So I have completed a review of each of the club’s Facebook pages and sorted them by the amount of likes they have. The first thing that struck me was most of them were very professional but some were not great and given the budgets they have that is disappointing. Many of our well established clubs are missing some of the easiest best practice points and that surprised me as Facebook is perfect for football fans.

Another suprising point is these sites aren’t that well sign-posted by the clubs either. For some of them I really had to hunt around and that just doesn’t make any sense to me. Surely you want your fans to engage with you more and follow your every move don’t you?

According to my research the least liked football club on Facebook (at the time of writing) is Bolton Wanderers – this surprised me too as this year they are playing some really good football this year and many people have been saying they are a club on the rise.

The most shocking element for me was the difference between the old “top four”, as they once were, and then the gap between them and Man City and Tottenham. The gap is around 4,000,000 likes which is huge. So does this tell us that if you are in the Champion’s League you are likely to have more Facebook fans? How can that be true as Tottenham have been in it all season and playing brilliantly and they still haven’t secured more than 1,000,000 fans?

Another surprise for me was Newcastle FC, as they have a really proud following and some of the highest gate numbers in the UK, but on Facebook it only makes tenth position.

The team with the biggest difference from the league position was West Ham which is the 8th most liked club on Facebook. So it clearly has a very strong fan base and maybe this bodes well for the new stadium. If I am honest, I think that our football clubs are still missing a real trick here, if they utilised the power of Facebook to its full potential they could find they have sold out stadiums week in week out and their fans could be much better informed and not feel as detached as some complain they do these days.

What do you think our football clubs using Facebook? What would you do or change if you were them? I am looking for suggestions here – Thanks.

I will be sharing more on Premier League Clubs and their use of social media next week.

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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. Whether it was a penalty or not is neither here nor there as it is now in the past but the Dutch striker Ryan Babel criticised the referee openly on his Twitter page and then posted a joke picture of the referee Howard Webb dressed in a Manchester Utd shirt.

Following this the Football Association has now decided to prosecute him for this and I think quite rightly too. I have discussed the issue of footballers using social media channels to vent their frustrations before. In fact, in that article I went through my top five social networking mistakes and incredibly one included Ryan Babel back then – so he obviously isn’t a quick leaner. Here they are in case you are interested:

1. Darren Bent allegedly attacks Tottenham’s chairman as his transfer to Sunderland dragged on and is fined £80K.
2. A professional footballer nicknamed “Motor Mouth” reveals he plans to leave his club Crystal Palace for Fulham on his Facebook page but manages to inform the site’s 2.7 million London network members.
3. American Striker Altidore is fined by Hull City FC after revealing why his boss dropped him for the game with Portsmouth FC to all of his followers.
4. Liverpool winger Ryan Babel enrages manager Rafeal Benitez by writing on his Twitter page two days ago: "Hey people, I got some disappointing news, I am not travelling to Stoke. The Boss left me out the squad. No explanation.”
5. Thierry Henry apologises for “Hand Gate” the day after the match with Ireland.

I think the time has now come for either the PFA or the FA to draw up a set of guidelines for players as they don’t seem to understand that posting on social networking channels is going to get them into trouble. They are superstars in their own right and journalists/bloggers monitor these pages closely as soon as you right something contentious it is going to end up in the national papers as they are looking for stories all of the time. This needs to keep up with the rest of the world.

This month will be another interesting one as the transfer window is now open and I expect to see many more players criticising their clubs on social channels as they try to engineer their moves.

Do you think there should be official guidelines for footballers? OR do you believe clubs should just ban their players from doing it like Manchester Utd did a while back?

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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 computer games before but I love the fact you can donate too through the computer game if you are feeling generous. This is thought to be the first time this has ever been done. For every Football Manager 2011 game sold, 10p will be automatically donated to the charity to support children affected by war. Copies of the game can pre-ordered at www.footballmanager.com/pre-order.

