England National Football Team: Social Media Champions?

Admittedly, Italy definitely scores a goal or two when it comes to Twitter. Their national football team has 3 separate accounts, one in Italian, English, and Arabic, across which a following of over 1 million has been amassed. England only has one account, meaning non-English speakers may be missing out, but it has over 4.8 million followers, easily beating the opposing teams in this respect.

The England team’s Twitter largely consists of retweeted player’s posts, sentimental snapshots of the team in action, and encouraging words about the individual players and team as a whole. Due to word count restrictions on the app, England’s twitter posts are the most succinct among the various platforms used, though quantity does not always equate to quality.

A personal touch is present on Twitter that may be absent on other platforms, with various tweets from different players being collated onto one timeline illustrating the unity of the team, but also placing more focus on the individual team members as opposed to simply their performance. The Italian team posts more frequently, providing regular updates on different matches and the movements of the team.

Spain consistently posts about the training activities of its team members and provides more video-based content, for example from press conferences reviewing matches, than England. All teams seem to be promoting themselves very effectively on Twitter, with the short but sweet posts being both frequent and informative, making it hard to determine a clear standout.

ENG 1 – 1 Other Semi Finalists

Once again, England leads with regard to follower count, the team boasting an incredible 7 million fans on the app. Italy comes in second with 4.9 million, Spain in third with 3.5, and Denmark falls far behind with only 401,000.

Instagram seems to be the most sophisticated of the platforms, with each post evidently being very considered and thoughtful. All teams frequently post images of their players celebrating or standing together, united. The captions are each very heartfelt, with one of Denmark’s translating to ‘One for all. All for one.’ – the emotional tournament they had is clear to see.

It is again difficult to determine a sole victor here, with each team presenting such a strong display of camaraderie and team spirit.

ENG 2 – 2 Other Semi Finalists

The England team’s YouTube channel is a dark horse in contributing to their rising social media presence, with almost daily uploads and a wide variety of content.

They have numerous ‘Inside Access’ videos detailing training, preparation, and jokes shared between teammates ahead of various matches. There are also entertaining challenges arranged between different players, as well as individual interviews, which, combined with videos surmising the team’s day-to-day training, offers insight into the team as a unit as well as players as individuals, providing behind the scenes content that other social media platforms perhaps fail to.

It seems YouTube has yet to be utilised by other teams, allowing England to take the clear lead here, the opposition falling behind due to a lack of social media presence across a broad enough range of platforms.

ENG 3 – 2 Other Semi Finalists

This is the platform through which England emerges as undeniable victor. As far as one can tell, neither Spain, Denmark, nor Italy have a TikTok account.

The platform has rapidly risen to popularity in recent years and is a vital channel through which young football fans can be reached, approximately 50% of the app’s global audience being under the age of 34, and 20% aged between 16 and 24. Not to mention, the England team are not simply present on the platform – parroting content from other channels (as is often the case with brands across multiple platforms), they have hit the nail on the head with a combination of both funny and trendy videos coupled with clips offering unique insight into the players’ training activities. The team has also struck the perfect balance between candid videos and organised ones, providing viewers with a sense of authenticity alongside the hilarious results of thoughtful editing.

This video of Bukayo Saka, for example, garnered 3.3. million views. It cleverly makes use of the footballer taking a tumble into the team’s pool, and edits this clip in several creative ways, turning it into a football, golf ball, and even a meteor of sorts.

ENG 4 – 2 Other Semi Finalists

The Result

Of course, it would also be remiss of us to not mention the horrible, racist abuse faced by three of the England team following the final – Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka.  The England accounts presented a united and strong front to stand up for the team and make a clear point about their stance on racism (as the team had done throughout the tournament).  And although we’re obviously not including this as part of our scoring, it was handled brilliantly by the team behind the account.

With that said, despite some tough competition, England’s social media mastery has shone through. It is primarily the delicate balance that they have achieved between serious and light-hearted that has so boosted their popularity.

The combination of player tweets, sincere Instagram posts, insightful YouTube videos, and humorous TikToks has allowed England to progress far past the opposition.

Crucially, England seems to be present across a wider variety of social media platforms, with YouTube and TikTok being largely neglected by the other semi-final teams, allowing them to reach audiences more effectively and edge out ahead of the competition.

As a result, even though the team narrowly missed out on a EURO win, England has undoubtedly emerged as victorious in the social media championship.