Improving social media can work wonders in boosting the profile of lower league clubs, says Connor McNamara

Connor McNamara believes social media is a vitally important tool in promoting and attracting crucial income for grassroots football clubs.

For the past five years he has been raising the profile of tier 3 Ardal North West club Llandudno Albion through outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Now he is turning his attention to Llandudno Junction, a tier 4 club he believes will benefit from a major marketing push.

Connor has become the Railwaymen’s publicity manager and his “debut” yesterday was a memorable one as Junction defeated North Wales Coast East Premier Division leaders St Asaph City 3-1 away.

Here, Connor tells us about the importance of social media to grassroots football clubs.

In my 5 years experience marketing a grassroots football team I’ve found a key factor in ensuring the team can reach its full potential off the pitch – here is how…

The average attendance at a tier 3 or lower league match is just 50 fans per game.

If this is your current attendance you may be one of the struggling teams and you have to ask yourself the question why are we not getting higher numbers and what can we do to improve this situation we are currently in?

When I took over the marketing at a local side the only actual income the club gained was limited..

• Kit sponsorship – this barely covered the cost of the kits and when an item of kit is worn or torn the club themselves usually have to pay to replace it.
• A £2 admission on the gate. This covers the fees for the officials and anything left over is a rare bonus.
• Player subs – players in tier 2 or above will find it hard to believe that some players in tier 3 and below actually have to pay out of their own pocket to play for their local side.
• Donations – if your club is lucky enough to have a fan/supporter with deep pockets they very rarely will offer some financial support.

When I took over I instantly knew what we could do to improve the club’s brand, financial situation and exposure and it’s very simple – IMPROVE THE SOCIAL MEDIA.

Your next question is probably how and why will that help.

1
The first step was to make sure the social media accounts looked professional and tidy with all the club’s information on view. I found when I wanted to know more about a rival club, I would first search for their social media before searching on Google or other web browsers.

2
Step number two was to create match day posters for every game home and away.
Now this can be time consuming but there are some fantastic apps on the market and most are free to download. I’ve found the most effective ones are the simplest ones with a time, date and location.
You do not need to be a graphic designer to create one, just have some basic IT skills. This is so important because how can you expect fans to attend a game if they don’t know when or where it is happening.

3
Step number three I took was one of the best decisions we ever made and that was to film the home games.
This was crucial in creating maximum exposure for our team and getting us to the thousands of followers that the pages have today. Any Smart phone is capable of filming match day highlights.
Another approach you could take is match day photos. A few action shots won’t go amiss and the players love these for their personal Instagram. Both of these approaches will draw people to your social media and create huge engagement boosts on your page.

4
Step four was simple….once we have gained a strong social media following we thought – how can we start generating income from it? Simple! Player and match day sponsors.
Charge an annual fee to sponsor a player – this can vary from £20 to £50 a player.
As a sales pitch you guarantee that every time that player scores, makes a chance, gains an assist, gets subbed on or off we can post his player sponsor photo out to your thousands of followers.
Do this correctly and you can have a nice little cash boost to kick-start your annual campaign. With regard to your match day sponsor charge a small fee and place the company logo on the match day poster and offer one free admission into the ground on match day.

If it sounds simple, it really is. All of these steps came at a cost of 0 pounds and 0 pence to the club or the volunteers. Although I admit these tasks can be time consuming, that’s what we sign up for when we volunteer to help out our local side.

So honestly the best advice I can offer is invest some time in your social media accounts be they Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Remember the more people who know about your club the better.

I really hope these bits of advice can help some of the many struggling clubs in North Wales.