The news that I (and many other United fans) had dreaded finally arrived this morning.  Twitter had been awash with rumours of his immanent departure since last night when The Telegraph went with an exclusive article.

The news was posted on Twitter and quickly stirred much debate.  Initially there was a dismissive feel to it but when more facts became clear it sent the Twitterverse into overdrive.  No comment was made by the club which only added to the rumours, though this was of no surprise due to the stock listing in NYC that meant that any change would have to be disclosed to them first.

Then it happened.  At around 9.17am the only Manchester United presence on Twitter (there is no official team account, only the Press Office) tweeted a simple short message that left no doubt.

The move by the club shows how the platform has become the number 1 place to break news.  It is where all the press have a presence and where clubs have been able to enable some kind of control over their ‘brand’.  Players use it to have a voice whilst clubs will always use it for marketing and PR (not so much engagement goes on still).

As soon as the new broke it sent Twitter into meltdown.  People like myself posting messages of disbelief and thanks to a manager who is without doubt the most successful manager ihn the history of the game in England.  I’ve been a fan for over 25 years and have only ever known one manager.  It’s a day we’ve feared will one day inevitably arrived but we didn’t want to happen yet (if ever).

A little after this post was first published I was sent a neat infographic from the guys at Simplyzesty.  It shows the reaction over a longer period of time and some more details of Facebook as well.  Make sure you have a read of their full article on the announcement here.

Taking a quick look at the stats (via Topsy) you can see when the story first broke late last night and then when the official announcement was made.  A total of over 300k mentions in half an hour shows how people from around the world were talking about it.

The use of the hashtag by the club was nicely done and lead it becoming the number 1 trending topic in the world.  At one point 8 out of the 10 trends were related to it and in there was the name David Moyes.  Once the initial shock receded then the next obvious step was to start speculating over who will take over.

The bookies favourite is Moyes, the Everton manager who has managed to over deliver almost every year for the last 11 years.  Will he succeed and be up to the task?  Will it be Jose Mourinho, someone who has shown no secret as to his desire to manage at Old Trafford when Sir Alex calls it a day?  Or an outsider such as the successful Jurgen Klopp from Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund?

It is rumoured that his successor will be announced within the next 48 hours so we will wait and see.  It’s going to be a nervous time to firstly see who gets it and then if they can carry on from where Sir Alex left off.  Taking another snapshot from Twitter most of the conversation is around Jose but Moyes is close behind.  Can this be a judge on who will actually get it?

Once again Twitter has shown that it is the place to be for breaking news such as this.  It would be interesting to see how many people have used Facebook as well to let friends and family know.  It is still a platform to take into account and United used that as well to break the news.  It also added a great banner to the top of their page, which I and many others have taken and used on our profiles.

Not only that but the club have reacted quickly by starting a new Facebook tab allowing fans to send in their messages to SAF.  A selection of these thank you messages will be published in an exclusive #ThankYouSirAlex book and a lucky few will win a signed copy of the book.  Nice touch by the club and very reactive.  The club have improved immeasurably in their use of Facebook (and now Twitter), so a well done from me.

Thank you Sir Alex.  It’s been a great journey!

Thanks to Rab from Rangers for pointing this one out on Twitter and he is right, there will be a huge amount of fans and social media experts sending their applications as we speak.

It does sound like a great role at an amazing team (yes, I’m a United fan).  This brings with it the opportunity to get your hands dirty when it comes to creating content for the social media channels… which currently consists of Facebook.  I’m sure as the team builds up at United then the number of platforms they are present on will also increase.

How soon before we see RvP doing a live Google Hangout or Twitter Q&A?  There is so much content being produced with the opportunities for so much more that their social media audience could grow massively.

Below are details on the role and the information of where to apply to…

Where will this end?!  I’m of course talking about the fine implemented by The FA on Federico Macheda, the Italian youngster on loan at QPR from Manchester United.

He has been fined £15,000 and warned about his future conduct after using abusive language on Twitter after being left out of the match day team recently. He said; “Totally p***** off…this is not what i deserve. F..k all!!!!”

You can understand his frustration as he went to the club to gain first team experience that would help his new club with some goals and his own game to ensure he goes back to his parent club with a chance of making the first team.  This has not been the case and so he took to Twitter to vent his frustration in the one public place he had access to.

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time you will know that this is certainly not the first time its happened and most definitely wont be the last.  For the last 3 years there have been regular instances of this happening.

So what, if anything, could be done about this to help?

For the bigger profile players, those who are obviously earning a good wage there could be some options worth exploring.  This is also a point in which someone with social media experience can help them.

In the US, I recently read about the use of Amy Jo Martin’s company Digital Royalty vetting the twitter updates of Joel Stein, the top man at the TIME Magazine.  Something they also do for Shaq O’Neill, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Dana White from UFC.  What this does is enable some sense checking of what should go up and when, something that the king of advertising David Ogilvy said is one of the keys to writing when he said;

“Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.” 

