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The Premier League

Social Network Rankings

2019

A complete guide to the performance of the English Premier League clubs

on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,YouTube and Weibo

Social Network Rankings from Newton Insight is the most comprehensive studyon the domestic and international influence of Premier League clubs in globalsocial media. Going beyond simple lists tallying follower numbers, the authorscomprehensively breakdown and cross reference engagement levels, speed ofgrowth and fan sentiment.

The report is a reference for clubs to assess their performance andcompetitiveness across different social networks. For sponsors and marketers,the results highlight how much value social networks are adding to the global fanbase of the Premier League.

Newton Insight’s report is essential reading for anyone with an interest in thebusiness of football and the roles social media and branding play in shaping itsfuture.

ABOUT THE REPORT

Newton Insight is a full-service social media research agency based in London.The company was founded in 2016 by a management team with extensiveexperience of reporting the business and commercial value of media.

Newton Insight delivers analytics on social media trends and deeper insights intoaudience attitudes, opinions and emotions. We operate across all business,public and sports sectors.

For more information about this report or to discuss your research requirementsplease contact Philip Lynch.

About Newton Insight

[email protected]

+44 (0)7984 579924

www.newtoninsight.net

Contact

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.newtoninsight.net/

CONTENTS 2019

Foreword Page 5

Key Trends 2019 Page 6

A Day In The Life Page 7

MAIN TABLE Page 8Derby Stats Page 11

Manchester United Page 12

Liverpool Page 13

Beyond The Big Six Page 14

Promoted Clubs Page 15

Total Fans Page 16

Total Posts Page 17

Total Engagement Page 18

Normalised Engagement Page 19

Fan Satisfaction Page 20

THE SOCIAL NETWORKS Page 21Spotlight: Facebook 3

DATA TABLES Page 36Facebook Page 40

Instagram Page 42

Twitter Page 44

YouTube Page 46

Weibo Page 48

Disclaimer Page 51

The headlines for 2019 are predictable enough; Facebook is still the biggest social media channel for the Premier League and Manchester United is still the #1 club.

Most of us love the unpredictability of the Premier League, even though we know only a handful of clubs stand a realistic chance of winning it. The same is true of social media. Yes, we know Facebook is important and we expect United and the other members of the 'Big Six' to end up at the top of the table, but beyond that, everything is up for grabs.

Manchester United are #1, but Manchester City is growing faster on Facebook and Liverpool is outpacing United on Instagram. In China, Chelsea is adding more fans than any other club, United included.

Our latest analysis contains many examples of mid-size and smaller clubs excelling in their efforts to grow their global fan bases. Not every success is the social media equivalent of an Andros Townsend screamer, but there are plenty of surprises outside of the Big Six in Social Network Rankings 2019.

Burnley is doing well in China and closer to home Brighton & Hove Albion has doubled engagement with fans on Twitter. Wolverhampton Wanderers fans are hugely motivated to engage with their club on all social networks.

There are challenges too, with some of the Premier League's biggest clubs struggling to find new ways to maintain fan engagement on Facebook or to stimulate new growth on Weibo.

The social networks themselves have experienced contrasting fortunes over the past twelve months. Instagram has displaced Twitter as the second-largest social network for the Premier League. Over on YouTube, fan engagement has doubled, thanks to United's decision to launch an official YouTube channel.

As ever, the aim of Social Network Rankings is to squeeze as much meaning as we can from the metrics available from the network APIs. We put in a lot of effort and we check the numbers carefully. We hope our findings stimulate the thinking of the clubs, sponsors and advertisers and everyone with an interest in the development of the Premier League.

FOREWORD

KEY TRENDS FOR 2019

• The Premier League clubs added 52M fans (+13%) in global socialnetworks in 2018. This equates to 140K new fans per day

• Despite a challenging start on the pitch for the 2018-19 season,Manchester United remains the #1 Premier League club on socialnetworks. The club has the largest fan base on Facebook, Twitter,Instagram and Weibo

• Manchester United’s launch of an official YouTube channel inFebruary 2018 has achieved a subscriber base of 1.3M. This ranksUnited third behind Liverpool (1.8M) and Manchester City (1.6M)on YouTube

• On Facebook, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal did notgrow their fan bases in 2018

• Manchester City is the fastest growing club on Facebook, with 7Mnew fans acquired in 2018. City accounts for over half of allPremier League fan growth on Facebook

• Fan engagement on Facebook slumped by 42% in 2018 as fansmoved their activity to Instagram and the clubs struggled to adaptto changes in Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm

• Liverpool is adding more fans on Instagram than any other club;6M new fans in 2018

• Chelsea is the fastest-growing club on China’s Weibo; 1.3M newfans in 2018

• Liverpool, Bournemouth and Spurs fans express most satisfactionwith their clubs

• Wolves, Brighton and Liverpool have the most engaged fans

720Premier League clubspublish 720 new posts

140k140,000 new fans join a club

account

7.5mFans engage with their clubs 7.5 million times

34k34,000 new fans join

on Facebook

70k70,000 new fans

join on Instagram

20k20,000 new fans join

on Twitter

5m5 million fan engagements happen on Instagram

940kFans watch YouTube videos 940,000 times

Average daily values for January-December 2018

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE

Main Table


2019

MAIN TABLE 2019

Social Network Rank Jan-Dec 2018

12.2

14.7

15.3

15.7

16.1

17.0

17.2

17.8

18.1

18.8

19.4

20.1

20.7

29.9

32.9

41.2

42.9

44.5

55.0

60.2

Bournemouth

Fulham

Leicester

Newcastle

Watford

Cardiff

West Ham

Southampton

Everton

Brighton & Hove

Crystal Palace

Burnley

Huddersfield

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Tottenham Hotspur

Arsenal

Chelsea

Manchester City

Liverpool

Manchester United

MAIN TABLE 2019

Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Weibo Score & Rank

TeamFans(‘000)

Growth Fans ('000) Growth Fans ('000) Growth Fans ('000) Growth Fans ('000) Growth ScoreRank

(Previous)

Manchester United

73,276,533 -0.6% 18,605,492 12.1% 25,285,662 25.4% 1,306,951 163.6% 9,318,266 1.1% 60.2 1 (1)

Liverpool 32,365,967 6.4% 10,853,499 15.6% 11,428,921 116.9% 1,776,837 137.6% 2,501,761 6.1% 55.0 2 (5)

Manchester City

36,662,383 26.3% 6,550,936 17.2% 9,798,420 64.2% 1,577,545 45.8% 8,312,536 0.8% 44.5 3 (2)

Chelsea 47,717,760 -0.3% 12,319,114 9.0% 14,342,802 33.8% 1,040,785 44.6% 4,265,081 46.6% 42.9 4 (3)

Arsenal 37,780,252 -0.3% 13,930,181 9.8% 13,014,879 24.0% 1,133,425 55.3% 4,784,022 2.3% 41.2 5 (4)

