What happened to fan engagement?

DonCorleone

DonCorleone

Well-known member
  1. Where are the attempts to engage the fan base this summer?
  2. When are the open training sessions?
  3. When are the signing sessions scheduled?
  4. What are the club doing to try and onboard young fans this summer now that F.O.C. STs have been removed for the under 5s?
  5. What have the club done except for a few tweets to promote the new junior membership programme?
I may be wrong but I believe the answer thus far to all of the above is nothing.

The feeling around the club is so flat at the moment. Structurally there's virtually nothing to shout about with an unpopular managerial change and no new signings as yet so the club should be working overtime elsewhere to try and drum up at least some positivity!

Imagination and creativity to try and create positivity is desperately needed even amongst sections of the fan base.

Nb. I'll get bashed here for being negative - but remember this is a football forum to discuss the club.
 
DonCorleone said:
  1. Where are the attempts to engage the fan base this summer?
  2. When are the open training sessions?
  3. When are the signing sessions scheduled?
  4. What are the club doing to try and onboard young fans this summer now that F.O.C. STs have been removed for the under 5s?
  5. What have they done except for a few tweets to promote the new junior membership programme?
I may be wrong but I believe the answer thus far to all of the above is nothing.

The feeling around the club is so flat at the moment. Structurally there's virtually nothing to shout about with an unpopular managerial change and no new signings as yet so the club should be working overtime elsewhere to try and drum up at least some positivity!

Imagination and creativity to drum up at least some positivity is desperately needed.

Nb. I'll get bashed here for being negative - but remember this is a football forum to discuss the club.
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Really? you think the feelings flat at the minute?

That's surprising to me, Apples wasnt my first choice, in fact I thought the club had taken leave of their senses going for him. But he's grown on me and I can see why they have gone for him considering the pool we fish in.

Fan engagement, does seem lower than previous years I agree, but the club is in a completely different place from where it was 12/18 and 24 months ago. Back then the club and its fan base were coming out of an incredibly traumatic time, fan engagement by a new set up was imperative.

They then delivered a promotion and a comfortable survival year in the 2nd tier of English football, that along with all of the other stuff their doing to move the club forward, such as signings, stadium and training ground plans has engaged me no end.

The club can come back to the points you raise in the future, but right now they've banked enough credit for me to be more than satisfied with the job they're doing. Putting their time and effort into remaining in the championship next year will go lightyears to engaging and attracting fans. We're hopefully moving past the point where open training sessions and overt fan engagement activities are required, the club is attractive to families, kids, the casual fan and more because of the success and prestige they're bringing to the club and the town.

We now are steaming ahead in the right direction as a club and simply because we don't do signing sessions and kids events every month doesn't diminish that.
 
The club seems to be doing largely the right things, imo, focusing on the things that matter. They use TTV to keep us engaged and the website, app and social media. But the main thing is the product and the facilities. They've spent loads on the stadium and the pitch, the training facilities, the squad, the staff etc. I'm not really arsed about anything else, there is more engagement than we have ever had and I sometimes think less is better, keep it simple and accept it's a football club and not a media circus. We all know how to buy tickets and we know when the matches are played, does anything else really matter? If the football is good and the stadium is safe people will rock up.
 
I tend to agree with the OP. Things are really flat at the minute, in a time when the club should be generating excitement ahead of the new season.

What have the club done proactively to attract new fans during the sale of season tickets? What have the club done proactively to sell memberships to those who haven’t purchased a season ticket? What have the club done to promote that the first 5 home games of the season are now on sale?

Relying on Twitter as your sole marketing strategy is not good enough. It has never been our strength but we need to do more.
 
voyeur said:
. We all know how to buy tickets and we know when the matches are played, does anything else really matter? If the football is good and the stadium is safe people will rock up.
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There seems to be mounting evidence that the club don’t know how to set up a system that allows fans to know how to buy tickets.
 
Pretty sure they said they'll be another open training session.

There's always more to do with more promotions for ST etc. Leaflet drops using fan volunteers, doesn't cost that much.

Marketing which they do, being inventive with marketing, out the box thinking. Adverts in papers, radio which they used to do etc.

Town centre houndshill advert they could do. Just some things off the top of my head.

These always many little things that end up adding up to having a bigger impact.
 
We have a full squad, a new manager, some great friendlies and the manager is spending time concentrating his and the players time on the training ground. An open day is just not needed at the moment. Season tickets are on a par with last year and will increase. We will sign players and we will lose players, it's still early days. We have had the training videos which have been excellent.

Do people prefer the madness of how it used to be back with the stains?? No players, shit trialists, shit signings, where information was leaked on a daily basis, the ground falling apart, the pitch being done by a jobbing Gardner using value grass seed from B&Q, no money spent on the training ground (Another £350,000 spent already this summer) driving players there himself, suing supporters. Oh yeah, how I crave for the excitement of days gone by. WTF is wrong with people have some backbone and some patience FFS. If we should be questioning anything it should be is SS here for the long haul or is this a project to flip in the future for a profit? Is his business on sold foundations and still improving, those are the things I think about, not is there going to be an open day or why haven't we signed anyone yet.
 
