for this year of sports with the Olympics games

happening in July and August and for the following one like the next Football World Cup

organised in Brazil in 2014. (campaignlive.co.uk, 2012)

As we described the concept of S.M., we are now moving onto a very important aspect of

businesses: C.R.M.

Page | 23

2.3 Customer Relationship Management:

2.3.1 Customer Relationship Management and Companies:

2.3.1.1 Importance of customers for businesses:

First of all, it is very important to locate C.R.M. into its context. According to Treacy &

Wiersence (1995) in Nguyen & Mutum (2012) article, a business should have customers

otherwise it is considered as a pastime. Gronroos (1996) stated that getting new customers is at

least ten times more expensive as maintaining their own customers. He also outlined the

difficulty to get new ones due to their low level of loyalty; therefore it is very important for a

company to create a sustainable customers relationship.

2.3.1.2 From Relationship Marketing to Customer Relationship Management:

Following to the evolution of relationship between companies and their customers, Nguyen &

Mutum (2012) mentioned that Relationship Marketing (R.M.) is the ancestor of C.R.M. Morgan

& Hunt (1994) defines R.M. as a process of establishing, developing, and maintaining

successful relational exchanges between parties. Therefore, for the purpose of the project, the

researcher will take Boulding et al (2005)’s definition of C.R.M. which has been commonly

accepted by their peers. They define it as a system in which they have integrated all

relationships, have collected and analysed data across the firm in order to develop capabilities to

create customers’ value while creating shareholders’ value for the firm. As a result, the

approach of C.R.M. in comparison to R.M. is more tactical, managerial and more focus on

relationship building with their key customers.

2.3.1.3 Outcome for firms to use Customer Relationship Management:

The outcome for a company to have efficient C.R.M. practices would be to increase the

company’s performance and its profitability but also to get insights on their customers’ lifestyle.

(Plakoyiannaki & Tzokas, 2002; Nguyen & Mutum, 2012) The keys success factor in creating a

strong relationship between a firm and its customers is divided in four steps. First of all, the firm

should trust and commit itself to this relation in order to get a better quality and to increase the

length of the relationship. Then it should satisfy its customer by rewarding them in order to

increase their loyalty. The third key success factor is the concept of dependence and symmetry

by behaving on the same level of the customers. Finally the fourth aspect is the concept of

fairness which would generate trustworthiness by increasing the quality of the relationship.

(Nguyen & Mutum, 2012)

2.3.2 Customer Relationship Management and Social Customer Relationship

Management:

Resulting from its benefit for companies and the evolvement of communication channel,

C.R.M. can be applied to potential buyers by the use of S.M. because it offers customization.

Page | 24

Moreover the principle of customizing C.R.M. creates a long term competitive advantage for the

company. (Nguyen & Mutum, 2012) Therefore, it is in the interest of companies to combine

both tools (C.R.M. & S.M.) in order to strengthen their customers’ relationship. This concept of

adopting C.R.M. into S.M. is frequently named Social Customers Relationship Management

(S.C.R.M.) or C.R.M. 2.0. (Greenberg, 2010; Heller Baird & Parasmis, 2011) Nowadays even

though customers are connected with brands on S.M., they barely interact with them. (Heller

Baird & Parasmis, 2011). Indeed, when in need for information or advice, these social

customers tend to rely more on peers rather than on commercial. (Greenberg, 2010) This lack of

interaction is mainly due to a lack of understanding from companies. Indeed, according to a

study from Heller Baird & Parasmis (2011), customers mainly connect with companies to

benefit of discount or coupons while companies think customers connect with them to interact.

As a result, as Business Bet highlighted the fact that a higher interaction would involve a higher

customer’s loyalty, it is in the interest of companies to adopt an S.C.R.M. to personalize the

interaction and experience with their customers. (Greenberg, 2010)

As the importance of the adoption of S.C.R.M. within companies has been outlined, the next

part will be an analysis on the impact and use of C.R.M. into football.

2.3.3 Adoption of Customer Relationship Management into Football:

According to Adamson, et al. (2006), the adoption of C.R.M. technique into the football

industry is being delayed. However, in the football industry, the loyalty level of fan is usually

greater than the relation company/customers because there is a stronger natural feeling of

adoption and recognition that exist between football fans and their club that does not exist

between companies and their customers. However, football clubs are facing the same issues as

companies in the way they need to strengthen their relationship. Indeed, according to them,

there are several types of fans depending on their commitment to the club and their willingness

to be entertained. In function of their behaviour, fans are being segmented by their value in

order to customize the service of clubs to their needs.

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(Adamson, et al., 2006)

However, there are some C.R.M. techniques that cannot be applied to fans such as the

customization to an individual but rather to a group because they see themselves as a

community. (Adamson, et al., 2006) Therefore, Adamson, et al. (2006) segmented fans into two

subgroup: the casual fan and the committed fans. The casual fans are generally ones who attend

football game for the entertainment; they expect a high-end service and will emphasized a lot on

financial aspect. In opposition, the committed fans feel attached to the club emotionally. They

attend football game to support and see their team winning, no matter how the team played.

This segment of fans are very likely to move from one segment to another if the performance of

the team are in behind of their own expectations. As a result, football fans expect football club

to communicate with them on a supporter’s way but with the treatment of a customers.

2.4 Chapter Conclusion:

This chapter has sketched the evolution of the Web from the 1.0 to nowadays the appearance of

the 3.0. However, a major emphasis has to be done on the Web2.0 because S.M. has been built

on the core foundation of Web2.0 application. Due to its increasing adoption, S.M. has been

progressively adopted by companies by implementing strategies that match their profile and

expectations. Football clubs have faced the same evolution with the increasing adoption by fans

of Web2.0 applications.

Professionnal

Wanderers

Glory

Hunters

Carefree

Casuals

Casuals

Busy

Supporters

Regular

Commited

Casuals

Fanatics

Entertainment

Winning

Increasing Commitment to Football

Increasing Evaluation of Alternatives

Page | 26

Another aspect that has to be considered is the notion of C.R.M. In fact, this one is considered

to be more tactical, managerial and more focus on relationship building with key customers than

the ancestor of C.R.M. used to. With the appearance of S.M., C.R.M. has adapted itself to this

new platform and therefore enables companies to personalize their interaction and experience

with their customers. Finally adopting C.R.M. technic to football would involve considering

supporters as a community rather than individual as it is done by companies. As a result, two

groups of fans have been identified (the casual fans and the committed fans) whose enable

Online Sports Marketer to target.

All those learning have been relevant for the study of this project. Indeed, as the main theme of

this project is on S.M., this project could not be treated without an understanding of the topic.

Extending this topic to the industry of football has enabled the researcher to understand the

different implication of S.M. into football. By extension, learning the core concept of C.R.M.

has been important to understand the fans behaviour and the different types of S.M. strategies

that could be adopted.

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3 Industry Profile


According to Manley (2010), Football is the most practiced sport in the world but also the one

with the biggest media coverage and level of income.

In order to have an overall understanding of this project, it is necessary to have an overview of

the football industry. As a result, in this chapter, the researcher describes the main instance of

football such as the F.I.F.A. and the U.E.F.A., the U.E.F.A. Euro Cup each nation studied in this

project.

3.2 Fédération Internationale de Football Association:

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (F.I.F.A.) has been created in 1904. It is

the governing body of International Football. It provides the basis of the rules for everything

that relates to football such as competitions, transfer doping issues. Its headquarters is located in

Zurich in Switzerland. The president is Joseph Sepp Blatter. (F.I.F.A., 2012)

3.2.1 Objectives:

The F.I.F.A. has several objectives in terms of football such as improving and promoting the

game of football. It also organises international competition for seniors, women, youth and

futsal categories such as the F.I.F.A. World Cup every four years. Beside these objectives, the

F.I.F.A. is in charge of drawing regulations and provision and ensures these rules are being

enforced. Finally, the last and main objective of the F.I.F.A. is to prevent any practices that

could endanger the truthfulness of the game of football. (F.I.F.A., 2012)

3.2.2 Notion of Confederations:

The F.I.F.A. is divided into six confederations. Each of them corresponds to a different

continent and act as representative of the F.I.F.A. in its level. Every confederation has right and

obligation regarding to the F.I.F.A. such as to obey and enforce with statutes set up by the

F.I.F.A., to work closely with the main instance in the organisation of international competition

but also in joint objectives. Additionally, they have to organise joint competition. (F.I.F.A.,

2012)

3.2.3 Notion of Associations:

A particular nation eligible to organise competition and supervise football in its own country is

called an association by the F.I.F.A. Thus, according to the F.I.F.A., a country is an independent

state. (F.I.F.A., 2012)

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3.2.4 Financial:

Regarding the financial aspect, as we said before, football is one of the main sport financially

speaking. According to the F.I.F.A., in the period 2007/10, its revenue raised to USD 4,189

million from USD 2,634 million from the previous four years period. This revenue has been

essentially driven by the F.I.F.A. World Cup organised in South-Africa in 2010 via the sale of

television and marketing right. (F.I.F.A., 2012)

As the role of the F.I.F.A. is to enhance and develop the game, a major part (70%) of the

income generated is being reinvested into football and football development via Corporate

Social Responsibilities and development programme. (F.I.F.A., 2012)

3.3 Union of European Football Association:

In this project, the researcher will analyse three countries (France, Spain, and Ireland) involved

in the European Cup 2012. As the European Cup is organised by the U.E.F.A., he will have a

deeper look at how this institution works. (U.E.F.A., 2012)

3.3.1 History:

Union of European Football Association (U.E.F.A.) has been created in 1954 and is the

European representative of the F.I.F.A. Therefore it has to maintain good relationship with the

F.I.F.A. and others confederations. As a result it has to develop solidarity across European

Member Association by maintaining their interests. Its headquarters is located in Switzerland

and its current President is Michel Platini. (U.E.F.A., 2012)

3.3.2 Objective:

The mission of the U.E.F.A. is to deal with all the matter regarding to European Football such

as organising continental competition between Member Association (U.E.F.A. European Cup)

but also between clubs (U.E.F.A. Champions League, U.E.F.A. Europa League). The U.E.F.A.

have to promote the value of football and develop its practice in Europe through the

development of F.A.I. replay practice and prevent unethical practice (doping, discrimination,)

that could put at risk the rules and regulation of football. Another aspect that the U.E.F.A. has to

make sure is that the values of football overcome commercial interests. (U.E.F.A., 2012)

3.3.3 Financial:

With the revenue generated, the U.E.F.A. has to use them equitably and support the practices of

football between nations and the different categories of Football. During the period of 2009/10,

the estimated revenue of the U.E.F.A. was at €1,397.4 million. It was due to the receipt of the

Champions League (72.6%) and Europa League (12.9%) and on the coming up U.E.F.A. Euro

2012 competitions organised jointly in Poland and Ukraine (5.6%). (U.E.F.A., 2012)

Page | 29

3.4 U.E.F.A. Euro Cup:

As the N.F.T. studied were involved in the Euro 2012, the researcher will have a look at the

background of this competition.

3.4.1 History and General Rules:

The U.E.F.A. Euro is a competition organised by the U.E.F.A. every four years, over two

seasons. Every single U.E.F.A. Member Association is invited to take part in the competition

via qualification competition selection then through the final tournament organised in a single or

in a cooperation of countries.

3.4.2 Case of the U.E.F.A. Euro 2012:

The U.E.F.A. Euro 2012 had been organised in Poland and Ukraine across 8 cities. (U.E.F.A.,

2012)

3.4.2.1 Qualification stage:

As host countries, Poland and Ukraine were automatically qualified so was Spain because of its

victory during the Euro 2008. In total, sixty-one Members Associations took part in the

qualification stage. Teams were divided into six groups of six teams and three groups of five

teams. The nine group winners and the four best runner-ups were automatically qualified for the

Page | 30

final tournament. Therefore, sixteen N.F.T. were involved in the final tournament in Poland and

Ukraine. (U.E.F.A., 2012)

3.4.2.2 Final Stage:

After two years of competitions, the U.E.F.A. Euro 2012 saw the Spanish National Team

winning the tournament for the second times in a row. (U.E.F.A., 2012)

3.4.2.3 Financial:

Financial Report has not been published yet for this event. However, according to the U.E.F.A.

(2012), the organisation of a continental competition is a major driver of economic development

for the host countries but also for the football institutions. (U.E.F.A., 2012)

3.5 Members Association:

To understand the nations studied over the project, the researcher will have a look at how

Football Federation in each Members Association studied works.

All the federation under the governance of the U.E.F.A. will have the same mission and duty

towards the U.E.F.A. and F.I.F.A. They will just have to control them in their respective

countries. As the U.E.F.A., Members Associations are responsible of developing and regulating

the game of football on and off field at a national level. (U.E.F.A., 2012)

3.5.1 Fédération Française de Football:

3.5.1.1 History:

Fédération Française de Football (French Football Federation – F.F.F.) has been created in 1919

but the country is affiliated to the F.I.F.A. since 1904. The Headquarter is based in Paris. Noël

Le Graët, as president of the federation, has the duty of representing the federation at the

U.E.F.A. and seat during federal and executive committee. (F.F.F., 2012)

Page | 31

3.5.1.2 The federation in figure:

The French football federation has over 2million licensees among over 20,000 clubs. Forty

clubs are involved in professional competition and leagues. Annually, 1 million games are being

organised by the professional and amateur’s league making them one of the most competed

league in Europe. All those clubs are organised within 31 regional leagues in 102 districts.

(F.F.F., 2012)

3.5.1.3 Financial:

Broadcast and Partnership are the main source of income (200 million of Euros) of the F.F.F.

(A.F.P., 2011). For the period 2010/14, the turnover of the F.F.F. from partnership was

estimated to 120.5 million which represent an increase of 37% from the exercise 2006/10. (AFP,

2010) Meanwhile, the F.F.F. invests mainly its money on developing football via its foundations

or through the amateur’s league.

3.5.2 Real Federación Española de Futbol:

3.5.2.1 History:

The Real Federación Española de Fútbol (R.F.E.F.) is the Spanish Football governing body. It is

affiliated to the F.I.F.A. since 1904. However, the R.F.E.F. has been created in 1913. According

to the Spanish Law, it is a Private Association. Its president is Ángel Mª Villar Llona. The

headquarters of the federation is located in Madrid. (R.F.E.F., 2012)


According to the U.E.F.A. (2012), 653,190 registered players are playing for one of the 18,000

clubs shared within one of the 20 counties.

3.5.3 Football Association of Ireland:

3.5.3.1 History:

The original name of the Football Association of Ireland (F.A.I.) should be Cumann Peile na h-

Eireann. It is the governing body of football in the Republic of Ireland. The F.A.I. has been

founded in 1921 but joint the F.I.F.A. two years later in 1923. The headquarters of the F.A.I. is

located in the Republic of Ireland. Its president is Paddy McPaul. (F.A.I., 2012)


In total, there are almost 170,000 players registered playing in one of the 5,828 clubs shared

among the 4 districts (Munster, Leinster, Connaught and Ulster). Each district supervises the

development of football in the area. (F.A.I., 2012)

Page | 32

3.5.3.3 Financial:

In 2010, the turnover of the federation was almost €40 million. This revenue is originated from

TV right and from partners. (F.A.I., 2012)

This revenue has been used to finance the underage squad and to the development of the elite

teams. (F.A.I., 2012)


As the researcher just presented, the main football instance is the F.I.F.A. and then the U.E.F.A.

at the European level.

Even though each Members Associations has its particularity, they all have to promote the game

of football and the values that are associated with. Financially talking, despite the disparity of

income of Members Association across Europe, those ones are still considered as being the

leader in the world.

Page | 33

4 Methodology


While choosing for a topic, the researcher realised that a few studies have been done in S.M.

and sports focusing on football. Most of the studies linking S.M. to football were focusing on

football clubs such as Celtic Glasgow or Chelsea. However, he noticed a major gap in the

analysis of the use of S.M. with N.F.T. Another challenge he has faced during the process of the

literature review was the availability of reliable information. He realised that most of the papers

talking about S.M. and sports were non-academicals and/or out-of-date. Therefore, some deep

researches have had to be done in order to find accurate research on this topic.

