It’s time to dust off the old website. Get the fixtures up to date and make sure your new sponsor is at the top of the page.
Why am I getting out the digital Pledge? Twitter, non-league and grassroots football’s big shop window is flapping like a goalkeeper in a gale, a kit person who’s forgotten the kit etc etc.
I’ve no idea if Twitter will survive its current issues, but it’s a timely reminder that we’ve probably all gotten a little too comfy with it. It’s a really easy way to get information out there to supporters and those with a passing interest. It’s been a really great space for grassroots clubs, particularly those that don’t have anyone with a huge interest in that side of running a club to get themselves out in front of the football going public – a large proportion of whom use the platform.
We need a Plan B.
That could easily see lots of clubs turning to Facebook, Instagram or perhaps even something like LinkedIn as a way to get information out, but I think that would be a mistake.
Now is the perfect time to get your club’s digital act together and create a permanent base, or at least give it a polish.
Why? If I look under Football in Berkshire’s bonnet, I can tell you the top two referrers of traffic to our website are Twitter and Google searches. Twitter is good, but Google search traffic accounts for around 60% of the people that visit the website. That’s a lot of interest you are missing out on by focusing on a Social Media platform that is certainly a) having a wobble and b) isn’t specifically dedicated to grassroots football.
A website is going to take time and effort – things we don’t have
It’s not an unfair comment. But I firmly believe every club should have a website. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be a 150-year archive of your club’s history.
My golden rule when talking to anyone involved in local football about digital spaces is: never start something online you can’t commit to every week. Don’t end up only Tweeting your wins!
With that in mind, for a basic useful website, I think you need four pages: A home page, a fixtures and results page, a matchday information page and a contact page. Only one of those pages will need any regular maintenance and you’ll be able to direct people to it from all those social platforms as a central place for club information.
Anytime someone asks questions like ‘do you print a programme?’ or ‘how much is it for under 16s?’ you can just point them to the matchday information page. That’ll certainly please your club’s sponsors who’ll be front and centre.
I really just think it’s an important way for people to find out about your club. Your website can become as big or as compact as you like. But if people get used to it being there and being reliable, it’s your digital centre and constant.
If you’d like to find out more about how the Football in Berkshire team can help your club with its website then please drop an email to editor@footballinbracknell.co.uk. We are working with Lens Digital to figure out what we can do and how we can best help.
Related: The benefits of selling online tickets in non-league football
Is Twitter done for then?
Your guess is as good as mine. I am repeating myself but Twitter is non-league’s big shop window. We all rely on Twitter to get our club information out there to our supporters and anyone with a passing interest.
If I were a betting man and looked at any analytics, Twitter would be by far the biggest interest and traffic driver to any other part of your club’s digital footprint. It’s free, it’s easy to post match updates and if you want you can do live commentaries, post fancy graphics and video.
Twitter, as we all know, is far from perfect, it can be a bubble, an echo chamber and amplify some of the worst people in the world. But it’s also been a game-changer for grassroots football clubs.
We don’t know what the future of the platform looks like. New policies every few days are rolled back, the owner is making major decisions based on Twitter polls – which as we discovered can easily be bought – who remembers the last time we did a Virtual County Cup?
I’m just concerned we’ve all put our eggs in one basket.
Do you agree with Tom here? Does your club have a digital plan for the future? Let us know in the comments below.
