So two years have passed since I created the first Derby County Ladies Football Club unofficial fan group: @DCLFCFans. Originally I also started up a Facebook group under the same banner, running in tandem with its counterpart Twitter version, but Facebook had a very different feel about it. Unlike Twitter, for those that don't understand, Facebook has its conversations in unlimited text, open forum style, where members, fans or followers are able to see how it all develops, or in most cases deteriorates into chaos on 'men's game' football sites, with regular expletives, profanity and abuse hurled from one member to another in order to establish themselves as chief know-all or keyboard warrior in the name of banter. Twitter though has a more laid-back approach. It's seen by most clubs throughout the world as the favoured social medium of choice, and for that reason, it made sense to channel my efforts into building a following through Twitter first and foremost, owing to the time taken in running both.
Whether we agree or not, one thing's for sure, social media is either harmful or beneficial. It doesn't cater for status quo. Nothing stays the same you see. It's easy to set-up a new site, anyone can do it. It's quite another to develop a successful site though. That takes time to understand. Not saying I'm expert enough to deliver all the answers. I don't think anyone is. What I tend to be decent at though is asking questions, and the question today is 'Women's football fan sites: who needs them?'
An awful lot's being written about the growth of women's football in terms of how to attract more money and larger attendances. There are more volunteers than ever who put in the hard yards to develop teams from academy up. More women playing the game and more fans attending in terms of percentages, if not vast increases in numbers for the most part. While most clubs adopt a professional approach in everything they do though, there is one area that always seems to be neglected.... fan sites. So why is that?
What's the value of a fan site?
Earlier this season Derby County LFC had a golden opportunity to make a headline, when a home match against Nottingham Forest LFC was able to be played at the home of Derby County Football Club: Pride Park Stadium. This was due to the men having an International break. 2,109 fans turned up that afternoon to watch an exciting match in which Derby County LFC were the victors 1-0, and DCLFC Fans as a group were thanked by the Club's Director of Media Andy Moore personally, for increasing the attendance that day by our relentless promotion of the match, to which we are very grateful. It was also noteworthy that not one single Derby County men's player turned up to show their support for the women that day for whatever reason either, indeed none of them ever turn up for that matter, unlike say the manager of Hull City, Nigel Adkins, who regularly attends the Tigresses matches when he's able, which tells another story. The point being here is that while clubs can't voice their opinion on such delicate matters for fear of reprisal; unofficial fan sites can! Notice I said unofficial there. An official fan page or site would have to tow the line in the same manner that the mother club does. Makes sense yes? OK, so the bright sparks among you will by now understand where I'm about to go with this. You see one of the problems that faces women's clubs are that while they would dearly love to see, and indeed promote the creation of new fan sites, they also dread the possibility of a site being run in a manner unaccustomed with the good manners expected of fans within the women's game, or becoming a rogue site hell bent on doing damage to the club. You can't blame them at all, as they are after all situated in a vulnerable position as they do their damnedest to develop their club within the mire of ever twisting fortunes and disappointments currently surrounding the game as a whole. The fans at Derby even change the words of the 'Bounce' sung at Pride Park each match to 'If you don't jump and bounce' from 'If you don't...', there you go you see, even I can't say it here, as it just doesn't feel right!
Ha-ha I can already feel the heat and see facial grimaces building up here. Well no need because it's not meant to be a poke at anything. In fact it's beautifully refreshing to attend matches where home and away fans contentedly support side-by-side, occasionally sharing banter and a joke or three. Again the point being that in any developing sport, nobody wants to be the first to break the mould for fear of offending do they? It doesn't matter in the South Stand. It's considered acceptable when there are many thousands in attendance because individual voices don't stand out as they do at a women's match, so it's all put down to 'passion' to somehow excuse their language or behaviour. Rubbish, there is just as much passion at Derby women's matches I assure you.
I'll be the first to hold my hands up and admit that the manner in which I run the @DCLFCFans page now is almost the antithesis to when I first started two years ago. Back then I got personally involved with opinionated chatter of the Facebook type I mentioned earlier. Nowadays it's often a point within the headline of a post followed by USAY? You see the last thing I wish to do is offend Derby County. The Club I have supported all my life. I don't want to see it frowned upon by other clubs because it's seen as being attached or linked via the badge to unsavory or offensive posts. Again it doesn't appear to matter in the men's game as people don't associate what is said on social media with the official line of the parent club. People 'F' and Blind all they want but it has no effect whatsoever on attendances or the game in general. If anything it enhances it due to the raising of interest and feelings of being somehow closer to what's happening.