Tottenham Hotspur

10,296,754 18.8% 3,159,120 21.1% 3,405,047 107.8% 412,424 79.5% 1,965,394 28.3% 32.9 6 (7)


493,147 55.2% 355,642 36.1% 215,190 329.2% 42,789 63.9% 149,657 - 29.9 7 (-)

Huddersfield 141,976 25.8% 170,813 30.3% 128,929 125.8% 16,156 39.5% 12,158 166.4% 20.7 8 (6)

Burnley 408,769 5.1% 386,224 25.3% 202,868 56.8% 13,755 50.4% 93,366 1790.0% 20.1 9 (12)

Crystal Palace 1,079,368 1.4% 783,922 17.7% 355,647 55.1% 35,615 33.4% 16,679 16.6% 19.4 10 (11)

Brighton &Hove

243,812 16.5% 211,417 30.7% 177,498 134.9% 19,321 20.8% n/a n/a 18.8 11 (14)

Everton 3,106,687 1.7% 1,724,823 21.2% 821,417 55.1% 113,857 62.6% 17,046 2.6% 18.1 12 (9)

Southampton 3,079,530 76.8% 1,032,578 13.6% 437,550 36.8% 55,440 17.2% 132,032 102.9% 17.8 13 (18)

West Ham 2,301,406 0.2% 1,420,084 4.3% 679,175 39.9% 99,923 59.7% 85,484 1.2% 17.2 14 (10)

Cardiff 507,956 2.8% 280,753 19.5% 87,771 154.3% 18,116 44.1% 1,140 0.0% 17.0 15 (-)

Watford 419,375 6.5% 484,323 19.4% 313,225 73.9% 20,084 32.7% 4,278 3.9% 16.1 16 (13)

Newcastle 2,151,353 0.5% 1,323,550 10.6% 220,483 71.2% 40,004 17.6% 50,688 82.9% 15.7 17 (8)

Leicester 6,634,498 0.6% 1,268,943 15.2% 2,559,463 35.3% 78,197 22.7% 529,966 0.3% 15.3 18 (17)

Fulham 844,764 4.7% 472,324 19.1% 194,809 164.8% 17,428 36.1% n/a n/a 14.7 19 (-)

Bournemouth 375,650 4.7% 409,022 20.0% 273,684 55.7% 18,006 30.4% 11,879 -1.7% 12.2 20 (19)

Manchester City

1M

New Twitter Followers in 2018

Everton

2 Months

Time to add 10k new fans on Facebook

Brighton

177k

Total number of Instagram fans Dec 2018

Arsenal

33 Days

Time to add 10K new fans on Weibo

Manchester United is adding twice as many new followers on

Twitter than Manchester City

It takes Everton a month to match Liverpool’s daily growth

on Facebook

Crystal Palace has twice as many followers on Instagram than

Brighton & Hove Albion

In China Tottenham Hotspur is adding new followers four times faster than Arsenal – the exact

reverse of last year’s result, when Arsenal held a 4:1 advantage

4 : 1

2 : 1

30 : 1

2 : 1

Derby Stats 2019How local rivals match up in social networks

Manchester United

2M

Liverpool

2 Days

Crystal Palace

356k

Tottenham

8 Days

“United is still a massive presence, but there are areas where its lead is

not as strong as it once was.”

Manchester United

United has maintained its lead in our Main Table by amassing millions of new followers on Instagram and Twitter, and by launching an official YouTube channel, which plugged the only significant gap in its social media armoury. United’s global reach means the club achieves more fan engagement across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram than any other club.

But there are areas where United’s lead is not a strong as it once was. This year Liverpool has recruited six million new fans on Instagram, compared to United’s gain of five million. On Facebook, Manchester City’s pursuit of new audiences in Africa and Asia has taken a seven million bite out of United's lead in fan numbers. In China, five clubs added more new fans than United on Weibo, although United remains #1 overall, with nine million Weibo fans compared to City’s eight million.

Manchester United seems to have acknowledged that it has reached maturity on Facebook, and the club is directing its output towards Instagram and its new YouTube channel.

How United Prioritises Instagram and YouTube: Over the past twelve months Manchester United’s output has swung away from Facebook and Twitter. The club is still a massive presence on both networks, but on Facebook, Chelsea and Spurs are more prolific than United. On Twitter, nine clubs produce more content than United.United’s main focus is Instagram, where it publishes more posts than any other club, and YouTube, where it is also ranked #1 for new content.

SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

“Liverpool is achieving consistent growth across all networks and is

adding more new fans on Instagram than any other club”

Liverpool

Balance and consistency count for a lot on the pitch. The same could be said forLiverpool’s performance in the digital sphere; the Merseyside club is achievingconsistent organic growth across all social networks. The only concern forLiverpool is Weibo growth seems to have gone off the boil, with 144,000 fansadded this year, down from over 400,000 new fans in 2017. An odd result giventhat Liverpool generates more fan engagement on Weibo than any otherPremier League club.


In 2018 Liverpool added the most new fans on Instagram and also held off thechallenge from the Manchester clubs to become the biggest Premier Leagueclub on YouTube. Over on Facebook, United’s dominant position remains adistant target but Liverpool’s acquisition of 2 million new fans closed the gap onArsenal and Chelsea and was bettered only by Manchester City.

At the time of writing, Liverpool are sitting on top of the league andunsurprisingly, the engagement stats show it is a good time to be a Liverpoolfan. The club is ranked #1 for engagement on YouTube and Weibo and is #2behind United on Twitter and Instagram.

-

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Facebook Instagram Twitter Weibo YouTube

Mill

ion

s

Liverpool: Fans Added By Network 2018

The top of the Social Networks Rankings table is dominated by the B6 clubs, butthere’s still plenty of reasons to celebrate the progress of mid-table teams.Newly-promoted Wolves, Brighton & Hove Albion and Burnley cannot match thereach of Manchester United and the other B6 clubs, so their focus is on makingthe relationship with fans as strong as possible. Audiences may be smaller, but fanmotivation is high. Media and Sponsors take note.


Beyond The Big Six: Five Teams Doing Something Right

Wolverhampton Wanderers: InstagramThe feel-good factor at Molineux is clearly having an affect on socialnetworks; Wolves fans are engaging with their club more frequentlyon Instagram than the fans of any other Premier League club*

Everton: YouTubeWhatever Everton is posting on YouTube, it’s clearly working; Evertonfans are more likely to engage with club videos than the fans of otherPremier League clubs*

*normalised fan engagement; total engagements per club, per 10k fans

Huddersfield: TwitterNot too much good news this season, but no other club keeps itsTwitter fans up to date as frequently as Huddersfield. The club’s socialmedia team put out 11,000 posts in 2018

Burnley: WeiboStarting virtually from scratch this year, Burnley has grown in China at afast rate and now has 100,000 fans on Weibo

Brighton & Hove Albion: FacebookFaced with major changes to Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm, only twoPremier League clubs managed to grow fan engagement on Facebookin 2018 and Albion was one of them

“There are still plenty of reasons to celebrate the performance of mid-

table and smaller teams”

“Wolves are generating most momentum with strong growth across

all channels”

The Promoted Clubs

Of the three clubs promoted to the Premier League for the 2018/19 Season,Wolverhampton Wanderers is generating most momentum in social networks,with strong growth across all channels and very high levels of fan engagement.

