Global Fútbol

Sevilla FC’s social media accounts are growing at a record pace, and the club just reached the milestone of 20 million followers across all its platforms around the world. This growth means Sevilla FC are the fourth-most-followed club in Spain on social media, and 24th in Europe. They are also the European club which grew the most in China in 2023.

These numbers highlight the club’s firm commitment to making social media a key means of communication with the most passionate supporters and with fans all around the world, via a clear and defined strategy for each market.

José Ángel Risco, Head of Social Media at Sevilla FC, explained: “The key is to have our current audience and our potential audience very well identified and to develop a strategy based on three pillars: content, platforms and distribution. When creating content, it’s essential that we remain faithful to the values of the club, at the same time as focusing on the types of followers we want to reach and being receptive to new trends and opportunities.”

On the club’s strategy for social media growth, he added: “Our strategy is glocal, meaning we separate national and international. We work on each country individually, with local agencies and influencers in order to establish the closest connections and generate the greatest visibility. Segmentation is key, as we share the idiosyncrasies of Sevilla FC in the languages of each market and as we adapt to the cultural differences of each place.”

Risco added that “content creation is as important as its distribution” for Sevilla FC, who push to achieve results with their organic, paid and earned content. He said: “We look to achieve greater reach and visibility. We work in collaboration with publishers and influencers, who also help us to bring more visibility to all our content.”

The markets with the most followers

At the club, they understand that it’s important to identify which platforms fans are most likely to be on in each country. With this in mind, Sevilla FC are currently present on 12 platforms (Instagram, Threads, X, Facebook, Twitch, TikTok, WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, LinkedIn, YouTube and WhatsApp Channel), while they post in six different languages (Spanish, English, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic). As such, one of the keys to the growth has been the generation of local content, which creates a greater affinity with fans in other parts of the world.

One stat that stands out is that Sevilla FC enjoyed the most growth in China in 2023 of all European clubs. On this achievement, the club stated: “In China, we have been working with a digital agency specialising in the Asian market for more than three years. We are in a consolidation phase. Our strategy in China centres around being on the main channels, with specific content for each one out of Weibo, Douyin and Wechat. We also broadcast five or six live shows each season, which is a big effort but it delivers results, and we focus a lot on the most important festivities in Chinese culture. On Douyin, we have also increased our content and video publishing frequency and the results have been very good.”

When looking at the global growth, a few of the most prominent markets are in the Arabic language, with growth in the past year of 383%. Meanwhile, the country with the greatest increase in followers has been India, with a rise of 1126% in a region where football is flourishing, where the club has a strategic agreement with FC Bengaluru United and where the club worked on the audiovisual series ‘Never Surrender’. In addition, the 2023 off-season visit to the USA and Mexico had a major impact in that region and helped to increase the fanbase in that territory, thanks to the various activations organised between players and fans.

Outstanding growth on TikTok and Instagram

In recent months, the accounts which have grown the most have been TikTok and Instagram. Regarding the strategy used on these social platforms, the club commented: “On both TikTok and Instagram, we analysed the trends and content that worked best and we decided to work on three categories: close and real content captured via mobile, such as players’ emotions in matches and training sessions; edited videos which tell stories in a few seconds, with animations and effects; and also reactions and statements, with subtitles, from the stars during our live shows.”

Undoubtedly, it’s on TikTok where Sevilla FC enjoyed the greatest growth, going from two million followers to more than seven million in one year, a rise of 213%. Risco said: “This is a platform focused on Gen Z, meaning it has more content which is more specific, fresh, native real and, above all, highly adapted to mobile consumption (reels, short videos, vertical formats, etc.).”

Instagram also does well for the club and Sevilla FC were the first Spanish team to join Threads, while the strategy for another Meta platform, in Facebook, led to over five million followers. On this, the Head of Social Media revealed: “It remains an important channel for us both in terms of reach, as it is important in strategic regions such as LATAM, MENA and the USA, as well as in terms of views and direct and indirect monetisation.”