Flowing Football on Transfer Deadline Day

If you’re a football fan then you’ll be familiar with all of the hype associated with transfer deadline day. This hype is more often than not generated by the press with the hyperbole increasing to deafening levels by fans across message-boards, Twitter and Facebook.

It doesn't take long (just a tweet or two) for rumour and counter-rumour about an unheard of striker from Paraguay to get out of control. And while it’s never a bad thing to be at the forefront of deadline day coverage across TV, radio and the web, clubs are conscious that they need to retain some level of control over the story.

This behind-the-scenes video from Queens Park Rangers of the Football League Championship gives a unique insight into how a club manages the story throughout the most exciting day of the football year (when a ball isn’t kicked) with much of the action taking place on Twitter.

You get a real feel from the video for the level of resources required to maximise the benefits from social media. The Head of Media & Comms at QPR illustrates nicely how managing an online community is a juggling act.

Toss in the air a mobile phone, a DSLR camera and a laptop and if you manage to not let any of them hit the ground then you’re probably the right person for a Community Manager’s role. Juggling is all about pace and consistency - get it right and the flow is almost surreal, get it wrong and you’ll quickly come unstuck. Ditto managing a community.

It’s the detail I really like in this video - the consistency of images, hashtags, short urls - it’s all there, the basics done really well to give fans access that they can’t get elsewhere. And to capture all of this in a video is the icing on the cake.

In my last blog I looked at an example of where community management had broken down but this is Premier League standard work from QPR. Other pro sports teams would do well to follow.

Disclaimer: I am not a QPR fan :-)