On Instagram, only Liverpool fans have a higher personal engagement ratingand on YouTube, Wolves is one of only two clubs to surpass one millionengagements per 10,000 fans. Given the club’s entertaining start to life back inthe Premier League, it isn’t a surprise to learn that Wolves fans reach for theirmobile phones to engage on Twitter more frequently than the fans of anyother club; Wolves’ 79k Twitter engagements per 10,000 fans is the highest inthe Premier League.

Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

Team Fans GrowthEng per

10k FansFans Growth

Eng per 10k Fans

Fans GrowthEng per 10k Fans

Fans GrowthEng per 10k Fans

Wolves 493,147 55.2% 38,177 355,642 36.1% 78,570 215,190 329.2% 433,091 42,789 63.9% 1,048,142

Cardiff 507,956 2.8% 7,585 280,753 19.5% 18,453 87,771 154.3% 111,197 18,116 44.1% 947,485

Fulham 844,764 4.7% 7,585 472,324 19.1% 29,530 194,809 164.8% 287,083 17,428 36.1% 158,528

Although Wolves is making the most of the club’s return to the Premier League,Fulham has a larger following on social networks and the club is especiallyprominent on Facebook, where growth is in line with the overall PremierLeague average. The West London club is growing fast on Instagram, were ithas the second-highest % rate of growth in the Premier League behind Wolves.


TOTAL FANS JAN-DEC 2018

0 50 100 150

Huddersfield

Brighton & Hove

Cardiff

Bournemouth

Burnley

Watford


Fulham

Crystal Palace

Newcastle

West Ham

Southampton

Everton

Leicester

Tottenham Hotspur

Liverpool

Manchester City

Arsenal

Chelsea

Manchester United

Millions

Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Weibo

TOTAL CLUB POSTS JAN-DEC 2018

7,095

7,181

7,969

8,770

9,699

9,951

10,146

10,200

11,660

12,099

12,133

13,635

14,542

15,401

15,846

16,904

17,100

19,040

20,568

23,370

Everton

Cardiff

Watford


Bournemouth

West Ham

Fulham

Burnley

Newcastle

Southampton

Leicester

Crystal Palace

Brighton & Hove

Huddersfield

Arsenal

Manchester United

Liverpool

Manchester City

Tottenham Hotspur

Chelsea

TOTAL FAN ENGAGEMENT JAN-DEC 2018

2,833,052

2,986,123

2,989,450

3,076,624

3,904,986

4,702,433

6,134,445

6,741,101

7,243,184

8,457,903

13,328,206

24,376,092

28,936,980

34,339,239

127,952,248

233,360,122

396,864,348

411,605,352

555,486,415

868,581,629

Burnley

Bournemouth

Cardiff

Huddersfield

Watford

Newcastle

Fulham

Brighton & Hove

Southampton

Crystal Palace


Everton

West Ham

Leicester

Tottenham Hotspur

Manchester City

Arsenal

Chelsea

Liverpool

Manchester United

FAN ENGAGEMENT (PER 10K FANS)

12,420

15,290

25,639

27,440

31,017

31,459

33,374

37,099

37,239

40,112

42,145

51,654

56,179

63,098

65,456

66,508

67,968

94,267

103,384

106,080

Newcastle

Southampton

Burnley

Bournemouth

Leicester

Watford

Cardiff

Manchester City

Crystal Palace

Fulham

Everton

Chelsea

Arsenal

West Ham

Huddersfield

Tottenham Hotspur

Manchester United

Liverpool

Brighton & Hove


Club ‘Love’ Reactions ‘Angry’ Reactions Love/Angry Ratio

Liverpool 4,489,372 134,198 33.5

Bournemouth 17,132 538 31.8

Tottenham Hotspur 1,386,281 54,418 25.5

Wolverhampton Wanderers 137,203 6,995 19.6

Brighton & Hove 27,226 1,467 18.6

Cardiff 24,015 1,327 18.1

Fulham 49,551 3,243 15.3

Huddersfield 7,791 597 13.1

Chelsea 3,452,780 271,413 12.7

Manchester City 1,982,676 158,446 12.5

Burnley 15,923 1,307 12.2

Manchester United 5,950,676 532,854 11.2

Crystal Palace 53,832 4,981 10.8

Newcastle 106,985 10,626 10.1

Arsenal 3,100,070 332,818 9.3

Leicester 377,712 57,643 6.6

Everton 168,532 26,502 6.4

West Ham 313,080 68,064 4.6

Watford 14,549 3,710 3.9

Southampton 73,359 20,525 3.6

Fan Satisfaction: ‘Love’ & ‘Angry’ Reactions On Facebook

Love and Angry reactions by Facebook fans gives an indication of how fans feelabout their clubs. The ratio is probably the metric most closely linked toperformance on the pitch, but in several cases – notably the London clubs – fanreaction includes discussion of off-field issues.

33.5 31.8

25.5

19.6 18.6 18.115.3

13.1 12.7 12.5 12.2 11.2 10.8 10.1 9.36.6 6.4 4.6 3.9 3.6

Love/Angry Ratio

FAN SATISFACTION JAN-DEC 2018

The Social Networks


Fan growth and engagement on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube

and Weibo

2019

Facebook remains the biggest social network for the Premier League despiteseveral clubs seeing their Facebook growth fall to minimal or even negativelevels due to a combination of maturing fan bases and the increasing popularityof other networks.

On Instagram the clubs added 25 million new fans in 2018, representing year-on-year growth of over 40 per cent. In the past twelve months, seven clubsdoubled the size of their fan bases on Instagram. If the current trend ismaintained, Instagram will exceed 100 million fans by the end of this year.

On Twitter, there was no repeat of the explosion in fan numbers seen in 2017,with growth slipping to 13 per cent. Instagram’s superior rate of growth meansit has overtaken Twitter to become the second largest social network for thePremier League.

There were encouraging signs of higher growth on YouTube, helped in large partby the successful launch of an official Manchester United channel andLiverpool’s aggressive building of its subscriber base. In China, fan growth onWeibo is also accelerating, with absolute growth of 2.5 million new fans in 2018a significant improvement on the 2 million new fans acquired in 2017.