Therefore, following to what have been found in the literature review, the methodology here had

several objectives such as understanding the use of S.M. by N.F.T. but also understanding the

expectation of N.F.T. supporters toward the use of S.M. platforms. By analysing every aspect,

the researcher will draw recommendations to implement in function of the expectation of

supporters.

4.2 Marketing Research:

According to Kozinets (2002), doing marketing research is an important process because it

helps to identify and understand the consumer behaviour of particular consumers and consumer

groups. In this situation, the researcher collected qualitative and quantitative data from primary

and secondary source.

4.3 Research Method and Justification:

In order to support this project, the researcher has decided to collect both qualitative and

quantitative data. Using both methods enable him to reduce the weaknesses of using a single

approach and enhance the finding of each method.

As said by Amaratunga, et al. (2002), when using quantitative research method, the researcher

makes the assumption that he can explain consumer behaviour by some social fact. Amaratunga,

et al. (2002) defined this as “the deductive logic of the natural sciences” (Horna, 1994).

The collection of data would be through a survey designed for supporters of their N.F.T.

According to Kozinets (2002), the collection of qualitative data is useful because it helps to

gather insight data that underlines the needs, desire, meaning and choices. This method would

be through Netnography and through a phone interviews.

The process of the analysis of the project would be as follow:

Page | 34

4.3.1 Netnography:

According to Kozinets (2002, p. 62), the netnography is method that study the culture and

communities online. Therefore, the researcher will analyse the Web 2.0 tools and information

provided on their websites related to and on Web 2.0 platforms. The advantages of using

netnography are that it provides insight on how the N.F.T. use them and how it is perceived by

their supporters on S.M. platforms.

By Web 2.0 platform, we consider:

Hamill (2012) in his Sports Marketing’s article has used this model to compare the adoption and

engagement of the Top 20 Football club in Europe. As a result, this model has been tasted and

has proven its effectiveness; the researcher decided to use it as well.

1 - Netnography

3 - Qualitative

Data

2 - Quantitative

Data

- Text - Facebook

- Images - MySpace

- Video - Twitter

- Wiki - Linkedin

- Blogs - Google+

- Forums - Foursquare

- Ratings - Youtube

- Favourites - FlickR

- Online Chat Podcast Sites: - iTunes

- Web Application / Widgets - Trip Advisor

- Mapping / Mash-ups - Igougo

- Podcast / Vodcast Virtual reality Sites: - Second Life

- Social tagging Mapping Sites: - Google Earth

- Social Bookmarking - Mobile

- Tag Cloud - Tablets

- In

- Out

Community: - Site Community

External Links: - To others 2.0 sites.

Internal: External:

Users Generated Content:

Feedback, Opinion, Discussion:

Rich Internet Application:

Folksonomies:

Feeds:

Social Networking Sites:

Mumltimedia Sharing Sites:

Travel Blog & review Sites:

Applications:

Page | 35

As a basis, he will use this model to compare the adoption and engagement of S.M. across the

three different N.F.T. studied in this project. At the end of the analysis, he will be able to draw a

list of Web 2.0 application being used in football and in what context and what kind of content.

4.3.2 Interviews:

The next stage of the methodology is the collection of qualitative data. By the process of a

phone interviews with an executive in charge of the S.M. accounts of the N.F.T. According to

Thompson (1997) in Kozinets’ (2002) articles, in comparison with netnography, those ones are

usually less time consuming and easier and provide more insight on data. Meanwhile, the use of

this technique is having some limits due to the lack of contextualization and obtrusiveness in

contrast with ethnography.

The researcher decided to use this technique because according to him, it is one of the only one

that could provide insight information on the S.M. strategy used by the N.F.T. At the end of this

analysis, he is willing to compare the different S.M. strategies adopted by N.F.T and find out

whether or not they use different ways and channels to engage with their fans and the outcome

of their finding. The length of the interview was planned to be no longer than 45minutes.

4.3.3 Online Questionnaire:

Finally, in order to have a full understanding of “supporters’ behaviour” on S.M. sites, he

intended to send out an online questionnaire designed for supporters of the N.F.T. studied.

Indeed, since the burst of online communities, hundreds thousands of people discuss online

about their issues and interests (Wright, 2005). Therefore, these online virtual communities are

favourable of this new process of filling out questionnaire. Moreover proceeding through an

online questionnaire offers the possibility to reach people from different country easily and is on

top of that time and cost effective through their automated data collection. (Wright, 2005)

As within the three countries studied, three different languages (French, English and Spanish,)

are being spoken, in order to increase the number of response, the participant sheet, letter of

consent and the questionnaire has been translated into these three languages.

Before, the questionnaire had been sent out to collect final data; the researcher shared the

questionnaire to his relative to make sure there is no bug and to check the intelligibility of the

questions.

4.4 Sampling:

To determine the sampling, the researcher used the 6 Steps model set up by Wilson (2006).

4.4.1 Step 1: Define the population of interest

The population of interest in this case is every supporter of N.F.T. studied following their teams

on S.M.

Page | 36

4.4.2 Step 2: Determine whether to sample or census

Due to the large scale, cost, time and effort that require a census, the researcher has decided to

focus on a sample.

4.4.3 Step 3: Select the sampling frame

The researcher will frame his research on supporters found on forum, blog, Fan page on S.M.

platforms. The questionnaire will also be distributed to relatives of the researchers. He will also

try to get access to fan’s database of N.F.T.

4.4.4 Step 4: Choose a sampling method

Wilson (2006) differentiates two sampling methods: the probability and non-probability

sampling. For the purpose of the project, the researcher has used the non-probability one by

focusing on the convenience sampling. It means that the researchers will approach the most

accessible members of the population of interest because the researcher will look for any kinds

of participants as long as they follow one of the N.F.T. studied.

4.4.5 Step 5: Determine sample size

Regarding the sample size, after discussion with the researchers, it has been decided that the

more participants fill out the questionnaire, the merrier. However, it has been stated that 50

feedbacks from each nation would be a representative number of fans behaviours.

4.4.6 Step 6 Implement the sampling procedure

Once all the previous steps had been done, the survey had been implemented.

Error within the answers was taken into consideration. Therefore, every survey that had been

filled out but that did not match the requirement was automatically deleted.

Regarding the interview, to avoid any error or misunderstanding during the analysis,

conversations had been audio recorded via the use of a mobile application.

4.5 Final Analysis:

According to Hamill (2012), a business assesses its success on S.M. on the quality of the

network, on the strength of the relationship and finally on the ability to leverage. As a result,

Hamill (2012) created a model to measure the S.M. performance of the firm called “the 6Is

approach”. The following point composed the model:

Involvement: By involvement he understood the interaction between network/

communities and the quality of the interaction, how many time and how often do they

spend and finally their origin.

Interaction: By interaction here, he looked at the nature of the post. Did they read only,

post videos, comments, reviews and recommends?

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Intimacy: Through the use of analytical tools, he analysed the affection people have

towards their N.F.T.

Influence: In this situation, he studied whether or not supporters of N.F.T. tend to

influence other fans to support their N.F.T.

Insight: He looked at the actionable insight by analysing the information and knowledge

of supporters towards their N.F.T.

Impact: By looking at the impact, he looked at whether or not S.M. has a business

impact.

4.6 Recommendations:

For the recommendations chapter, the researcher will use the “4C’s model” created by Hamill

(2012). The 4C’s are described as follow:

Content: By content, he meant the type of content that will be posted on N.F.T. (Photos,

Videos,)

Consumers: The notion of consumers signifies the target market and by which means it

will be reached.

Conversations: By conversations, Hamill meant the different tools the researcher will

advise the N.F.T. to use to engage with their fans.

Conversions: Conversion is the process of measuring the impact of S.M. The researcher

will advise N.F.T. to focus on some analytical tools.


To conclude, to collect the necessary data, the researcher used qualitative and quantitative data

from primary and secondary source. First of all, he collected data from the website and the S.M.

platforms used by N.F.T. by using the model set up by Hamill. Then he collected qualitative

data by interviewing executive in charge of the S.M. account in order to understand the strategy

of the federation and finally, he collected quantitative data to understand the expectation of

supporters. All those data were analysed to make recommendations.

Page | 38

5 Analysis

5.1 Chapter introduction:

As it has been outlined in the methodology chapter, data collected, from the 3 different sources,

of the 3 countries studied (France, Spain, Ireland), will be analysed and summarized with the

6I’s model approach of Hamill. The first source was the netnography. Thanks to this, the

researcher wishes to find out which S.M. channel, N.F.T. are involved in and for which use.

Across the interviews run with S.M. managers of N.F.T., the researcher analysed and compared

the different S.M. strategies adopted by them and how do they engage with their fellow

supporters. Finally, the final source was to analyse the feedback of the questionnaire distributed

to supporters of the respective N.F.T. studied. By doing so, the researcher wanted to study the

S.M. behaviour of supporters and their expectations.

5.2 General feedback on the questionnaire:

Respondent of this survey were generally young as 95% of them were between 18 to 30 years

old. This sample was composed mostly by man (77%).

The origin of respondent were broad as people from America, Europe, Asia and Africa filled in

the survey. In total, 12 countries were concerned mostly from the countries studied (France,

46%; Ireland: 21%).

Finally, the percentage of National Team supported by participant is shared more or less

equitably between Ireland and Spain (25% and 23% respectively) with France leading with 51%

of respondents. This gap between these countries is due to the highest number of respondent of

France among the other nations.

Finally, almost every fan (97%) supports its N.F.T. by watching game on TV or Online. Then,

they buy merchandising goods (41%) and attend games occasionally (44%). Lastly, in minor

proportion they either attend game during continental or worldwide competition (10%) or every

home game.

Page | 39

5.3 General user behaviour on Social Media:

Among the 39 respondents, the majority of them (97%) use Facebook as a main Web 2.0 access

then comes YouTube for a different use (87%) and in a certain extent Google+ (44%), Twitter

(49%) and LinkedIn (46%). Something that has to be noted is the mention of the new photo

sharing sites such as Pinterest and Instagram into this list of S.M. Platform. Regarding the

adoption of S.M. application, it can be noticed that 90% of S.M. users adopted it at least 3 years

ago. Moreover, according to the finding, supporters of N.F.T. can be characterised as intense

active users because 95% of them access S.M. sites at least once a day from their laptop/desktop

(100%) and / or their smartphones / Tablet (69%).

Furthermore, the main reason for using S.M. is to communicate with friends and family (95%)

and for 82% of them to keep being updated on their friends’ life and product or service and as

an entertaining way.

Page | 40

5.4 Analysis of the French Football Team:

5.4.1 Involvement:

5.4.1.1 Profile of Supporters of the French Football Team on Social Media:

70% of fans on official S.M. platforms are under 24 and are originally French and more

precisely from Paris. Their main motivation for browsing on their channel is to look for

exclusive content. However, those who interact with the team are commonly older that the

majority of fans.

5.4.1.2 Use of Social Media:

On Hamill’s model, the F.F.F. is scoring only 10. It locates the F.F.F. as a “Continuous

Adopter”

5.4.1.2.1 External Adoption:

The F.F.F. has an external presence on S.M. across Facebook, YouTube, Dailymotion, Google+

and a Mobile App.

The purpose of being active on S.M. was to create a page in which football supporters could

come and share their feeling. The willing of the F.F.F. was to involve fan in the generation of

contents.

However their strategy has evolved over the time. The loyalty program which used to be run

had been stop and now it has adopted a broadcasting strategy in which they use S.M. more as

feed of information for supporters. Additionally, it has created an application to get information

on fans to create a C.R.M. database for commercial purpose.

Text Facebook Y

Images Myspace

Video Twitter

Wiki Linkedin

Blogs Google+ Y

Forums Foursquare

Ratings Youtube Y

Favourites FlickR

Online Chat Others Y: Dailymotion

Web

Application/WidgetsPodcast Sites iTunes

Mapping/Mash-ups Video & Photo Trip Advisor

Podcast/Vodcast Igougo

Social Tagging Yes Virtual Reality Sites Second Life

Social BookmarkingDelicious/Digg/Tumblr/Blogu

erMapping Sites Google Earth

Tag Cloud Mobile Y: from partners C10

Content Feeds Tablet

RSS Feeds RSS Feeds 5

Community Social Network 10

External Links To other Web 2.0Yes: Facebook fan button on

every article

5

FFF

Overall Result

Social Networking

Sites

Multimedia Sharing

Sites

Applications

Travel Blog & Review

Sites

Result:

External

Result:

UGC

FOD

RIA

Folksonomies

Feeds

Internal

Page | 41

The timeline of posts vary upon the news of the French Football Team in and off-peak period,

the federation posts on average of 3 – 4 times a week. On a news period, it posts on average 3 –

4 a day while on match days; it can go up to 10 times a day.

During the Euro2012, it has decided to increase their presence on S.M. platform and the amount

of content. As a result, the number of view on YouTube has doubled over that period and the

Facebook page had its fans number growing by 55% (April: 450,000 fans; August: 700,000).

The Google+ page, which has been created for this occasion, generated 10,000 friends. The

single policy the federation has is regarding the type of content fans could post. Indeed, in order

to follow a certain code, it deletes every non-ethical post. Regarding the YouTube page, it has

600 subscribers and 400 on Dailymotion. This difference in number of views is due to the

amount of campaign done for this channel.

5.4.1.2.2 Internal Adoption:

With a score of 5 on Hamill’s model, it cannot be said that the F.F.F. is adopting intensively

S.M. internally. This is probably due to the willingness of N.F.T. to broadcast information and

therefore talk at supporters rather than with their supporters. (Hamill, 2011)

It has adopted Rich Internet Application (R.I.A.), folksonomies, feeds and external Web2.0

links are posted on its website.

Regarding the R.I.A., the F.F.F. has adopted some mash-ups by embedding in its website some

photos and videos. It enables the Web users to watch the latest information and in a certain

extent engages with the F.F.F.

The folksonomies is a very rare used tool. It can be found on its websites through the use of

social bookmarking and social tagging. By this way, the federation in charge of the website of

the N.F.T. enables its fans to flag its articles into its own blogs.

The F.F.F. has embedded R.S.S. feeds as a Web2.0 application on its website. As a result fans

can read articles posted on the core website of the F.F.F. on another platform. This is generally

uses by N.F.T. willing to broadcast their articles to their fans. By this way, supporters can feel

involved with their teams because not only they will always be updated thanks to this tool but

they will also access exclusive content sourced by the federation.

Finally, to promote official external S.M. channel, the F.F.F. is present on, it has posted links

directly on its website. Moreover, this method enables supporters to get access to official and

exclusive contents.

Page | 42

5.4.2 Interactions:

Generally, it decided to adopt S.M. and more specifically those channels in order to broadcast

exclusive information to supporters without passing by journalists. As those channels were the

trended ones at the time of the adoption, the federation decided to set up an account and create

an interface on them. The second reason for being present was to create a loyalty program for

fans of the French Football Team. The objective was to recruit them by talking to and engaging

with them. Due to the tendency for general fans to support the French Team and not the

federation, it decided to create the page on the name of the team and not on the federation.

On this channel, it usually posts photos, videos, exclusive content or create contest in order to

generate engagement between fans.

According to the questionnaire, French Supporters clearly do not want to engage with the F.F.F.

as 65% claims do not engaging with them. However for those who do, they can be considered as

active supporters as 67% of them engage at least every couple of days on almost every platform

(Facebook, Twitter, G+, YouTube, Pinterest,). The opinion of supporters regarding their

engagement is quite divided because depending on the S.M. platform they use to interact with.

For example Facebook users are satisfied of the content and the time the F.F.F. posts content on

this channel. Alternatively, YouTube users are very dissatisfied regarding the content and the

time.

