Social Media in Modern Football: Good or Bad?

[Chipsticks]

As of yesterday, Southampton became the first British football club to display their official hashtag on their stadium's seating; a fact the club are taking great pride in, but one which is being met with much dismay by the fans.



This horrendous, cringeworthy image serves as a symbol of social networking's takeover of football, and it's vast influence on the way clubs operate, with major announcements such as transfer confirmation and club statements now taking place on Facebook and Twitter, as we've seen with Villa.

Whether this is a good or bad thing, is exceptionally arguable.

On one hand, the explosion in popularity of celebrities using such platforms is countering a widely discussed problem with the modern game, in that footballers are less 'in touch' with the average fan due to extravagant wages and tabloid attention putting them in their own world and raising their egos. Twitter has allowed for fans of all backgrounds, allegiances, and social status to communicate directly with the very stars they pay to see every week, whether it be calling Joey Barton a twat, or congratulating Darryl Duffy on his goal against Fleetwood town - undoubtedly bringing supporters and players closer.

On the other hand, the manner in which news breaks and spreads so rapidly on these sites can, and has, allowed for lazy journalism, with respected names simply retweeting the first rumour they hear in a desperate attempt to maintain/restore credibility. This leads to false rumours quickly becoming top news and accepted as gospel, as shown here:




What do you think?

[PeterWithesShin]

#twittercansuckmyballs

[Toronto Villa]

I'm neither for nor against, but every business including football clubs needs to think about the future. Tradition is fantastic but accepting social media exists doesn't mean that tradition needs to die. When you are competing on an uneven playing field as football is Southampton are trying something different to connect with a different audience. Good for them for trying. Twitter isn't really the problem. It's a lot of the boners that are on it.

[adam#1]

twitter=electronic chineses whispers. a great big christmas party game enjoyed by my gran.

[eamonn]

It's just the reverence and validity with which the media treats tweets that is cringeworthy at times. Like tv discussion programmes that are desperate to appear hip will invariably have some twat of a presenter fingering and swiping their tablet while purring over some bland message from a viewer that wouldn't have been given the time of day had it been sent in via email, phone or carrier pigeon.

What I find most amusing about Twitter in general is celebrities' carefree tweeting, often rendering carefully worded press releases redundant and the largely false platitudes that they usually are.

[Nev]

From a non-league point of view Twitter is a marvelous development. From score updates to fixtures and cup draws to delayed kick-offs, postponed games etc. info that was hard to find is now at your fingertips.

I prefer Twitter to Facebook, but there are certain rules that I follow that ensure the frustration is kept to a minimum:
Only follow accounts that provide info or/and are funny, anything else is a waste of time.

As for footballers, I find they have very little to say at any level from the Prem to grassroots level save for the odd injury update, I couldn't care less what they had for tea or how long they spent in the gym.

Social media can be very useful, it just depends on the user.

[Clampy]

That hashtag on the Southampton seats looks horrible, really horrible.

As for Twitter, it took me a long time to get used to it but I like it now. It does get abused though, there are some absolute twats on there. There are also some very funny people who are worth following and it's useful for team news after 2pm when you're at an away game.

[Dave Cooper please]

Twitter is excellent if you know how to use it and know what it is you want from it.
As Nev says, it is superb for non-league football.

[dave.woodhall]

Twitter is excellent if you know how to use it and know what it is you want from it.
As Nev says, it is superb for non-league football.

Indeed. The pain comes when you get 100 tweets all saying the same thing.

[Lambert and Payne]

Twitters great, I love it because most of the people I follow are funny and I can get all the Villa news I want from the touch of a button on my phone

If I could be arsed I'd unfollow most of our fans though. Some of them come across as complete and utter bellends. Drag the name of the club down

[PaulTheVillan]

It just seems like Twitter is a race for someone to say something first, for what? There's no prize.

[Jimbo]

Blaming Twitter for anything is like blaming the telephone for prank callers. As a medium of communication, it's how it's used that matters. The only problem with incorporating Twitter into your 'brand' is the ephemeral nature of social media. Twitter may well be superseded by something else in a few years, in which case I suspect Southampton could simply remove the hashtag.     

[dave.woodhall]

The dangerous thing with Twitter, as with all social media, comes when people think of themselves as presenters of news instead of hearsay. There's
a reason you don't hear most of the 'truth' in the mainstream media - it isn't.

[TonyD]

I never use the internet.

[Dave Cooper please]

If I could be arsed I'd unfollow most of our fans though. Some of them come across as complete and utter bellends. Drag the name of the club down

Yeah, sorry.