Social Network

Total FansShare of

FansFans Added

Jan-May 2018Growth

(%)Posts by

ClubsShare of Club

PostsFan

EngagementsShare of Fan Engagements

Facebook 259,887,940 56.5% 12,362,012 5.0% 55,421 21.0% 330,538,058 12.0%

Instagram 83,943,440 18.3% 25,331,820 43.2% 20,229 7.7% 1,884,132,243 68.7%

Twitter 75,742,760 16.5% 8,671,020 12.9% 149,714 56.9% 183,565,319 6.7%

YouTube 7,836,658 1.7% 3,410,514 77.1% 5,512 2.1% 342,456,137 12.5%

Weibo 32,251,433 7.0% 2,552,394 8.6% 32,433 12.3% 3,208,175 0.1%

All Networks Grow In 2018

The Premier League clubs continue to grow their fan bases in global socialnetworks. Combined fan growth across all networks was 13 per cent in 2018,with Instagram and YouTube growing faster than Facebook, Twitter and Weibo.


0

5

10

15

20

25

30


Mill

ion

s

Net Fan Growth 2017 - 2018

Fan Growth Jan-Dec 2018 Fan Growth Jan-Dec 2017

0

400

800

1,200

1,600

2,000


Mill

ion

s

Total Fan Engagement 2017 - 2018

Fan Engagement Jan-Dec 2018 Fan Engagement Jan-Dec 2017

Instagram Leads Fan Growth And Engagement

Although Instagram is not the Premier League’s biggest social network, it is theengine for both new fan growth and fan engagement. The 25 million new fansadded on Instagram in 2018 represents almost half of the Premier League’sentire growth in global social networks. Instagram’s share of fan engagement isnow close to 70 per cent as the network contributed 1.8 billion engagements tothe Premier League’s total of 2.7 billion in 2018.

In 2017 Twitter was the fastest growing social network, but growth fell back in 2018 as the Premier League clubs amassed 25 million new fans on Instagram.

No other network comes close to matching Instagram’s fan engagement. Facebook engagement slumped by 42% in 2018 while engagement on Instagram hit 1.8 billion and engagement on YouTube doubled.


Facebook / Instagram: The Quality of Engagement

One of the assumptions in social media is that engagement on Instagram isgenerally lighter; users swipe through their feeds quickly, giving occasional‘likes’ to posts of interests. Within the hierarchy of social media engagement, a‘like’ is an acknowledgement that a post has been seen and has resonated withthe recipient in some way.

Comments are regarded as a more valuable response. By eschewing the ‘like’button in favour of a comment, fans are demonstrating a higher level ofengagement with their club. This has always been part of the argument insupport of Facebook and Twitter. However, in 2018, Instagram contributed morecomments from Premier League fans that Facebook.

The pervasiveness of ‘likes’ on Instagram means that comments form arelatively small part of Instagram engagement, but the Premier League clubsstill received 11 million comments from fans on Instagram last year, against 9million from fans on Facebook. The B6 clubs are driving this trend. In the mid-table, Facebook continues to contribute more comments than Instagram.

0 1 2 3 4

Huddersfield

Cardiff

Bournemouth

Burnley

Watford

Crystal Palace

Fulham

Newcastle


Brighton & Hove

Southampton

Everton

Leicester

West Ham

Tottenham Hotspur

Manchester City

Chelsea

Liverpool

Arsenal

Manchester United

Millions

Fan Comments On Instagram And Facebook 2018

Instagram Facebook


Facebook

In 2018 the number of fans following the official accounts of the Premier Leagueclubs on Facebook grew by 5 per cent to 260 million. In absolute terms, the 12million new fans acquired in 2018 was unchanged from the number of fansadded in the previous year. The underlying picture is slightly better than theheadline numbers suggest as the three teams promoted for the 2018-19 seasonbrought with them fewer Facebook fans than were lost through relegation.

The faster growth of other networks means Facebook is losing its share of thePremier League’s total fan base. In 2017, Facebook accounted for 60 per cent ofall fans on social networks. This year Facebook’s share has fallen to 56 per centand if current trends continue, by 2020 Facebook will no longer be home to anabsolute majority of Premier League fans active in global social networks.

“Facebook is still the foundation. New fans joining Twitter or Instagram are

joining from Facebook”

Despite its relatively low growth, Facebook continues to provide thefoundation for the Premier League’s global presence in social networks.Facebook is available in more countries than any other network with thepossible exception of YouTube. It’s worth bearing in mind that the 12 millionnew Facebook fans added by the clubs in 2018 comfortably exceeds thenumber of new fans acquired on Twitter. Also, many of the fans joining Twitteror Instagram will be joining from Facebook.

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

YouTube

Weibo

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

MillionsTotal Fans Jan 2018 Fans Added in 2018

“City is investing in Facebook in a way few other clubs are able to match”

Facebook Growth: Manchester City

The Premier League clubs added 12 million new Facebook fans in 2018 but oneclub accounted for over half of all fan growth; Manchester City. BetweenJanuary and December, City increased its global Facebook fan base by 7.6million to 36.7 million fans, an annual growth rate of 26%.

Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton also achieved growth of overone million new fans in 2018, but aside from these clubs and City, growth forthe remaining clubs in absolute terms was low. Wolverhampton Wanderers,Huddersfield and Brighton & Hove Albion achieved double-digit growth, butthese gains, and the modest growth of the remaining clubs, was offset by a netloss of fans by Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

So how are we to explain the disparity between what City is able to achieve onFacebook and the performance of other clubs?

Manchester City is growing because it is investing in Facebook in a way very fewother clubs are able to match. City has a clear strategy to build a global brandand much of the club's growth on Facebook is coming from regions in Africa andAsia where other social networks have less penetration. The club is alsobecoming more efficient in fan acquisition as it is adding more new fans year-on-year (7.6 million in 2018, up from 6.6 million in 2017).


This underlines why Facebook remains important; it has more unique usersthan any other network. For this reason, Facebook is a good barometer for thePremier League’s acquisition of genuinely ‘new’ fans and for countrypenetration around the globe.

When considering the long-term outlook for Facebook, there are stillopportunities for the clubs to grow, but there are challenges for the PremierLeague. The distribution of growth between the clubs is very uneven and onthe engagement side, there has been a sharp decline in organic interactionswith fans since 2017.

“City still has room to grow before it starts testing Facebook’s historic

thresholds”


There is also an element of proportionality in City’s development. The club isplaying catch-up. City’s growth is impressive but Manchester United, Chelseaand Arsenal still have more fans on Facebook. Liverpool is not far behind. Cityhas the Premier League title in its trophy cabinet but the club has ‘only’ 36million Facebook fans. Given that the B6 clubs average close to 40 million fanson Facebook and United has made it to 73 million fans, there is still room togrow before City starts testing Facebook’s historic thresholds.