Their main reasons to engage are to discuss their feeling about the performance of the team and

to understand what others fans feel about the team. However, it appears that French Supporters

do not attach much importance to game and competition the F.F.F. could organise as it comes as

one of the least reasons of engagement. Generally, supporters of the F.F.F. use S.M. to feel

more connected to their fellow fans and their National Teams. By opposition, they think that it

is in one way communication mode as according to them, the F.F.F. does not use S.M. to build a

strong relationship with them. Finally regarding their privacy data, supporters are not willing to

share them with third parties and to get unsolicited request from N.F.T.

Page | 43

Finally, according to the questionnaire, supporters expect more insight information than they

use to have and more engagement with their supporters. Supporters also suggested the F.F.F.

could create a blog and forum in which supporter could take part. Finally, one outcome of using

S.M. suggested from supporters would be to use it as a weapon against general fight and racism

in football.

5.4.3 Intimacy:

According to SocialMention, the general sentiment of the French Football Team is very positive

as 6 mentions out of 1 are positives. Another ratio that deserves to be

commented is the 21% reach. It measures the range of the audience.

Therefore, it means that 21% of posts have been reached by unique

authors. Therefore, the highest the ratio is, the merrier. However, it can be

considered that 21% is a decent score.

5.4.4 Influence:

Following to the previous chart on SocialMention, the F.F.F. score 34% on

passion. It means that 1 person out of 3 who talk about the N.F.T. do it

repeatedly. As a result, this is a very decent score that could involve other supporters to follow

the French Football Team on S.M.

Following to the Facebook Insight data, it

can be noticed that the French Football Team

has been mentioned many time during the

Euro2012. However, since the end of the

competition, the amount of mention has been

reduced.

Page | 44

5.4.5 Insight:

Along with the number of time this one has been visited by supporters (65% of respondents

visited the website less than a month to never); the website of the French Football Team is not a

source of information for supporters. However for the others 35%, result showed that the

Euro2012 had an impact on the traffic on the website.

About the presence of N.F.T. on S.M., the researcher concludes supporters are not well

informed on the presence of official S.M. platforms because 60% of them mentioned that the

football team has either no presence or they do not know. Nevertheless, for those following the

F.F.F., the main channel appears as to be Facebook (42%) and Google+ (11%). The same

assessment can be done as 75% of supporters have no idea whether the Team is present on S.M.

Channel. According to the sample of respondent, 44% of supporters are following the F.F.F. for

more than a year, which result in the fact that the Euro2012 was not a reason for following their

page.

Following to the use of S.M. by the F.F.F., 45% of supporters consider that the current S.M. use

of the F.F.F. is sufficient while 45% of supporters consider that the F.F.F. should make more

use of S.M. By more use, supporters suggested that the team should adopt others platforms such

as Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Blogs.

5.4.6 Impact:

The F.F.F. measures its S.M. strategy through a various range of tools such as Google Analytics

for YouTube, Agorapulse for Facebook. Moreover, it works in collaboration with two external

Page | 45

agencies (Smart&Geek and K.R.D.S. for Facebook) that provide it with statistics. For that, it

measures its Return on Investment (R.O.I.) in function of its engagement and recruitment rates.

It also measures its R.O.I. via the sale of commercial information regarding its fan base to its

partners. Finally, as the S.M. team keep themselves up-to-date via the regular contact with S.M.

companies such as Facebook, Google (Google+ and YouTube) but also its communication

agencies. This enables it to follow the latest S.M. trends on the market.

5.5 Analysis of the Spanish Football Team:

5.5.1 Involvement:

5.5.1.1 Profile of Supporters of the Spanish Football Team on Social Media:

Followers of the R.F.E.F. on S.M. are worldwide supporters of the Spanish National Team and

general football fans who are willing to be informed of the different competition and evolution

within the federation. Most of the followers are from Madrid area and are between 18 – 24 years

old. The R.F.E.F. qualifies its supporters as being passive because they only read and listen

without actually taking part in the debate. However, according to its analytics, the most active

supporters are located in Latin America. Supporters are usually active on its S.M. channel

around international game. This, usually, result in an increase of followers on Facebook and

Twitter and videos views on YouTube.


According to Hamill’s model, Spain is scoring a very low score (6). It is essentially present on

External S.M. Channels and has slightly adopted internal applications. It could be considered as

being a Non-Starter.

Text Facebook Y

Images Myspace

Video Twitter Y

Wiki Linkedin

Blogs Google+

Forums Foursquare

Ratings Youtube Y

Favourites FlickR

Online Chat Others

Web


Mapping/Mash-ups Mash-ups Photo Video Trip Advisor

Podcast/VodcastYes: Radio show recorded

and available on the websiteIgougo

Social Tagging Virtual Reality Sites Second Life

Social Bookmarking Mapping Sites Google Earth

Tag Cloud Mobile


RSS Feeds 3


External Links To other Web 2.0Yes: Twitter, Facebook and

Youtube.

3

Result:

Overall Result

Internal External

RFEF

Result:

Social Networking

Sites

Multimedia Sharing

Sites


Sites

Applications

UGC

FOD

RIA

Folksonomies

Feeds

Page | 46


The main strategy of the R.F.E.F. is to generate as much traffic and fans as possible on the three

external S.M. platforms. The S.M. Strategy of Twitter is mainly unidirectional by not-following

anyone. Its single objective is to broadcast information on this channel. Since its creation, the

federation has generated over 161,000 followers on Twitter (since 26th of April 2010), over

337,600 fans on Facebook (since the 12th of November 2009) and finally over 1,206

subscriptions for over 1,300,000 views on YouTube (since April 2010).

The strategy was similar during the Euro 2012 except that by the fact that it increases its

presence by being more active on S.M. platforms. On average, the federation posts 3 – 4 Tweets

per day. As it uses Facebook for another purpose, it posts less frequently on this channel with an

average of 3 posts per week. On YouTube, it generally depends on the actuality of the teams.

However, on a period of a competition, it tries to post at least 1 video per day.

Its strategy has had a positive impact as its number of followers has increased quite sharply

(about +40,000 followers on Twitter).

5.5.1.2.2 Internal Adoption:

The federation is only using mash-ups, podcast and external links on its websites.

As France, it has adopted mash-ups in its website. Supporters can therefore watch videos and

photos and engagement with the team by this way.

For the reasons previously mentioned, the Spanish Football Team has included external links of

its Web2.0 platform to its websites.

5.5.2 Interactions:

The R.F.E.F. is only using the three main S.M. platforms: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. On

YouTube, fans have the opportunity to watch video of the N.F.T. (Men and Women), interviews

run with players and coaches and others football related videos. The R.F.E.F. uses Twitter to

inform its fans on the latest information of the teams, on

punctual update of its website and also to post photos and

videos. As a result, it uses this channel as a broadcasting

way (Only 0.17% of Reply (TweetStats, 2010)). Regarding

Facebook, it uses it to post mainly photos and videos in

order to catch the attention of fans. The decision to use S.M.

was guided by the willingness to broadcast information quickly and directly to supporters

without passing by intermediaries. By acting in such a way, it enables the federation to get

access to supporters’ data and to create a bidirectional communication with fans of the Spanish

National Team.

Page | 47

The amount of engagement is more or less balanced as 56% of people claim they do against

44% who claims they do not. Concerning the platform used for engaging with their N.F.T.,

supporters mostly used Facebook and Twitter. In a certain extent, some of them re-pin some

photos on Pinterest. However, the amount of engagement is very low (80% engage less than

once a month), but those who do, they do it in order to get update on football in general and on

the N.F.T. The third and fourth reasons are to discuss their feeling about the team’s performance

and to share news and links to their peers. As the more so as, most of the supporters agree on

the point that the R.F.E.F. provides exclusive content and uses S.M. to promote its sponsors to

fans.

5.5.3 Intimacy:

According to SocialMention, the general sentiment of the RFEF is very neutral as

nobody mentioned it in whether a good or bad way. The RFEF got an

unbelievable high reached ration (42%). This is certainly due to the good result

the N.F.T. has had on the pitch recently.

5.5.4 Influence:

Following to the previous chart on SocialMention, the F.F.F. score 19% on passion. Slightly

less than 1 person out of 5 who talk about the N.F.T. do it repeatedly. As a result, this is an

average score to involve other fans on S.M.

Following to the Facebook Insight data, it can be noticed

that the RFEF has been mentioned a lot of time during the

Page | 48

Euro2012 and during the Olympic Games. This is due to the participation of the team in both

competitions.

According to the survey, supporters are satisfied about their engagement with their N.F.T. and

the content / time, posts are being posted. This general positivity of the use of Football Fans is

transcript on the positive recommendation they tends to do to their counterpart. Indeed, 78% of

supporters of the Spanish football team would recommend their peers to follow their team on

S.M.

Even though there is a general satisfaction of fans in the use of S.M. by the RFEF, they still

suggest some axe of improvement such as the creation of more online game of the update of

content even when the team is not playing. Someone suggested that the N.F.T. could develop

the same strategy as Barcelona F.C. whose optimise their stadium for S.M. and trained staff

member on how to use S.M. tool in order to avoid any pitfall. Another fan suggested that N.F.T.

should adopt a more customized strategy when it relates S.M. to their N.F.T.

5.5.5 Insight:

Spain supporters visit the official site of their N.F.T. only occasionally (66% maximum every

couple of weeks) and the rest claim to never visit it. 44% of Supporters mentioned they follow

official Web 2.0 sites of their N.F.T such as Facebook and YouTube. The same trend appears

for unofficial S.M. sites with Facebook as leading platform. Moreover, the result shows that

55% of supporters support their N.F.T. for more than a year. As a result, the Euro 2012 itself

was not a reason for following the team on S.M. platforms.

A significant 78% of fans would like to see their N.F.T. to make more use of S.M. This result

could be translated via the adoption of new platform such as Pinterest (22%), Blog (33%) and

Google+ (22%).

Page | 49

5.5.6 Impact:

As its main strategy is based on the attraction of fans and followers, the federation measures its

performance via the use of Google Analytics for its website and YouTube. It uses other

analytical tools for its others S.M. channels.

To stay on top of the latest innovation in S.M., the S.M. team at the federation attend event on

S.M. related topics set up by its partners. For example, in March 2012, it attended a workshop

organised in Oslo by the U.E.F.A. on Digital Media called KISS Workshop Digital Media.

5.6 Analysis of Ireland:

5.6.1 Involvement:

5.6.1.1 Profile of Supporters of the Irish Football team on Social Media:

Fans that are using N.F.T. channels are football fans of the Republic of Ireland. Most of them

are from the age range 18 – 34 and live in the Dublin area in the Republic of Ireland. According

to the F.A.I., fans are attracted by S.M. platform for its interactivity and their accessibility of

exclusive – unique content. Moreover, fans use these channels as an alternative for contacting

the federation. The easiness of access and the positive ratio of feedback involve supporters to

act in this way. Those ones are quite active on match day and the 4 days that surround the game.

Page | 50


With a score of 16, the F.A.I. is the federation with the highest score. It can be considered as

among the progressive adopter. Its adoption is balanced between internal (8) and external (8)

applications.


The Irish Football Federation has adopted a S.M. strategy in general and also during the Euro

2012. This one has resulted in an increase of 30% of the numbers of followers across channels.

Commonly, the F.A.I. uses S.M. in a wide variety of ways such as a Customer Service Tool to

give and receive information but also as a publicity tool to promote the Irish N.F.T. and its

partners.

Finally, being present on S.M. enables it to collect data on the market in order to address fans a

more customised content.

The F.A.I. is present online across various channel such as YouTube for the video sharing,

Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for the networking with supporters and finally Posterous as a

blogging platform. Twitter is the preferred platform as it lends itself to the F.A.I. a lot more

readily than any other platform.

The F.A.I. uses also Google Earth into its stadium facilities. Therefore, any Internet users can

access and visit the stadium via Google Earth. This enhances supporters’ experience by enabling

them to get access to places that he would normally not go

Text Facebook Y

Images Yes in Fan Zone Myspace

Video Twitter Y

Wiki Linkedin

BlogsLink to YBIG which seeems to

be a collaborative website

for SupportersGoogle+ Y

Forums YBIG Foursquare

Ratings Youtube Y

Favourites FlickR

Online Chat Others

Web

Application/WidgetsPodcast Sites iTunes Yes

Mapping/Mash-ups Mash Up Photo/Videos/Map Trip Advisor


Social Tagging Yes Virtual Reality Sites Second Life

Social BookmarkingYes: Stummble Upon,

Delicious…Mapping Sites Google Earth

Google Earth of the Aviva

Stadium

Tag Cloud Mobile Yes

Content Feeds On the YBIG website Tablet Yes

RSS Feeds 8


External Links To other Web 2.0Yes: External Link of Twitter

and facebook

8

Result:

Overall Result

Internal External

FAI

Result:

Social Networking

Sites

Multimedia Sharing

Sites


Sites

Applications

UGC

FOD

RIA

Folksonomies

Feeds

Page | 51

Due to the increasing usage of mobile technology, the FIA has created a mobile application

downloadable for smartphone owners. For some, this mobile application is a kind of substitution

of the website.

5.6.1.2.2 Internal adoption:

The F.A.I. is using a wide range of internal applications from U.G.C., to F.O.D., to Feeds.

Indeed, by accessing to the fan zone, supporters can upload images of their choices. This

involves a form of interaction between supporters and the N.F.T. in which they can all share

their experience.

Regarding the F.O.D, Ireland is using this application via its collaborative website “You Boys

In Green (YBIG)” which contain a blog and a forum.

As every other nation and for the same reason, Ireland embedded mash-up in its websites.

However, it has extended it to Google Map to help their fan to get the direction to go to the

stadium

Supporters can find on the F.A.I. website social bookmarking and social tagging tool. By this

way, the federation in charge of the website of the N.F.T. enables its fans to flag its articles into

their own blogs.

Feeds had been adopted by the F.A.I. It has embedded on its websites an instant Twitter feeds

which consist of posting every single tweets posted on its twitter account on the main page of

the website or the sub-website.

Such as France and Spain, the F.A.I. has embedded in its website links of its external Web2.0

platforms. The aim is to redirect the supporter toward its official channels in order to supply

them exclusive contents.

5.6.2 Interactions:

The F.A.I. is using Twitter as an engagement way. Indeed, 37.1% of the tweets (Replies &

Mentions & Retweet) are dedicated to a follower. Moreover, the 58.5% of Plain Tweets and

Pictures signifies that the F.A.I. still uses it as an informative platform.

Page | 52

Moreover, to engage fans and encourage interaction, the F.A.I. ran competitions on its S.M.

channels. For example, it ran a “Lowest Unique Bid” auction for a jersey that had been worn by

Richard Dunne. This contest generated 800 individual bids and it raised 1300€ that had been

given to a charity.

According to the questionnaire, 50% of Irish supporters claim to engage with their teams. The

result shows that the engagement is mostly done via Facebook and in a certain extent Twitter. In

general, they are quite satisfied about the content and the time of N.F.T. post in S.M. sites such

as Facebook Twitter and YouTube. They are more reserved when it concerns their blog though.

Though, 80% of them interact only occasionally (every couple of weeks) with their teams. The

main reasons for engaging with their teams are to discuss their feeling and to hear about live

game on TV. In certain degree, they follow their teams to share news and links with their peers;

by this way, they feel more strongly connected to their fellows fans. Getting updates on the Irish

Football Teams helps them to feel more strongly connected to their N.F.T. However, according

to their use, S.M. is not a reason for visiting more often their N.F.T. Website and they, in a

certain way, complaint about the speed of adaption of this one. Finally, they are neutral when it

relates to the exclusivity of the content posted on S.M. sites. Regarding the privacy of data, Fans

would rather prefer keeping their privacy setting as restricted as possible because they are not

willing to share their data with external parties and would not like getting unsolicited post from

strangers.