The marketing department have probably been very busy with launching the app, which won’t have been cheap and is where many will get their news from moving forward.

They will have an actual marketing strategy (and budget) that they’ll be working to, with peaks and troughs throughout the season. Always makes me chuckle when I see people talking about marketing the shit out of things when they have no idea what they’re talking about, all marketing takes up resources, time and money.

As far as I can see there has been more engagement than ever before. Keshi was out at Clifton Rangers the other day, we’ve had the shirt to kids thing last season, a new app, a new membership scheme, videos of pre season training and more season tickets have been sold than last year.

I don’t want to have a go at people for bringing up issues because the club can get things wrong and we’ve seen a couple of U-turns with pricing etc. However, on marketing and engagement I think they’re doing a good job and criticism on that front isn’t justified.
 
MA has been in charge for two weeks and changed back room staff. He has to get to know for himself strengths / weaknesses of 25 players and how they will / won’t fit in with his system & therefore who will stay / move on. He has already identified who he wants to join and will need compete with others for their signings. Communication will come as soon as this is achieved. Patience required. And this from someone not renowned for patience!
 
I take it you haven’t watched the training videos etc . Is this not fan engagement? The new app , this is surely to help our supporters gain access to information when it becomes available! Unless you want Ben Mansford to knock at your door to give you a verbal run down on everything that is happening at our great club.
 
Pre-season plans will have been thrown into chaos by NC's bombshell
I think we all need to patient as we are playing catch up as a result
As others have said behind the scenes there are yet further improvements to the infrastructure and the App is great ( though the ST renewal required a visit to the club shop )
 
clappers said:
There seems to be mounting evidence that the club don’t know how to set up a system that allows fans to know how to buy tickets.
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I tried to book Reading tickets online this morning, but the site repeatedly responded by showing a fault.
At the same time (from 10:00) I was ringing the ticket office. I was 7th in the queue at that time and it took 40 minutes to be answered.
Some people may have given up and not bothered.
On top of that, they were advertising tickets for sale, for games that aren't yet available.
A minor gripe, but attention to detail is vital in any business.
 
voyeur said:
The club seems to be doing largely the right things, imo, focusing on the things that matter. They use TTV to keep us engaged and the website, app and social media. But the main thing is the product and the facilities. They've spent loads on the stadium and the pitch, the training facilities, the squad, the staff etc. I'm not really arsed about anything else, there is more engagement than we have ever had and I sometimes think less is better, keep it simple and accept it's a football club and not a media circus. We all know how to buy tickets and we know when the matches are played, does anything else really matter? If the football is good and the stadium is safe people will rock up.
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Exactly. Jerry can't move these days without having a camera shoved up his nostrils.
Surprised they get any actual training done tbh.
 
585 = never give up said:
I tried to book Reading tickets online this morning, but the site repeatedly responded by showing a fault.
At the same time (from 10:00) I was ringing the ticket office. I was 7th in the queue at that time and it took 40 minutes to be answered.
Some people may have given up and not bothered.
On top of that, they were advertising tickets for sale, for games that aren't yet available.
A minor gripe, but attention to detail is vital in any business.
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Again… people getting all giddy because season ticket sales are going ok. The experience for buying individual tickets is piss poor IMO
 
Funny as as ever it’s all personal perception. I feel closer to the club now than ever. The pre season videos, the streaming of friendlies, interviews with the manager etc etc.
There’s so much digital content coming out of the club it’s hard to keep up.

I’m sure once the school hols start they’ll announce the open days too.

The second one of the 2 or 3 signings are secured, you can guarantee a press release video straight away plus interviews.

They’ve set up a nice list of pre season friendlies (if you like that sort of thing?) and announced them all along with the new app.

The OP is entitled to their opinion of course and I have no idea about kids to be fair - although I thought the trust and players did a lot through the season (happy to be advised on this?) - for me there is great engagement these days
 
Think about why there's not been an open training session yet inside the ground

We dug up the pitch at the end of the season, its probably not ready yet. There's no game on it scheduled for another 10 days.
The schools haven't broken up yet, and until two weeks ago we didn't have a manager and the players weren't all back from the summer break .
That would have been some open training session, what do you want to the players to do, run up and down the steps, and who do you want to meet, we had no manager or assistants.

I hate people who instantly demand everything nowadays. No training session, no new kit, no new pies FFS 🤨
 
SeasideSid said:
I tend to agree with the OP. Things are really flat at the minute, in a time when the club should be generating excitement ahead of the new season.

What have the club done proactively to attract new fans during the sale of season tickets? What have the club done proactively to sell memberships to those who haven’t purchased a season ticket? What have the club done to promote that the first 5 home games of the season are now on sale?

Relying on Twitter as your sole marketing strategy is not good enough. It has never been our strength but we need to do more.
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I don't do twitter , I just go on the club website . You should try it.
 
