By Paul Nicholson
October 12 – Arsenal, for the first time in a year, have topped Manchester United in the weekly Twitter followers growth chart, though they still remain behind the Manchester giants by almost 700,000 followers overall.
The story of Manchester United’s Twitter growth has been remarkable over the past two years. One of the last Premier League clubs to embrace the social media platform, it quickly gained followers at generally more than 40,000 a week, almost double that of its Premier League rivals.
The slump to second place in the weekly growth chart is a result of Arsenal putting on significantly more followers than usual – 20,000 more. Man Utd still gained 44,700 followers.
A noticeable trend in the weekly chart is the drop off in Chelsea’s growth, this week down to fifth place in the table. 18 months ago Chelsea were generally second in the weekly chart, though often battling with Arsenal for that position. With Liverpool showing a marked increase in followers, due to a new buzz around the club and a smarter-thinking social media team, and Man City breaking into the top four, Chelsea will need to find a spark on and off the field to excite new followers.
When it comes to Facebook, Manchester United have a massive 25 million more likes than second placed Chelsea in the overall chart. Chelsea are in turn 9 million ahead of Arsenal. Likeable Bournemouth are bottom and don’t seem to be so likeable on Facebook with just 300,000.
All clubs have more Facebook likes than Twitter followers – overall 5.4 times more Facebook likes than Twitter followers
Man Utd has almost 8 times as many Facebook likes than Twitter followers but then it is easier to like a page on Facebook without really engaging – but the numbers do show potential reach.
Man City is closer to Liverpool in Facebook likes than in Twitter followers.
The past week has been the international break week and the clubs generally have been less active with their tweets.
There were only 2,154 tweets last week overall by Premier League clubs in comparison to other weeks averaging over 2,500 tweets. This is reflected in the increase in followers over the week, with only 181,000 overall compared to an average over 220,000.
Source (all tables): Insideworldfootball.com
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