Facebook Engagement

As the Premier League’s Facebook presence grows, the clubs need to keepnew fans engaged. For the league as whole, engagement has fallen by 42 percent since 2017. When engagement is normalised to account for variations infan base size, the average volume of engagement per 10k fans is now 13,000,down from 19,000 per 10k last year.

The challenge of maintaining engagement on Facebook goes far beyond theB6 clubs. In 2018 only Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion managed toincrease absolute levels of fan engagement. For the rest of the PremierLeague, 2018 marked a sharp deterioration in Facebook engagement, withsome clubs reporting declines of more than 50 per cent.

9,990

11,894

12,391

13,503

16,708

21,854

Manchester City

Chelsea

Arsenal

Manchester United

Liverpool

Tottenham Hotspur

B6 Facebook Fan Engagement 2018 (normalised per 10k fans)

Club Posts Fan Engagement% Change

2018 v 2017

2018 2017 2018 2017Club Posts

Fan Eng.

Club Total 55,421 53,001 330,538,058 571,220,311 4.6% -42.1%

Facebook: Club Posts v Fan Engagement, 2017-2018


The decline in Facebook engagement is due to a combination of factors; firstly,fans are more active on other networks, notably Instagram. But there areunderlying challenges unique to Facebook which the clubs need to address.

Facebook’s adoption of a policy of ‘family and friends first’ has made life moredifficult for the Premier League clubs, or any brand, to reach and engage withaudiences organically. This is an inevitable consequence of the rationale forFacebook’s action; the network is encouraging its business customers to investmore in promoted campaigns by making it harder for them to reach people forfree.

Changes to Facebook’s algorithm mean the clubs have to jump over morecomputer-coded hurdles just to deliver content to their fans. Even if the clubssucceed in accessing the newsfeed, they face a second challenge to attract theattention of fans. The Facebook newsfeed has become so congested withbranded content that it is difficult for even a Premier League club to stand out.

Content congestion on Facebook is not only a problem for the Premier League.In mid-2018 Buzzsumo and Buffer released new research on the efficiency of 43million branded pages on Facebook. The report concluded that the over-supplyof content from all quarters was the single biggest cause of user fatigue anddeclining engagement rates.

The overall decline in Facebook’s organic engagement is estimated at 50 percent since 2017, which puts the 42 per cent drop experienced by the PremierLeague in a slightly better perspective. It should also be noted that in 2018 eightclubs escaped with a much lower decline.

“A solution to Facebook’s engagement problem won’t be

found by simply producing more content”

So Facebook is becoming a more challenging environment for the PremierLeague but Manchester City, Liverpool and Brighton demonstrate that growth isstill possible. As for the engagement problem, a solution is unlikely to be foundby simply producing more content. In 2018, club posts on Facebook increasedby 5 per cent but that didn’t halt the decline in fan responses.

When Newton Insight analysed the Premier League’s output of video onFacebook in 2018, we identified a long tail of content which fans neither viewednor engaged with in a meaningful way. On average, a B6 club generates 80 percent of its Facebook video engagement from less than half (45 per cent) of itsoutput. So the strongest-performing content has a disproportionate impact onengagement.

Liverpool’s stand-out improvement on Facebook in 2018 was achieved on lessoutput, not more. As on the pitch, quality is key.


44%

17%

45% 43%49%

43%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

ManchesterUnited

Chelsea Arsenal Manchester City Liverpool TottenhamHotspur

% of Facebook video posts required to achieve 80% of fan engagement (H1 2018)

“Chinese fans are more willing to engage with their clubs. Engagement

on Weibo is up 60 per cent”

Weibo

In China, the Premier League clubs achieved a 7 per cent increase to 32 million fanson Weibo in 2018. Chelsea was the clear winner in China with growth of 1.3 millionnew fans, putting the club within touching distance of Arsenal’s third place, behindthe two Manchester clubs.

The Premier League’s presence in China is dominated by the B6 clubs, but some ofthe smaller clubs are making progress. Wolverhampton Wanders, Burnley andSouthampton all more than doubled the size of their Weibo fan bases in China in2018.

In last year’s report, we noted that Chinese fans are less likely to engage with theirclubs than fans on Western social networks, but this behaviour seems to bechanging, with Weibo engagement up 60 per cent year-on-year.

In 2018 Liverpool achieved over 800k engagements with fans on Weibo, asignificant improvement over the 600k engagements recorded by ManchesterUnited in 2017. Fan activity is also benefitting clubs outside of the B6. CrystalPalace has a relatively small fan base of 17k on Weibo, but its Chinese fans havethe highest engagement rate per person in the Premier League.

0123456789

10

ManchesterUnited

Manchester City Arsenal Chelsea Liverpool TottenhamHotspur

Mill

ion

s

B6 Clubs: Weibo Fan Growth 2016-2018

2018 2017 2016


Weibo Share of Club Global Fan Base


0.0%

0.0%

0.1%

0.3%

0.3%

0.7%

1.1%

1.3%

1.9%

2.6%

2.8%

4.2%

4.8%

5.4%

6.8%

7.3%

8.4%

10.2%

11.9%

13.2%

Brighton & Hove

Fulham

Cardiff

Everton

Watford

Crystal Palace

Bournemouth

Newcastle

West Ham

Huddersfield

Southampton

Liverpool

Leicester

Chelsea

Arsenal

Manchester United

Burnley

Tottenham Hotspur


Manchester City

“Liverpool generates most fan engagement overall, but the appetite for video is shared by Everton fans who watch more frequently”

YouTube

Manchester United’s YouTube debut in February was supported by new content and a full back catalogue designed to maximise impact on the club’s global fan base. In the first month, United achieved over 500,000 subscriptions and appeared to be on course to challenge the position of Liverpool and Manchester City as the biggest clubs on YouTube. Since then, United’s growth on YouTube has settled at around 100,000 new subscribers per month and the club ended 2018 with 1.3 million subscribers, still short of City’s 1.6 million and over half a million shy of Liverpool.

Whilst United’s launch grabbed the headlines, Liverpool’s achievements on YouTube need to be acknowledged; Liverpool has grown by over 1 million new subscribers this year, overtaking Manchester City as the Premier League’s #1 YouTube channel.

Liverpool generated almost 100 million fan engagements on YouTube in 2018, representing a significant margin over Manchester United and Manchester City. Liverpool is focused on ‘quality over quantity’ as the club’s YouTube output is one of the lowest in the Premier League. Between January and December Liverpool posted 213 new videos on YouTube. In 2018 eleven clubs posted more videos, without matching Liverpool’s engagement return.

The appetite for long-form video is also shared by the blue half of Merseyside. Everton may have a small fan base on YouTube, but the club’s fans have the highest rate of personal engagement with YouTube videos in the Premier League. Newton Insight calculates normalised engagement by measuring the number of engagements per ten thousand fans. In 2018, Everton’s 114,000 subscribers engaged with their club on YouTube at a rate of over 1 million engagements per 10k. Only the fans of Wolverhampton Wanderers, enjoying an encouraging start to life back in the top flight, came close to matching Everton.