Page | 53

5.6.3 Intimacy:

According to SocialMention, the general sentiment of the Irish Football

Team is very positive as 9 out of 1 mentions are positives. With 18%

reached, the F.A.I. scores lower than its counterpart, however, this score

remain decent.

5.6.4 Influence:

Following to the previous chart on SocialMention, the F.A.I. scores 32% on

passion. Therefore, about 1/3 of people, who talk about the N.F.T., tend to

do it repeatedly. As a result, this score is positive for the F.A.I.

Following to the Facebook Insight data, it can be noted

that the F.A.I. has been mentioned quite a lot of time after

the Euro2012. This was due to the friendly game Ireland v

Serbia.

5.6.5 Insight:

According to the finding, Irish supporters tend to visit the website of their N.F.T. more often

than its counterpart. (60% visit the website several times per month). However, in comparison

with the history, they claim not to visit the website as often as they did 6 months ago.

Generally, as most of the supporters follows more official (50%) website than un-official (40%)

ones, it means that they tends to rely more on official website rather than on un-official.

Moreover, for 56% of Irish fans, the Euro 2012 had a positive impact on their behaviour on

Page | 54

S.M. sites to follow their N.F.T. However, the result shows that the fact of following their team

is quite mixed over the past 2+ years.

Furthermore, for 80% of Irish supporters, they would like to see their teams more involved in

S.M. channel.

Concerning the expectation of supporters regarding the use of S.M. by their N.F.T., they would

like to get offers more online competitions and more insight of the team. Some supporters even

suggest that the team would adopt a similar strategy as the internal community of the Bayern

Munich.

5.6.6 Impact:

The F.A.I. measures its S.M. impact via the use of S.M. analytical tools. It enables them to

agree on the point that S.M. is worthwhile to the Association. The success is measured through

the level of interaction between itself and stakeholders.

Finally, to keep itself up-to-date on the latest innovation in S.M., the S.M. team has taken part in

discussion groups on LinkedIn and it belong to professional membership group.


To conclude, the use and expectation of supporters of N.F.T. are very similar from one country

to another one. The external main platforms used appear to be Facebook mainly closely

followed by YouTube and in a certain extent Twitter. In general, N.F.T. are lacking behind the

adoption of internal application. It is more disparate between nations as Spain scores only 3/19

on Hamill’s model while Ireland scores 8/19. Except Ireland which has a decent engagement

rate, it appears that N.F.T. use S.M. as a broadcasting way. Following to the Intimacy, N.F.T.

receive a positive sentiment from supporters which could lead in an increasing adoption by their

counterpart. Indeed, the passion of supporters across their engagement leads to a positive feeling

and could therefore influence their fellow supporters. In general, supporters do not visit their

N.F.T. website very often and their knowledge of official S.M. presence is quite limited. As a

result, they would also like to see their team more active on S.M. platforms. In order to be at the

top of the latest technologies and therefore generate a positive impact on business, S.M. teams

keep themselves updated by attending or following group discussion on S.M. platforms. As for

the F.F.F., it keeps itself up-to-date thanks to its partnering agencies.

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6 Conclusions, Recommendations, Limitations

6.1 Conclusions:

6.1.1 Chapter Introduction:

To conclude, sport as a whole has become a massive industry that is nowadays subject to

research studies as any other industries. As football is one of the main sports played in the

world, it has become one of the main sources of research.

The objective of the Literature Review was to outline the different concept and model that

would be useful in the understanding of this project.

After outlining the core concept and evolution of the Web2.0, it has been found there is a close

link between the notions of Web2.0 and S.M. Indeed, according to Kaplan & Haenlein (2010),

S.M. has been created on the technological foundation of Web2.0. As a result, this has enabled

the researcher to support his entire project on this assumption. As this project was analysing the

impact of S.M. on Sports and more precisely on Football, the researcher analysed the different

use of S.M. into football and its trends. In a certain extent, a brief analysis of Web 3.0 has been

done in order to understand the main line of the future of the web and the potential opportunities

for businesses.

Secondly, C.R.M. is another important aspect when a business is dealing on S.M. Thus, the

notion of C.R.M. combined to the notion of fans results in the notion of tribes. Finally, the

customization of C.R.M. into S.M. has generated a new notion of Social C.R.M. (S.C.R.M.) or

C.R.M. 2.0. The researcher has found out that nowadays, customers are willing to interact with

companies. Therefore, companies have to adopt a customized way of interacting with their

customers in order to maintain and improve their loyalties.

Consequently, in order to answer the research title and define whether N.F.T. studied (France,

Spain, and Ireland) are using S.M., the researcher has set up three objectives which was

answered by the collection of data. By the use of netnography, the researcher has looked at how

N.F.T. had adopted S.M internally and externally. The second objective was by the mean of a

phone interview, with executive in charge of the S.M., to analyse the different strategies adopted

by N.F.T. Finally, the third objective was to understand the expectation of fans regarding their

engagement on S.M. platforms with their N.F.T. The last objective has been done via the send

out of survey designed for supporters from each nationality.

6.1.2 Objective 1: Social Media’s adoption by National Football Teams

The adoption of S.M. by N.F.T. is below the expectation of fans. To measure it, the researcher

used Hamill’s model in which he rates each form of S.M. adoption. In theory, the maximum an

N.F.T can score was 35 but, the highest result scored by the N.F.T. was 18 by the F.A.I. On the

other side, the lowest score was from the RFEF (6). Alternatively, the researcher has noticed

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that the adoption of Web2.0 websites was generally the same internally and externally..

Regarding External Application, the three main ones adopted by Federation are Facebook,

YouTube and Twitter. Federations tend to use these tools because they are the most commonly

adopted by fans.

6.1.3 Objective 2: Strategy adopted by National Football Team:

It can be noted that the strategy of N.F.T. is similar across countries. For all of them, their main

users of their S.M. platform are youth population living in major hub. Those ones are active on

S.M. during and around match day and competition. Every Nation seems to have adapted its

S.M. strategy during the Euro 2012. However, this one is not much different than the one they

are using on traditional period. Using S.M. enables them to get access to insight of their

customers’ database. As a result, thanks to this, federation can customise the content of the post

in function of the audience. It also enables them to sell their customers’ information to their

partners. Finally, federation get insight of the fan’s engagement via the use of analytical tools or

external agencies. To stay at the top of the latest technology, they attend workshop, follow

groups on LinkedIn or are directly in contact with companies such as Google or Facebook.

6.1.4 Objective 3: Expectation of supporters in their use of Social Media

With the sent out of a questionnaire, the researcher has been able to analyse the different

expectation of N.F.T.’s fans. First of all, respondents of this questionnaire were mainly from the

age range 18 – 30 and from all over the world as every continent were represented. Due to the

low level of feedback, the ratio of supporters for each country was unbalanced; however some

analysis had been conducted. Generally, the five main platforms used are Facebook, YouTube,

LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter. The main use they are doing on those platforms are to

communicate with friends and families, to keep being updated and finally for fun. The

researcher has noticed that those S.M. users were quite active as for 68% of them; they use it

more than once a day.

Almost half of the respondent hardly visits their N.F.T. Website and it seems that the

organisation of the Euro2012 did not have any impact on it. The engagement of supporters on

S.M. sites appears as to be below the expectation of N.F.T. as only 38% of respondent claims to

interact with them. Mostly, the interaction is being done on Facebook and on Twitter. Their

interaction is very occasional (48%: less than once a month) and it is mainly to discuss about the

feeling of their team (64%), to get update on general Football (64%) or on their N.F.T. (60%).

However, although supporters do not interact much, they are still satisfied of their engagement

and of the type of content and time N.F.T. post. Via the use of an open-ended question,

supporters were asked to cite their higher expectation in term of use of S.M. by N.F.T. The

expectation are slightly different from one nationality to another one but what come out is their

willingness to get more exclusive contents, more interaction and finally more online

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competition. The proximity has also been one of the main suggestions made from supporters.

Bayern Munich, Celtic F.C. and Barcelona have been cited by respondents as good example of

S.M use. Furthermore, some supporters have cited some S.M. practices adopted by football club

such as a Tour Diary in which they document what goes on during camps, or by giving the

power of Twitter to a player that is not playing or by adopting new S.M. platform such as

Instagram or Pinterest as a potential new practices. Consequently of this questionnaire,

supporters would like their N.F.T. to use at least the same amount of S.M. (92%). To summarize

their happiness, 60% of them would recommend to their friends to follow their N.F.T. on S.M.

6.2 Recommendations:

The researcher has drawn recommendations planning over a short (0-3 months), medium (3-6

months) and long term (6-12months) period. These recommendations have been made

following the expectations of supporters but also by comparing the current S.M. Strategy of

N.F.T. with the ones of others competitors. As the expectation of fans and the degree of

adoption of N.F.T. is very similar, the recommendations are applicable to all of them.

The researcher used Hamill’s model of establishing a S.M. strategy.

6.2.1 Business Objectives:

The S.M. strategy has to meet two kinds of objectives: Lag objectives and Lead objective. By

“Lag” objectives, the aim is to improve the position of N.F.T. by acquiring new fans and by

enhancing their experience and loyalty. By “Lead” objective, the aim is to improve the

awareness of the value of football and enhanced the satisfaction of supporters in their use of

S.M.

6.2.2 Customer Segment:

Given the profile of supporters of N.F.T. on S.M., the researcher advises N.F.T. to keep

targeting the same kind of supporters. However, due to the main origin of their followers, the

researcher advises N.F.T. not to neglect supporters living in the provinces and therefore

emphasise their strategy on them as well.. Moreover considering the evolution of adoption of

S.M. from older generations, the segment of the population should also be considered as a

serious source of followers. Thus, every N.F.T. supporters present on S.M. should be a target of

the N.F.T.

Finally, non-supporters but professional or influencer in football and S.M. industry should also

be a target a N.F.T. on S.M.

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6.2.3 Periods:

6.2.3.1 Short term:

6.2.3.1.1 Traditional Channel:

6.2.3.1.1.1 Facebook:

In order to match the expectation of their fans but also to attract more followers on their page,

N.F.T. should be more active on Facebook.

Content: As supporters suggested, the Facebook page of federations should be updated in a

more frequent way. Supporters consider that updating the page when there is an event around is

not enough. They should also provide more exclusive content on this channel.

Consumers: Federations should be integrated in Facebook Lists regarding to the same industry.

By this way, it would be easier for fans to find and follow each team on Facebook.

Conversations: Direct and daily interactions with fans will enhance the fan experience.

Conversion: It should be measured with the numbers of fans, interaction and “people talking

about it” on Facebook insight. General mentioning analytics should also be monitored online.

Good Practices: F.C.Barcelona (See Appendices 8.8.18.8.1)

The F.C. Barcelona is an example in its use of S.M. and more particularly Facebook. It uses

this platform as an engagement way across the various app embedded in its page.

6.2.3.1.1.2 Twitter:

Twitter should be used as a main S.M. tool for broadcasting and interacting with their fans.

Content: Everything happening related to the N.F.T. should be twitted. It is one of the easiest

platforms for broadcasting articles from the websites to a large audience but also to interact with

them.

Consumer: The account should be followed by influential people. Thanks to them, the

federation would have accessed to a larger audience that it would normally not have.

Conversation: Due to the small amount of characters possible, message has to be diffused on a

direct way and on a daily basis.

Conversion: Numbers of followers but also the ratio of reply and being retweeted would be a

significant way of measuring the conversion.

Good Practice: Liverpool F.C. (See Appendices8.8.2)

With an average of replies estimated at 29%, Liverpool is one of the clubs in Europe that

engage the most with its fans.

6.2.3.1.1.3 YouTube:

YouTube can be a vector of engagement by the use of “behind the scene” or interactive videos.

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Content: As with the other platform, more exclusive content should be provided such as behind

the scene video or as it has been done by some federation by broadcasting live games on this

channel.

In partnership with their partners, interactive videos could also be created.

Consumer: The community can be built via the promotion of video on external Web2.0

platforms but also internally.

Conversation: F.O.D and U.G.C. have to be enabled on the video. However, an activity log

should be set up to prevent any comments that do not match the policy of the U.E.F.A.

Conversion: the number of views and subscription as well as analytics of the video retention

should be the main tool to measure the conversion rate.

Good Practices: Nike Commercial “My time is Now”

[https://www.youtube.com/user/NikeFootball/mytimeisnow] (See Appendices 8.8.3)

In its video “My Time is Now”, Nike engages with viewers by asking them to find hidden

tunnels in this video. Tunnels are promoting the value of the brand such as environmental

concern.

Moreover, it has been noticed that the name of the account of the N.F.T. varies from one

channel to another which could lead to confusion in the adoption of S.M. platforms by fans. As

a result, as much as possible, federations should adopt a single signature on their S.M. sites.

6.2.3.1.2 Adoption of others platforms:

6.2.3.1.2.1 Foursquare:

Foursquare enables its users to geotag themselves in different places. Adopting such a platform

would enable fans to follow their teams in each of their trips.

Furthermore, by geotagging themselves in N.F.T.’ facilities, fans would indirectly promote the

team and enhance their proximity their N.F.T.

Content: The content should be updated everytime the team is in a different location.

Accordingly, this platform would be used only on games’ periods.

Consumers: The Foursquare Account should be promoted on the Website but also on the

external Web2.0 Applications. The synchronisation of the geotag on Facebook and Twitter

should also be used to promote the account and increase the number of followers.

Conversations: Although it is not a platform made for interaction, this one can be done via the

button “Like” and “Comment”.

Conversion: Conversion can be measured via the number of “Likes” and “Comments”.

Indirectly, the offline audience should increase to support the team.

Good Practices: Manchester City F.C. (See Appendices 8.8.4)

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Manchester City has been the pioneer here as well in its use of Foursquare. It uses it to promote

the team trip and engage their fans.

6.2.3.1.2.2 Instagram:

Instagram is a new photo-sharing site that enables users to take and share amateurs’ pictures

with their audiences.

Content: The content would only be daily photo taken by staff member, players and eventually

supporters.

Consumers: The app could be promoted via the main website and via partnering website such

as Facebook and Twitter as all the photos taken could be posted on these platforms.

Conversations: Fans could be encourage to share, like or comments the different photos taken.

Conversion: Conversion could be done via the number of interactions (Comments, likes,

shares) photos generate.

Good Practices: Manchester City F.C. (See Appendices 8.8.5)

Manchester City is using Instagram to share the experience of match day with its supporters.

6.2.3.1.2.3 Pinterest:

Pinterest is a new social sharing platform that drives more traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and

YouTube united. Therefore, it is a springboard for federations brand awareness in order to

attract new fans and foster loyalty.

Content: Update should be done several times a day. Every picture that promotes the value of

football and of the N.F.T. should be posted on this app.

Consumers: External and Internal promotion on Web2.0 application.

Conversations: The conversations could be made via the use of F.O.D and repins.

Conversion: The conversation can be measure through the number of followers, repins, clicks

ending on the on external website. The use of tools such as Google Analytics should be useful

to monitor the progress.

“Moreover, with the partnership of Pinterest with “Affiliate Programmes”, it has a real

advantage of being a source of income for federations.”

Good Practices: Liverpool F.C. (See Appendices 8.8.6)

Liverpool F.C. has been pioneered in its use of Pinterest in premier League. It has a wide range

of boards (Equipment, Athletes, Euro2012,) in order to match the interest of its fans.

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6.2.3.1.2.4 Mobile App:

As the researcher has shown via the questionnaire, mobile access to platform is taking a major

part. As a result, federations should consider creating a mobile application in order to attract

new fans and to enhance fans’ experience and loyalty through the use of game and special offer.

Content: This application should be a mini window of the website by giving access to all the

latest information provided in it. In this application, the fan could also find a section dedicated

to gaming where supporters would be involved in giving the game sheet, giving prognostic. A

community should also be embedded in order to increase the feeling of belonging of fans to the

N.F.T. This app could also enable supporters to purchase tickets or goodies.

Customers: This app should be promoted on every N.F.T. S.M. channel and on the website.

