Remember the good old days when football clubs were just that, football clubs? Now they are vehicles for marketing and, when Russian billionaires are involved, money laundering and tax evasion, according to some!
Now West Ham has launched its very own Facebook page, another opportunity to platform marketing opportunities, or to sell anything and everything it can to the mug punters. How long before S&G offer a deal to be "West Ham Number One Friend Of The Week"? Pay £100 and you too can be Hammersfanno1!
I have never joined the Facebook world of virtual friends but I have an idea. Perhaps Sullivan and Gold could forget about real fans and build a virtual fan base instead, launching a Football Manager team on the site whilst they are about it. We could buy Tevez back and sign Fabregas, Rooney and Messi whilst we are about it in this virtual world. We wouldn't need a ground of course, so the Boleyn could be redeveloped. Maybe, in addition to the real Boleyn Mansions, S&G could sell virtual apartments whilst they are about it. "You too could live next door to Carlos Tevez!"
This is the only realistic masterplan for achieving Champions League football in five years. Sky would buy the rights to televising the cumputerised matches I'm sure, and the kids of Newham would be able to join the Virtual Academy of Football for a small fee! Meanwhile, every fan would have the satisfaction of proving that they can play the game better than the manager himself!
Champions League football, it's virtually a done deal!
24 comments:
They should have just launched an Arsebook page instead
http://www.arsebook.org/
Was wondering why it seems everyone else has started pre-season friendlies...here's how ours look:
- Peterborough United Wed 14 July
Off to Germany/Austria:
- VfL Borussia Monchengladbach Sat 17 July
- Panathinaikos Fri 23 July
Plus maybe one other game.
Return:
- Burton Albion Sat 24 July (Probably reserve side)
- MK Dons Wed 28 July
- Ipswich Town Sat 31 July
- Deportivo La Coruna Sat 7 August
Looks like our potential signings will either have pre-season at their current clubs or none at all. A shame.
Yes what a waste of time - who needs a west ham face book page - what's the point? who wants to be a friend of west ham. Why would anyone want to pledge their allegiance when there is nothing to be proud of at the moment. You really wouldn't want your friends to know who you supported. You really speak my language HF...
If your "freinds" don't know what football team you support, they are either not very good friends, or you are not really a supporter. Everyone who has MET ME knows which team I support!
so all your friends know you support the spuds. do they hammersfan.
It's called social networking - it's about making connections - all the big firms do it, can't see a problem in it myself - if you weren't such a Luddite you'd appreciate what's it's all about.... people arrange meetings, get togethers - it's communication - we all live in the communication world. people text, blog, facebook and twitter - it's how we communicate these days and it West Ham want to communicate with their supporters then good luck to them.
West Ham is a business and there are 100 million active users on Facebook - it makes perfect sense - Obviously someone like yourself doesn't have too many "friends" and I understand perfectly - why you wouldn't wish to advertise the fact.
I have a business page and I get 15 new friends a week - which translates in to sales.... for my company it's worth doing.
give hf some credit on this one I use facebook and I wouldn't want friends of friends knowing I support West Ham. I for one won't be joining their fan page!
Thank you 1624, you sum it up beautifully in your sentence, "I get 15 new friends a week - which translates in to sales". LOL Erm, I don't try to sell to my "friends" and I don't count people I do business with as "friends". I am PROUD to say that I can count my friends on two hands, because they are FRIENDS, people who I VALUE as people and not as contacts. No, I do not evaluate people on the basis of what I can get from them; that is not why they are my friends. I guess that does make me old fashioned because Aristotle explored what it is to be a friend, and concluded that friends expect to give more than they take. You want to SELL to your friends. God I would hate to be a "friend" of yours!
I know people who BOAST about the number of Friends they have on Facebook. How sad is that? How many of those friends would be there in time of need? Delusional! And a real testament to inadequacy!
anon 18:07 so if your so embarrassed to tell your mates that you support west ham. then why dont you just become a glory hunter and support man u or something. then you can tell all of your glory hunting mates wot a great team you support. and look wonderful to them. all my mates know i support west ham and im proud of it. and all my mates support west ham. and their proud of it. because we are proper fans. god help you if you supported doncaster or something. you shouldn't be embarrassed to support west ham. they should be embarrassed to have people like you. call yourself a supporter.
i hate glory hunters. they dont know nothing about football apart from who won the league last year. or the most cups. divs.
Let's be fair to HF here - if facebook where an antisocial network then of course he'd sign up.
There are two type of people who use facebook - and both a legitimate - there are the users and companies which include football clubs who wish to network and grow fanbases - I can't see why HF can't understand that as it seems like a pretty simple concept. Really I can't imagine why West Ham wouldn't want to be on there.
I live in Bavaria and most of my friends wouldn't even know West Ham if I didn't support them. They "support" Bayern Munich, like I did when I was young. Someday I watched the highlights of the EPL and fell in love with the style of football the players in claret & blue were playin. Some people don't really understand why I follow West Ham as a German but those people are the same who don't understand that there is more in football then trophies...
@ topic - I don't like facebook at all. Who cares if one of your "friends" gets a haircut or is able to burp his name...Your real friends know you and everything else is just showmanship.
Spot on mate!
I have a business page and I get 15 new friends a week - which translates in to sales.... for my company it's worth doing.
Bend it like HF - note I said I have a business page.... which makes your comment "I don't try to sell to my "friends" because I don't try and sell to my friends - only to friends of my business - you are either deliberating trying to bend what I am saying or as I deeply suspect you actually thicker than I gave you credit for.
1807 was only agreeing with HF - don't join West Ham's facebook page - because it's not worth announcing that you are a friend of West Ham
http://www.facebook.com/pages/West-Ham-United-FC-Official/129911763708715?v=wall
Brilliant page - constant live news feeds!!!!
0003, you use the word friends no? Rewrite your sentence as "contacts" or "customers" then fair enough. The article is about how West Ham are using Facebook for business purposes, that is what I am being critical of. But the use of the word "friends" for customers stinks and says everything about the modern world that you are so proud of!
Think you'll find It's the correct terminology that they use for facebook.
Just visited the page and it looks like they're using it to stay in contact with the 55,000 people that have joined up in last two days! it's communication mate.
It's marketing mate. Do you really think Sulliavn & Gold give a flying fcuk about keeping fans informed? They are milking the cash cow!
by having a free facebook page? erm - there's nothing on there that you can't find on the OS site - perhaps you'll enlighten me just how is the facebook page milking the cash cow? I'm sure you have some good strong hard proof to back up your point?
Why do you think the OS was set up? To keep the fans informed? It was running whilst Duxbury was disseminating misinformation! It is a marketing tool too, just like the Facebook page. Free advertising, free marketing, free targeted marketing indeed.
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