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It's official: people like watching Chelsea more than any other sports team.
Chelsea Football Club has become the first sports team to reach fifty million loops on the popular social video-sharing network, Vine, a club representative told WAGNH.
Chelsea leapfrogged the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and the NFL's New Orleans Saints between Christmas and New Year's, and now has five million more loops than any other professional sports team.
Vine allows users to post six-second videos, and Chelsea has used this service to share 1) an inside look at what's happening on the training ground 2) goals from the club's various youth teams, and the most-popular category, 3) funny moments with the club's players.
Popular Chelsea vines include:
Find the Chelsea player in Blue
Branislav Ivanovic plays a trick on John Terry
Willian is the cover star
Eden Hazard plays FIFA 15 at Stamford Bridge
What this means for the club
The fact that Chelsea has not only embraced new ways to connect with fans but has also been wildly successful at it is only a positive sign. While simply being the best at Vines (vining?) obviously doesn't mean that Chelsea is now the biggest football club in the world (it's not even the biggest club in England, as Manchester United still holds that title, and quite comfortably), having the biggest presence in all of sports on a fast-growing social media platform is certainly a step in the right direction as the club continues to grow its brand.
Why is brand growth important to fans?
Simply put, as far as Chelsea is concerned, growing the club's brand leads to better sponsorship deals, better sponsorship deals lead to more money, more money leads to more transfer spending, more transfer spending leads to better players, and better players means a better chance at winning trophies.
As clubs work to find new ways to monetise their massive reaches on social media, the clubs with the largest and most engaging social presence will be in the best position to capitalise on opportunities to convert likes, loops, and followers into revenues.