Conversations: Conversation would be possible via the community and via the different game

offered. It would be through the use of F.O.D.

Conversion: The number of downloads and the retention rate would be the way to measure the

conversion.

Good Practices: NHL Ice Time (See Appendices 8.8.7)

This app is the official mobile App for the NHL Hockey. It offers a wide range of support such

as game photos, videos’ highlight and live radio feeds.

6.2.3.2 Medium Term:

6.2.3.2.1 Website:

Websites of Federations look like they are all Web1.0 website with a few Web2.0 applications

embedded. Thus, the fans engagement and experience is very limited and should be redesigned

to meet this target.

Content: The website should provide the same information as now but by adding Internal

Web2.0 application and by making it more interactive to fans. The creation of a S.M. Club

House, in which fans could get access, to every official S.M. platform the club is involved in

from a dedicated page on the website, should be considered.

Customers: The website is the main official window of communication of the federation and

the team. Therefore, the URL address should be displayed online and offline on every support

of communication.

Conversations: The website should provide a community area dedicated to fans in which they

all would be able to take part in F.O.D. The connection to this fan zone could be done via the

use of Open-Graph tools from Facebook or Google. This would provide further data to the

federation and therefore enhance fans experience.

Conversion: The conversion should be measured with analytical tools such as Google

Analytics, Fans’ Engagement and Social Mentioning over the web.

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Good Practice: Chelsea F.C. (See Appendices 8.8.8.1) and

L.A. Dodgers (See Appendices 8.8.8.2)

Chelsea F.C. has built a strong community in its own website by including many S.M. features.

L.A. Dodgers has embedded in its websites a S.M. Club-House.

6.2.3.3 Long Term:

6.2.3.3.1 Facebook Fan Page platform:

For the London 2012 Olympics Game, Facebook set up a page which looked like a directory of

every sports, nations, athletes and sponsors involved in this competition. A similar platform

should be used for each federation in which they would take an inventory of every N.F.T. pages

sections (U17, U19, A, Women, Futsal,), professional football players and official partners. This

platform would not be a place for engagement between fans and N.F.T. However, it would ease

the life of fans to find official page of athletes, teams or partners.

Good Practice: London 2012 Facebook Platform [www.facebook.com/pages/Olympics]

(See Appendices 8.8.9)

6.2.3.3.2 Google Earth:

Google Earth is being used nowadays as a sightseeing tool. Some stadium such as Wembley

(London) and the Aviva Stadium (Dublin) have already adopted it. It enables the random

Internet users to feel closer to their facilities and involves them in attending future games.

Content: This application should be embedded automatically on Google Earth and on the

Website of the Federation thanks to the use of Mash-Up.

Customers: Any Internet users would be able to visit the stadium through the website. Its

promotion would be through S.M. channels and more traditional ones.

Conversations: Thanks to geotag, on the website of the N.F.T., supporters could tag themselves

in the stadium. This would involve engagement as supporters would be able to share their

experience in the field.

Conversion: The conversion would be done thanks to Google Analytics and by measuring the

amount of engagement generated.

Good Practice: Wembley Stadium (See Appendices 8.8.10)

6.2.3.3.3 Match day Photo Experience:

As an extension of the Google Earth application, N.F.T. could adopt a similar tool as Arsenal

did with its 360° photo of the audience in the stadium.

Content: During a game, a 360° panoramic photo of the audience could be taken and posted on

the website after the game.

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Customers: The service would be developed on S.M. channel and internally to the website of

the federations in the fan area.

Conversations: Through the use of Open Graph tool, every supporter would be encouraged to

tag oneself in the photo and to engage with its fellow supporters on their experience at the

stadium.

Conversion: The number of tag in the photo would be an indicator of the success of the photo.

As the service will be embedded on the website, the number of views and the retention would

also be another form of conversion measurement.

Good Practice: Arsenal F.C. (See Appendices 8.8.11)

6.2.4 Resources:

Considering the increasing importance S.M. is taking within N.F.T., the researcher suggests

them to allocate a full time community manager in charge of monitoring the S.M. presence and

e-Reputation of N.F.T. The performance should be measured at three levels. First of all, it

should measure Individual S.M. channels, then the overall buzz and finally the impact on the

business in relation to the business objectives previously described.

6.2.5 Chapter Conclusion:

As a result, the researcher advises N.F.T. to make more use of Web2.0 application. He

described an adoption plan over a 12 months period in which he described the potential benefit

for the fan and the N.F.T.

6.3 Limitations and Recommendations for future research:

Every piece of research is subjected to some limitations. Although some of them have been

identified at the proposal stage and alongside the project, the researcher has identified some

more limits that have been faced later on. As a result, if another researcher would like to extend

this project, he should take into consideration the following limits.

The first limits the researcher faced were the amount of respondents. With a total number of 39

respondents, no relevant conclusion can be done. Regarding the size of the project and the time

given, it was established that 250 respondents would be a significant result. However, higher the

feedback more accurate will be the result. Such a low level of response can be explained by

several factors. First of all, the researcher has not managed to get his survey promoted by N.F.T.

Secondly, to match the schedule originally planned; the survey could be run only for a

maximum of two weeks. In comparison, a similar project runs over a month for and in

partnership with the Celtic Football Club received over 1000 respondents. Another reason of

that could be explained by the fact that supporters of N.F.T. do not feel associated to their teams

as they do with their clubs.

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The second limit is the origin of respondents. This survey has outlined a wide range of response

in term of countries. However, as people from 12 different countries have answered this survey,

it can be wondered whether those “supporters” are real supporters of the N.F.T. studied.

Moreover, as part of the questionnaire where asked to respondents to answer some questions

regarding the design of the website. Asking such questions to non-familiar respondent can bias

the result. Consequently, if another questionnaire would have to be sent, this limit would be

taken into considerations.

The fourth limit is the method of data’s collection for the interviews. The first intention of the

researcher was to run interviews with an executive in charge of the S.M. strategy within

federations. Unfortunately, beside the aspect that interviews have not been scheduled with all

federation; some federations have answered to the questions via email. Therefore, the insight of

information and the amount of data collected was different from one method of data collection

to another one.

The fifth limit was mainly due to the time allocated for such a project. To run a similar project,

more time should have been allocated for each task. Indeed, for a matter of time, interviews and

the questionnaire were run at the same time. However, the researcher found out once the

interviews was done that some questions from the questionnaire were not relevant to some

N.F.T.

Finally a question that unfortunately has not been treated in this project is the impact of culture

in the adoption of S.M.

6.4 Reflective Essay:

This project has been the accomplishment of my Master of Science in International

Management. All along the year, following to my passion for and external involvement in S.M.

activities, I have had a rough idea on the topic’s theme of my project. As a result, as S.M. would

have been the management practice studied in my project, I had to focus on an industry of

research.

Originally, I was hesitating between Sports and SMEs. However, after having developed my

ideas to Dr Andrew Barron, he suggested that I could focus on N.G.O.s and extend the work

undertaken with the Prince Scottish Youth Business Trust (Scottish Based N.G.O.) during the

Google Online Marketing Challenge I participated in.

After further considerations, I decided to stick on my initial choice and to focus on the sports

industry and more particularly on football. For what I can say, is that I do not regret this choice

as my learning outcome had been important. Indeed, even though I spent a ridiculous amount of

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hours per day to read online sports news, my knowledge of sports marketing was close to none

initially. Therefore, after working during these three months period on this project, I learned the

core concept of Sports Marketing but also its implication on S.M.

Moreover, besides acquiring hard knowledge on the topic of S.M. and Sports Industry, this

project enables me to develop soft skills such as time management. Without a doubt, over these

three months period, regular meetings have been scheduled with my supervisor - Dr Sean Ennis

– which enable me to keep myself on my forecasted timeline. In addition, to keep myself on

time, I adopted the post-it charts method which enables me to organise my time and therefore

keep my work on time.

Another soft skill I have developed is my analytical skills. All over the year, I have work on

assignment which required making research. However, all those assignments were supported by

courses content. As a result, we just needed to support theories seen in class in our piece of

work. Regarding this project, as most of my knowledge were non-academical, I had to learn

everything by myself. Therefore, this has enabled me to develop my research and analytical

skills.

One of the only requirements of the University of Strathclyde regarding this project was its

international orientation. As a result, I originally focus, run research over and collect data for 5

countries. Consequently, during the interviews’ process, I have also noticed and learned that in

function of their origin, people will have a different approach of questions asked. Their notion

of time was also much different than what I used to. In addition by getting in contact with

Football Federation from foreign country, I have managed to practice my communication skills

by adapting my way of talking to the culture. Thus, this project permitted me to have a better

understanding on cultural differences.

Finally this project has taught me to be more autonomous on my way of working and organising

my studies and to produce a 16,000 words piece of work in a dedicated times.

As we were free in the choice of topic for the project, we generally chose a topic in which we

were - or at least we think we were – interested/confident. As a result, this project is acting like

a confirmation or quashing of whether we want to go further in this field of study. In

conclusion, I can say that I absolutely do not regret to have chosen such a topic as it has helped

me to define even more my professional path.

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Page | 71

8 Appendices

8.1 Acronym:

C.R.M.: Consumer Relationship Management

F.A.: Football Association (England)

F.A.I.: Football Association of Ireland

F.F.F.: Fédération Française de Football (French Football Federation)

F.I.F.A.: Fédération Internationale de Football Association (International Football Association)

F.O.D.: Forum, Opinion, Discussion

F.P.F.: Federaçao Portuguesa de Futebol (Portuguese Football Federation)

N.F.T.: National Football Teams

N.G.O.: Non-Governmental Organisation

R&D: Research and Development

R.F.E.F.: Real Federación Española de Futbol (Spanish Football Federation)

R.M.: Relationship Marketing

R.O.I.: Return on Investment

S.C.R.M.: Social Customer Relationship Management

S.M.: Social Media

U.E.F.A.: Union of European Football Association

U.G.C.: Users Generated Content

R.I.A.: Rich Internet Application

R.S.S.: Really Simple Syndication

Page | 72

8.2 Glossary:

Blogs: Web site on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information, etc. on a

regular basis.

Consumer Relationship Management: System in which they have integrated all relationships,

have collected and analysed data across the firm in order to develop capabilities to create

customers’ value while creating shareholders’ value for the firm.

Dailymotion: Video sharing websites.

Facebook Insight: Analytical tool provided by Facebook that provide trends on the activity of

the page.

Facebook: Social networking website.

Fandom: Gathering of people that share the same passions ad commitment to a product,

service, organisation, concept or idea.

Folksonomy: Social software application that allows users to collectively classify and find

information.

Foursquare: Geotagging website.

Google Earth: Virtual globe, map and geographic information program.

Infoware: Websites that use commoditized server software to enable data to be shared via a

website, and as a result create value.

Instagram: Photo-sharing website

Klout Score: measurement of someone's overall online influence.

Marketing: Whereby consumers/users are made aware of the product/service and are able to

purchase it.

Mash-Ups: Web page or web application that uses and combines data, presentation and

functionality from two or more sources to create new services.

Open Graph: Describe the ability for some social networking software to interact across

different platforms. This allows different websites and applications to share information about a

user, their interests and even their friendship network.

Open Source: Platform built with neither pattern nor copyright where any internet user can not

only adopt it but can also customize it to his own need.

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Pinterest: Image-sharing Site

R.S.S.: Family of Web Feed formats used to publish frequently updated works in a standardised

format.

Relationship Marketing: Process of establishing, developing, and maintaining successful

relational exchanges between parties.

Rich Internet Application: Web application that has many of the characteristics of desktop

application software, typically delivered by way of a site-specific browser, a browser plug-in, an

independent sandbox, extensive use of JavaScript, or a virtual machine.

Social Media: Group of Internet based application that build on the ideological and

technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation of users generated content.

SocialMention: Social media search platform that aggregates user generated content from

across the universe into a single stream of information

Sports Marketing: On-going process through which contests with an uncertain outcome are

staged, creating opportunities for the simultaneous fulfilment of direct and indirect objectives

among sports customers, sports businesses and other related individuals and organisations.

Twitter: Microblogging Site

Virtual Goods: Non-physical objects that are purchased for use in online communities or

online games.

Virtual Worlds: Online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated

environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects.

Web1.0: Conceptual evolution of the World Wide Web, centered around top-down approach

over the use of the web and its user interface.

Web2.0: Tools that help people build online community for creativity, collaboration and

sharing.

Web3.0: a web of data that can be processed directly and indirectly by machines.

YouTube: Video sharing sites.

Page | 74

8.3 Questions for interviews:

1. Your name:

2. Job name:

3. National Football Team:

4. FiF.A. Rank:

5. Latest Reported annual turnover:

- £1 - £4.99m

- £5 - £9.99m

- £10 - £14.99m

- £15 - £19.99m

- £20 - £24.99m

- £25 - £34.99m

- £35 - £44.99m

- £45 - £59.99m

- £60 - £79.99m

- Over £80m

6. Year Reported:

7. Number of employees (except players and coaches):

8. Does the F.P.F have a:

- CEO / Managing Director

- Marketing Manager

- Communication Manager

- CRM Manager

- Social Media Manager

9. Do you use Social Media Site? Which one?

- Yes

- No

If No, do you intend to use it? Maybe in the future only the F.P.F.pt

10. Personality of the F.A.n:

- Who’s using your channel?

- What are they doing on it?

- When are they most active?

11. Why have they chosen this channel site? What is drawing them to it?

12. Do you have a clear Social Media Strategy? Which one?

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13. Did you have a particular strategy during the Euro2012? Which one?

14. What was the outcome?

15. Did you notice an increase in the number of adoption on your respective pages during

that period?

16. Which platforms are you using? How do you know it is the best one for your business?

17. How do you use Social Media? (Broadcast, interact, …)

18. What types of content are you sharing with your Fans?

19. How often do you place material on Social Media?

20. How many staffs are involved within the social media team? Are they Full-Time/Part-

time?

21. How much traffic and leads are generated across your social platforms?

22. Provide an example of a social media campaign you have executed. Describe what

channels you used. Describe the outcome of your campaign

23. How do you know if Social Media is worthwhile to the F.P.F and how do you measure

success?

24. What is your definition of Social Media success?

25. How do you measure your Return On Investment? (Key Performance Indicator?)

26. How do you stay on top of the latest innovation in social media?

Page | 76

8.4 Online Questionnaire:

Demographical & Interest

Q1 Gender:

Male (1)

Female (2)

Q2 Age:

16 - 18 (1)

18 - 24 (2)

25 - 30 (3)

31 - 40 (4)

40+ (5)

Q3 Nationality:

French (1)

Spanish (2)

English (3)

Irish (4)

Portuguese (5)

Others: (6) ____________________

Q4 National Football Team supported:

France (1)

Spain (2)

England (3)

Ireland (4)

Portugal (5)

Q5 How do you show your support to your National Football Team? (Tick all that apply)

Buying merchandising goods (1)

Watch games on TV, online (2)

Attend games occasionally (3)

Attend every Home or Away games (4)

Attend both home and away games (5)

Attend Euro/World Cup games when it qualifies (6)

Others: (7) ____________________

Social Media

Definition: “Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological

and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-

generated content” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010)

Page | 77

Q6 What type of Social Media do you use? (Tick all that apply)

Facebook (1)

Google+ (2)

Twitter (3)

LinkedIn (4)

Pinterest (5)

Youtube (6)

Blog (7)

Forum (8)

RSS (9)

Others: (10) ____________________

Q7 How long have you used Social Media?

Less than 6 months (1)

6 - 12 Months (2)

1 - 2 Years (3)

3 - 4 Years (4)

Over 4 Years (5)

Q8 Why do you use Social Media for? (Tick all that apply)

Communicating with friends and F.A.mily (1)

Fun (2)

Being updated (3)

Finding info on product or services (4)

Others: (5) ____________________

Q9 How often do you use Social Media?

