Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[capt_oats]

There's an element of *old man yells at cloud' in getting worked up about the social media output in so much as a lot of it is just what modern sports social media looks like - it's not just a Motherwell thing. You can tell that we heavily take our influences from MLS and other American sports. Scroll through the feeds of MLS, NBA and EPL teams and the 'tone' that we've adopted is often pretty similar.

Fewer and fewer clubs/teams do the play-by-play thing for example. Basically how Social Media is used in sports has evolved and is evolving - it's a case of like it or lump it if you're a user.

That's not to say my reaction to that tweet yesterday wasn't <insert Chrissy Teigen cringe gif> though.

One of the problems about having a 'strategy' is that it's something we're sticking to so over the course of a season. With the best will in the world something that feels new and engaging on the first day of the season gets played out by the time you're nearly 30 games in to the point where everything after that just feels like sticking with it because you've committed to the bit - see the 'Story of The Match' as an example of that.

1 hour ago, Busta Nut said:

They still have "We exist to improve people's lives." as the fuckin bio ffs.

They've removed the Relentlessly. Every day. at least.

58 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

I think there's a balance here, though. Like obviously supporting Motherwell is going to have its ups & downs (mainly downs this season) so you can't have the output being how shit hot we are. But there's also a point where, after what is probably our absolutely worst performance of the season, they should probably just switch off their phones for a few days to let the dust settle. 

By all means show us some wanky video of a nice goal we've scored after a win. But see when we've been leathered by Accies, had our most experienced player sell the jerseys for 2 goals before getting sent off for a fucking stupid foul and been totally shite for 90 minutes? How about not putting out some slow motion fluff piece "showing what we're really about". We're no stupid.

This is exactly what we were all on about when it feels like our socials are only a kick in the arse away from putting out some "live, laugh, love" content. 

100% this.

Just read the fucking room a bit lads. Like, the idea that by not shoving a camera in Mark O'Hara's face and posting it up after getting scudded by Accies means we wouldn't be being authentic or we wouldn't be telling the true story of the season is a bit disingenuous. I mean sure, there's an element of that but equally potentially antagonising your fanbase because 'to thine own self be true' seems like a counter-productive move.

There's a heavy "it's not me, it's you" vibe to relentlessly sticking to the programme and staying on message. The fact that we're still taking and sticking up those team photos despite the pandemic and general restrictions surrounding it because it's part of our #content schedule is wild. Even if it's only 5 seconds or whatever it's still a pretty tone deaf message to be putting out every.single.week

Don't get me wrong doing socials for a club like Motherwell is going to be a thankless task so kicking off about it feels a bit unfair but equally even a bit of self-awareness would swerve some of the criticism.

Edited February 16, 2021 by capt_oats

[Gallus Numpty]

8 minutes ago, Desp said:

That's just my view, though.  I'm in my mid-30s so the social media stuff isn't really aimed at me anyway.  I'm sure there's thousands of teenagers and 20-something Goggsy-like VL's absolutely lapping it up and liking away until their hearts are content.

I don't know if there are or not, but it certainly seems like they're missing an opportunity to keep use Gen-X'ers more informed too, given we're probably the largest part of the fanbase. Maybe a weekly paneer recipe newsletter?

[Desp]

9 minutes ago, Gallus Numpty said:

I don't know if there are or not, but it certainly seems like they're missing an opportunity to keep use Gen-X'ers more informed too, given we're probably the largest part of the fanbase. Maybe a weekly paneer recipe newsletter?

Perhaps a Tam Cowan style review of a Lanarkshire curry house, within said newsletter?   When normality resumes, I'll put my name down for it.

[Swello]

1 hour ago, Desp said:

The Twitter used to be decent, with the matchday posters and the play-by-play updates on each game were great.  The fact the top media guy at the club came out and said the reporting of the game, while it was going on, didn't get the "required engagement", so they sacked it off, speaks volumes.  A football club Twitter account no longer reports on the team playing football.  

I know this was discussed 2 summers ago when we first moved away from the previous approach but it still rankles a bit for me. As @capt_oats says, I'm fully aware that there is a lot of shouting at clouds going on but I've actually largely disengaged from the club twitter feed - it's not doing the numbers on my devices any more. 

If I was giving semi-constructive feedback as a forty-something - I thought the club output was at its very best when they did the meat and potatoes stuff (proper highlights, boring-but-useful regular updates during matches) and sprinkled some creative stuff into the mix (which they did brilliantly). I think all the kudos they got for the latter probably led to what we see now (that and a fixation on metrics).

The staples now are: team lineups with dramatic music to cause maximum embarrassment in the pub, really useless updates during the game, camera shoved in players face at full time that has failed to yield a single memorable line (and is unfair to the players at times) and a selection of nicely edited but faintly irritating videos during the week.

