As the case of FC Bayern München (FCB) indicates, social media expansion decisions can be challenging for entities that do not offer tangible products. As a company with a vast digital portfolio, including websites, online shops, media broadcasting channels, and applications, FCB should develop an informed investment solution. This paper seeks to review the FCB’s scenario, describe the possible solutions and the answer, and produce recommendations.
Background Information
In 2010, FCB’s executive management problematized the lack of investment in social media channels and the need to enter that world to reach the versatile football fan community online. Despite some success in e-commerce activities and digital content distribution, the promise of expansion to Facebook or Twitter remained questionable for the management. The success of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona in creating Facebook presence implied the need to keep up with the competition.
Alternative Solutions
FCB has at least three solutions to choose from that vary in terms of the hypothetical cost-benefit ratios. The first solution involves giving up or postponing the implementation of the social media strategy and giving preference to relying on improving FCB’s main website and customers’ online purchasing experiences. With local financial savings as benefits, the option still has multiple disadvantages, including losing the chances of expanding the fan base, creating a well-controlled environment for fans’ international communication, and deriving meaningful fan-related takeaways from comments and post-sharing statistics.
The second possible solution revolves around implementing the social viral spiral model, creating the first “spiral” by establishing the club’s official Facebook account, and exploring other possible channels after getting experiences in gaining social media visibility. The strategy relies on the combination of unique content, such as brief news notes, reposts from the official website or team members/managers’ accounts, and interactive content, including contests and polls. The benefits are reduced investment risks that would not be present in strategies relying on totally unique content, no need for producing only unique articles since there are fans that are active on social media but do not visit the official website, and the opportunity for gradual social media expansion and strategic learning. Nevertheless, reposting might create the risk of annoying Facebook subscribers that already use the website and would receive too many notifications.
The third option is entering Facebook and Twitter simultaneously and investing in writing region-specific content to meet the diverse fan base’s expectations. The strategy would increase FCB’s chances of maximizing its already sufficient media outreach by exploiting two promising channels. However, expenses on user trend research, content writing, article translation, account moderation, and strategic development could turn out to be incompatible with the actual benefits. Additionally, endless notifications could annoy fans with multiple social media accounts.
Main Answer
Considering FCB’s lack of experience with social media, the gradual expansion of its digital presence proposed as the second option seems the best possible choice. With this strategy, FCB would maintain the right balance between the inaction approach and the overly risky multi-channel expansion option. Given the team’s financial health, the Facebook account strategy would not cause unbearable expenses. With this approach, the team would be able to expand the fanbase by making the team seem more approachable and encouraging users to share posts, attract followers through like and share contests, and explore trends in fans’ attitudes and expectations with the help of polls.
Recommendations
FCB is recommended to proceed with the second option and establish an official Facebook account to compete with other clubs successfully. With optimal financial health, FCB is among the top five European football clubs in terms of revenue size, so investment in partially new content would not become a financial burden. FCB should develop a strategy that emphasizes the following: reposting materials and news articles from the English version of the website, writing unique posts based on the most popular categories of website articles, creating a suitable posting schedule with up to two daily posts for maximum visibility, and reposting team members’ and managers’ opinions that align with the club’s overall mission and vision.