Is the idea of an unofficial fan site worth pursuing?
In a word yes. The essence of social media is about sharing and re-posting. The more people receive information, the more people become familiar with the women's arm of Derby County. Two to three years ago many Derby fans had never even heard of Derby County Ladies, yet now it's nothing new for a post to appear on a men's football social media site. Many mainstream clubs are now embracing women's football and even partnering as with DCFC and DCLFC. There is a feeling among many though that a lot of the media coverage and mainstream club involvement with some women's clubs is in part due to not wanting to appear sexist, or to show a dislike in some way, i.e, certain clubs are offering no more than lip service. That is changing though. It's a slower change than predicted, but nevertheless tangible, and that can't be a bad thing. Only a couple of days ago, a women's Spanish cup match between Levante UD Femenino and Valencia CF Femenino attracted a crowd of over 20,000. Social media of course played it's part again. Both clubs have prestigious social media accounts, and Levante attained a Klout score of 90 to become the 3rd most influential social media account in Spain in 2016 with over 4.5m followers on their Twitter account at the time. So it's not so surprising that they are involved in a match that has attracted world attention, to what many see as a new sport to follow, (although it's by no means a new sport). It's almost as if many are beginning to feel they now have another half to argue for when boasting about their club's successes in the pubs and clubs. Doncaster Rovers Belles it can be said certainly feel the worth of social media, as only today as I write, they are advertising for a volunteer to take on the role of Social Media Administrator to keep their website and social media "up-to-date and in good shape", thus expressing the importance they lay upon it.
Which English clubs have fan sites?
There are literally thousands of girls and women's football teams in England. But how many teams have their own following by social media fan sites? Here's a list of all the clubs that I could find in the top three tiers of women's English football that have official or unofficial fan sites following them.
FA Women's Super League
7/11 Clubs
1. Manchester City
@MCWFC_OSC (Official) 2,862Followers
@MCWFCFANS (Official) 636 Followers
@MCWFC_Women (Unofficial) 141 Followers
2. Chelsea
@cwfcfans (Unofficial) 2657 Followers
3. Arsenal
@ArsenalWomenSC (Official) 1319 Followers
@ArsenalWFC_fans (Unofficial) 19 Followers
@AWSCGhans (Unofficial) 91 Followers
4. Everton
@ELFCFans (Unofficial) 868 Followers
5. Liverpool
@LLFCSuperfan (Unofficial) 708 Followers
6. Reading
@RFCWFans (Official) 433 Followers
@readingwomenfan (Unofficial) 29 Followers
7. Yeovil Town
@YTLSG1 (Unofficial) 15 Followers
FA Women's Championship
3/10 Clubs
1. Manchester United
@ManUtdWomenFC (Unofficial) 5287 Followers
2. Tottenham Hotspur
@thlfsusasg (Unofficial) 1125 Followers
@thlfcsg (Official) 529 Followers
3. Aston Villa
@talkvillaladies (Unofficial) 118 Followers
@Scores_n_roars (Unofficial) 70 Followers
FA Women's National League Northern Premier
4/13 Clubs
1. Derby County
@DCLFCFans (Unofficial) 927 Followers
2. Doncaster Rovers Belles
@bellesnoisyfans (Unofficial) 842 Followers
3. Sunderland AFC
@SAFCLasses (Unofficial) 48 Followers
4. Nottingham Forest
@savenflfc (Unofficial) 63 Followers
FA Women's National League Southern Premier
0/12 Clubs
Out of a total of 46 clubs in the top 3 tiers, only 14 clubs have any form of social media fan site on Twitter. Of those only 7 have more than 119 followers, and only 5 appear to be endorsed as official. While Derby County are currently sat in 6th place, and rising through the ranks, very few other clubs can say the same. For me it's a sad endorsement, if not understandable, that such a wonderful tool as social media is not being tackled for the good of clubs, and instead is being heavily neglected as a badly missed opportunity to enhance the marketing of clubs.
