2017 has seen a real change of focus from publishers, with many realising there is little value in regurgitating news or click bait transfer stories that have been the staple content for the past few years. The online football audience is becoming more discerning with what they consume and therefore websites have had to overhaul tiresome practices and be a little more creative with the content they produce.
It was only a matter of time and 2017 has arguably seen the biggest shakeup within this industry in years and the return of fan opinion blogs and features has been welcomed with open arms, with lazy journalism hopefully banished for years to come. With Facebook cracking down on click bait football stories – something that is likely to have an adverse effect on certain publishers and those social media influencers that have been cashing in from it – we will see a lot of these publishers fall by the waste side unless they change their philosophy quickly.
Bringing fan opinion to the forefront has been the default for most publishers, as they look to evolve from the tired methods of previous years. Rather than report the news, there has been a massive transition in showing social media reaction to it – from a vast array of angles. Others have decided to create their own content off the back of fan engagement tools like polls and are therefore gauging necessary opinion from their respective audiences, whilst other webmasters have provided something of a throwback in offering their opinion on their respective club – and the good old blogging that we used to love and know.
The use of galleries to present content is another dying concept, as publishers use video to replace the list content of old. It is certainly something that we at Snack Media will be looking to scale out in the up and coming year – as we look to visualize content as a way of enhancing the chances of overall engagement and views. This particular piece of content about Kevin de Bruyne delivered just shy of 5m views across all platforms:
This transition from former tired content practices, for the more dynamic and richer content, is for the greater good and in 2018 it will see the best content creators cash in, as brands continually look to target a football audience, whether by traditional website ad-placements – or by the ever-increasing demand of pre-rolls for video content. The latter will be the focus of most content strategies in the coming months and certainly something we will be championing in 2018.
Written by: Martin Crawford – Head of content at Snack Media
