Unlocking Wrexham AFC’s Social Media Power

In today’s crowded sports marketing landscape, where every team is competing for the spotlight, standing out takes more than just bringing your A-game to the field. It also takes careful storytelling and savvy social media moves. Enter Wrexham Football Club, a team that you might not immediately think of when discussing Football giants, but one that’s rewriting the rules of social media. What makes a lower-league team like Wrexham a powerful player on social media, even rivalling much larger clubs? And why are sponsors flocking to them?

In this case study, we’ll explore how Wrexham’s social media presence is providing immense value to sponsors. Join us as we break seven months of social media data, uncovering the strategies behind their digital success and what this means for the future of sports sponsorship.

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Overview of Wrexham's Social Media Performance

Wrexham AFC’s impressive social media performance is well reflected in its numbers. The club’s follower count nearly touches the 4M mark (at 3.94M) across the platforms Facebook, X, TikTok, and Instagram, with a whopping 1.6M followers coming from TikTok. That’s a higher figure than a few Premier League clubs, one of them being Ipswich Town which has almost 1.5M followers. Wrexham’s current total media value (from January to July 2024) is estimated to be €4.59M (unbranded), with half of that reserved for branded content for their main sponsor, United Airlines.

We did a one-on-one comparison of Wrexham AFC’s social media performance against rivals, Mansfieldtown FC. It’s important to state that at the time of writing this article, Wrexham and Mansfieldtown occupy the 3^rd and 4^th spots of the Football League One table.

Key Findings and Insights

We have gathered a few key insights while doing our research on Wrexham AFC:

• Premier League-Level Social Media:
  Wrexham nearly has the social media presence of Premier League clubs, even outperforming a club or two. This can provide exceptional media value for sponsors who are trying to get into the sports advertising space.

• Opportunities for Growth:
  Despite Wrexham’s impressive fanbase, our data suggests that there is still room for growth. Wrexham can offer an even bigger bang for the buck to its sponsors if they optimize their social media in the future.

Platform-Specific Insights

With each of the four social media giants—Facebook, X, TikTok, and Instagram—we've uncovered unique insights tailored to each platform:

• Facebook:
  Facebook accounts for 21% of Wrexham's postings, yet the platform only has 9% of the total number of followers and adds 4% to the value of branded media. Therefore, it should be in their best interest to tone down posting on Facebook.

• X (formerly Twitter):
  Even though 35% of posts are devoted to X, it only has 15% of followers and generates 0.9% of engagement. A similar strategy to that of Facebook should be deployed here as well and lesser marketing efforts should be invested here.

• TikTok:
  Despite having 39% of Wrexham’s followers, TikTok only contributes 18% of branded value and only accounts for 7% of all posts. By emphasizing more on this platform, Wrexham can significantly boost its branded media value considering its large fanbase.

• Instagram:
  Instagram generates 59% of the branded value and has well-optimized utilization, with 36% of posts matching 36% of followers. It is is the best medium for increasing sponsor value, as evidenced by its greatest engagement rate of 8.61%. Therefore, Wrexham’s social media team should continue focusing on Instagram.

Sponsors, social media managers and relevant stakeholders should always find out which social media channels are working best for their concern of interest.

Challenges and Insights Over Time

To better optimize their social media activities, Wrexham should address a few challenges:

• Inefficient Posting:
  Engagement and Branded media value did not increase proportionately with the increase in posting volume between January and July. Engagement rate dropped by half from 8.22% in the first quarter of 2024 to 3.98% in May-July. In the same timeline, Branded media value fell from €673,817 to €395,328. Therefore, Wrexham should focus more on the efficiency of their posts rather than the volume of it.

• Seasonality Matters:
  By taking a keen look at the graph below, it’s easy to decipher that both the volume of posts and engagement are at their peak during April. That is the month of promotion from EFL League Two to League One. After April, there is a sharp decline in engagement despite continuous posting. This is where sponsors are missing out. Potential sponsors should consider collaboration opportunities during this time of the season.

Best Performing Post (by Branded Media Value)

133.685€ Media Value, 5,7M Impressions, 652K Likes

 

 

 

 

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Ein Beitrag geteilt von Wrexham AFC (@wrexham_afc)

Strategic Recommendations

To better grow Wrexham’s social media presence, here are some strategic recommendations that could help boost the online performance of the team:

• Posting could be rebalanced to concentrate on high-performing platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, which have the greatest potential in terms of follower growth and engagement

• Alternatively, less focus could be placed on underperforming platforms with low engagement rates in relation to following size, such as Facebook and X.

• Wrexham could look into strategies for sustaining interest outside of match-related content during off-season to preserve sponsor value. They can consider creating more content centring around the last season’s best moments, incoming transfers or even bloopers of training sessions.

Conclusion

Our case study on Wrexham AFC clearly portrays how data plays an unparalleled role in optimizing social media presence keeping sponsors in mind. It is only properly implemented data-driven decisions that can take Wrexham’s social media strategy to the next level. If Wrexham optimizes their strategy for their social media channels, they will unlock greater value for sponsors. Digging deeper into data when creating social media strategy helps both rights holders and sponsors since it allows for a more powerful and focused approach to sponsor alignment and audience engagement.

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