West Bromwich Albion launch social media accounts in China

Premier League side West Bromwich Albion has launched on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Sep.11, with WeChat to shortly follow. 

With traditional social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube inaccessible in China, the effective way to communicate with fans in China is via specific platforms, primarily Weibo and WeChat.

The move on to the platforms ties in with the club’s partnership with TLCBET, a sports betting operator focused on the Asian market and primarily China. TLCBET are strategically assisting the Club with entry into the world’s most populous market and the utilisation of these channels is the first step on this journey. 

On the size of the Chinese market, Sales and Marketing Director Adrian Wright said: “The Premier League has an estimated reach to 322million households in China following the change in broadcast rights for the current season. 

"When we compare this with roughly 26million followers across the Premier League clubs on Weibo, we can see there is still a huge gap in order to satisfy the appetite to engage with Premier League football clubs. Only 8% of that 322million are currently following a Club on that specific social media platform.”

With such a strong following for Premier League Clubs already on Weibo, he was quick to add: “We don’t see ourselves as competition to our Premier League counterparts anywhere other than on the field of play twice a season, and believe that more Premier League clubs engaging in China and with the highly supportive Chinese audience can only be good for the development of the Premier League, it’s clubs and, most importantly, the development of football in China.”

In addition to the social media channels, West Bromwich Albion has also launched its official Chinese website www.westbrom.cn, which will play to host to live Mandarin match commentary for all of its Premier League games this season. West Bromwich Albion have become the first Premier League club to provide this free service after partnering with the Premier League Global Audio Broadcast partner talkSPORT to deliver the service in China.

Taken from Sky Sports