Footballers and social media mishaps

By Tim Le Couilliard

Footballers today must do more than just kick footballs for their team, especially at the top level. Not only elite athletes, Premier League footballers have such a profile that they are also their clubs’ brand representatives, media performers, and in-house influencers.

And most of the time, clubs will welcome the profiles of their players. Having an active social media presence is important to reach football’s key audiences, so having clubs support that makes perfect sense. That being said, there are numerous times when players have fallen foul of their responsibilities on social media.

This recently came to light as my beloved Spurs were knocked out of the Europa League by Dinamo Zagreb. An embarrassing loss, conceding three goals, overturning a two-goal advantage against a team that no one had expected to make this far, let alone beating a Jose Mourinho team. Joe Hart, Spurs’ second choice keeper was also shocked by the result - so much so that it appears he completely misunderstood the result. Disbelief!

Posted moments after the game, Hart’s Instagram account featured a post saying, “job done” with a tick, a strange reaction following an embarrassing defeat for an already out of sorts team. He had reshared a post from the Spurs account and had even been sat on the bench for the game.

So, what happened? Hart initially came out saying that it had been a “typo” that had led to the mistake – somewhat surprising given that the words “job done” with a tick is a long way from “complete capitulation” on keyboards. Not happy with that explanation? Hart later shared a video apology stating that it was his “social media team” who had made the mistake. Quite what they had been watching, I to this day am not sure, but perhaps Joe had not been given sign off on the post – as surely, being sat on the bench that night, he was aware of the loss.

Trivial as it may seem, this perfectly demonstrates the importance of getting social media right. Fans of clubs expect players to feel the same highs and lows as them, so the tone of posts is important. For example, Raheem Sterling can post a joke about missing a penalty when Manchester City win 4-0 and are 14 points ahead of every other team – no one will have a problem with that, besides those with a fantasy football interest. Joleon Lescott on the other hand can’t post a picture of his expensive car when his team just lost 6-0 (even if he later claimed it was a pocket tweet that meant a luxury Mercedes appeared on his Twitter feed). Consider these posts in the same way that when companies are doing well, they can have a bit of fun, but if a brand acted as if nothing had happened during a crisis, the wrong post will only stoke the flames of customer dissatisfaction.

Football fans have an infinite capacity to remember media events too, with moments such as Kevin Keegan’s “I’d love it if we beat them” off-script rant becoming a cult favourite. This is why most players are so careful to have formulaic, often bland, media profiles, to avoid controversy.

That said, when carefully curated, fun and imaginative social media posts only go on to further endear a player to a fanbase. Allan Saint-Maximin at Newcastle is a prime example of this. For his fans, Allan is a cult favourite because he’s warm, funny, and a bit of a maverick both on and off the pitch. He and his social team know that type of personality will make the fans warm to him immediately. Playing it safe isn’t always the best option when trying to grow your brand, but it is a delicate line!

Recently Allan shared a viral video from the Superbowl to dig at Newcastle’s rivals Sunderland. Because he had already built his brand, this tweet works perfectly. If this was a one-off, the tone would likely seem strange, and would not have seen the same success.

Other interesting examples include James Milner, who has gained a reputation of being the perfect professional, and being boring, so has turned it into his online persona to great comic effect. It takes a very, very clever social media admin to make boring funny. I am still not sure who is the curator of the Boring James Milner account, but it has done wonders for Milner’s profile.

There are, of course, the stupid posts that some footballers have posted. The list is endless, and this blog could slowly descend into listing Wayne Rooney tweets from 2011, but some have reached cult fame amongst the footballing worlds.

Victor Anichebe’s post, likely intended for his social media team (as it seems all footballers have these), said that “Can you tweet something like Unbelievable support yesterday and great effort by the lads! Hard result to take! But we go again!”.

Christian Benteke having to apologise after signing for Crystal Palace, as he put Burnley FC into his Twitter bio.

On the other hand, it probably landed better than this tweet by Hull City, who informed their player, Alex Bruce, that he was not going to receive a new contract.

So, there are several lessons that we can learn from football here. Tone is essential, no more so than when the audience is expecting remorse. Applicable to brands and individuals alike, to get the tone wrong in social media strategy can end up in exacerbating the original situation. This works both ways, with a well-judged and curated social media presence being a hugely effective tool to promote individuals and brands.

Another takeaway from this is that sign off is needed, and should be expected, by the account holder, for all posts. Simple signing off avoids embarrassing misunderstandings, as well as providing an extra layer of proofing. It’s also probably best to avoid tweeting important news, such as a contract renewal, without informing the other party first. Out of common courtesy if nothing else.

And, as a final thought, do footballers really need to have social media teams?