Matt Owen, Manager - Online Communities, Liverpool Football Club
Matt Owen is Community Manager at Liverpool Football Club’s official website. For the last 2 years alongside the Content team, Matt has been responsible for developing an LFC presence in Social Networks and developing Online communities within the Official LFC website. A Liverpool supporter for many years, Matt’s background includes Marketing, TV Production, Journalism and Commerce.
Fanzone: My Thoughts on the Liverpool FC Social Media Community
An article by Sanjiva Persad – You can follow Sanjiva on Twitter at @sanjivapersad
I recently saw the following tweet from the @lfctv_community twitter feed :
I almost tweeted this back in response…
But I thought it would be more productive to state the reasons for my fondness of the Liverpool FC Social Media Community instead.
They ask for feedback, and invite it – The fact that they tweeted this question in the first place just encapsulates the way they approach Social Media. Matt Owen, Liverpool’s Community Manager, is always the first to say that he doesn’t have all the answers, as he did in this video at the Social Media & Sport Summit, London (July 2010). It’s clear that they hate the C word: Complacency.
I feel like I know them – Everyone who tweets from the @lfctv feed also has a personal twitter account, which helps followers really get to know the LFC community team. We’re also privy to Matt Owen, Jimmy Rice, Paul Rogers et al tweeting each other, which really makes it seem like a community in the true sense.
Twitter is used throughout the club - Can you think of any other football club where the owner, his wife, the tannoy announcer, a winger, a midfielder anda reserve keeper are all on Twitter? Don’t even get me started on celebrity fans.
They promote unofficial websites and Twitter feeds – Antoine Zammit of @empireofthekop mentions the support he received from the LFC Twitter community. It’s not uncommon for them to plug an unofficial Twitter user or group.
Their summary of tweets – How great is this?
They respond. Not always, but almost always – I’m not really sure how someone with more than 130,000 followers manages to send @ replies, but they pull it off. If it requires further assistance, they’ll often refer you to someone else or invite you to send a DM
They stayed professional through a difficult time – It’s no secret that the past few months were rough off the field, with administration being a real possibility, and takeover rumours swirling. However, @lfctv didn’t pretend things were rosy, but stayed professional throughout. On a somewhat related (but not really) note, they don’t go overboard either when we win.
They don’t overdo it with their Facebook feed – They stick to a few updates a day, which is greatly appreciated. (psst, the Events tab on your Facebook page is filled with last season’s fixtures).So to answer the question, they are doing great – YNWA!