I think @Gallus Numpty hits on a good idea - an alternative feed, MotherwellFC_Da's that only contains match updates, highlights and Dougie Arnott's goals against the OF on heavy rotation (and that knows to shut the f**k up after a humiliating drubbing) 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by Swello

[Desp]

7 minutes ago, Swello said:

I think @Gallus Numpty hits on a good idea - an alternative feed, MotherwellFC_Da's that only contains match updates, highlights and Dougie Arnott's goals against the OF on heavy rotation (and that knows to shut the f**k up after a humiliating drubbing) 

 

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[Busta Nut]

1 hour ago, well fan for life said:

By all means show us some wanky video of a nice goal we've scored after a win. But see when we've been leathered by Accies, had our most experienced player sell the jerseys for 2 goals before getting sent off for a fucking stupid foul and been totally shite for 90 minutes? How about not putting out some slow motion fluff piece "showing what we're really about". We're no stupid.

 

1 hour ago, Desp said:

The Twitter used to be decent, with the matchday posters and the play-by-play updates on each game were great.  The fact the top media guy at the club came out and said the reporting of the game, while it was going on, didn't get the "required engagement", so they sacked it off, speaks volumes.  A football club Twitter account no longer reports on the team playing football.  

 

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

Just read the fucking room a bit lads

 

 

all this.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

Aye, the whole social media thing is grinding my gears a bit these days too. I have never found value (win, lose or draw) in the shoving the camera in the face of someone at the end of the game. I also find the "every angle of Devante Cole's goal against St. Mirren" videos a bit shite too. Especially when we don't even post the highlights of games on our own YouTube now. 

In the few years where I was playing Saturday afternoon football and didn't get to as many games, I found the twitter updates during games very good, as they helped paint a picture of the game and got me excited that we might be close to scoring etc. I've obviously not noticed them not being there this season, as I've been at home watching the vast majority of games live, but last season they were suggesting that they were going to put them on the website, which never materialised. It seems mad that for years the world has been trying to get us off websites and onto apps, but our "forward-thinking" social media team are trying to reverse that. They only care about how presentable their social media feeds would look to outsiders, not what the people following them might want to read.

It also annoys me that we have all of this stuff filling our social media and we don't even have a decent live matchday stream experience to anyone else. Every other club's matchday that I have watched has been different level to us. Either interviews or people talking about the game at half time. Why not put the "Inside Motherwell" stuff on at half time? It's also mad that you've got Ross County v Motherwell and Stephen Craigan is on the Ross County commentary team. Every other team have either had an injured current player (and we're not exactly struggling to find one of those) or a former favourite on the co-comms. No offence to Lewis Irons, I'm sure he is a nice guy, but I'm not sure a social media type guy has the background to be a co-commentator.

[Busta Nut]

5 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

we don't even post the highlights of games on our own YouTube now

Only noticed this when I went to punish myself on Sunday looking for the Accies Highlights. 

Having watched just about all the games live I haven't had the need in a while. 

[capt_oats]

2 hours ago, Swello said:

I know this was discussed 2 summers ago when we first moved away from the previous approach but it still rankles a bit for me. As @capt_oats says, I'm fully aware that there is a lot of shouting at clouds going on but I've actually largely disengaged from the club twitter feed - it's not doing the numbers on my devices any more. 

If I was giving semi-constructive feedback as a forty-something - I thought the club output was at its very best when they did the meat and potatoes stuff (proper highlights, boring-but-useful regular updates during matches) and sprinkled some creative stuff into the mix (which they did brilliantly). I think all the kudos they got for the latter probably led to what we see now (that and a fixation on metrics).

I think the other side is that the actual platforms themselves have changed so they've become increasingly algorithmic-based which in turn means brands are having to strategise their output if they want to maintain things like reach and visibility. The actual mechanics of something like Twitter are probably very different to a couple of years ago, IG has completely changed its platform etc.

Also, the metrics and data side of things are essentially how you gauge performance now (as @Desp hinted at earlier).

Fully agree that the club output felt at it's best in terms of 'giving us what we want' when it was doing the (as you put it) meat and potatoes stuff augmented by the more creative stuff.

1 hour ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

They only care about how presentable their social media feeds would look to outsiders, not what the people following them might want to read.

This seems relevant in so much as it kind of feels like our feed and #content probably appeals more now to other people who work in social media and marketing ie: folk who are looking at what we're doing in a creative sense, than it does to the Gen X crowd who were early adopters of tech and social media platforms.

This isn't a criticism of the social media team in itself but if all of them - and our GM who drives content strategy are all completely switched on to the metrics and analytics it probably becomes easy to become blinded by that stuff. Essentially you're focussing on 'social media' as an industry and placing what you're doing within that context.

