Motives to engage with sports brands on Facebook and Instagram–The case of a Portuguese football club

Abstract

PurposeSocial network sites are key marketing tools that allow brands to connect and engage with consumers. However, there is still a lack of evidence of their value for football brands. This research aims to understand the motivations for fans to engage with their favourite football brands on Facebook and Instagram.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was performed, resulting in 214 valid responses. As the social media strategy followed by the football brand analysed was built around games, the authors divided fans into two groups based on the main method in which the club's games are watched: in stadium versus mediated. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between motivations and fans' engagement, through content consumption and contribution, on Facebook and Instagram. Analysis was performed first with the whole sample and then by group (stadium attendance vs mediated attendance fans).FindingsThe findings show that social influence, entertainment, searching for information and rewards are the most relevant motivations for consumers to engage with brand-related content on Facebook. Entertainment, rewards and social influence are the main motivations influencing consumer interactions on Instagram. Group moderation was only confirmed in the impact of social influence on Facebook page content consumption.Originality/valueThe results provide valuable insights into the social media marketing activities of sports brands, which will assist brand managers to develop strategies for effectively stimulating engagement with the different groups of fans.

The association between Saudi football clubs and the loyalty of their fanbase, a cross-sectional study.

“…To understand what can motivate the fans to engage with the football club they support on the social media, Ferreira et al (2019) publish a study for this purpose as they used an online survey to collect the data from FC Porto (Portuguese football club) fans and they found that the entertainment content and searching for information were the two main things people do to engage with their favorite football club on the social media. Similar results showed in the study done by Machado et al (2020) which included more sample size and covered many Portuguese football clubs' fans and social media accounts.…”

Redes Sociales y el caso de las ligas deportivas durante el COVID-19

“…A lo largo de los años, la gestión de estas plataformas digitales por parte de las organizaciones deportivas han sido objeto de estudio. Desde equipos y clubes deportivos (ACHEN, 2019;JORDAN;UPRIGHT;FORSYTHE, 2017;MACHADO et al, 2020; a federaciones internacionales (BURSON COHN & WOLFE SPORTS, 2021;GINESTA, 2009;VILANOVA, 2009;WINAND et al, 2019) o incluso deportistas (HAYES, 2020;SHARPE;MOUNTIFIELD;FILO, 2020;WITKEMPER;LIM;WALDBURGER, 2012).…”

Identifying factors affecting the value of advertisements on football clubs' and players' social media: a discrete choice analysis

“…Coelho et al (2016) highlight that more intense interactions between customers, companies and clubs or players are possible on Instagram. For the fans, entertainment, rewards, social influence and searching for information are the main motivations to interact with sports entities on Facebook, whereas only the first three motivations are important on Instagram (Machado et al, 2020). Oppositely, Twitter is less attractive for advertisements, due to its character limitation and the lower number of total users.…”