It was suggested yesterday that Premier League champions Manchester United are soon to launch their own private social network for fans of the club. The club has identified a target of more than 500 million fans, after research agency TNS estimated a potential global audience of 660 million with an allegiance to the club. The Manchester United Facebook page has attracted 20 million fans in the year since it launched.
Which got me thinking, do you need to build a proprietory social network or would you better off going to where your fans already are. After all, if Man Utd already have 20 million fans visiting its Facebook page for updates on all things United, do they need to go to the effort of trying to move those fans from somewhere they already go on a daily basis over to the Man Utd website?
Add in the many United fan sites that dot the Internet where fans can already converge to talk about their beloved team to their hearts content and a dedicated Man Utd social network seems to be trying to answer a problem no-one is having.
I'm inclined to think that it is much better to go where your fans already are rather than trying to drag them to where you are.
What do you think? Is Man Utd right to try and build their own social network?
Not if they already have millions using their existing social media platforms. Sure they've got better things to do with their time and money.
No, they really don't. This would be a waste of time completely.
I can't see the point in it myself. I don't see Coca Cola doing it. They use Facebook. I don't see other big brands doing it, either. Better to go with the flow of what's out there IMHO rather than to try and re-invent the wheel.
Well Coke are building a social network, it's just for staff rather than customers 🙂
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