FIFA’s Social Media Success

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded on May 21, 1904 in Paris by delegates from several European countries including Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. FIFA is currently based in Zurich and is an association governed by Swiss law. It has 211 member associations and its goal is the constant improvement of football world wide. FIFA is a not-for-profit community of football associations.

The headquarters of FIFA in Zurich is the home for 270 million players, coaches, referees and other soccer participants and enthusiasts around the world.

The founders created the first FIFA statutes to unify ” The Laws of the Game” to make it fair and clear to all players and set the foundation for all future football development.

FIFA’s use of Social Media globally is a way for them to connect globally and instantly to all stakeholders including, fans, professional and non-professionals players and soccer clubs.

As excitement continues to build for the 2018 Soccer World Cup in Russia, games broadcasted on TV, radio, news reviews, newspapers articles, are currently focusing on scores, teams advancing and major upsets of teams that did not qualify. FIFA is doing a great job through social media at keeping people up to date on the ranks of how countries are progressing in their soccer (also known as football) qualifying endeavors. Information is being updated in a timely basis as one can log into FIFA’s site to obtain all required information on countries successes.

FIFA is well positioned with most external Social Media engines such as, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. In 2013 FIFA joined Facebook and by April 2014 they reached over 280M users,  FIFA joined Twitter in mid-2010 and had over 7M followers by June 2014, FIFA created an Instagram account in June 2014 for the 2014 World Cup within its first 18 hours accumulated 28,000 followers.

Here are some current Analytics found in FIFA’s Social Media websites.

Current Twitter stats: Tweets 65.7K, following 829, followers 11.4M, likes 123, list 15, moments 37

Current Facebook stats: Likes 3,440,829, follow 3,431,095

Current Instagram stats: posts 5,047 followers 4.9m, following 1,122

Current YouTube stats: subscribers 1,826,075

Current LinkedIn stats: followers 59,708

In order to watch the video, FIFA has granted permission via YouTube

Picture of FIFA Headquarters in Zurich

Lessons for Others

After being involved in soccer for over 20 years, I have seen a lot of changes on how FIFA communicates with all their stakeholders including employees, fans, all those interested in the beautiful sport that is called SOCCER (aka football). The ability to communicate with their employees, fan base, associations, media, using social media such as, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and mobile apps in real time.

Social Media allows people around the world to be connected in real time to what is happening in soccer globally. Instant knowledge generates excitement, employee engagement and connectivity to players, coaches, friends, fans, in the world of soccer in spite of the geographical distances.

Soccer (aka football) has the power to unite people and to break down barriers.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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