Also, very late edit but can I just add in that IMO the Inside Motherwell stuff on YouTube has been consistently great this season. I mean, absolutely credit where it's due.

Edited February 16, 2021 by capt_oats

[Gallus Numpty]

1 hour ago, Busta Nut said:

Only noticed this when I went to punish myself on Sunday looking for the Accies Highlights. 

I suppose this could be potentially down to the deal with the TV streaming platform, since you can go and watch previous games there... do we know if other Premier League teams are posting to their YouTube?

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

I think the other side is that the actual platforms themselves have changed so they've become increasingly algorithmic-based which in turn means brands are having to strategise their output if they want to maintain things like reach and visibility. 

Yeah, this is one of the reasons they gave at the time. If you're using the Twitter website or official apps, they don't show you things in chronological order by default any more, so a series of live match updates is potentially useless. Third-party apps still do, and that's what I've always used, but third-party app users are a tiny minority.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Gallus Numpty

[santheman]

I don't really pay much attention to Social Media with me being a "da" but quite enjoy the Inside Motherwell stuff.

I'd rather spend the money on hiring a shrink to try and find out why we shite it every time we play the Accies tbh

[capt_oats]

12 minutes ago, Gallus Numpty said:

I suppose this could be potentially down to the deal with the TV streaming platform, since you can go and watch previous games there... do we know if other Premier League teams are posting to their YouTube?

I figured it was part of the deal with the League/PPV/Streaming as the club still have match highlights but on the YouTube page but they're the centralised SPFL ones and they don't show up on their 'videos' page.

Edited February 16, 2021 by capt_oats

[RandomGuy.]

11 minutes ago, Gallus Numpty said:

I suppose this could be potentially down to the deal with the TV streaming platform, since you can go and watch previous games there... do we know if other Premier League teams are posting to their YouTube?

I don't think clubs are allowed to show match footage from cameras used to film the match for free this season, only "unofficial" footage taken from the sidelines.

Only way to watch "proper" highlights is either from companies with a TV deal to show them (BBC/Sky/Premier), or behind a pay wall the clubs have set up.

Not sure if that's just down to PPV restrictions or if its part of the new Sky deal.

[well fan for life]

1 minute ago, RandomGuy. said:

I don't think clubs are allowed to show match footage from cameras used to film the match for free this season, only "unofficial" footage taken from the sidelines.

Only way to watch "proper" highlights is either from companies with a TV deal to show them (BBC/Sky/Premier), or behind a pay wall the clubs have set up.

Not sure if that's just down to PPV restrictions or if its part of the new Sky deal.

I think I asked why we didn't have a centralised system to stream all games before and apparently it was part of the Sky deal as that's effectively a competitor. Hence why I think I've got like 9 different accounts across all the clubs own sites. 

[Swello]

16 minutes ago, Gallus Numpty said:

I suppose this could be potentially down to the deal with the TV streaming platform, since you can go and watch previous games there... do we know if other Premier League teams are posting to their YouTube?

Yeah, this is one of the reasons they gave at the time. If you're using the Twitter website or official apps, they don't show you things in chronological order by default any more, so a series of live match updates is potentially useless. Third-party apps still do, and that's what I've always used, but third-party app users are a tiny minority.

I use Tweetdeck and so still get a chronological feed - it's easy to forget that the vast majority don't consume twitter in the "old" way - so that's a fair point in the club's defence. 

[Gallus Numpty]

36 minutes ago, Swello said:

I use Tweetdeck and so still get a chronological feed - it's easy to forget that the vast majority don't consume twitter in the "old" way - so that's a fair point in the club's defence. 

Yeah, Tweetdeck has avoided the worst of Twitter's weird ideas since they acquired it. I'm still not sure why they did, to be honest.

[welldaft]

On a separate note I see the official website has updated injury latest. 

Clearly SOD’s is missing this Saturday as we are not appealing despite what I think GA said ? We would not win anyway so makes sense. 

Lawless still has tbc which is just great and Gallacher is now a few weeks !!! The man himself said via twitter he hoped to be back in a week or so a week ago Not going to start with the conspiracy theory again but a few weeks. Means missing all of February. 

Nothing on Mugabi so despite shoulder injury it appears he may be available this weekend. 

All rather depressing tbqh

[18May1991]

All this chat about the social media ‘content’. It’s almost as if we don’t have a midweek game to fret and/ or rage over. 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

18 hours ago, Desp said:

That's just my view, though.  I'm in my mid-30s so the social media stuff isn't really aimed at me anyway.  I'm sure there's thousands of teenagers and 20-something Goggsy-like VL's absolutely lapping it up and liking away until their hearts are content.  It's not for me, and why I switched off from it a long time ago.  

Can confirm I agree it's shite too.

[capt_oats]

Lionel...