‘If you thought that tweet was strong, you should have seen the original,’ says one source at Nottingham Forest, with the softened version eventually agreed upon attracting more than 44 million views on Twitter since pressing send from Goodison Park on Sunday.
It is understood the order to publicise their fury came from the very top, the patience of owner Evangelos Marinakis having snapped after seeing his side denied three penalties at Everton.
Insiders say the 56-year-old Greek will not care about the fallout that followed. He had a point to make and he made it, utilising the platform that provides him with access to tens of millions. It is not the first time Marinakis has urged the communications team at Forest to post something about refereeing in the Premier League either. Sunday was simply the tipping point and there was to be no persuading him otherwise.
Football today is much more than five training sessions a week and a match each weekend. Its clubs have transitioned into social media factories, churning out content all day, every day, with the aim of building an army of followers beyond the confines of their city.
On Instagram, the 20 Premier League clubs have a combined following of almost 300 million. Clubs have entire teams dedicated to generating content for the new generation who, studies have shown, get their news from the likes of TikTok, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.
Nottingham Forest’s explosive social media post has been viewed over 44 million times
It is understood the order to post the tweet came from the club’s owner Evangelos Marinakis
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At Chelsea, for example, they have a ‘Global Social Media Manager’, ‘Social Media Executive’, ‘Social Media Content Creator’ and more than one ‘Social Media Editor’, not to mention the outside consultants who help shape their relentless output on their men’s, women’s and youth teams.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino said this week that he does not want the world to think they are ‘Cole Palmer Football Club’ but inevitably, their socials have made it seem that way at times this season. That has not gone unnoticed by some representatives of Palmer’s team-mates.
Arsenal are understood to have six permanent social media employees, while West Ham have four. Around the league, these numbers are the norm. The staff do not need to run every post by someone more senior, though that can lead to the occasional cock-up as they go viral for the wrong reasons.
This is not the first time that Forest have been at the centre of a social media storm. In October 2022, they tweeted a picture of Emmanuel Dennis on the Molineux pitch surrounded by wolf cubs with the caption ‘playtime’. That backfired, as it was shared in a WhatsApp group among the Wolves players before they went on to win 1-0. Forest manager Steve Cooper was furious afterwards, with the idea having not been run by him beforehand. By the time he found out, the damage was done.
‘It is usually only when we have something that needs announcing that we’ll be told what to post,’ says one social media executive at a Premier League club. Often, it is an array of squad updates and club news combined with creativity to make the most of the access they have with players.
Forest’s social media team tweeted a picture of Emmanuel Dennis with wolf clubs in 2022, but the move backfired when Wolves secured 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 team-mates have noticed the club’s output around their star performer this season on social media
The team at Spurs have gained praise this season for their ‘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.
With this access comes a greater degree of trust and understanding. For instance, Bukayo Saka is not too keen on getting referred to as ‘Starboy’ on social media and at Wolves, there was an initial reluctance to calling Hwang Hee Chan, ‘The Korean Guy’ after Pep Guardiola used the phrase to refer to him in a press conference. Yet after he scored the winner against Manchester City 24 hours later, Wolves began to embrace it, with South Koreans inside Molineux waving flags with it and Hwang himself admitting he likes it.
Though most days can be fairly standard for those working in-house, sometimes they have to think fast, like when Mohamed Salah signed a contract extension with Liverpool in 2022.
A small team was whisked away to Mykonos in Greece to ensure that the announcement was delivered in style while the news of Jurgen Klopp stepping down at Liverpool was kept away from most of the digital team until minutes before the video was posted on January 26. Only a select few were informed of the news and filmed the video with Klopp the day before, ensuring it was ready for the next morning.
Other times, they can plan ahead, with Norwich City’s video posted on World Mental Health Day seen by more than 60 million people because it was as poignant as it was powerful. Occasionally, announcements of new signings will be delayed so that they can come up with an extravagant idea, with Burnley considered the best in the business at this.
Buyako Saka is not keen on being referred to as ‘Starboy’ on social media, while Wolves were initially reluctant to refer to Hwang Hee Chan as ‘The Korean Guy’ on social media
Wolves eventually embraced the idea with Hwang scoring against Man City, days after Pep Guardiola had referred to the forward as ‘The Korean Guy’ in a press conference
News of Jurgen Klopp stepping down at Liverpool was kept away from most of the digital team until minutes before the video was posted, with only a select few informed of the news
Others are rivalling 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 have been hugely successful, exceeding their expectations.
Recently, Liverpool have started to create content with alternative language audio to ensure that their assets can reach as wide as possible. The more impressions, the better.
Just like transfer announcements, new contracts have become major events for clubs. Last month, Arsenal were mocked for their ‘cringe’ reveal of Ben White’s new contract as each of his team-mates spoke about him but to date, it has close to 25 million impressions on X alone.
Yet in terms of impact, the tweet sent by Forest on Sunday will be hard to match. It is comfortably their most viewed post of all time. Forest may have less than a million followers on X but for Marinakis, his point was made and a reminder of the power these accounts have. Now, they await the repercussions.