To celebrate the launch of the game,they are also running a twitter competition to win a Sony PSP console and a copy of Football Manager 2011. To enter, simply re-tweet the following:

“To win a Sony PSP and a copy of #FM2011 http://just.ly/bI68M2 retweet this and follow @JustGiving + @WarChildUK #jgcomp”

I like a nice charitable angle to a story and Football Manager is a great game, so I think this makes a good combination. I used to to be involved in a lot of cause-related marketing campaigns when I worked at Grayling and to be honest there is nothing better than running a promotional campaign for a good cause. The game launches today – my next question is how do I get my dirty mitts on a free copy?

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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 a lot of online conversation about this on several forums.

The campaign seems to be gathering pace and this Facebook group already has 1,400 members and there is a growing feeling that Mikel Arteta should be the first non-English person to play for the England national team. There is no doubt that he is a cracking player and to be honest, I can see him pushing Gareth Barry straight out of the team as his passing range is vast.

Would it be terrible to include a foreign person in our national side? Lots of other countries have used foreign players, when they have become available such as France, Spain, Germany but we have never used one but we have had a couple of foreign managers. England captain Stephen Gerrard spoke to Talksport yesterday and commented:

“I’d certainly love nothing better than to see Mikel Arteta available for England,” “You want to play with the best players, and if it makes the England squad better, of course I’d like to see it.

“I think it happens to most national teams [that they pick non-nationals], but it’s up to him if he wants to make himself available. Fabio Capello is the man to answer the question because he’s the manager, but for me he’s an excellent player.”

Is the England team or any other British football team sacred? Or after a terrible showing in the world cup should the English FA now use this as an opportunity to put together the best team it can? I would be interested to hear your views!

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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 pretty much the ultimate professional footballer and for that he should be applauded. Personally, I was hoping he was going to make it to the World Cup because, after all he is David Beckham, but yesterday as he warmed up kicking a ball for AC Milan he felt a twinge in his Achilles tendon and that was that.

First question, has all that travelling around the globe effected the blood flow to his ankles and caused the injury? No not in my view – it simply looks like being just one of those things.

The truth is David, all though once truly brilliant, has failed to shine this season over in Italy and even if he had of made it to the world cup he would have only been a bit part player coming on a substitute with that lethal right foot of his. He would have been great support for the younger players because he has been there and done it and could provide them with his advice as a veteran.

David Beckham the brand will continue to shine but I think the fact that David isn’t going to South Africa is both a good thing and a bad one for the FA. Firstly, it means the huge media circus he brings with him won’t be there. Although this can be a bit distracting for the players and the coaches it also sells people the England brand around the world.

People still want to see David and that’s a fact, Fifa’s very own Sepp Blatter once said England stood a better chance of winning the opportunity to stage the World Cup in 2018 if Beckham fronted it. Why? Because he is David Beckham and has something about him that everyone wants to see and touch – the star quality or X-factor.

In my opinion, I think the FA should take Beckham along in an advisory role for the players and bring him in for his experience. In footballing terms I don’t think we have to worry too much as we have some great young players on the wings with players like Theo Walcott, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joe Cole, James Milner, Adam Johnson and even Steven Gerrard.

So win or Fail? Unfortunately, I think this is a PR fail because David Beckham does bring something different to the England brand. He sells shirts due to his star quality and shows his passion for the country on the pitch. I think we should all say a big thank you to David for his service to England but now it’s time to move on and find his successor. Who knows maybe one of the younger players will become the next David Beckham at this world cup? Just keep your fingers, toes and eyes crossed nothing happens to our friend Wayne because that really would be catastrophic.

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“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 heard about senior directors in various corporates banning the use of social networks like Facebook in work hours but we have never seen a public statement from a Premier League football club banning all usage of them from their players.

The trouble is footballers have been causing trouble left, right and centre with their usage of Twitter and Facebook and the clubs haven’t really got to grips with how to deal with them. Some players have used their networks to engineer moves to other clubs, some have vented their disgust at being dropped from their teams and others have just not thought about what they are doing when they have updated their statuses.