Spotlight: Facebook

Monthly Active Users

How many of the Premier League’s millions of Facebook fans are actively

engaging with the clubs?

SPOTLIGHT: ACTIVE FANS

The Premier League’s global reach on social networks extends to severalhundred million fans, but the exact number of individuals following the clubs isdifficult to calculate because of reciprocity between networks (fans using morethan one platform to follow their club).

As Facebook is the Premier League’s biggest social network and home to moreunique users than Instagram and Twitter, fan participation can be assessed byanalysing Facebook’s own data for Monthly Active Users* (MAU).

In the free edition of Social Network Rankings, MAU data has been aggregatedbetween the B6 clubs, mid-sized clubs with more than one million fans andsmaller clubs with less than one million fans.

The research hypothesis is that smaller clubs are more community-focused andhave a larger proportion of highly-motivated fans. This makes smaller clubs veryefficient in terms of fan activity and engagement, even if their fan bases are notthe biggest in the league.

As fan bases increase in size, we expect to see highly-motivated fans diluted byoccasional fans, people who dip in and out of the Premier League and balancetheir interest in football with other lifestyle pursuits. The big clubs offer morereach, but their efficiency is lower. At least, that’s the theory.

The aggregate values for MAUs give a range for assessing the number of activefans for each category of club. It is a broad measure and there are at least twovariables we need to keep in mind; the composition of monthly active userschanges over time and there is significant variation between the individual MAUnumbers for clubs within the same peer group.

The Facebook MAU data supports the view that bigger clubs have more‘occasional’ fans. For the B6 clubs, the mean average value for MAUs is 56 percent. For mid-sized and smaller clubs, average MAUs are above 70 per cent.

Finally, to dispel an old myth, Manchester United’s MAU rating is higher thanthe average for the B6 clubs.

*Facebook now prefers ‘Monthly Active People’Source: Facebook Audience Insights

Big Six (more than 10M fans)

Source: Facebook Audience Insights

FACEBOOK MONTHLY ACTIVE USERSFig 1: Aggregate MAUs

Mid-size Six (more than 1M fans)

Smaller Club Eight (less than 1M fans)

MAU Range:

<50% - 68%

Average no. of fans:

40M

MAU Range:

68% - 74%


3M


430K

MAU Range:

70% - 80%

Total fan engagement

with clubs

Facebookhas largest

fanbase

YouTubeis fastest

growing social network

Instagramhas highest share of fanengagement

NETWORK DATA TABLES

2.7B69%

260M

+77%

2019

HOW THE RANKINGS ARE CALCULATED

A club is analysed for eight performance indicators in each of the five social networks

For each indicator, the best performing club receives a maximum rating of 100. The performance of the remaining nineteen clubs is indexed against the club with the top rating.

For each club, ratings for the eight indicators are combined to create an average score per social network.

The result determines a club’s rank in the league tables for the social networks.

Rank in the Main Table is calculated by combining each club’s scores for the five social networks to produce a final average score out of 100.

The highest average score is given a Rank of 1, the lowest a Rank of 20.

THE EIGHT PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Size of fanbase (fans, subscribers, followers) recorded end-Dec 2018

Number of new fans added between Jan-Dec 2018

Growth rate (%) of fanbase between Jan-Dec 2018

Total number of club posts between Jan-Dec 2018

Acceleration: the average number of days a club requires toadd 10k new fans in one social network

Total fan engagement, normalised per 10k fans

Total fan engagement with the official accounts of the Premier League clubs (likes, comments, shares, reactions, video views)

TABLE HEADINGS EXPLAINED

Total numberof individual fans

attachedto club official

account in Dec 2018

TeamTotal Fans

Fans Added 2018

Growth(%)

Club Posts

Fan Engagement

Engagement per 10k Fans

Days to Add 10k Fans Index Rank

Manchester United

73,276,533 -409,055 -0.6% 3,895 99,223,599 13,503 -8.9 42.1 2

Number of new fans added between

Jan-Dec 2018

Number ofnew fans as %

of fanbasein Jan 2018

Total numberof club posts,

updates, videos

Total fan interactions

with clubposts (likes,

comments, shares)

Acceleration: Days to add 10k

new fans toa social network

Overall club performance score

benchmarked against all other clubs (max 100)

Club rank for social network performance

Total fan interactions

normalised per 10k fans

FACEBOOK SCORE & RANK 2019

7.7

7.9

7.9

8.2

8.7

9.1

10.1

10.2

12.1

12.1

14.6

15.3

24.6

26.5

28.6

31.7

32.7

37.8

42.1

44.2

Crystal Palace

Cardiff

Burnley

Newcastle

Bournemouth

Fulham

Watford

Leicester

West Ham

Everton

Huddersfield

Brighton & Hove

Arsenal

Southampton

Tottenham Hotspur

Liverpool


Chelsea

Manchester United

Manchester City

FACEBOOK DATA TABLE 2019

ClubTotal Fans

Fans Added 2018

Growth(%)

Club Posts

Fan Engagement


Days to Add 10k Fans

Score Rank Previous Change

ManchesterCity

36,662,383 7,629,922 26.3% 2,921 32,814,962 9,990 0.5 44.2 1 (2)

Manchester United

73,276,533 -409,055 -0.6% 3,895 99,223,599 13,503 -8.9 42.1 2 (1)

Chelsea 47,717,760 -122,027 -0.3% 9,411 56,830,181 11,894 -29.9 37.8 3 (4)


493,147 175,302 55.2% 1,890 1,548,079 38,177 20.8 32.7 4 (-)

Liverpool 32,365,967 1,959,716 6.4% 2,842 52,439,242 16,708 1.9 31.7 5 (7)

Tottenham Hotspur

10,296,754 1,627,384 18.8% 7,128 20,724,230 21,854 2.2 28.6 6 (8)

Southampton 3,079,530 1,337,325 76.8% 1,671 1,462,026 6,064 2.7 26.5 7 (11)

Arsenal 37,780,252 -131,724 -0.3% 2,542 46,896,456 12,391 -27.7 24.6 8 (6)

Brighton & Hove

243,812 34,610 16.5% 2,918 510,169 22,523 105.5 15.3 9 (9) -

Huddersfield 141,976 29,142 25.8% 2,488 171,988 13,499 125.2 14.6 10 (3)

Everton 3,106,687 51,021 1.7% 931 3,045,297 9,884 71.5 12.1 11 (10)

West Ham 2,301,406 4,499 0.2% 1,985 4,049,526 17,613 811.3 12.1 12 (5)

Leicester 6,634,498 36,800 0.6% 2,118 6,258,111 9,459 99.2 10.2 13 (12)

Watford 419,375 25,542 6.5% 762 269,622 6,631 142.9 10.1 14 (13)