More than once a day (1)

Daily (2)

Every couple of days (3)

Weekly (4)

Every couple of weeks (5)

Monthly (6)

Less than once a month (7)

Q10 How do you access Social Media? (Tick all that apply)

Laptop or Desktop (1)

Smartphone (2)

TV (3)

Video game console (Wii, Xbox, PS3 etc) (4)

Others: (5) ____________________

Social Media and Football

Q11 How often do you visit your official National Football Team WEBSITE?

Page | 78


Daily (2)


Weekly (4)


Monthly (6)


Never (8)

Answer If How often do you visit your official National Football Te... Never Is Not Selected

Q12 Do you visit your official National Football Team website more or less frequently than you

did 6 months ago?

Much more (1)

More (2)

The same (3)

Less (4)

Much Less (5)

Q13 Does your National Football Team have an official presence on any of the following Social

Media Site? (Tick all that apply)

No, it does not (1)

I do not know (2)

Facebook (3)

Google+ (4)

Twitter (5)

Pinterest (6)

Youtube (7)

Blog (8)

Forum (9)

RSS (10)

Others: (11) ____________________

Answer If Does your National Football Team have an official presenc... No, it does not Is Not

Selected Or Does your National Football Team have an official presenc... I do not know Is Not

Selected

Q14 Do you follow official sites or Medias related to your National Football Team on any of the

following Social Media Site? (Tick all that apply)

No, I don’t follow OFFICIAL Sites or medias related (1)

Facebook (2)

Google+ (3)

Twitter (4)

Pinterest (5)

Youtube (6)

Blog (7)

Page | 79

Forum (8)

RSS (9)

Others: (10) ____________________

Q15 Does your National Football Team have an UNOFFICIAL presence on any of the

following Social Media Site? (Tick all that apply)

No, it does not (1)

I do not know (2)

Facebook (3)

Google+ (4)

Twitter (5)

Pinterest (6)

Youtube (7)

Blog (8)

Forum (9)

RSS (10)

Others: (11) ____________________

Answer If Does your National Football Team have an UNOFFICIAL prese... No, it does not Is

Not Selected Or Does your National Football Team have an UNOFFICIAL prese... I do not

know Is Not Selected

Q16 Do you follow UNOFFICIAL sites or Medias related to your National Football Team on

any of the following Social Media Site? (Tick all that apply)

No, I don’t follow UNOFFICIAL Sites or medias related (1)

Facebook (2)

Google+ (3)

Twitter (4)

Pinterest (5)

Youtube (6)

Blog (7)

Forum (8)

RSS (9)

Others: (10) ____________________

Q17 How long have you followed National Football Team on Social Media?

Less than a month (1)

1 – 3 Months (2)

3 – 6 Months (3)

6 – 12 Months (4)

1 – 2 Years (5)

Over 2 Years (6)

Q18 Was the Euro2012 a reason to follow your National Football Team on Social Media Site?

Yes (1)

No (2)

Page | 80

Q19 Which Social Media platform would you like to see National Football Team involved in?

(Tick all that apply)

Facebook (1)

Google+ (2)

Twitter (3)

Pinterest (4)

Youtube (5)

Blog (6)

Forum (7)

RSS (8)

Others: (9) ____________________

Your engagement on Social Media with your National Football Team

Here are different forms of engagement:

Clicking on the "Like" button

Sharing a status

Commenting a status

Clicking on the "+1" button on G+

Pinning a photo on Pinterest

Reply to an article on a blog

Sharing a video

Using the "#" on Twitter

Retweeting a post on Twitter

Twitting a status by using "@"

Following someone /something on Twitter

Uploading a picture

Q20 Do you engage with your National Football team on Social Media?

Yes (1)

No (2)

If No Is Selected, Then Skip To Do you think the content posted by Na...

Page | 81

Q21 How do you engage with your National Football Team? (Tick all that apply)

Like button (1)

Share status (2)

Comment (3)

+1 button (G+) (4)

Pin it button (5)

Reply (6)

Share a video (7)

Use # (8)

Tweet (9)

Retweet (10)

Upload status by using @ (11)

Follow (12)

Upload a picture (13)

Others: (14) ____________________

Q22 How often do you engage with National Football Team on Social Media?


Daily (2)


Weekly (4)


Monthly (6)


Never (8)

Q23 Which are the reasons for engaging with National Football Team? (Tick all that apply)

Discussing my feeling about the performance of the team (1)

Hearing about live game on TV (2)

Hearing about ticket news (3)

Taking part in game and competitions (4)

Following particular players (5)

Socializing with others Fans (6)

Passing on News / Links to others (7)

Getting updates on general football news (8)

Getting updates on the National Football Team news (9)

Finding out what others Fans feel (10)

Discussing my feeling about way National Football Team clubs treats Fans (11)

Discussing my feeling about the way National Football Team is being run (12)

Discussing other teams (13)

Page | 82

Q24 How satisfied do you feel from the engagement that you have with National Football Team

on each of the following Social Media?

Very

Dissatisfied (1)

Dissatisfied

(2)

Neutral

(3)

Satisfied

(4)

Very

Satisfied (5)

I do not

engage with them

on this

channel

(6)

Facebook

(1)

Google+

(2)

Twitter (3)

Pinterest

(4)

YouTube

(5)

Blog (6)

Forum (7)

RSS (8)

Others: (9)

Q25 Do you think the content posted by National Football Team on Social Media Site is

relevant?

Strongly

Disagree

(1)

Disagree

(2)

Neither

Agree nor

Disagree (3)

Agree (4) Strongly

Agree (5)

I do not

follow

them on this

channel (6)

Facebook

(1)

Google+

(2)

Twitter (3)

Pinterest

(4)

Youtube

Page | 83

(5)

Blog (6)

Forum (7)

RSS (8)

Others: (9)

Q26 Do you think the time of the day the content is posted by National Football Team on Social

Media Site is effective?

Strongly

Disagree

(1)

Disagree

(2)

Neither

Agree nor

Disagree (3)

Agree (4) Strongly

Agree (5)

I do not

follow

them on this

channel (6)

Facebook

(1)

Google+

(2)

Twitter (3)

Pinterest

(4)

Youtube

(5)

Blog (6)

Forum (7)

RSS (8)

Others: (9)

Q27 Please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statement:

Strongly

Disagree (1)

Disagree (2) Neither

Agree nor

Disagree (3)

Agree (4) Strongly

Agree (5)

Using Social

Media makes

me feel more

strongly

connected to

my fellows

Page | 84

Fans (1)

Using Social

Media makes

me feel more

strongly

connected to

my National

Football Team

(2)

My National

Football Team

provides

exclusives

content to

Fans on Social

Media (3)

My National

Football Team

uses Social

Media to build

strong

relationships

with other

F.A.n sites,

blog and

forums that

already exist

online (4)

My National

Football Team

uses Social

Media to

promote the

partners

(sponsors) to

the Fans (5)

Page | 85

My National

Football

Team’s

sponsors use

Social Media

to connect

with me (6)

My National

Football Team

runs

competitions

and

promotions

for supporters

via Social

Media (7)

I go to official

National

Football Team

site more

regularly

because of its

use of Social

Media (8)

My club has

been quick to

adopt the full

potential of

Social Media

(9)

I do not like

when National

Football Team

shares my

privacy data

with third

Page | 86

parties. (10)

I do not like

receiving

unsolicited

post from

unknown

persons (11)

Q28 Use 5 words by ranking them describing of what do you expect more through your

engagement with National Football Team on Social Media:

Expectation #1 (1)

Expectation #2 (2)

Expectation #3 (3)

Expectation #4 (4)

Expectation #5 (5)

Q29 Are there any good examples of use of Social Media you would like your National Football

Team to adopt?

Q30 Would you like your National Football Team to make more, same or less use of Social

Media?

More (1)

Same (2)

Less (3)

Q31 Would you recommend your friends to “follow” National Football Team on Social Media

Site?

Yes (1)

No (2)

Page | 87

8.5 Participant Information Sheet:

8.5.1 Participant Information Sheet English

Name of department: Management

Title of the study: National Football Team and their Fans: An analysis on the adoption and

engagement of Social Media across country.

Introduction:

My name is Benoît Loïc Vaysse. I am completing my master (postgraduate degree) in

International Management at the University of Strathclyde – Glasgow (UK). If you wish, you

can contact me at the following email address ([email protected]). The University of

Strathclyde sponsors this study.

What is the purpose of this investigation?

The purpose of this study is to analyse the engagement between football Fans and National

Football Team. Over the past few years, Social Media has become one of the main

communication tools used by companies. As a result, a lot of studies have been done in showing

the benefit for each part (Business/Consumer) in the business industry; however I noticed that

the sports industry is quite poor in research. That is why I decided to focus on sports and more

particularly on football. By taking part in this study, you will enable me to analyse the degree of

adoption and engagement of both football supporter and national football team into social media

and finally whether the social media strategy adopted by a football nation is efficient. Another

aspect study will be the impact of culture in the adoption and engagement of Social Media. By

taking part in this study you will enable me to analyse this aspect of culture.

Do you have to take part?

If you decide to take part in this study, you will only be asked to answer open and close

questions. The only requirement is to answer honestly not to bias the final result. Your

participation is voluntary; therefore you can choose not to participate in this study or to

withdraw your participation at any time. If you refuse to participate or withdraw your

participation, it will not affect any other aspects of the way a person is treated.

What will you do in the project?

As part of this study, you will either be required to fill in a questionnaire or attend an interview

(This would have been mentioned previously when making contact.). If you are required to fill

in a questionnaire, the length should not last more than 30 min. Regarding the interview, it

should not last more than 45 minutes. In both cases, this can be held online via dedicated

website (Online survey, Skype or Google Hangout for interview.). All the data need to be

collected by the 1st of August 2012, therefore in the case of an online survey; these ones need to

mailto:[email protected]

Page | 88

be submitted by that time. Concerning the interview, the date and time will be arranged upon

the availability of the participant.

Why have you been invited to take part?

If you are being invited to take part in this study, it means that you are either present online and

a supporter of one of the 5 European national teams studied involved in the Euro2012 or you are

actually in charge of the Social Media Strategy of one of those teams. If you are not involved in

any of those, please disregard this survey.

Team involved in the Euro2012: Portugal, Spain, Ireland, England, France.

What are the potential risks to you in taking part?

I guarantee you the confidentiality of the information provided and that anything you will tell

me will not compromise your position in your organisation. I also guarantee that my questions

and research will not cause discomfort or risk for you, my supervisor and for the University of

Strathclyde.

What happens to the information in the project?

All information received will be stored securely in either locked or secure cabinets or password

protected electronic files. All references to individuals or organisations will be removed or

given pseudonyms if data is to be included within the submitted study, unless express

permission has been given. All data will be destroyed on submission and completion of the

research project.

The University of Strathclyde is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office who

implements the Data Protection Act 1998. All personal data on participants will be processed in

accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Thank you for reading this information – please ask any questions if you are unsure about what

is written here.

What happens next?

If you are happy to be involved in the project, please sign the consent form below to confirm

this.

If you do not want to be involved in this study, I would like to thank you for your attention and

your time taken.

Once all the data will be collected and analysed, if required, I can forward you a copy of the

result. Unless you required your data to be confidential, the final result of the investigation will

be published and available at the Library of the University of Strathclyde.

Page | 89

Researcher Contact Details:

This study is supervised by Dr Sean Ennis – Senior Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde.

If you wish, you can contact him at:

E: [email protected]

M: +44 (0)141 548 3247 (EXT. 3247)

Chief Investigator Details:

Investigator: Benoît Loïc Vaysse

Contact details of the University of Strathclyde

Address: 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ. Scotland, United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0)1 415 524 400

This investigation was granted ethical approval by the University of Strathclyde ethics

committee.

If you have any questions/concerns, during or after the investigation, or wish to contact an

independent person to whom any questions may be directed or further information may be

sought from, please contact:

Secretary to the University Ethics Committee

Research & Knowledge Exchange Services

University of Strathclyde

Graham Hills Building

50 George Street

Glasgow

G1 1QE

Telephone: 0141 548 3707

Email: [email protected]



Page | 90

8.5.2 Participant Information Sheet French

Nom du département : Management

Titre de l’étude : Les équipes Nationales de Football et leurs fans : Une analyse sur l’adoption

et l’engagement des Médias Sociaux à travers les pays.

Introduction :

Je m’appelle Benoît Loïc Vaysse. Je suis en train de terminer mon Master en Management

International à l’Université de Strathclyde à Glasgow au Royaume Uni. Si vous le souhaitez,

vous pouvez me contacter à l’adresse suivante ([email protected]). L’Université de

Strathclyde est garante de cette étude.

Quel est l’objectif de cette étude ?

Le but de cette étude est d’analyser l’engagement entre les supporters de football et leurs

équipes nationales. Depuis quelques années, les entreprises utilisent les médias sociaux comme

principal outil de communication. Par conséquent, de nombreuses études ont démontré les

bénéfices pour chaque partie (Entreprises/Consommateurs); cependant, j’ai remarqué que les

études liant les médias sociaux à l’industrie du sport étaient assez pauvres en recherche. C’est,

par conséquent, la raison pour laquelle j’ai décidé de me concentrer sur le sport et, plus

particulièrement, le football. En prenant part à cette étude, vous me permettrez d’analyser le

niveau d’adoption et d’engagement entre les supporters et leurs équipes nationales de football

dans les réseaux sociaux et de tirer des conclusions sur l'efficacité des stratégies adoptées par les

équipes nationales dans les médias sociaux. Un autre aspect que je souhaite étudier est l’impact

de la culture dans l’adoption et l’engagement sur les médias sociaux. En prenant part à cette

étude, vous me permettrez d’analyser cet aspect-là.

Devez-vous y prendre part ?

Si vous décidez de participer à cette étude, il vous sera demandé de répondre uniquement à des

questions ouvertes et fermées. La seule condition est de répondre honnêtement afin de ne pas

fausser les résultats. Votre participation est volontaire ; par conséquent vous pouvez choisir de

ne pas participer à cette étude ou bien de vous désister à n’importe quel moment. Si vous

refusez de participer ou bien de vous désister, il n’y aura aucune incidence concernant la

manière dont nous traitons nos participants.

Que ferez-vous dans le projet ?

Si vous décidez de prendre part à cette étude, il vous sera demandé soit de remplir un

questionnaire soit de participer à un entretien. Si vous devez répondre à un questionnaire, la

durée ne devrait pas excéder 30 minutes. En ce qui concerne l’entretien, la durée de celle-ci

devrait être de 45 minutes maximum. Dans les deux cas, ils pourront être réalisés en ligne via

des supports adaptés. Toutes les données doivent être collectées au plus tard le 13 août 2012,

Page | 91

par conséquent, dans le cas d’une enquête en ligne, celle-ci doit être soumise au plus tard à cette

date-là. En ce qui concerne l’entretien, la date et l’heure seront établies en fonction des

disponibilités des participants.

Pourquoi vous a-t-on contacté pour prendre part?

Si vous avez été sollicité, cela signifie que vous avez une présence en ligne et que vous êtes

supporter d’une des 5 équipes nationales étudiées ayant participées à l’Euro 2012 ou que vous

êtes en fait responsable de la stratégie médias sociaux d'une de ces équipes. Si vous n’êtes

impliqué dans aucun des faits mentionnés, veuillez ignorer cette étude.

Equipes étudiées : Portugal, Espagne, Irlande, Angleterre, France.

Quels sont les risques potentiels que vous encourez ?

Je vous garantie une totale confidentialité des informations données et que tout ce que vous me

communiquerez ne compromettra en rien votre position au sein de votre entreprise. Je vous

garantie aussi que mon étude ne vous causera aucun inconfort et risque à votre égard, ni celui de

mon directeur de recherche, ni même de l’Université de Strathclyde.

Que deviennent les informations collectées pour ce projet ?