Here are my top five footballer social networking faux pars:

1. Darren Bent allegedly attacks Tottenham’s chairman as his transfer to Sunderland dragged on and is fined £80K.
2. A professional footballer nicknamed “Motor Mouth” reveals he plans to leave his club Crystal Palace for Fulham on his Facebook page but manages to inform the site’s 2.7 million London network members.
3. American Striker Altidore is fined by Hull City FC after revealing why his boss dropped him for the game with Portsmouth FC to all of his followers.
4. Liverpool winger Ryan Babel enrages manager Rafeal Benitez by writing on his Twitter page two days ago: "Hey people, I got some disappointing news, I am not travelling to Stoke. The Boss left me out the squad. No explanation.”
5. Thierry Henry apologises for “Hand Gate” the day after the match with Ireland.

If you are interested in footballers on Twitter here is Sport Blog’s Top Ten Footballers on Twitter.

Personally I don’t think Manchester Utd should have banned the players from using all social networks. I think they should have provided some type of formal training and explained the parameters of what they can and can’t do. For instance, we all know that the footballers are properly media trained before they go in front of a camera. They know how to answer interview questions, so why can’t they update their own social networks it doesn’t make sense? The players just need to use common sense before pressing update. In other words, don’t talk about transfers, don’t slate the manager and don’t criticise the club in public. There are three straight away – I could probably write 30 or so if I tried.

The fans love following their favourite players because it gives them some insight into their lives and this has to be good for the clubs. The truth is there is a lot of money involved in this industry and footballers are a completely different animal to the corporate world but I would always recommend training first and foremost rather than outright banning all usage. We will have to watch and see if the other clubs follow suit to finally put a lid on this but somehow I don’t think they will.

What do you think is Manchester Utd using the right approach?

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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 making interesting documents available to download only through its group. Not only that but it has made sure that a fan can get to all of it’s other social platforms straight from it’s group by enclosing all of the links, something which many brands seem to forget.

In truth, Facebook and Twitter are now hugely influential channels for the club and it appears to have now directed its communication strategy towards engaging with the fans on a more personal level. The club in essence is asking and giving fans what they want – good, interesting and bespoke content. In my view this should be commended.

I wrote a post a while back where I compared how Liverpool FC and Chelsea FC used Twitter. The two clubs had two differing strategies for using Twitter. Now, as expected I am not a fan of Chelsea’s fan page but I have had a look and it has around 395,000 fans. Not bad either but it does seem that although Chelsea are winning the football battle in the league this year, Liverpool is winning the social battle.

As of writing Liverpool’s page has more than 1,004,824 fans and growing by the minute.

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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 of copycat Twitter users here is one example: http://twitter.com/liverpool 

My ideal job would be to do social media for a football club but it got me thinking if I could ask my football club anything on Twitter what would I ask them? More to the point would they answer it?

To be honest, these new channels will be useful but only if they are used properly and the clubs engage appropriately with their fans. For instance: why don’t they offer something special/unique to their communities like free tickets for retweeting a #hashtag competition for example? I have started to follow both today so I will be watching these two very closely.

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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’ Choice’ widget. This could enable the club’s fans to vote for the players for the next team. Your vote would count – you actually get a say in your own team. The more votes a player(s) receives the more chance he has got of being in the fans’ team. Just a thought.

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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 to be a two horse race with the other two clubs (from the top four) falling away in the first quarter of the season. I am a dedicated Liverpool fan but even I have to admit we are falling way short of Chelsea or Manchester Utd’s squads at the moment.

I have been wrong before but I just can’t see either Arsenal or Liverpool giving them a real go of it because we don’t have the depth of players. To win the league you have to be able to beat both these teams when you meet them and I simply can’t see either of us doing that.

However, my tip for a shock or two this season would be Portsmouth as they have an awesome strike partnership of Defoe and Crouch, which can surely only be good for England.

If Chelsea do somehow secure Kaka’s services can I see them beating Utd to the title? Possibly – a player of his speed and skill might just tip the balance their way. Do I think he is worth £78million? Nah.

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