Do we have delusions of grandeur?

[davieG]

https://www.olbg.com/blogs/premier-league-happy-fan-index

 

Which Premier League teams have the most supportive online fans

For many of us, the sports team we support is an integral part of our identity, often supported by our parents, family members, friends and loved ones. Sports teams create communities of people who come together to share their passion for the sport and the camaraderie of sharing the highs and lows of victory and defeat. 

However, not all fandoms are created equal. While the largest and most successful teams often generate the most public interest, which in turn can translate into a larger community of fans, they aren’t necessarily the most enthusiastic or committed groups. Smaller teams often benefit from having close ties to their local community, hiring local talent and hosting community events.

We at OLBG decided to find out which Premier League teams from the 2021/22 season have the happiest fans based on their social media activity. So, which team will come out on top, and where will your favourite team place in our rankings?

The Premier League teams with the most loving fans

Here we can see the Premier League teams ranked by their overall social engagement score. This score was calculated using the average likes received per post by each club’s Twitter and Instagram account, as well as the ratio of “love” reactions to “angry” reactions on articles about the team. Unfortunately, we could not obtain complete data for Brighton & Hove Albion, so they have not been included in this ranking. 

 

1. Liverpool FC                Fan Happiness Score: 7.88

 

Liverpool has the happiest fans in the Premier League with an overall fan happiness score of 7.88. As one of the top teams in the league, Liverpool has a huge fan base with supporters all around the world, who also appear to be happy with their chosen team. Liverpool scored well across the board, with a very high average number of likes per post on both Instagram and Twitter, as well as receiving a high ratio of “love” reactions compared to “anger reactions” on articles that discuss them.

 

2. Aston Villa                Fan Happiness Score: 7.14

 

Despite having far fewer average likes per post than any team in the top 6, Aston Villa managed to place second with a fan happiness score of 7.14. Villa performed particularly well on Twitter, which is known for its very low engagement rates, with the team receiving 0.25 likes per post on average. While this may sound low, it’s actually the highest score in the league by quite some distance.

 

3. Chelsea FC                Fan Happiness Score: 6.53

 

In third place, with a fan happiness score of 6.53, is Chelsea FC. Chelsea had strong performances for the number of average likes on both Instagram and Twitter but was let down by one of the worst ratios of “love” to “angry” reactions on posts about the team.

 

Methodology

We wanted to find out which Premier League teams from the 2021/22 season have the happiest fans. To do this, we looked at the average likes received by the team on their Twitter and Instagram accounts, as well as taking the ratio of “love” reactions to “angry” reactions on content published about them on Facebook from BuzzSumo. 

We used Social Blade to assess each team’s account’s number of followers, the number of posts or videos, and the number of likes or views. We divided the number of likes by the number of posts to find out the average.

We then combined these three factors into a single score to allow us to compare the overall happiness of each team’s fans.

 

 

Edited 1 July 2022 by davieG
More detail added

[CosbehFox]

I love that Nige has entered this term into the LCFC diction forever 

[Sampson]

I have no idea. That image doesn’t really show how it’s measuring the happiness score or what it means 

[Guest]

Yeah I've no idea what I'm meant to infer from that table but I think he was right then and still is now, probably moreso

[Bucks fox]

Seriously Spuds that high up and yet they've won sweet FA for years.......... If anyone thinks they've got the 6th happiest fans in the league then they are woefully wide of the mark and I know enough of them

Edited 1 July 2022 by Bucks fox

[Nalis]

Newcastle in 11th sounds about right if assuming they were probably bottom pre PIF and top post PIF.

[hejammy]

With Man United at 4th, I can only conclude that this is a load of boll0x

Edited 1 July 2022 by hejammy

[Nalis]

Just now, hejammy said:

Wiht United at 4th, I can only conclude that this is a load of boll0x

Good point.

 

If they are going to use social media as a metric then surely they must base it on posts relating to matches like HT /FTs? Likes on a fb post at, say, the training ground or happy christmas/eid, etc isnt really a reflection on how happy thenfans are with their team.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

It's the clubs with legions of happy clapper fans in places like India that are the top of those lists.

 

Still, if you measure us against the likes of Villa, West Ham, Southampton, our peers really, it is a bit worrying.

[davieG]

15 minutes ago, pmcla26 said:

I hate to be pedantic, but didn't he say "delusions" not "illusions"? 

Correct and corrected 

[Matt_Lcfc]

This methodology is so subjective. Measuring ‘happiness’ against likes and comments doesn’t work, bigger clubs with high international support will always have the most likes / shares.

 

Not a good metric, best demonstrated with United being 4th in this. 

Edited 1 July 2022 by Matt_Lcfc

[Corky]

4 hours ago, Sampson said:

I have no idea. That image doesn’t really show how it’s measuring the happiness score or what it means 

 "I didn't like the booing but plenty of fans liked our Instagram posts so we'll take the positives from that".

 

Actually, let's bring it into post match interviews. Imagine a manager saying that sort of thing.

[RoboFox]

One of the daftest conclusions from largely irrelevant and clearly skewed metrics. 
 

However, you don’t need a table of social media stats to tell me we’re all miserable. That’s why I come on FT. 
 

On a side note, **** toxic football social media in general, and a big shout out to Arsenal supporters in particular who are just insufferable.

[4everfox]

According to this, only 6 clubs in England have more fans than Leicester. 

[Paninistickers]

8 minutes ago, 4everfox said:

According to this, only 6 clubs in England have more fans than Leicester. 

I guess that's the point of the survey. We have lots of followers but actual engagement (ie the amount of people who actually give a shit, one way or other) is wolves/palace/Southampton level. Which is, frankly, about right 

[Walkerfox]

All it shows is that our social media gets very few “interactions”. 
 

This kind of makes sense as there’s only a few things like the match day images they do based on film/TV that aren’t just a typical “good win today” or more recently “A disappointing end at the King Power sees the foxes lose 1-0. We’ll be back stronger 💪” 

 

Its all very bland. 

[don_danbury]

man city only 5th, arsenal 7th and villa 2nd????? 

[st albans fox]

theory? 
 

We collected a lot of casual ‘fans’ on social media in 2016

 

These are not ‘connected’ with the club and will simply not interact with the tweets and instagram posts

 

hence a big lack of likes in respect of the vast number of followers 

[PAPA LAZAROU]

Can we have a poll for " does it matter what some clickbait puts up to gain revenue "

[coolhandfox]

What a load of old crap 

[Unabomber]

5 hours ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

I love that Nige has entered this term into the LCFC diction forever 

Is there anything he can’t do wow what a guy 

[The Horse's Mouth]

We are the Leicester city big dogs 

[Vacamion]

 

Do we have delusions of grandeur?

 

No.  

 

We are massive.

 

They aren't delusions.

 

 

[majaco]

There's a sense of entitlement. 

[Grebfromgrebland]

We definitely do. One poor season (which wasn't actually poor) out of three and half on here are calling for the managers head and that's despite an injury crisis.

 

So yeah we have massive delusions of grandeur.