Aston Villa’s announcement that they have passed the million mark in followers was a good time to look again at the Premiership Facebook League having been over six months since the last time we looked. Last June, Villa had 524, 589 followers, so the increase has been impressively close to 100%; making them second only to Swansea in terms of percentage increase.
Lying 7th in the Premiership Facebook League in terms of followers, it’s only two places below Villa’s 5th placing in the all-time Premiership table, although Spurs will leapfrog Villa and push them into sixth come the end of the season (although Villa will remain 5th in the all-time top division table). Villa though have at least made in-roads into Spurs lead over them in sixth place in the Facebook followers stakes over the past months.
Since Facebook for the club is essentially a marketing tool (it is run by the club’s marketing department after all), the disparity between dropping Villa Park attendances and it’s keyboard fans is a problem that the club has to address, although better results on the pitch is always the first starting point.
A Wembley final and possible European football would have certainly boosted Villa’s online following. As already mentioned, Swansea City’s League Cup run to Wembley has given them the biggest percentage increase in the last six months and seen them jump above Sunderland and Stoke into six-figure respectability. Norwich City too have moved up two places and out of the relegation zone…did Paul Lambert leaving have anything to do with it?
Elsewhere, Celtic would only come in at 11th if they joined the Premiership, while the European Champion’s League runner’s up Bayern Munich wouldn’t make the top 4. However, not even Manchester United’s 30 million-plus followers, can compete with the El Clasico duo, with Barcelona and Real Madrid clocking in with over 40 million and 36 million respectively.
Meanwhile, down in the nether regions of the Championship, the turmoil at St Andrews has seen a stunted growth in Facebook followers for the Blues, growing by less than 4,000 in a seven-month period. Which is pretty astonishing for a football club, considering even My Old Man Said has grown by more than 4000 followers in the same period!
Premiership Club Official Facebook Follows League Table
(correct to Februay 20 2013 – figures in brackets from June 9 2012)
1. Manchester United 31,621,435 (25,599,273)
2. Chelsea – 15,807,988 (10,902,283)
3. Arsenal – 13,143,064 (10,479,809)
4. Liverpool – 11,497,307 (9,606,237)
5. Man City – 4,764,207 (2,901,830)
6. Spurs – 1,637,924 (1,293,248)
7. Aston Villa – 1,001,356 (581,779)
8. Newcastle United – 362, 208 (285,819)
9. West Ham United 303,982 (265, 456)
10. Everton – 303,933 (241,191)
11. Fulham – 210,612 (97,525)
12. QPR – 178,345 (84,462)
13. Swansea City – 103,420 (43,368)
14. Sunderland – 69,796 (50,225)
15. Stoke City – 63,161 (47, 847)
16. WBA – 57,393 (42,859)
17. Norwich City – 54,464 (32,242)
18. Reading – 51,748 (37,424)
19. Southampton 43,831 (33, 974)
20. Wigan Athletic – 28,945 (13,864)
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Others teams of interest
Birmingham City – 40,774 (36, 865)
Celtic FC – 216,298 (170, 610)
Barcelona – 40,505,567 (32,153,057)
Real Madrid – 36,114,854 (29,118,040)
Bayern Munich – 6,089,705 (4,277, 533)
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See where Villa are in the Twitter Premiership Club League in comparison: click here