(taken from an internal memo by Ogilvy to his staff with 10 hints to learn to write well)

So if the sense checking is done by yourself or someone else, it doesnt matter as long as it happens.  With so much at stake for people at this ‘celebrity’ level, the merest slip up can be front page news.

This does not mean being draconian or the scrooge who wont let someone have any kind of personality on social media sites.  It means finding a happy medium that can really make a difference.

So how would it work?

How about something simple: the player hires a person or company to help him/her with their online sites (much as they would do with their website).  Then once they want to make an update they text/email/BB the message they want to add to this person, who then adds it to the relevant platform.

We still want some real time interaction of course and if these are set for certain times, as some athletes do already, where they answer questions directly.  There are still many opportunities for interaction and it not to come over as cold, bland or distant.

What this does do is make them think twice about what they are going to post and also enables them to sense check it past another person.  They may then come back and say ‘are you sure you want to say that?’

With so many platforms out there that could be jumped on (is pinterest going to be next?) there is going to be a time when they just cant look after all of them them by themselves. Certainly not if your Rio Ferdinand, Lewis Hamilton, Wayne Rooney, RvP or the like.

We still want them to voice their opinions of course and not have all of them turn into the next Michael Owen of Twitter (boring!).  We want to find out more about their personality, what else they do aside from sport, interact with them and get the latest news.

This isn’t new thinking, we have been doing for brands for quite a long time now.  Where it is appropriate there should be no reason why the same couldn’t happen more to the top sports stars (and other celebs). Of course we should still push for sensible, awareness training of young (and older) athletes to give them the confidence and insights to go onto these platforms with their eyes wide open.

A little over a year since it was first started, the biggest club in British football is celebrating this latest milestone.  Manchester United may not be the biggest football team on the platform with both Barcelona and Real Madrid eclipsing them but they are way ahead in the UK.  Barca now have over 21 million fans to leave them sitting pretty at the top of that particular table.

Some may say that United aren’t the biggest club in British football but by global fan base and also revenue they certainly are.  The new boys on the block, Manchester City, may be the richest by way of their benefactors but they still have a long way to go in terms of fans – currently 1.2m on Facebook.

The other big boys of our football league are Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.  They all have a similar number of fans on Facebook with figures of 7.7m, 7.4m and 7.2m for each respectively.  A long way from United’s 20m!

They have managed this through engaging content; polls, behind the scene’s and match photo’s, asking fans opinions of games and not just linking off to their webpage to regurgitate content from there.

To celebrate the landmark, the club had a banner made that sat across the goal at their training ground.  This ‘Facebook Goal Challenge‘ was then put to use by Owen, Nani and Berbatov.  Photo’s have been added the the page and a video is promised in the next few days.  It’s great to see them having some fun and bringing the players into it too.

Now they have all these fans from around the world it will be a case of what next.  How do you increase engagement of such a large community, give them new and fun content and take things to the next level?

It looks like the move of Wesley Sneijder from Inter Milan to Manchester United is becoming inevitable, even his sponsors Nike (who also sponsor Inter and United) think so! 

In a move that looks a tad premature and has still not been adjusted by the sponsor even though it has go0ing arounbd the internet for a day or so now.  The problem for them is that they have altered the SEO on their website, so now if you search ‘Nike football Wesley Sneijder’ it comes up with links to their website and info stating that “Wesley Sneijder plays for Man Utd and wears the Nike T90 Laser III.”

It does hark back to the England Rugby Grand Slam video which was leaked on YouTube before the final England game this year in which they lost to Ireland and didnt achieve their ultimate goal.  I’m sure that officials in Milan will be fuming if this reaches their ears, though judging by the papers today it looks like a done deal that will be confirmed in the next 48 hours.

Its not been a good week for the sports giant.  This comes on top of them being targeted in a Greenpeace campaign and reaching the front page of The Metro this morning under the headline “Nike staff: We cant stop bosses beating us”.  Their PR team will be in overdrive in the coming days it seems.

As an Man Utd fan I can only keep my fingers crossed that Nike are right on this one and he joins Young, Jones and De Gea in the United line up next month.

Here is a screengrab of the results…

Yesterday, Manchester United celebrated being on Facebook for a year…and what a successful year it has been!  Going from 0 to almost 17m fans on their new page with a mix of good content (behind the scenes, match info), promotions (kit, tickets, tours) and coversation around games and transfers. 

Currently squeezed between the Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona in the global Facebook league , though it has be remembered that both these clubs have acounts in different languages (Real Madrid include Spanish, Catalan and Japanese as well as English as their core markets).

As part of their celebration United have released this infographic to highlight their achievements on Facebook, is a great picture that am sure will spread and help them grow even more….

