We like rugby at Hit Social, we like it a lot. We thought we would take a look at the Premiership’s Facebook pages, to see who was the most popular and which page was getting the most engagement. Here’s our first Aviva Premiership Facebook Page League Table, It’s fair to say we were surprised…
The Aviva Premiership Clubs Facebook Page Like Count (October)
Last years’ top 4 represent the highest following of all the 12 Facebook fan pages, as might be expected. Tigers lead the pace, with over double the fans of the next best… wow!
Let’s spare a thought for London Welsh. If you want to give them a small lift this season, go and like their page! Last in the league and struggling here too.
The Aviva Premiership Clubs Facebook Page Engagement
First impressions here were surprising, but every stat has a story…
No. of Posts
If you remove Leicester Tigers, Exeter Chiefs and Northampton Saints from the equation, the average number of posts for the month was 30. The three mentioned above all posted over 50, with Saints posting an impressive 115 posts.
With Facebook’s organic reach set low, Saints’ tactic to post more often is the right way forward.
Post Likes Engagement
We have listed all engagements on a percentage basis, relating to the total number of each Facebook page’s fans. Exeter Chiefs lead here, with a healthy 18.7{1884f1fad642c0a335e320fbf36199da8501940de449f82beb0b1edf5c3b25f3} like rate. They have a solid fan base and it shows on the page. Bath came in fourth, but we think a few more Sam Burgess posts would have seen them go top.
Post what your fans want to see!!!
Post Comments Engagement
What?!!! Wasps lead the post engagements during October, nearly doubling the next best.
Not that surprising when you factor in the clubs controversial move to Coventry. You have to feel for the Wasps fans here. One thing we noticed was the balance of positive comments against the many (and understandable) negatives – Social Media is renowned for its trolling and silly comments, there were some good and valid points (from both sides) made here. As you would expect, your general rugby fan is better than the average on Social Media.
It will be interesting to see if the Wasps engagement level falls next month…
Post Shares Engagement
Again Wasps are top of the table, and mostly for all the ‘wrong’ reasons. The Share rate of the news of the move to Coventry was way above the average.
However, one post that did really well on the Wasps page was a video of Christian Wade scoring a recent try.
Post what your fans want to see!!!
Here’s all the data we collected, so you can review where each team is and how they might improve.
Some Takeaways…
First up, get posting – but make the quality key. We believe engagement levels will rise if you continue to feed your fans with great content.
For likes and shares, how about a ‘Try of the week’ video post?
To increase comments, an easy post is ‘We are going up against ………. this weekend, score predictions please!’.
Saracens keep coming through on our newsfeeds asking us to like their page (sorry, it’s never going to happen!!!), is this a desperate attempt to increase likes or good Facebook Marketing? Maybe targeting should be tweaked a little here, the Quins fans at Hit Social are definitely not their target audience.
As well as posting, How about giving what your fans want to see? Clubs have easy access to VIP tickets and could offer a pair in a (monthly?) sweepstake. Although Facebook killed off the Like Gate this month, we have already seen that competitions are still naturally attracting page likes. We think this is a far better way of raising page likes.
Talking of which, no matter what club you support, how about giving London Welsh a little like? They could really do with it.
