The Best Social Media Team in Football?

One piece of sports content that has knocked it out of the park, and three championship-caliber takeaways to make you a better content creator — let’s play ball!

This Week’s Game Plan:

What do Buzz Lightyear, The Minions, and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson have in common? Aside from being international sex symbols — yes, we include The Minions — they’ve all made an appearance in one of Burnley FC’s new signing announcement videos.

Over the last number of years, Burnley has carved out a name for itself as one of the most innovative sports teams in the world when it comes to their social presence. Their social and content teams have released a string of instant classics when it comes to new signing announcements, and have garnered millions of eyes in the process.

It all started back in January 2019, when the signing of seasoned superstar Peter Crouch warranted a little more than the usual picture of him putting pen to paper or shaking hands with the manager in front of the club crest — this needed more. Crouchie had become a fan favourite for his open demeanour with the press and his infamous robot celebration, so Burnley riffed perfectly off this by documenting a toy robot entering the training ground. Suddenly, a well-placed football bowls the robot over. As the camera pans to the assailant, Peter Crouch is revealed, and Burnley’s transformation to social media trailblazers had truly begun.

From then Burnley have continued to produce top quality content for its new signings, utilising iconic shows from British television history such as ‘Fawlty Towers’ and ‘The Generation Game,’ while also hopping on modern trends like ‘Stranger Things’ or the contentious 2022 struggle for power at 10 Downing Street.

It’s a true win-win for the club in every way. The club gains a huge amount of media attention and engagement from the general public, the fans get to enjoy top quality content and revel in each new signing, while the players get to have a bit of fun while also appreciating that their new employer is willing to make them feel a bit special.

Take the signings of Michael Obafemi and Darko Churlinov as great examples from the past few transfer indows. Both of the players appear happy to be involved as they engage and play an active part in the content. They’re not just fulfilling a contractual obligation here, they want to make a fun video because they’ve undoubtedly seen some of the others and want their own moment of social stardom.

Without a doubt, Burnley’s magnum opus, their piece de resistance, was this:

Everything about this piece of content is brilliant. The idea works perfectly, the voice acting is fantastic, even the dubbing was amazing. The video exploded and took over the internet upon release — no shock there. It was fun, didn’t take itself too seriously, and did a fantastic job of making their new player feel welcome — who wouldn’t want to be compared to Ronaldo and Messi after all?

Hopefully other clubs, especially some of the bigger ones, take note and let their social teams loose a bit more. I understand some of these clubs are worth billions now, but you’re never too big to try and entertain your fans and get a bit of social buzz around a new signing.

Sports is entertainment at the end of the day, that’s its function. Without fans who are being entertained, nobody would care who wins. I expect Burnley to keep trying to top their latest social exploits, and I certainly won’t be surprised if we see other clubs begin to release the shackles around their social teams in a bid to compete. And the true winners if that happens? The fans, exactly how it should be.

Post Game Analysis

1. Your content doesn’t have to be perfectly polished.

Too often content creators struggle to hit the publish button. There’s always another edit that could be done, or a better image, or another point you want to make. I’m as guilty of this as anyone. I constantly put off getting my work out there in the desire to make sure it’s perfect.

Burnley’s videos show that this simply isn’t necessary. That’s not to say that these videos aren’t brilliant, they are. But they’re not perfect. I’m sure there are areas where they could have been tightened up, or where quality could potentially be improved, but none of that is necessary.

The videos get their point across, fulfil all of their goals, and get published when they need to be. That’s the thing with signing videos, they have to be produced extremely quickly in an attempt to at least have the club involved in the announcement (you can blame Fabrizio Romano for this, the man is too quick!).

For your content, keep this in mind. Published is better than almost done. Especially in the early stages of your career, use the feedback you get from whatever audience you have to benefit your next piece of content. It’s the best way to improve your work, while you also get to find out what your audience actually wants to consume. It’s a powerful feedback loop that will help you progress so much faster than just creating for yourself.

2. Trendjacking can work — up to a point.

Every content professional knows what it’s like to have someone want them to jump on the latest trend and get a piece of content out to match it as quickly as they can. Chasing trends can be exhausting though, there’s always another one around the corner.

Burnley gives a brilliant insight into how to do this well. Some of their content jumps on trends quickly — their ‘Stranger Things’ or 10 Downing Street videos for example. However, they don’t do this for all of their content. Instead, they rely on evergreen content that they know will resonate with a much wider audience. Using ‘Friends’ or ‘Toy Story’ as the backbone of their videos allows them to have a much longer tail, despite signing videos really only being useful for a couple of days at most.

Apply this to your own content by carefully selecting when to jump on a trend. If it matches your niche, and you can get an idea out quickly that you’re happy with then go for it. But, if you use this as your primary method of content creation you’re going to burn out. It’s tiring, doesn’t allow for a coherent content strategy, and will lead to you potentially building an audience that doesn’t care about your actual content.

Use trendjacking to supplement your existing content strategy for a boost, and watch it propel your already planned content to new heights.

3. You need to truly know your audience.

Following on from the last point, it’s vital that you build an engaged audience that you know inside out. Burnley shows their understanding of their core audience in the content it selects to base its videos around.

Burnley is typically seen as quite a traditional, no nonsense, British club. Therefore, their use of British staples such as ‘Fawlty Towers’ or ‘Gavin and Stacey’ is much more likely to appeal to that audience than consistently following TikTok trends or focusing on more American shows or movies.

Also, given the wide age range of a football club’s audience, the use of shows that appeal to different generations enables them to connect with their audience across the board. They don’t go after just one demographic, instead they vary their content and ensure that there’s more mass appeal. Couple this with some of the more evergreen content they do with global megahits like ‘Shrek’ or ‘Jurassic Park’ and there’s truly something for everyone.

Follow their lead by making sure you’re studying your audience metrics. If you don’t have a good view of your audience, use tools that will let you get a better insight — polls are always a great starter option. Once you have this data, steer into it as much as you can. Your audience will get more personalised content, and your engagement will reap the rewards.

I hope you enjoyed this study of Burnley’s brilliant new signing announcements. If you did — or even if you didn’t — let me know in a reply.

If you’re feeling really generous you could also share this with a friend you think might enjoy it so we can grow the Social Setpiece Squad even more.

See you all next week.

PB ✌🏼