Guide to Social Media Marketing for Soccer Leagues

Social media marketing can be a tough nut to crack, especially in industries such as sports. But when it is done right, it can help you reach out to a global audience and grow your brand’s image twofold (or even more).

If you are the owner of a soccer league and wish to attract new fans or even new talent towards your brand, then this guide is for you. In this blog post, we will break down some effective tips on how soccer leagues can market themselves on social media.

Utilize the power of Facebook and Instagram stories

Facebook and Instagram stories are great tools to have in your arsenal. Statistics show that 70% of Instagram users and more than 500 million Facebook users use stories on a daily basis. This shows you how much potential reach you are looking at.

There are also many advantages of marketing via stories too, including:

• Quick to create and put up since stories stay live only for 24 hours so you don’t have to put in as much effort into the quality as your regular feed.
• Better reach because stories are highlighted on the top of social media feeds – so it is the first thing that your target audience sees when they log in to their social network.

The next question is: how do you use stories as a soccer league? Here are some examples of the type of content you can post in stories:

• Take your audience on a tour of the stadium(s).
• Do a quick-fire Q&A with the most popular players in your league.
• Show glimpses of training sessions and matches from your league.
• Spotlight your most loyal fans and acknowledge their contributions.

Remember that your focus should not be on producing high-quality images and videos but rather on unique, engaging content that your fans will enjoy watching.

To illustrate a good use case of Facebook stories for promoting a soccer club, here is an example from New York City FC showing a glimpse of their training session in one of their stories:

Reward supporters with giveaways

A great way to increase your following and reward loyal supporters is with a giveaway. The good part about giveaways is that they attract interest from people, regardless of what you are offering! For example, you can do a giveaway for:

• Tickets for one of the upcoming matches in your league.
• The ball that was used in one of your previous high-intensity matches (with the players’ sign).
• Shirts, shoes, or other souvenirs that are associated with your soccer league.

Regardless of the item you are giving away, you can be sure that the fans will appreciate it – because hey, who doesn’t like a free giveaway?

So, how do you do a giveaway for your soccer league? Here is a simple three-step process:

1. The first step is to devise a formula on how you will select people for the giveaway. One formula that works really well is to ask followers to do the following:

• Follow your soccer league’s profile on Facebook and/or Instagram.
• React on the giveaway post.
• Tag one (or more) friends in the comments for the post.

2. Once this is done, create the giveaway post and use Facebook or Instagram ads to boost your reach, if necessary. Be sure to mention a deadline for the giveaway on your post so people know when to check back in (and to avoid having people put it off for later).
3. After the deadline for the giveaway, you can simply pick out any number of participants randomly using a tool such as Comment Picker.

Take this example from Leisure Leagues UK on how to put up a giveaway post on social media:

Businesses often consider social media to be a marketing tool for them, but in reality, it can be much more than that. At a basic level, beyond business, social media should be considered as a platform for connecting with your fans. It provides you with a channel to start conversations with and listen to the feedback from the people who make or break your sport – the fans.

Maintaining an active community of followers takes quite an effort, but it is worth it. Think of social media as a place to keep your fans updated with the latest news and to listen to their feedback about the coverage and matches being played in your league.

Here are a few tips on how you can come up with a communication plan for engaging with fans on social media:

• Be polite and friendly with the audience – even if you have to respond to offensive comments, make sure that fans understand and resonate with you.
• Avoid posting content that might generate controversies or cause fights between fans. The last thing you want is to have people unfollowing your page because they fought with other fans on one of your posts.
• Be quick with your responses, especially with queries about your league (such as upcoming matches, players, etc.). Try to get back to followers within an hour or two.
• Showcase and acknowledge your most loyal fans by doing a shoutout post or rewarding them with giveaways and other league goodies.

Promote upcoming matches to boost attendance

An excellent approach to promoting upcoming matches being played in your league is to promote them on social media. Once you have already built a fan following, all you need to do to ask fans to turn up to the stadium(s) or tune in to your coverage is to post the schedules on social media.

You can even spice things up and attract more interest by doing things such as:

• Awarding a free ticket to the first 5 people that comment on a match post.
• Keeping a meet-and-greet event with players during the match and promoting this on social media to attract more people.
• Showcasing top players and their achievements in a short biography and then adding a schedule of matches that these players will be a part of.

Here is an example of a great schedule post from Fox Soccer that you can take inspiration from.

What you will need is an easy-to-understand team schedules poster that you can post to keep fans informed about what matches are being played, between what teams, and when. Our recommendation is to use a tool such as PosterMyWall to design and create such posters.

PosterMyWall is a graphic design tool that lets you create custom-made visuals and posters like the example above with a few simple clicks. You can create some visually compelling schedule posts by choosing from the hundreds of sports team schedules poster templates that are available at PosterMyWall.

What are the next steps?

Marketing a soccer league on social media can look daunting at first, but with a few simple tips and guidelines like the ones we’ve shared, you can start running campaigns that make a sizable impact. Regardless of how you get started, what matters is the momentum so make sure that you post regularly to keep your fans and followers engaged.