Toutes les informations reçues seront stockées en sécurité soit dans un coffre sécurisé, soit dans

un fichier électronique sécurisé par un mot de passe. Toute référence à une personne ou bien à

une organisation sera retirée ou remplacée par un pseudonyme, sauf si vous nous donnez une

autorisation formelle. Toutes les données seront détruites une fois le projet terminé et soumis.

L’Université de Strathclyde est enregistrée au Bureau de la Commission d’Information qui a

mis en place l’acte 1998 concernant la protection des données.

Merci d’avoir lu cette note d’information – n’hésitez pas à me poser des questions si vous avez

besoin de précisions.

Que se passe-t-il après ?

Si vous souhaitez participer à ce projet, veuillez cocher dans le formulaire de consentement

(page suivante) la case qui stipule que vous avez pris connaissance de cette note.

Si vous ne souhaitez pas prendre part à cette étude, je souhaite vous remercier pour votre

attention et le temps que vous m’avez accordé.

Une fois que les données seront collectées et analysées, si vous le souhaitez, je peux vous

fournir une copie des résultats, sauf si vous souhaiter que vos données restent confidentielles.

Le résultat final de mon enquêtes sera publié et disponible pour consultation à la bibliothèque

universitaire de l’Université de Strathclyde.

Page | 92

Coordonnées du chercheur :

Cette étude est dirigée par le Dr Sean Ennis – Maître de conférences à l’Université de

Strathclyde.

Si vous le souhaitez, vous pouvez le contacter à :


M: +44 (0)141 548 3247 (EXT. 3247)

Coordonnées du responsable de l’enquête :

Enquêteur : Benoît Loïc Vaysse

Coordonnées de l’Université de Strathclyde

Adresse : 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ. Scotland, United Kingdom

Téléphone : +44 (0)1 415 524 400

Cette enquête a reçu l’approbation du comité d’éthique de l’Université de Strathclyde comme

étant conforme aux règles d’éthique en vigueur.

Si vous avez des questions ou des commentaires, au cours de l'enquête ou par la suite, ou si

vous souhaitez contacter une personne externe qui pourrait être concernée, pour plus

d’informations, veuillez contacter le :





50 George Street

Glasgow

G1 1QE

Téléphone: 0044 (0)141 548 3707


Page | 93

8.5.3 Participant Information Sheet Spanish

Nombre del departamento: Management

Título del estudio: Equipos de fútbol nacionales y sus F.A.nes: Análisis de la adopción y

participación en los Medios de Comunicación Sociales por países.

Introducción

Me llamo Benoît Loïc Vaysse. Estoy realizando un master en International Management en la

Universidad de Strathclyde – Glasgow (UK). Si lo deseas, puedes ponerte en contacto conmigo

en la siguiente dirección de correo: [email protected]. La Universidad de Strathclyde

patrocina este estudio.

¿Cuál es el propósito de esta investigación?

El propósito de este estudio es el análisis de la relación entre los F.A.nes del fútbol y los

Equipos de Fútbol Nacionales. En los últimos años, los Medios Sociales se han convertido en

una de las principales herramientas de comunicación usadas por las empresas. En consecuencia,

se han realizado muchos estudios analizando los beneficios de tal práctica para las diferentes

partes en el mundo de los negocios (Empresas/Consumidores). Sin embargo, me he percatado

de que estos estudios son bastante escasos en la industria deportiva. Por esa razón he decidido

centrarme en los deportes y, en concreto, en el fútbol. Formando parte de este estudio me

ayudarás a analizar el grado de adopción y participación en los Medios Sociales tanto de los

F.A.nes de fútbol como de los Equipos de Fútbol Nacionales y finalmente, si la estrategia de

medios sociales adoptada por una nación de fútbol es eficiente. Otro aspecto de este estudio será

el impacto de la cultura en la adopción y participación en Medios Sociales. Formando parte de

este estudio, me permitirás analizar este aspecto cultural.

¿Tienes que participar en el estudio?

Si decides formar parte del estudio, sólo se te pedirá que contestes preguntas abiertas y cerradas.

La única restricción es ser honesto para no influir en el resultado final. Tu participación es

voluntaria, por lo tanto puedes elegir no formar parte de este estudio o retirar tu participación en

cualquier momento. Si te niegas a participar o retiras tu participación, ello no afectará el modo

en que se tratará a la persona.

¿Qué harás en el proyecto?

Como parte de este estudio, se te pedirá que completes un cuestionario o que realices una

entrevista (esto se mencionará con anterioridad, en el momento de la puesta en contacto). Si se

te pide que completes un cuestionario, no debería costar más de 30 minutos. En relación a la

entrevista, no debería durar más de 45 minutos. En ambos casos, se realizará online a través de

webs al efecto (Online survey, Skype o Google Hangout para entrevistas). Necesito disponer de

todos los datos el 13 de Agosto de 2012, por lo tanto, en caso de encuesta online, ésta deberá ser


Page | 94

enviada con esa fecha límite. En relación a la entrevista, la fecha y hora se acordarán de acuerdo

con la disponibilidad del participante.

¿Por qué se te ha invitado a formar parte?

Si se te ha invitado a participar, es o bien porque estás presente online como F.A.n de uno de los

5 equipos nacionales europeos estudiados y participantes de Euro2012 o bien porque estás a

cargo de la estrategia de Medios Sociales de uno de esos equipos. Si no te encuentras en

ninguna de estas situaciones, por F.A.vor no hagas caso a esta encuesta.

Equipos participantes en Euro2012: Portugal, España, Irlanda, Inglaterra, Francia.

¿Cuáles son los potenciales riesgos de tomar parte?

Garantizo la confidencialidad de la información F.A.cilitada y que nada de lo que digas

comprometerá tu posición en tu organización. También garantizo que mis preguntas e

investigación no causarán incomodidad para los participantes, mi supervisor, o la Universidad

de Strathclyde.

¿Qué ocurre con la información en el proyecto?

Toda la información recibida será almacenada de una manera segura o bien en armarios

cerrados con llave o vigilados o bien en ficheros electrónicos protegidos con contraseña. A

menos que exista autorización expresa, toda referencia a individuos u organizaciones será

eliminada, o se darán pseudónimos si hay que incluir información adicional en el estudio. Toda

la información será borrada una vez presentado este proyecto.

La Universidad de Strathclyde está registrada con la Oficina del Comisionado de Información,

que implementa la regulación de protección de datos (Data Protection Act) de 1998. Toda la

información personal de los participantes será tratada de acuerdo con el Data Protection Act de

1998.

Gracias por leer esta información – por F.A.vor, pregúntame cualquier pregunta que te pueda

surgir en relación a lo aquí escrito.

¿Qué pasa ahora?

Si has decidido participar en el proyecto, por F.A.vor firma el consentimiento que encontrarás

más abajo para confirmarlo.

Si has decidido no participar, me gustaría agradecerte tu atención y el tiempo dedicado.

Una vez que toda la información haya sido recopilada y analizada, puedo enviarte una copia del

resultado. A menos que hayas decidido que tu información sea confidencial, el resultado final de

la investigación será publicado y estará disponible en la biblioteca de la Universidad de

Strathclyde.

Page | 95

Detalles de contacto:

Este estudio es supervisado por Dr Sean Ennis – Profesor de la Universidad de Strathclyde.

Si lo deseas, puedes ponerte en contacto con él en:


M: +44 (0)141 548 3247 (EXT. 3247)

Detalles del investigador:

Investigador: Benoît Loïc Vaysse

Detalles de contacto de la Universidad de Strathclyde

Dirección: 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ. Scotland, United Kingdom

Teléfono: +44 (0)1 415 524 400

Esta investigación ha sido catalogada como ética por el comité de ética de la Univesidad de

Strathclyde.

Si tienes alguna pregunta, durante o después de la investigación, o deseas contactar con una

persona independiente a la que realizar más preguntas u obtener más información, por F.A.vor

contacta:





50 George Street

Glasgow

G1 1QE

Teléfono: 0141 548 3707




Page | 96

8.6 Consent Form:

8.6.1 Consent Form English:

Name of department: Management

Title of the study: National Football Team and their fans: An analysis on the adoption and

engagement of Social Media across country.

I confirm that I have read and understood the information sheet for the above project

and the researcher has answered any queries to my satisfaction. Yes/ No

I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw from the

project at any time, without having to give a reason and without any consequences. Yes/

No

I understand that I can withdraw my data from the study at any time. Yes/ No

I understand that any information recorded in the investigation will remain confidential

and no information that identifies me will be made publicly available. Yes/ No

I consent to being a participant in the project Yes/ No

I consent to being audio and video recorded as part of the project Yes/ No

(PRINT NAME) Hereby agree to take part in the above

project

Signature of Participant: Date

Page | 97

8.6.2 Consent Form French:

Nom du département: Management

Titre de l’étude : Les équipes Nationales de Football et leurs fans : Une analyse sur l’adoption

et l’engagement des Médias Sociaux à travers les pays.

Je confirme que j’ai lu et compris la fiche d’information pour le projet ci-dessus et que

le chercheur a répondu positivement à toutes les questions.

J’ai pris connaissance que ma participation est volontaire et que je suis libre de me

désister à tout moment, sans avoir à donner de raisons et sans aucune conséquence.

J’ai pris connaissance que je peux retirer mes données à tout moment.

J’ai pris connaissance que toutes les informations enregistrées dans l’enquête resteront

confidentielles et qu’aucune information m’identifiant ne sera disponibles

publiquement.

Je consens à participer au projet.

Je consens à me faire enregistrer (audio et vidéo).

(Nom Prénom) Je souhaite prendre part à cette étude

Signature du Participant: Date

8.6.3 Consent Form Spanish:

Nombre del departamento: Management

Título del estudio: Equipos de fútbol nacionales y sus fanes: Análisis de la adopción y

participación en los Medios de Comunicación Sociales por países.

Confirmo que he leído y entendido la información para el proyecto arriba mencionado,

y el investigador ha respondido a mis preguntas satis factoriamente. Si/ No

Entiendo que mi participación es voluntaria y que soy libre de retirarme del proyecto en

cualquier momento, sin tener que dar razones y sin consecuencias. Si/ No

Entiendo que puedo retirar mis datos del estudio en cualquier momento. Si/No

Entiendo que toda información aportada para esta investigación será confidencial y no

será publicada ninguna información que me identifique. Si/ No

Consiento ser participante de este proyecto. Si/ No

Consiento ser grabado en audio y video como parte de este proyecto. Si/ No

(ESCRIBIR NOMBRE) Por tanto, consiento formar parte del

proyecto mencionado

Firma del participante: Fecha

Page | 98

8.7 Transcript of the Interview with the French National Football Team:

R.: Researcher

1: Yann Le Guillard – In charge of External Relation at the French Football Federation

Participant Transcript

R

Good Evening, as schedules previously, today I am going to interview you on the

Social Media Adoption and Strategy of the French Football Federation.

Do you use Social Media Site? And If so, which ones?

1 Yes we do. At the federation, we are actually present on Facebook, Youtube,

Dailymotion and Google+. From fall, we will use Twitter.

R Why have you chosen these channel sites? What is drawing them to it?

1

There is several reasons. First of all, since January 2011, we wanted to broadcast

information to our fans without passing by journalists. Secondly, we wanted to

set up a loyalty program for fans, so we decided to use Facebook as recruiting

channels in order to talk directly to fans but also to generate debates.

At the beginning, we were hesitating between setting up the page on the name of

the French Football Team or on the name of the federation. After much

reflection, as supporter tends to “Like” a brand/passion instead of the federation,

we choose to set up the page on the name of the French Football Team.

Our aims/strategy was to provide fans some information to involve them to come

and share their thought on the team because we realised they did not have any

information except those from the media. Therefore, we decided to use the

French Football Team Website as a branch of the core website.

We wanted to tell them the message: “This age is yours, provide your

information.”

R Why do you think this channel was the most appropriate for the F.F.F.?

1

We chose these channels because they are the trending networks. We have now

10,000 members on Google+, 700,000 fans on Facebook – our fans base grew by

250,000 over the last 4 months.

R

Did the elimination of the French Football Team has a negative effect on the

number of fans? I mean did it result in a decreasing or reducing number of fans

on your channels?

1

The elimination of the French team did not engender any negative impact on the

number of fans. However, we had some negatives comments after the defeat of

the team against Sweden and Spain. These comments were more related to the

behaviour of certain players in and out of the pitch rather than due to the result.

Page | 99

R Do you have a particular Social Media Strategy? If yes, what is it?

1

Our strategy changed over the time. The loyalty program changed, we have

created an app in order to get information on fans for our CRM Database for

commercial purpose.

R Was this strategy different during the Euro2012?

1

During the Euro2012, we have decided to increase the amount of content on the

Facebook Page. Moreover, we wanted to be present on all the trendy social

media. So we have created a page on Dailymotion and on YouTube. Over the

period, the number of views has doubled on those channels.

R If you could describe the profile of your follower on Social Media, how would he

look like?

1

According to insight, Fans of our pages are people under the age of 24 who

generally live in Paris and its suburb. 70% of our fans are French. They usually

follow us on Social Media channel because they are fans of the French Football

Team and because they are looking for exclusive contents.

However, according to Agorapulse (Social Media Analytical tool), people who

tend to interact with us are generally older than the average.

On YouTube, we have more subscriber (600) than on Dailymotion (400). This is

due to a highest number of campaigns executed on this channel.

R How often do you post on Social Media Sites?

1

We post every time we have information on the French Football Team. In a weak

period thise could be 3-4 times per week while on a peak period it can be 3-4

times per day. On a match day, we can reach 10 posts.

R Could you provide an example of Social Media Campaign you have executed?

Describe what channels you used and the outcome of your campaign.

1

As said earlier on, we run a recruitment campaign on Facebook, we used the

process of Sponsor Story in which we involved friends of our fans to come and

become fans of our page. Part of the campaign, we did a short video on fans.

We run a content campaign on Dailymotion and YouTube. Videos generated

50,000 views.

R How do you measure the impact and success of Social Media on the F.F.F.?

1 We use Google Analytics for YouTube and we work with two agencies

(Agorapulse and K.R.D.S) that provide information for us.

R So how would you define a Social Media Success?

1 We would look at the audience, the engagement ratio and whether the page match

their expectations.

Page | 100

R So how do you measure your ROI?

1 Well, we look at the number of new follower for our database because we seel

those informations to our partners.

R Would you say that the number of follower has had a positive impact on the

audience in stadiums and on TV?

1 No it did not.

R How do you stay on top of the latest information in Social Media?

1

First of all, we work in partnership with Google and Facebook. Those platforms

keep us up to date regarding their evolutions. Secondly, our communication

agencies are keeping us up to date on the general trends on the market, what is

coming up and what should we do.

R Mr Leguillard, we reached the end of this interview. I would like to thank you for

the time you dedicated to me and for my project.

1 Thanks you very much. I am glad to have helped you.

Page | 101

8.8 Good Practices:

8.8.1 Facebook: F.C. Barcelona

8.8.2 Twitter: Liverpool F.C.

Page | 102

8.8.3 YouTube: Nike “My Time is Now”

Nike aware its customers on recycling.

Nike Store

Page | 103

8.8.4 Foursquare: Manchester City F.C.

8.8.5 Instagram: Manchester City F.C.

Page | 104

8.8.6 Pinterest: Liverpool F.C.

8.8.7 Mobile App: NHL Ice Time

Page | 105

8.8.8 Website:

8.8.8.1 Chelsea F.C.: Fan Zone

8.8.8.2 L.A. Dodgers: S.M. Club House

Page | 106

8.8.9 Facebook Platform: London 2012

8.8.10 Google Earth: Wembley Stadium

Page | 107

8.8.11 Match Day Photo Experience: Arsenal F.C.

Page | 108

8.9 The case of the English and the Portuguese Football Team:

Originally, this project should also have focused on a total of 5 teams: France, Spain, Ireland,

Portugal and England.

Researches had been done for all of them. However, when it came to the collection of data, the

researcher found out that the Portuguese federation is not using at all Web2.0 applications.

