At the end of this thesis, clear, defined guidelines for football teams are given, which are based on the data collected during the research. Tips can provide Tiktok admins of professional soccer teams with useful data that they can use in their marketing and content creation.
Background
From this data the author then finds the most effective way how Tiktok marketing can be done by football teams and provides football teams with tips and advice on how to gather more reach on Tiktok. The benefits of greater reach are increased marketing reach and the teams' fan base, which helps the club both reputationally and financially.
Research question
The aim of this research is to find ways to create engaging Tiktok content by conducting a qualitative interview with Tiktok users who follow football.
Demarcation
Benefits
International aspect
Risks and risk management
The schedule is structured and there are no financial risks associated with this research project. If we consider all the possible risks and the way the author manages them, we can say with certainty that this research-based thesis is on safe ground.
Key Concepts
Content marketing – High quality digital content can be in the form of a text, an image or a video. Engagement - The University of Cambridge dictionary defines engagement as 'a process of encouraging people to be interested in the work of an organisation'.
Tiktok
Tiktok and revenue generation
Of course, what makes Tiktok attractive to businesses and organizations is the large sums of revenue that can be generated from the app through advertisements and. Creators receive money from the app based on how well their content succeeds in the app.
Viral trends dominating Tiktok
Fan engagement in social media
One of the most important parts of the model is connecting fans during non-match days. This is where the quality of the content shared on team social media comes into play, and good content leads to more engagement.
Rapid digitalisation in the footballing world
The new possibilities of rapidly growing Tiktok
The fact that the app promotes the quality of the content over the size of an existing follower base is something that makes it unique. Therefore, it is very important to know what kind of content resonates with the users of the app because that essentially determines the reach and potential of your marketing in the app.
Football fans as a target group
Tiktok is good at building its own communities among its users because of the algorithm. The algorithm offers football content to those who watch football content, ensuring that the viewers of the content are somewhat loyal to the content of the interview.
Content marketing
Video content marketing
One of the key areas of audience engagement with digital video marketing is content length. The same video length of 9 to 15 seconds was also confirmed as the best by Sociallypowerful (2021).
Engagement marketing
Tiktok engagement
So, now we know that targeting social media with engagement marketing is very important these days, but how does Tiktok differ from other social media in terms of engagement rates. Users don't think twice about sharing, liking or posting because it has lowered the stigma of engagement due to the high volume of content people are exposed to when using the app. According to research conducted by the Influencer Marketing Center (2021), where 10,000 Tiktok accounts were studied, Tiktok engagement rates range from 3% to 9% based on the accounts that follow.
In this chapter, the author will review the research methodology, the purpose of the research and the structure the interviews will be conducted are also presented. The ethical and privacy related issues and how they are handled by the author are also included in this chapter.
Research design and methodology
Phase 1
Phase 2
The author also used the book of Daymons & Holloway's (2002) "Qualitative Research Methods in Public Relations and Marketing Communications" as a guidebook in planning and structuring the interview itself for phase 2. unstructured interviews provide the largest amount of data, but unstructured interviews contain also the largest amount of irrelevant information. Because in phase 2 the author focuses on such a narrow topic and is only interested in the characteristics and feelings that the users of the application feel when viewing the content and ranking them from best to worst, the structured interview model was chosen. According to the authors' own research and user experience of the application, there are three main types of videos that football teams publish, and these are the content types that were used when interviewing the users of the application.
The author also wanted to find out how the respondents see Tiktok in general, and how they feel about the app. In the phase 2 interview, respondents are shown 15 Tiktok content videos from the channels of professional soccer teams. The respondents are then asked to describe emotions and qualities that those videos awakened among the respondents.
In addition, Phase 2 includes a quantitative element where respondents are asked to rate the videos using an engagement scale created specifically for this research by the author (Figure 4). This qualitative method was chosen because the author can then also provide data-based evidence of the most effective types of videos for football teams to focus on.
Phase 3
Research target group
Research content selection
There were only a few guidelines that the author followed when selecting the content to be analyzed. The content cannot contain any controversial language or anything else that may be disturbing to the respondents. The purpose of these guidelines is to ensure that the interview remains relevant to the topic of this thesis and to provide a discussion-free environment for respondents.
The author originally intended to use the professional Russian team FC Spartak Moscow and its content in the interview process, but due to the situation in Ukraine, this part of the interview was replaced with another team from another country.
Data collection from the research
Validity and ethics of the research
Research objective
Using the data provided by this research, a blueprint of a successful soccer-related Tiktok video targeting soccer fans can be created. This blueprint will look like the style of a guide, and try to provide useful informative data and technical knowledge about the content marketing in Tiktok aimed for soccer teams. In this chapter, the author analyzes the results and findings of the research and all its phases.
Phase 1
Phase 2 – the user view
- The Tiktok using habits of the respondents and general feelings about the
- The most engaging football content amongst the respondents
- The positive characteristics of the studied videos with higher-than-average
- Common problems the respondents see football teams make
The author presented respondents with 15 Tiktok videos from the three different categories (5 videos from each) that professional football teams post (Table 4). The average engagement rate results of each category are shown in Table 9 below, and the results of each presented video are presented separately in Table 10. To better understand what made some videos more engaging than others, the attributes were of each video studied.
The videos that ranked higher than the average engagement score of 5.9 (shown in table 10) were analyzed in more detail by the author. The respondents were asked about common problems they noticed soccer teams do when trying to engage with fans through Tiktok. Common Problems Faced by the Respondents in Soccer Teams Tiktok Respondent Number: Problems in Soccer Team Content.
003 If the video is very basic and it doesn't have enough interesting spice or content in it. 005 If the timing of the audio does not match the clip, if the editing is bad, or if.
Phase 3 – the professional view
I would say that a lot of the work is not what you can learn from books, it's about having the courage to try things, having a visual eye for videos. I use a lot of Adobe Premiere Pro, the TikTok video editor does not have the ability to edit footage of football matches for example where you want to follow the movement of the ball, these kinds of details are created with computer software. Right now, our most successful clip is a short skill from an U-21 national team match.
Do you think the execution of the video is more important than the idea of the video in TikTok. Eventually you will get better at making the videos in both the performance of the clips and the ideas for new clips. I would say it's important to have a clear idea of why you're on the platform so you don't waste time there.
Big goals or skills are always interesting, no matter what part of the world the video is from. In this chapter, the author will review and analyze the results of the research that was done and provide recommendations for football teams based on the results of.
Key findings and recommendations for football teams in Tiktok content creation 32
Research findings – a professional TikTok admin (phase 3)
The author conducted a semi-structured interview (appendix 3) with a professional Tiktok administrator of the Finnish men's national football team. The goal was to see the perspective of content creators, and not just app users. According to both app users (table 9) and Huuhkajat's admin, the most popular content is match footage with meme content coming in second.
Editing software can give videos an extra touch that increases the engagement of the footage. It is necessary to take advantage of the fact that in TikTok copying an idea is not rejected. According to admin Huuhkajat, the scrolling culture in TikTok is very strong and content creators should aim to place the most engaging parts of the videos at the beginning of the video, as you only have a few seconds before the user scrolls. to a new video.
The Tiktok administrator of the Finnish men's national football team sees huge opportunities for TikTok and the international growth that can come with it. English should be used in the videos when targeting international audiences due to the language barrier that native speakers may present.
Characteristics of an engaging Tiktok video – a summary table
Suggestions for further research
Personal learnings
Tweet 'em and reap 'em: The impact of professional athletes' use of Twitter on current and potential sponsorship opportunities.
Overlay matrix
Phase 2 thesis interview template
Phase 3 thesis interview template