Fulham 844,764 37,757 4.7% 1,503 759,615 9,198 96.7 9.1 15 (-)

Bournemouth 375,650 16,786 4.7% 2,318 353,710 9,631 217.4 8.7 16 (16) -

Newcastle 2,151,353 10,325 0.5% 2,877 1,625,705 7,575 353.5 8.2 17 (15)

Burnley 408,769 19,965 5.1% 1,776 295,752 7,416 182.8 7.9 18 (19)

Cardiff 507,956 13,718 2.8% 1,342 380,071 7,585 266.1 7.9 19 (-)

Crystal Palace 1,079,368 15,004 1.4% 2,103 879,717 8,207 243.3 7.7 20 (18)

INSTAGRAM SCORE & RANK 2019

10.4

10.7

11.2

15.0

15.1

16.0

18.3

18.7

19.1

20.1

21.5

24.0

24.8

31.6

36.6

41.0

42.1

45.2

59.7

68.5

Bournemouth

Burnley

Southampton

Everton

Watford

Huddersfield

West Ham

Leicester

Crystal Palace

Cardiff

Newcastle

Fulham

Brighton & Hove

Tottenham Hotspur


Manchester City

Arsenal

Chelsea

Liverpool

Manchester United

INSTAGRAM DATA TABLE 2019

ClubTotal Fans

Fans Added2018

Growth(%)

Club Posts

Fan Engagement




Manchester United

25,285,662 5,122,835 25.4% 1,936 646,551,293 284,520 0.7 68.5 1 (1) -

Liverpool 11,428,921 6,159,727 116.9% 1,607 366,140,271 438,540 0.6 59.7 2 (6)

Chelsea 14,342,802 3,624,277 33.8% 1,457 303,246,614 242,003 1.0 45.2 3 (2)

Arsenal 13,014,879 2,521,498 24.0% 1,791 273,063,424 232,313 1.4 42.1 4 (3)

Manchester City

9,798,420 3,830,373 64.2% 1,738 140,327,314 178,007 1.0 41.0 5 (5) -


15,190 165,051 329.2% 826 5,745,582 433,091 22.1 36.6 6 (-)

Tottenham Hotspur

3,405,047 1,766,291 107.8% 1,394 78,300,930 310,484 2.1 31.6 7 (8)

Brighton & Hove

177,498 101,934 134.9% 1,125 4,777,163 377,549 35.8 24.8 8 (9)

Fulham 194,809 121,252 164.8% 924 3,852,169 287,083 30.1 24.0 9 (-)

Newcastle 220,483 91,695 71.2% 93 1,172,254 67,126 39.8 21.5 10 (7)

Cardiff 87,771 53,258 154.3% 263 679,878 111,197 68.5 20.1 11 (-)

Crystal Palace 355,647 126,327 55.1% 1,556 4,418,327 151,062 28.9 19.1 12 (14)

Leicester 2,559,463 667,613 35.3% 1,282 22,718,060 102,074 5.5 18.7 13 (10)

West Ham 679,175 193,827 39.9% 1,052 15,571,853 267,437 18.8 18.3 14 (12)

Huddersfield 128,929 71,820 125.8% 492 999,799 107,483 50.8 16.0 15 (4)

Watford 313,225 133,108 73.9% 951 2,540,041 102,973 27.4 15.1 16 (13)

Everton 821,417 291,978 55.1% 375 8,192,405 121,292 12.5 15.0 17 (11)

Southampton 437,550 117,601 36.8% 581 3,455,283 91,229 31.0 11.2 18 (17)

Burnley 202,868 73,503 56.8% 279 1,006,216 60,573 49.7 10.7 19 (20)

Bournemouth 273,684 97,852 55.7% 507 1,373,367 61,104 37.3 10.4 20 (16)

TWITTER SCORE & RANK 2019

18.3

20.4

21.4

21.7

21.9

23.5

25.8

26.4

27.3

28.0

28.3

35.8

35.9

40.2

43.2

43.7

49.6

55.2

62.9

70.6

West Ham

Newcastle

Southampton

Cardiff

Watford

Bournemouth

Crystal Palace

Fulham

Burnley

Everton

Leicester

Huddersfield

Brighton & Hove

Tottenham Hotspur

Manchester City


Chelsea

Arsenal

Liverpool

Manchester United

TWITTER DATA TABLE 2019

ClubTotal Fans

Fans Added 2018

Growth(%)

Club Posts

Fan Engagement




Manchester United

18,605,492 2,002,931 12.1% 7,550 41,231,699 23,422 1.8 70.6 1 (1) -

Liverpool 10,853,499 1,468,471 15.6% 8,684 38,486,676 38,033 2.5 62.9 2 (4)

Arsenal 13,930,181 1,243,526 9.8% 7,070 32,492,387 24,415 2.9 55.2 3 (3) -

Chelsea 12,319,114 1,016,609 9.0% 8,697 24,797,269 20,995 3.6 49.6 4 (2)


355,642 94,421 36.1% 5,505 2,423,333 78,570 38.7 43.7 5 (-)

Manchester City

6,550,936 961,481 17.2% 9,372 11,823,663 19,478 3.8 43.2 6 (7)

Tottenham Hotspur

3,159,120 550,933 21.1% 7,809 12,201,631 42,313 6.6 40.2 7 (6)

Brighton &Hove

211,417 49,623 30.7% 10,411 843,065 45,179 73.6 35.9 8 (8) -

Huddersfield 170,813 39,705 30.3% 11,031 625,447 41,431 91.9 35.8 9 (5)

Leicester 1,268,943 167,489 15.2% 8,122 3,989,002 33,657 21.8 28.3 10 (20)

Everton 1,724,823 302,274 21.2% 5,472 3,356,157 21,327 12.1 28.0 11 (9)

Burnley 386,224 77,864 25.3% 6,985 792,583 22,822 46.9 27.3 12 (10)

Fulham 472,324 75,683 19.1% 7,597 1,283,022 29,530 48.2 26.4 13 (-)

Crystal Palace 783,922 117,815 17.7% 8,500 1,359,954 18,758 31.0 25.8 14 (11)

Bournemouth 409,022 68,189 20.0% 6,665 651,467 17,376 53.5 23.5 15 (13)

Watford 484,323 78,681 19.4% 6,070 571,357 12,840 46.4 21.9 16 (14)

Cardiff 280,753 45,899 19.5% 5,024 475,736 18,453 79.5 21.7 17 (-)

Southampton 1,032,578 123,881 13.6% 7,018 1,211,545 12,482 29.5 21.4 18 (17)

Newcastle 1,323,550 126,756 10.6% 6,912 1,648,966 13,085 28.8 20.4 19 (16)

West Ham 1,420,084 58,789 4.3% 5,220 3,300,360 23,732 62.1 18.3 20 (12)

