It’s fair to say that social media hasn’t been the number one priority for most Premier League football teams in the past but now all that’s changing. Manchester City are now seeing their use of Twitter, Facebook and Flickr start to pay off. Their official Facebook fan page now has around 80,000 followers and their twitter feed around 12,000.

The success of their social media strategy can be put down to the way they have engaged their fans and used their comments and suggestions to influence the club’s wider marketing strategy. Before www.mcfc.co.uk went live last summer the club used social media to find out what fans really wanted from a website and since the site went live they have devised new marketing campaigns based upon trending topics on Twitter.

In a reciprocal manner they also keep fans updated on their publicity stunts, such as the huge “Welcome to Manchester” poster which was placed on a prominent building in Manchester when Carlos Tevez joined from local rivals Manchester United. For a club which had struggled in recent years to sell out their new ground on match days I think they are definitely going about gaining support in an innovative and refreshing way.