Fatboy said:
I take it you haven’t watched the training videos etc . Is this not fan engagement? The new app , this is surely to help our supporters gain access to information when it becomes available! Unless you want Ben Mansford to knock at your door to give you a verbal run down on everything that is happening at our great club.
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Ben Mansford does stewarding now, so door to door to calls can't be ruled out.
 
Potts Must Go said:
Think about why there's not been an open training session yet inside the ground

We dug up the pitch at the end of the season, its probably not ready yet. There's no game on it scheduled for another 10 days.
The schools haven't broken up yet, and until two weeks ago we didn't have a manager and the players weren't all back from the summer break .
That would have been some open training session, what do you want to the players to do, run up and down the steps, and who do you want to meet, we had no manager or assistants.

I hate people who instantly demand everything nowadays. No training session, no new kit, no new pies FFS 🤨
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There is a new food offering. Biriyani
 
FlytoKavala said:
I'm not. No additions to last seasons squad who held their own but nothing else. 🙁
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FFS
Potts Must Go said:
Think about why there's not been an open training session yet inside the ground

We dug up the pitch at the end of the season, its probably not ready yet. There's no game on it scheduled for another 10 days.
The schools haven't broken up yet, and until two weeks ago we didn't have a manager and the players weren't all back from the summer break .
That would have been some open training session, what do you want to the players to do, run up and down the steps, and who do you want to meet, we had no manager or assistants.

I hate people who instantly demand everything nowadays. No training session, no new kit, no new pies FFS 🤨
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Absolutely this. Open training session will be in August
 
SeasideSid said:
I tend to agree with the OP. Things are really flat at the minute, in a time when the club should be generating excitement ahead of the new season.

What have the club done proactively to attract new fans during the sale of season tickets? What have the club done proactively to sell memberships to those who haven’t purchased a season ticket? What have the club done to promote that the first 5 home games of the season are now on sale?

Relying on Twitter as your sole marketing strategy is not good enough. It has never been our strength but we need to do more.
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They haven’t solely relied on Twitter they use Facebook too. The latter they have started paying for sponsored posts(suggested on here) so that it ends up on more people’s news feeds, that in turn attracts both new and existing customers. Their media team has grown, their content has increased and and is much more professionally run than say 3 years ago. I left my ST renewal until the last day and they hounded me nearly every day with reminders, even on the last day the email read you’re about to lose your seat!! More can always be done but they’re getting most of it right imo.
 
They also use Instagram regularly too, where a fair few of the players post too. They 100% do not solely rely on twitter.

In fact a very quick comparison of the latest posts by BFC on those three social media sites, both Facebook and Instagram appear to have larger reactions/interactions than twitter.
 
Think it's been more boring than flat myself. After Appleton was made manger, nothing has really happened. Get a few signings through the doors and it will liven things up again. As for fan engagement, with the way Appleton was welcomed, now might not be the best time to have fans around him and the player's. We all know some idiot will start giving him abuse, like they did when he was having his photo taken in the stadium.
 
Yeah the main social media outlets are pretty well used, could have some more quirky videos involving players maybe, also a few more inventive ways to reach people as said like leaflets, adverts etc.

Also to reach some people not on social media as much but try engage with some causals and create some top promotional material, have a few players do kick ups, playing football table tennis, having a kick around with people and signing autographs etc with people in town centre, comedy carpet area maybe, idk or a penalty competition, something that generates a buzz and can also be filmed and put out on the social media.

For me to attract new fans its just about getting them through the door initially, then hopefully real football and the atmosphere sells it. So for a new fan discounted special deal, you could have leaflets delivered, have volunteers go round places, pubs etc.
 
JJpool said:
Yeah the main social media outlets are pretty well used, could have some more quirky videos involving players maybe, also a few more inventive ways to reach people as said like leaflets, adverts etc.

Also to reach some people not on social media as much but try engage with some causals and create some top promotional material, have a few players do kick ups, playing football table tennis, having a kick around with people and signing autographs etc with people in town centre, comedy carpet area maybe, idk or a penalty competition, something that generates a buzz and can also be filmed and put out on the social media.

For me to attract new fans its just about getting them through the door initially, then hopefully real football and the atmosphere sells it. So for a new fan discounted special deal, you could have leaflets delivered, have volunteers go round places, pubs etc.
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There arent enough Ben Mansfords unfortunately.
 
SeasideSid said:
That’s the answer is it?

“We will attract new fans by them visiting our website”

Unbelievable!!
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No ,believe it. That is where you will find out facts of any new signings , stadium improvements or any other news . To improve this we could always start a second official Blackpool website to make sure the fans get the messages . Or you can go on Twitter and Facebook and just get info from people that don't know. This week I have found out that Dan Grimshaw has signed a new contract, we signed a player last year that can produce the longest throw in I have ever seen from a pool player and we now have to pay full price on season tickets . If you want to go on to Twitter and confirm these facts please do.
 
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