This is the first of three posts I plan to do on the Premier League’s use of social media. I was doing some desktop research for a client the other day and I came across Man Utd’s Facebook page and I noticed it had more than 11 million likes and it got me wondering what amount of likes the other clubs could get, and whether the real table would reflect my Facebook likes table. So I have completed a review of each of the club’s Facebook pages and sorted ...

This weekend was interesting as a Liverpool FC fan, we lost a manager who was a nice chap but didn’t look big enough for the job. So Kenny Daglish stepped up after being asked and he selected the team for the match against Manchester United. The team lost but I have to admit the performance was one of the best from them I have seen this season but that isn’t saying much. The fact that they played with 10 men for the majority of the game did bode well though. However, something that ruined the game was a penalty awarded to Man Utd for questionable contact on Dimitar Berbatov in the second minute. ...

A friend of mine dropped me a note about this new campaign yesterday and I thought it was worth discussing on the blog. JustGiving, the UK’s largest online fundraising platform, and the international children’s charity War Child have teamed up with Sports Interactive and SEGA’s ‘Football Manager™’ in a cause-related marketing partnership launched this week. Football Manager 2011, which is amazingly now in its sixth series, will include the charity's’ banners on the virtual advertising boards alongside the pitch, which when clicked, will actually allow users to make donations to War Child through the JustGiving website. I have seen advertising on ...

The Everton Footballer Mikel Arteta (of Spanish nationality) is now eligible for a British passport (and so he can commit to any British team of his choosing) because he has been a resident in the UK for five-and-a-half years. He was signed by Everton from Real Sociedad in 2005 and completed a permanent move for just £2 million which was a snip. He was asked at the weekend if he would consider playing for England instead of Spain and he said he would “have to seriously consider it”. There has been ...

So we heard late last night the news that we all feared David Beckham isn’t going to make it to the World Cup in South Africa. As a proud England fan who has watched our team stutter and start through various tournaments I have to admit I am not surprised we have our first big absence. We should all be used to it by now. It was the last two big tournaments that taught us all about the famous metatarsal following injuries to Beckham and Wayne Rooney. There is no doubt David Beckham has given his all for England out there on the pitch, he is a great role model for kids and has been ...

I read an interesting post yesterday that made me sit up and scratch my head. The article was all about Manchester Utd placing a formal statement on its website which read as follows: “The club wishes to make it clear that no Manchester United players maintain personal profiles on social networking websites. Fans encountering any web pages purporting to be written by United players should treat them with extreme scepticism. Any official news relating to Manchester United or its players will be communicated via ManUtd.com.” Now for me this is an interesting development, we have all ...

Revolution magazine reported an interesting story this week that my beloved Liverpool FC is now officially the first English Premier League team to have reached the 1 million fan mark with its Liverpool FC Facebook page. Those of you that know me well, will know that I am a huge fan of the club and now also its Facebook page. The club has used Facebook brilliantly (since May) by engaging in conversation (each post receiving around 900 comments), giving behind the scenes interviews and ...

I loved the story last week about Chelsea starting to use Twitter to communicate directly with fans. Basically, Chelsea FC has begun Twittering (under its mascot’s name) following a huge growth in fake Chelsea FC accounts. I can imagine there are quite a few people out there who would love to hear the ins and outs of their clubs. My club (Liverpool FC) were apparently the first to use it and now others appear to be springing up everywhere. Liverpool has more than 17,000 followers but it also has a number ...

As a keen football fan, I was interested to read an article on Brand Republic reporting that Chelsea FC has made its website much more social. Supporters can now download widgets relating to fixtures, Chelsea TV and player feeds. There is also a new forum where fans can discuss the latest rumours etc. All of the widgets are exportable to the popular social networking sites. Now I applaud them for doing something social but this got me thinking about useful football widgets.  Surely a useful one could be 'The Fans' ...

Sir Alex piped up this morning saying he isn't worried about Chelsea as most of the team are over 30 - a typical Fergie mind game tactic. Did it work? I sincerely doubt it but I bet it made him feel a whole lot better at the press conference. He is a master of PR, spin and pressure. I doubt the Man Utd communications director has to tell him what to say and how to say it and I doubt he would listen either. Fergie uses the same tactics every year - wind them all up and apply the pressure early. To be honest, most of the time it seems to work. Unfortunately, I expect this season ...