This story is the fourth in a series about how marketers for sports teams and leagues around the world approach social media strategy.
Manchester City’s mascots, the aliens Moonchester and Moonbeam, aren’t the only parts of the team that are out of this world.
Never mind the fact that the team has won the league title for the past four years in a row. As of late last year, Man City was already one of the top three most-followed teams in the Premier League, with more than 116 million followers across X, Facebook, and Instagram at the time. These days, it has another 27 million followers on TikTok plus a recurring presence in the Apple TV+ original series Ted Lasso, which last year was, according to Nielsen, the most-watched streaming original in the US.
To support that reach, the team has a robust social media strategy that includes regular posts about everything from stats to its stadium and footballers to fans, according to Michael Russell, Man City’s head of production.
“In terms of what we want to do on social, we definitely want to talk,” Russell told Marketing Brew. “We don’t just want to lecture…We want people to feel a need to reply.”
London Manchester boy: To get fans to talk back, Man City first has to speak their language. After spending more than a decade in Manchester, Russell says there’s an art to it.
“The tone of voice of Mancunians is different to the tone of voice of Londoners,” Russell said. “Mancunians, really in their hearts, are quite self-deprecating. As a Londoner who spent 15 years in Manchester, this is my take: They are more comfortable taking the mick out of themselves than anything else.”
When Russell first joined Man City, he said he had to fight the urge to brag about winning on the team’s socials. That’s because even with the Premier League, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, and UEFA Super Cup titles under its belt, “you’re only around the corner from a defeat,” Russell said.
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Plus, he added, Man City fans do the boasting themselves.
Pitch perfect: Thankfully, posting highlights isn’t exactly bragging, and on-pitch content is a major part of Man City’s social content strategy. With an “utterly relentless schedule” between the men’s, women’s, U18, and U20 teams, the club’s social presence “kind of runs itself for a period of time, because there is so much football” to pull from, he said.
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On-field highlights tend to perform well, Russell said, especially callbacks and flashbacks, like when midfielder Phil Foden scored a goal in Man City’s last game of the season against West Ham United after practicing the same shot the day before.
Close up: Foden’s practice footage was on hand because Russell’s team understands the value of behind-the-scenes content, he said. That also extends to off-pitch content focused on the players’ personalities, which makes up a significant amount of the team’s posts.
Fans have access to the Man City players through the club’s Inside City YouTube series, described as the “ultimate behind-the-scenes look at life inside an English Premier League club,” as well as its tunnel cam content, which gives fans a look inside the Etihad Stadium tunnel. An Amazon Prime Video docuseries released in 2018 sparked the strategy to post more documentary-style videos on YouTube, club CMO Nuria Tarré previously told Marketing Brew.
Selfie mode: From time to time, the team even turns the cameras on its fans. Man City produces match-day live shows on its social platforms that often feature fans around the world interacting with the presenters, and its “pitcam” content showing the game from ground level also often highlights fans, Russell said.
Man City’s Instagram Stories in particular are supposed to make fans “feel like you’re somewhere you shouldn’t be,” he said, which is especially important for a team with a fanbase that according to Tarré is almost entirely based outside of the UK. The club’s social presence, as well as real-life experiences like its New York pop-up store, help it stay connected to that global fandom.
“There is a commitment for an international fan that exists that is in some ways greater than some of our local fans,” Russell said. “Clearly, our local fans are nuts. They’re amazing, and they spend their hard-earned money, and they have been here through thick and thin, but that international fanbase is growing and growing.”
