Scottish Premiership Tables

PMPR Football Social Influencer.jpg

 Steven Gerrard Tops the PMPR Table of Scottish Football Social Media Influence

  • Steven Gerrard is the most influential person on social media in Scottish football with more than 8 million followers on Instagram

  • Celtic has the most followers on club social media accounts with a combined audience of more than 3 million across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

To read the full social media analysis of each Scottish Premiership player click here

To read the Top 10 Players on social media at each Scottish Premiership club click here

Click here to jump to Player Social Media Audiences

Click here to jump to Top 10 Players on Twitter

Click here to jump to Top 10 Players on Instagram

Click here to jump to Top Players by Club

Click here to jump to Club Owned Social Media Audiences

Click here to jump to First Team Squad Social Media Audience

Click here to jump to Club and First Team Squad Combined Social Media Audiences

Click here to jump to Managers


STEVEN GERRARD, the Rangers Manager and iconic Liverpool and England international, tops the PMPR table of social media influence within Scottish Football. The Liverpool legend has more than 8 million followers on Instagram, more than FIVE times the nearest challenger, Jermaine Defoe, who counts almost 1.5 million followers across accounts on Twitter and Instagram.

While Rangers have arguably the most influential Manager and Player on social media, it is Celtic that leads the way in terms of club social media reach. The Scottish Premiership Champions have more than 3 million followers across Twitter (635,484), Instagram (406,848) and Facebook (2,031,839). Celtic’s social media audience is more than double that of second place Rangers (1,439,677), and more than the entire rest of the league combined (3,074,171 vs 2,439,522).

In third place is Aberdeen with a combined total of 250,000. In the battle of Edinburgh, it is Hibernian who take social media bragging rights with 189,000 compared to Hearts 157,000 followers.

The research and analysis was conducted by PMPR Excellence, a public relations, digital and football agency to analyse social media influence within Scottish Football. The research logged the followers of Scottish Premiership players on Twitter and Instagram, Scottish Premiership managers on Twitter and Instagram, and Scottish Premiership clubs on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

The Editor of the PMPR Football Social Influencer Tables, Gordon Sheach said: “We are delighted to present a comprehensive overview of the social media influence within Scottish football. While reigning Premiership Champions Celtic are by far the most dominant club, with their club channels attracting a wider audience than the rest of the league combined, the undoubted king of social media in Scottish football is Steven Gerrard with an incredible 8 million followers on Instagram. This is, of course, influenced by his status as a Liverpool icon and star of English & World football.”

“It is interesting to find that many players have a higher social media audience than their clubs, with almost every club’s first team squad having a larger reach than the club-owned channels. The two exceptions to this are Motherwell & St Mirren.”

Peter McLean PMPR Excellence Owner and Managing Director commented: “Football commands a high level of public interest within social media channels and we are pleased to bring this comprehensive analysis for the interest of players, managers, clubs and followers of Scottish football. It highlights the popularity not just of football clubs but acknowledges the players as brands of considerable power and influence in their own right. This offers players significant opportunities to shape their own narrative on social media, from an increased profile in the footballing world to new sponsorship opportunities, to enhance commercial possibilities for their club which can be a factor when negotiating a new contract. I would like to express my thanks to the Editor of the PMPR Football Social Influencer Tables Gordon Sheach (@gsheach on Twitter) and PMPR Marketing & PR Manager Barry Thomson (@barryianthomson on Twitter) for their efforts compiling the tables and analysis. We hope you find it of interest and value.”

Player Social Media Audiences

The most followed player in the Scottish Premiership is Rangers Jermaine Defoe, who built up a large following during his goal-laden career in England at West Ham Utd, AFC Bournemouth, Tottenham Hotspur, Portsmouth and Sunderland before travelling north to Ibrox. In second place is Aberdeen’s James Wilson, a former Manchester United academy graduate with loan spells at Brighton & Hove Albion, Derby County and Sheffield United, who has over 800,000 followers on Instagram.

The top ranked Celtic player is fifth placed Scott Sinclair, who benefits from a career at multiple big clubs in English football. Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney is the most followed Scottish player with over 430,000 followers, split across Twitter and Instagram.