Regarding the English Football Team, the researcher did not manage to schedule an interview in

the timeline dedicated. As a full analysis could not be done completely for both team, the

researcher decided to exclude both team from the field of study.

8.9.1 Participant Information Sheet Portuguese:

Nome do Departamento: Gestão

Titulo do estudo: Seleção nacional de futebol e os seus fãs: análise do envolvimento das redes

sociais na temática referida anteriormente a nível nacional.

Introdução:

O meu nome é Benoît Loïc Vaysse. Estou a completar o meu mestrado (pós-graduação) em

gestão internacional na Universidade de Strathclyde – Glasgow (Reino Unido). Se preferir, pode

contactar-me através do seguinte email: [email protected]. A Universidade de

Strathclyde patrocina o respetivo estudo.

Qual é o objetivo desta investigação?

O principal objetivo deste estudo é analisar o envolvimento das redes sociais na relação entre os

fãs de futebol e a seleção nacional. Ao longo dos últimos anos, as redes sociais tornaram-se uma

das principais formas de comunicação utilizada por diversas empresas e companhias de forma a

que os resultados a ser obtidos mostrem os privilégios para cada uma das partes

(Empresa/Consumidor). Ao F.A.zer este estudo, concluí que relativamente ao futebol a pesquisa

por parte dos media é muito escassa e este é o motivo pelo qual decidi F.A.zer uma pesquisa na

área de desporto, em particular o futebol. Ao F.A.zer parte deste estudo, você irá contribuir para

uma análise que relaciona o grau de envolvimento e impacto por parte dos fãs e também da

seleção nacional na imprensa e por fim irá ser feito um balanço em relação à estratégia

publicitária adotada pela seleção nacional de futebol como sendo eficaz ou não. Outro aspeto

deste estudo é também o impacto que as redes sociais têm na cultura e ao F.A.zer parte desta

investigação irá permitir que um levantamento acerca desta temática seja levantado.

Necessita de participar neste estudo?

Se decidir participar neste estudo, ser-lhe-ão colocadas somente questões de foro aberto e

fechado. Ao F.A.zer parte deste projeto, é-lhe somente requisitado que responda às questões

honestamente, de maneira a que o resultado final não seja afetado. A sua participação é


Page | 109

inteiramente voluntária, portanto tem todo o direito de escolher não participar ou então desistir a

qualquer momento. Ao recusar-se a participar ou então cancelar a qualquer momento, não

sofrerá qualquer tipo de repercussões.

Como irá contribuir para o projecto?

Para que possa F.A.zer parte deste inquérito, tem que preencher um questionário ou então

comparecer a uma entrevista (neste caso contactar-me-ia para que esta possa ser marcada). No

caso de preencher o questionário, este não demora mais do que 30 minutos, quanto à entrevista

não será mais longa do que 45 minutos. Em ambos os casos tudo poderá ser feito via online

(inquérito online, Skype ou Google Hangout para entrevistas). Toda a informação terá que ser

coletada até dia 13 de Agosto de 2012, portanto no caso de responder ao inquérito via online,

este só terá que ser submetido até à data especificada. Quanto à entrevista, a data será

combinada de acordo com o tempo que o participante tem disponível.

Porque foi convidado a participar?

O motive pelo qual foi convidado para F.A.zer parte deste estudo é o F.A.cto de apoiar uma das

5 Seleções Europeias envolvidas no Euro 2012 que estão presentes neste estudo ou F.A.z parte

da imprensa futebolística de uma de estas equipas. Se não se enquadra nestes requisitos por

F.A.vor ignore este questionário.

Equipas participantes no Euro 2012: Portugal, Espanha, Irlanda, Inglaterra, França.

Quais os potenciais riscos em participar neste estudo?

Eu garanto total anonimato no que toca à informação fornecida e que qualquer uma das

respostas não irá comprometer a sua posição na organização que F.A.z parte. Fica também

garantido que as questões colocadas neste estudo não irão causar qualquer tipo de desconforto

ou pôr em risco a sua integridade, a do meu supervisor e da Universidade Strathclyde.

O que acontece à informação recolhida neste projeto?

Toda a informação recebida irá ser armazenada em segurança em locais adequados a este fim

ou em aparelhos eletrónicos protegidos com password. Todas as referências a indivíduos ou

organizações serão prontamente retiradas ou serão atribuídos pseudónimos a não ser que seja

dada expressa permissão para que estes sejam incluídos. Toda a informação recolhida neste

projeto irá ser eliminada assim que o mesmo termine.

A Universidade de Strathclyde é registada com o Gabinete Comissário de Informação que

implementa a proteção de dados de acordo com a legislatura de 1998 que protege toda a

informação pessoal dos participantes.

Page | 110

Muito obrigado por ler esta informação – por F.A.vor não hesite em me contactar para o caso de

ter alguma dúvida relativamente às perguntas colocadas neste inquérito.

O que acontece a seguir?

Se estiver de acordo em participar neste projeto, por F.A.vor assine a declaração de

consentimento abaixo incluída.

Se pelo contrário não quiser F.A.zer parte deste estudo, gostaria de agradecer desde já a sua

atenção e tempo dispensado para ler esta informação.

Quando esta informação for recolhida e analisada, se necessário, poder-lhe-ei enviar uma cópia

da mesma. A não ser que expressamente requisitado que a sua informação seja totalmente

confidencial, o resultado final desta investigação será publicado e ficará disponível na biblioteca

na Universidade de Strathclyde.

Contacto do Supervisor do Projecto:

Este estudo é supervisionado pelo Dr. Sean Ennis – Professor na Universidade de Strathclyde.

Se desejar, pode contactá-lo através de:

E-mail: [email protected]

Telefone: +44 (0)141 548 3247 (EXT. 3247)

Detalhes do Investigador:

Investigador: Benoît Loïc Vaysse

Contacto da Universidade de Strathclyde

Morada: 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ. Scotland, United Kingdom

Telefone: +44 (0)1 415 524 400

Esta investigação foi aprovada pela Comissão de Ética da Universidade de Strathclyde.

Se tiver alguma questão durante ou apos esta investigação ou desejar contactar uma pessoa

imparcial para poder obter mais informação, por F.A.vor contacte:





50 George Street

Glasgow

G1 1QE


Page | 111

Telefone: 0141 548 3707



Page | 112

8.9.2 Consent Form Portuguese:

Nome do Departamento: Gestão

Titulo do estudo: Seleção nacional de futebol e os seus fãs: análise do envolvimento da

imprensa na temática referida anteriormente a nível nacional.

Confirmo que li e percebi a informação acima descrita relativamente a este projecto e o

investigador respondeu a todas as minhas dúvidas satisF.A.toriamente. Sim/Não

Compreendo que a minha participação é voluntária e que tenho o direito de desitir a

qualquer momento sem ter que dar uma explicação e sem sofrer qualquer tipo de

conseqências. Sim/Não

Compreendo que posso cancelar qualquer informação fornecida quando desejar.

Sim/Não

Compreendo que qualquer informação recolhida irá permanecer confidencial e que

nenhuma informação que me identifique será publicamente acessível. Sim/Não

Confirmo a minha participação neste projecto. Sim/Não

Autorizo a gravação de audio e video da minha participação neste projecto. Sim/Não

(NOME) Portanto, aprovo F.A.zer parte neste

projecto

Assinatura: Data

Page | 113

8.9.3 Industry Profile of the Football Association and the Federação Portuguesa de

Futebol:

8.9.3.1 The Football Association:

8.9.3.1.1 History:

The Football Association (F.A.) is the governing body of football in England. The F.A. has been

founded in 1863 which makes it one of the oldest football associations in the world. It took part

of the FIF.A. in 1905. The headquarters is located at the Wembley Stadium. The patron of the

F.A. is Her Majesty the Queen. However, its president is David Berstein. The F.A. is a non-

profit organisation composed by fifty-five counties and affiliated football association where the

aim is to develop local football to make it more accessible and to enhance the experience of

every player. Due to its function, the F.A. has the duty to keep a good atmosphere between

them, the F.A. Premier League and the Professional Footballers’ Association. In 2010, there

were 125,000 F.A. affiliated in over 1,700 leagues. (F.A., 2012)

8.9.3.1.2 The F.A. in figure:In total in England, 12 millions of people practice football in one

of the forty-five thousands pitches. Five millions of these people practice it at school. In 2010,

500,000 people volunteered for the F.A. among 42,500 English clubs. In total, 2,000

competitions were organised en England in 2010. Overall, almost 1.5 million of people were

playing football under the F.A.. (F.A., 2012)

The F.A. runs 24 different teams including women’s, youth and disability sides and eleven

different ranges of competitions internationally and in England including the F.A. Challenge

Cup.

8.9.3.1.3 Financial:

Financially talking, the F.A. is considered as being very healthy and prosperous as it has ever

been. The attendances of games are increasing and therefore attract an increasing number of

media coverage. Meanwhile, it has developed the new Wembley stadium based in London. Over

the exercise 2010, the F.A. has invested over £60 million to develop the game of football, £38

million of which has been used in the core foundation of football. The origin of this revenue is

mainly from broadcast and sponsorship partnership. (F.A., 2012)

8.9.3.2 Federação Portuguesa de Futebol:

8.9.3.2.1 History:

The president of the Federação Portuguesa de Futebol (F.P.F.) is Fernando Soares Gomes da

Silva. The headquarters of the federation is located in Lisbon. The F.P.F has been funded in

1914 but it is affiliated to the FIF.A. since 1923. (U.E.F.A., 2012)

Page | 114

8.9.3.2.2 The F.P.F in figure:

As said by the UEF.A. (U.E.F.A., 2012), there is over 130,000 player’s registers in one of the

2,748 clubs from 22 counties.

8.9.3.2.3 Financial:

According to a report by the CEGEA (Management and Economics Study Center) (CEGEA,

2011), Portugal generated in 2010, a turnover estimated at 317 million of euros. In comparison

with the other countries studies in this project, Portugal is the country that records the highest

ratio in spending in game attendance regarding to its GNP.

8.9.4 Analysis of the Football Association and the Federação Portuguesa de Futebol:

8.9.4.1 Football Association:

8.9.4.1.1 Netnography:

8.9.4.1.2 Online Questionnaire:

According to the finding, most of the supporters of the England football team never visit the

website of the teams and the fact that the Euro had been taking place last June and July 2012,

has not changed their habits in the last 6 months. Following to the use of S.M., result shows that

less than half of the supporters are aware of official S.M. pages of the England Football Team.

This result can be outlines by the fact that 57% of supporters answered that they do not know if

the England Football Team had an official page and by the fact that some of them mentioned

that the team had an official presence on wrong platform. Furthermore, official and non-official

websites mixed up, the main platforms for following the English team appear to be Facebook,

Text FacebookY: 1 page for each Team

(England Football Team)

Images Myspace

Video Twitter Y

Wiki Linkedin

Blogs Google+

Forums Foursquare

Ratings Youtube Y

Favourites FlickR

Online Chat Others

Web


Mapping/Mash-upsMash Up

Twitter/Video/Google MapTrip Advisor

Podcast/VodcastNo in the FA Website

(rediretion to their partners)Igougo


Social Bookmarking Mapping Sites Google Earth Google Earth of Wembley

Tag Cloud Mobile Yes

Content Feeds Yes: Twitter Feeds Tablet

RSS Feeds RSS Feeds 5

Community Social Network Yes: Fan Zone 5

External Links To other Web 2.0Y, Facebook of every team +

Twitter

6

Overall Result

Result:

RIATravel Blog & Review

Sites

Folksonomies

Applications

FeedsResult:

FA

Internal External

UGC

Social Networking

Sites

FOD

Multimedia Sharing

Sites

Page | 115

Youtube and Blogs in general. However, supporters are willing to see their national football

team involved in traditional channel such as Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest in a certain

extent. Surprisingly, Blogs take a certain importance here.

Following to the result, it has been found that slightly less than the majority of supporter of the

English national football team engage with them on S.M.. However, when they do, they

generally do it via Facebook but “Liking” a status update or by commenting (100%) or by

sharing a status (33%). In a lower level, Twitter seems to be the second form of interaction for

supporters because they tend to follow people or teams on this channel. On the maximum, they

interact only very occasionally as the maximum they would do would be on a weekly basis.

Regarding to their engagement, they are generally satisfied of the content and the time it is

posted on S.M. Channel such as Facebook, YouTube and Blogs by National Football Team.

Furthermore, they are willing to get more exclusive content, information and competitions.

Some fans suggested that players that are not playing could comment the game on S.M.

channel. Another one mentioned that the English Team could adopt the Starbucks approach at

replying to every customer in order to enhance the engagement between Teams and supporters.

However, the main reasons for engaging are a willing to get updates on general football but also

on their N.F.T. and Hearing about lives game on TV.

One of the indirect reasons for a supporter to use S.M. is to feel connected with his fellows fan

and to build a strong relationship with his teams. In the other way, according to them, their

National Football Team don’t use S.M. connect them with their sponsors and they are

completely against the idea of sharing their privacy data with third parties of the English Team

and getting unsolicited post from unknown persons.

Page | 116

Finally, as most of the supporters (85%) would recommend their peers to follow the English

Football Team on S.M., we can conclude that they are generally happy with their engagement

with them.

8.9.4.2 Federação Portuguesa de Futebol:

8.9.4.2.1 Netnography:

8.9.4.2.2 Online Questionnaire:

As the National Portuguese team is not involved officially on S.M. at all, its case is slightly

different. Indeed, the only conclusion the researcher can make here is on the engagement of

supporters on unofficial S.M. platform.

As a result, it can be noted that 26% of the respondent answered positively to an unofficial

presence of the National Football Team on S.M.. All the supporters who follow the team on

S.M. use Facebook as a main platform. YouTube is the second main channel and Google + the

last one. Even though, 41% of supporters have been following the Portuguese Team on S.M. for

less than a month, 71% of the overall supporters claim that the Euro 2012 was not a reason for

following them.

Strangely, 74% of Portuguese supporters claim they would want their National Football Team

to make the same use of S.M.. However, this result can be interpreted by the fact that some

supporter may assume that their national football team have an official presence. Only 21% of

them would like to see their National Football Team more present online. , Facebook (68%),

YouTube (37%) and Twitter (26%) appears as to be the main channel

Text Facebook

Images Myspace

Video Twitter

Wiki Linkedin

Blogs Google+

Forums Foursquare

Ratings Youtube

Favourites Yes FlickR

Online Chat Others

Web


Mapping/Mash-ups Trip Advisor



Social Bookmarking Mapping Sites Google Earth

Tag Cloud Mobile


RSS Feeds 0


External Links To other Web 2.0

1

Overall Result

Result:

RIATravel Blog & Review

Sites

Folksonomies

Applications

FeedsResult:

FPF

Internal External

UGC

Social Networking

Sites

FOD

Multimedia Sharing

Sites

Page | 117

Regarding the engagement, the small numbers of active people - 26% of them claims to engage

with their national team – engage with via Facebook essentially and by sharing or uploading

photos or videos. This engagement usually occurs less than once a month and it is to hear about

live game on TV, to discuss about the performance of the team or getting update on football or

on the N.F.T.. Finally these supporters disagree on the fact that the team provide exclusive

content on S.M. which is due to the nonofficial presence of the FPF on S.M.. However, in the

eventual future use of S.M. by the Portuguese Federation, supporters mentioned that they do not

like when their national Football team shares they privacy data with third parties and they do

not like getting unsolicited post from strangers. As said, the FPF should adopt neutral approach

with their fans once they will adopt S.M..

Regarding the content and the time of posts, fans are generally satisfied on the 3 main

platforms. However, they required most exclusivity and more regular update. They also

suggested further promotional event that their competitors are doing. Finally, due to the

economic situation of Portugal, it seems that a general adoption of inexpensive S.M. platform is

required from the fans.

National Football Teams and their fans: An analysis on the adoption on and engagement of Social...

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