Manchester United hit the 11 million Facebook fans mark this week and are set to continue to rise with an astonishing 30k a day growth rate in fan followers. The Mancunian club are just 500k short of the current football and sports page leaders, FC Barcelona.

However, the Catalan side still look like they will remain in number 1 spot, with a growth rate of nearly 40k Facebook fans a day. Whereas Manchester United are using marketing tools such as official Facebook adverts, Barcelona have perhaps been a bit more adventurous and broader in raising awareness of their social media, as seen in the recent ‘Messi wants 10 million‘ call to action video.

In the last three months alone, United have attracted nearly 4 million fans worldwide and currently dwarf other UK based teams’ social media following, their nearest contenders being Arsenal and Liverpool respectively.

In the past week, both teams have passed the 5 million follower mark (With Chelsea currently 500k followers behind). Both clubs are to be commended for the way they operate and engage with their fans. Social media isn’t just about audience size, but the interaction between club and fan. A quick look at both shows that the clubs are actively using dynamic content such as polls, video, fan photos and discussion in order to build a better rapport.

One of the newest and fastest growing Facebook Pages is the official Manchester United page.  In the the two months it has been up it has grown to 2,589,988 (23 Sept) which is a staggering surge.

This gowth has seen it recently pass Liverpool as the largest EPL club page on Facebook.  Liverpool are not far behind with 2,472,588 (23 Sept) but bear in mind that they have been running theirs since March 2009!

We will see if the global appeal of United will see it catch the frontrunners of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Galatasary but there is still some way to go.

It is good to see that it not just being used to push out news feeds from the website but also includes some behind the scenes, product info and fan photos.  Hopefully as time goes by more engagement will be integrated and some of the negatives of recent times can be tuerned around by the club.

Last week Karl Lusbec wrote about the 20 Best Known European Football Brands. The article referenced a Sport+Markt 2009-2010 study of brand recognition among football fans in the top five markets (UK, Germany, Spain, France & Italy).  You can read the report yourself here.

I thought it might be interesting to look at this data and try to extrapolate from it which club brands were the most powerful.  Unscientific of course, but I wanted to see to what degree being aligned with a specific club (or clubs) is a factor, in addition to sponsoring tournaments like the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League or UEFA European Championships.  So, let’s take a look.  Here’s the 2009 Delloitte & Touche Money League of clubs* along with the brands listed in the Sport+Markt survey (and the brands ranking in that survey) associated with them:

1. Real Madrid – adidas (1), Coca-Cola (5), Audi (8), bwin (9)

2. Manchester United – Nike (2), AIG (6), Audi (8),

3. FC Barcelona – Nike (2), Audi (8), Unicef (15)

4. Bayern Munich – adidas (1), Coca-Cola (5), Audi (8)

5. Chelsea – adidas (1), Samsung (10), Heineken (20)

6. Arsenal – Nike (2), Emirates (5)

7. Liverpool – adidas (1), Carlsberg (7)

8. AC Milan – adidas (1), bwin (9)

9. AS Roma -

10. Inter Milan – Nike (2)

11. Juventus – Nike (2)

12. Olympique Lyonnais – Umbro (16), Orange (18)

13. Schalke 04 – adidas (1)

14. Tottenham Hotspur – Puma (3), Carlsberg (7)

15. Hamburger SV – adidas (1), Emirates (5)

16. Olympique Marseille – adidas (1), Orange (18)

17. Newcastle United – adidas (1)

18. VfB Stuttgart – Puma (3), Coca-Cola (4)

19. Fenerbahce – adidas (1), Audi (8)

20. Manchester City – Umbro (16)

*I looked for the list of official club sponsors on official team websites as of February 2010.

Who from the Sport+Markt list weren’t represented by a club from the Delloitte & Touche Money League clubs?

11. Reebok

12. Opel (Read this Sport Business story from 2001 calling them the ‘most successful shirt sponsor’)

13. Vodafone

14. Ford – Champions League

17. MasterCard – Champions League

19. Sony – Champions League

So, the two odd men out appear to be Reebok and Vodafone.  Now, Vodafone is a massive sponsor of sport and had a run with Man Utd a while back from which they may still be seeing a halo effect.  Reebok sponsors Ryan Giggs (Man Utd), Thierry Henry (Barca) and formally kitted out Liverpool and Man City.  AS Roma are the only club in the top 20 not aligned with a big sponsor.

I think a big winner here may be Audi.  Not a name I immediately associated with big time European football, I was surprised to see them so high.  But they have a variety of partnerships with leading clubs, allowing them to also create the Audi Cup in July 2009, which featured ManU, Bayern Munich and AC Milan along with Boca Juniors of Argentina.  I don’t think they’ve spent the same type of money as some of the other top 10 brands, bet I suspect they are reaping rewards from their associations.  Look too for Umbro to move up the charts if the English National Team can make a run in the 2010 FIFA World Cup this summer.