The highest ranked non-British player is Celtic’s Australian international Tom Rogic, with more than 213,000 followers. The oldest player in the top 25 is 17th placed Rangers Allan McGregor (37 years old) with 118,000 followers. The youngest player in the Top 25 is 19-year-old Rangers forward Glenn Middleton with a combined audience of 86,000.

The Top 25 Players in the Scottish Premiership are shown in the tables below: Top 10 and Top 11-25.

Top 10 Players - T.JPG
Top 10 Players - G.JPG
11-25 T.JPG
11-25 G.JPG

The top player on Twitter is Jermaine Defoe with 1 million followers, while the top player on Instagram is James Wilson with 801,000 followers.

Top 10 Players on Twitter

Twitter Top 10 - T.JPG
Twitter Top 10 - G.JPG

Top 10 Players on Instagram

Instagram Top 10 - T.JPG
Instagram Top 10 - G.JPG

Top Players by Club

The social media kings at each club are, in alphabetical order:

Club MVP - T.JPG
Club MVP - G.JPG

To view the top 10 players at each club in the Scottish Premiership please click here.

Club Owned Social Media Accounts

Club-owned social media channels are an important platform for clubs to communicate with their stakeholders including fans, sponsors and the media.

Celtic is the dominant club across all three platforms in the PMPR Football Social Influencer Tables research; Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. In total Celtic have an audience of over 3 million on social media, more than double of second place Rangers (1,439,677), and more than the entire rest of the league combined (3,074,171 vs 2,439,522). In third place is Aberdeen with a combined total of 250,000. Hibernian take top place in Edinburgh with 189,000 compared to Hearts 157,000.

Clubs - T.JPG
Clubs - G.JPG

First Team Squad Social Media Audience

In addition to measuring the reach of the clubs and the players as individuals, PMPR’s research analyses the collective reach of each clubs’ playing squad. By this measurement, Rangers have the most influential playing squad on social media with a combined social media reach of over 4.5 million, which is three times larger than the official club channels (1.4 million). The same dynamic is true for Celtic whose players have a combined social media reach of 3.5 million, while the club’s official channels total 3 million. This is true for all clubs with the exception of Motherwell and St Mirren whose club social media audience is larger than the combined audience of their players.

Total Squad Audience - T.JPG
Squad Totals - G.JPG

Club and First Team Squad Combined Social Media Audiences

By combining the reach of the club-owned social media channels (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook) with the reach of all of the club’s playing squad (Twitter and Instagram) a total social media reach can be determined for each club.

The combined club and squad figures place Celtic at the top of the table with a combined audience of 6,584,911, closely followed by city rivals Rangers with 6,023,602. In third place is Aberdeen with 1,430,394. Next are the Edinburgh clubs with Hearts on 511,800 and Hibernian on 430,537. Bottom place are Hamilton whose combined club and squad social media audience is less than 100,000.

Clubs & Squad - G.JPG

Managers

Given the pressure that Scottish Premiership managers often find themselves under, whether they are fighting for the title or battling relegation, it is perhaps understandable that few of them have significant presence on social media. The one notable outlier is Rangers Manager Steven Gerrard who has an incredible 8 million followers on his Instagram account. This is clearly influenced by his legendary career at Liverpool as well as earning 114 caps for England which made him a global sporting icon. Only Craig Levein (13,089), Neil Lennon (8,726), Paul Heckingbottom (7,356) and Gary Holt (3,815) have Twitter accounts but some appear dormant or infrequently used.

Managers - T.JPG
Managers - G.JPG

Disclaimer. PMPR has sought to make every reasonable effort to ensure that the data and analysis is correct. All data was collected week commencing 29th July 2019 and provides a snapshot at that time. Please send any corrections or updates to digital@prexcellence.com.  It should be noted that people can of course follow multiple players and clubs across multiple channels, so this analysis measures total audience rather than unique followers. Some players do not have any social media accounts or have chosen not to have publicly visible profiles.

***The Football Social Influencer Tables concept remain the exclusive property of PMPR Excellence Ltd. If publishing extracts please credit the PMPR Football Social Influencer Tables and mention our website www.prexcellence.com/football-social-influencer-tables ***