“If you thought that tweet was strong you should have seen the original,” says a source at Nottingham Forest, with the watered-down version eventually agreeing to attract more than 44 million views on Twitter since they hit send from Goodison Park on Sunday.
The order to make his fury public is understood to have come from the top, as owner Evangelos Marinakis’ patience ran out after seeing his team disallow three penalties at Everton.
Insiders say the 56-year-old Greek will not care about the consequences that followed. He had a goal to express and he achieved it, using the platform that gives him access to tens of millions. It is also not the first time that Marinakis has urged Forest’s communications team to publish something about refereeing in the Premier League. Sunday was simply the turning point and there was no way to persuade him otherwise.
Football today is much more than five training sessions a week and a game every weekend. Their clubs have become social media factories, churning out content all day, every day, with the goal of creating an army of followers beyond their city limits.
On Instagram, the 20 Premier League clubs together have almost 300 million followers. Clubs have entire teams dedicated to generating content for the new generation who, studies have shown, get their news from companies like TikTok, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.
Nottingham Forest’s explosive social media post has been viewed more than 44 million times
The order to publish the tweet is understood to have come from club owner Evangelos Marinakis.
At Chelsea, for example, they have a ‘Global Social Media Manager’, a ‘Social Media Executive’, a ‘Social Media Content Creator’ and more than one ‘Social Media Editor’, not to mention external consultants that help shape his relentless production. in their men’s, women’s and youth teams.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino said this week that he doesn’t want the world to think they are ‘Cole Palmer Football Club’ but inevitably his social media has made it seem that way at times this season. This has not gone unnoticed by some representatives of Palmer’s colleagues.
Arsenal are understood to have six permanent social media employees, while West Ham have four. Across the league, these numbers are the norm. Staff don’t need to run every post from someone more senior, although that can lead to occasional errors when they go viral for the wrong reasons.
This is not the first time Forest has found itself at the center of a social media storm. In October 2022, they tweeted a photo of Emmanuel Dennis on the Molineux pitch surrounded by wolf pups with the caption “play time”. That backfired as it was shared on a WhatsApp group among Wolves players before they won 1-0. Forest manager Steve Cooper was later furious that the idea had not occurred to him beforehand. By the time he found out, the damage had already been done.
“Usually it’s only when we have something to announce that they tell us what to post,” says a social media executive at a Premier League club. This is often a variety of team updates and club news combined with creativity to make the most of the access they have to players.
Forest’s social media team tweeted a photo of Emmanuel Dennis with Wolves clubs in 2022, but the move backfired as Wolves claimed a 1-0 win at Molineux.
Steve Cooper, Forest’s manager at the time, claimed the pre-match post had not been helpful.
Representatives of Cole Palmer’s Chelsea teammates have noted on social media the club’s performance around its star player this season.
The Spurs team has received praise this season for its ‘arrivals’ content, which has allowed fans to see a different side of the players as they take on challenges when they arrive at their Enfield base.
This access comes with a greater degree of trust and understanding. For example, Bukayo Saka doesn’t really like being called ‘Starboy’ on social media and at Wolves, there was an initial reluctance to call Hwang Hee Chan ‘The Korean Boy’ after Pep Guardiola used the phrase to refer to him. at a press conference. However, after he scored the winning goal against Manchester City 24 hours later, Wolves began to embrace him, with the South Koreans inside Molineux waving flags with him and Hwang himself admitting that he likes him.
Although most days may be pretty standard for those working in-house, sometimes they have to think quickly, such as when Mohamed Salah signed a contract extension with Liverpool in 2022.
A small team was flown to Mykonos in Greece to ensure the announcement was made in style, while news of Jurgen Klopp’s resignation at Liverpool was kept away from most of the digital team until minutes before the video was posted. on January 26. A select few were informed of the news and filmed the video with Klopp the day before, ensuring it was ready for the following morning.
Other times, they can plan ahead, like the Norwich City video released on World Mental Health Day watched by over 60 million people because it was as moving as it was powerful. Occasionally, new signing announcements are delayed in order to come up with an outlandish idea, and Burnley are considered the best in the business at this.
Buyako Saka doesn’t like being called ‘Starboy’ on social media, while Wolves were initially reluctant to refer to Hwang Hee Chan as ‘The Korean Boy’ on social media.
Wolves eventually embraced the idea and Hwang scored against Manchester City, days after Pep Guardiola referred to the striker as “The Korean Boy” at a press conference.
News of Jurgen Klopp’s resignation at Liverpool was kept away from most of the digital team until minutes before the video was posted, with only a select few being informed of the news.
Others rival them, including West Ham, who used Ghanaian rapper Guvna B to announce the signing of Mohammed Kudus. The launch of their American, Portuguese and Spanish social channels has been a great success, exceeding their expectations.
Recently, Liverpool has started creating content with audio in alternative languages to ensure its assets reach as far as possible. The more impressions, the better.
Like transfer announcements, new contracts have become important events for clubs. Last month, Arsenal were mocked for their ’embarrassing’ reveal of Ben White’s new contract as every single one of his team-mates talked about it, but to date, it has nearly 25 million impressions on X alone.
However, in terms of impact, the tweet sent by Forest on Sunday will be difficult to match. It is comfortably his most viewed post of all time. Forest may have less than a million followers on X, but for Marinakis, his point was made clear and is a reminder of the power these accounts have. Now they await the repercussions.