YOUTUBE SCORE & RANK 2019

13.9

14.8

14.8

16.9

17.9

18.1

18.4

22.6

24.7

28.2

28.3

30.7

32.2

34.7

35.4

37.3

46.5

54.0

80.1

82.8

Fulham

Leicester

Southampton

Watford

Brighton & Hove

Newcastle

Bournemouth

Crystal Palace

Burnley

Cardiff

Huddersfield

West Ham


Tottenham Hotspur

Everton

Chelsea

Arsenal

Manchester City

Manchester United

Liverpool

YOUTUBE DATA TABLE 2019

ClubTotal Fans

Fans Added 2018

Growth(%)

Club Videos

Fan Engagement




Liverpool 1,776,837 1,029,136 137.6% 213 97,560,143 549,066 3.5 82.8 1 (2)

Manchester United

1,306,951 1,306,951 n/a 591 81,017,661 898,805 2.8 80.1 2 (20)

Manchester City

1,577,545 495,770 45.8% 527 48,003,999 361,025 7.4 54.0 3 (1)

Arsenal 1,133,425 403,412 55.3% 307 43,794,401 470,039 9.0 46.5 4 (4) -

Chelsea 1,040,785 321,207 44.6% 185 26,409,610 300,047 11.4 37.3 5 (5) -

Everton 113,857 43,830 62.6% 317 9,782,233 1,063,957 83.3 35.4 6 (6) -

Tottenham Hotspur

412,424 182,693 79.5% 280 16,462,150 512,716 20.0 34.7 7 (9)


42,789 16,688 63.9% 488 3,610,324 1,048,142 218.7 32.2 8 (-)

West Ham 99,923 37,338 59.7% 239 6,001,551 738,616 97.8 30.7 9 (10)

Huddersfield 16,156 4,571 39.5% 554 1,276,163 920,056 798.5 28.3 10 (3)

Cardiff 18,116 5,546 44.1% 464 1,453,727 947,485 658.1 28.2 11 (-)

Burnley 13,755 4,609 50.4% 249 698,868 610,338 791.9 24.7 12 (7)

Crystal Palace 35,615 8,922 33.4% 241 1,764,058 566,238 409.1 22.6 13 (12)

Bournemouth 18,006 4,202 30.4% 209 607,579 382,005 868.6 18.4 14 (18)

Newcastle 40,004 5,979 17.6% 21 238,243 64,365 610.5 18.1 15 (8)

Brighton & Hove

19,321 3,321 20.8% 88 610,704 345,802 1099.1 17.9 16 (19)

Watford 20,084 4,952 32.7% 185 523,958 297,568 737.1 16.9 17 (13)

Southampton 55,440 8,133 17.2% 113 1,056,370 205,625 448.8 14.8 18 (14)

Leicester 78,197 14,467 22.7% 119 1,344,756 189,500 252.3 14.8 19 (16)

Fulham 17,428 4,623 36.1% 122 239,639 158,528 789.5 13.9 20 (-)

WEIBO SCORE & RANK MAY 2019

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.1

4.1

4.4

6.8

7.0

8.9

10.2

15.1

16.7

21.9

29.3

29.8

37.6

37.8

39.8

40.1

44.6

Brighton & Hove

Fulham

Bournemouth

Everton


Leicester

West Ham

Cardiff

Huddersfield

Newcastle

Southampton

Watford

Crystal Palace

Tottenham Hotspur

Burnley

Arsenal

Liverpool

Manchester United

Manchester City

Chelsea

ClubTotal Fans

Fans Added 2018

Growth(%)

Club Posts

Fan Engagement




Chelsea 4,265,081 1,355,171 46.6% 3,620 321,678 897 2.7 44.64 1 (5)

Manchester City

8,312,536 69,674 0.8% 4,482 390,184 471 52.4 40.1 2 (3)

Manchester United

9,318,266 98,280 1.1% 2,932 557,377 601 37.1 39.8 3 (1)

Liverpool 2,501,761 144,116 6.1% 3,754 860,083 3,540 25.3 37.8 4 (4) -

Arsenal 4,784,022 109,709 2.3% 4,136 617,680 1,306 33.3 37.6 5 (2)

Burnley 93,366 88,426 1790.0% 911 39,633 8,063 41.3 29.8 6 (13)

Tottenham Hotspur

1,965,394 433,132 28.3% 3,957 263,307 1,506 8.4 29.3 7 (7) -

Crystal Palace 16,679 2,378 16.6% 1,235 35,847 23,142 1534.9 21.9 8 (8) -

Southampton 132,032 66,963 102.9% 2,716 57,960 5,881 54.5 15.1 9 (16)

Newcastle 50,688 22,980 82.9% 1,757 17,265 4,405 158.8 10.2 10 (6)

Huddersfield 12,158 7,594 166.4% 836 3,227 3,860 480.6 8.9 11 (19)

Cardiff 1,140 1,140 0.0% 88 38 667 3201.8 7.0 12 (-)

West Ham 85,484 989 1.2% 1,455 13,690 1,611 0.0 6.8 13 (15)

Leicester 529,966 1,790 0.3% 492 29,310 554 2039.1 4.4 14 (17)


149,657 149,657 0.0% 61 888 119 0.0 4.1 15 (-)

Watford 4,278 160 3.9% 1 8 19 0.0 1.7 16 (9)

Everton 17,046 439 2.6% 0 0 0 8314.4 0.1 17 (12)

Bournemouth 11,879 -204 -1.7% 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 18 (14)

Brighton & Hove

n/a n/a n/a 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 19 (19) -

Fulham n/a n/a n/a 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 20 (-) -

WEIBO DATA TABLE MAY 2019

*Brighton & Hove and Fulham did not have an official Weibo page in 2018

DISCLAIMER

Data has been sourced from public APIs and official homepages

of the Premier League clubs. Rates of growth, engagement and acceleration

have been calculated by Newton Insight.

All data is aggregated. No personally identifiable data is presented in the

report, nor is any personally identifiable data collected, analysed or stored as

part of our research process.

Newton Insight has made every attempt to ensure that the information

contained in this report has been obtained from reliable sources and has been

verified. The company, its employees and agents assume no responsibility for

the accuracy of the contents of this report and disclaim any and all liabilities for

errors or omissions.

The information contained in this report is intended solely to provide general

guidance on matters of interest for the personal use of the reader,

who accepts full responsibility for its use. In no event shall Newton Insight, its

employees and agents be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential,

or incidental damages or any damages whatsoever, arising from or in

connection with the use of the contents of the report.

Newton Insight reserves the right to make additions, deletions, or modification

to the contents of the report at any time without prior notice.

The company has used names and titles (“Premier League” etc) independently

and in good faith. No approval nor association with the Premier League nor the

20 constituent clubs is implied or inferred.

No part of this report may be republished or redistributed without the written

permission of Newton Insight.

To discuss your research needs please

contact us at [email protected]

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