Sanzharevskyi 1

Vadym Sanzharevskyi

English 113B

Professor Lawson

17 March 2017

Project Web Essay

Word count: 1207

Soccer on Instagram

Soccer and social media? These two definitions have closely become existing in every

fans life. Actions, promotions, awards All these things are an important parts of social media

which is connected to soccer. A half of the people find ways to sign up on social media while the

other half prefer to not connect their life with social media since sometimes people can get

addicted to dial media and spend every minute and every day just by surfing through social

media. Summarize all those facts I can notice that all the people have different thoughts but most

of them prefer to stay in touch not just in person but also using social media portals .In my

opinion social media is like an essential part of soccer and sport life in general. Every

professional soccer game gathers more than 20000 people who just come to watch the game of

their favorite team. How do the fans find out when the game of their favorite team is? There is a

simple answer; it is social media.

Social media impacts life of everyone all over the world. Every social media platform has

been created for people. One of the main applications that people use on social media is

Instagram. Typically, Instagram is an online portal where all the people who have an account can

upload pictures of themselves, follow other people, and chat. Nowadays, a lot of people from

sport communities use Instagram as a promotion portal for their fans.There are multiple soccer
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teams all over the world and all of those soccer teams have fans. For each soccer team that there

is, there is always a group of people going for or against them, creating distinct communities of

people advocating for their teams on social media.

Because there are so many soccer teams all over the world, there are many people who

want to advertise their team as the best of the best. Social media promotes team spirit, creating

different communities for everyone who likes different teams. Being a true soccer fan means that

they want to know everything that is going on about the team, an example of this would be: that

the official Instagram account of the Real Madrid soccer team has 46.2 millions followers. This

illuminates how all of the people who follow the Real Madrid Instagram account can see updates

from their favorite team every day. Every time when the next game comes up, the official

Instagram of Real Madrid posts a banner that informs when the game is, what time it will start,

and who they will play against. Social media has developed the soccer industry all over the

world, now because in all the countries people can pick a favorite team, be a part of the soccer

community, by sharing photos and videos, cheering for their team. Motivation for team advocacy

all over the world by having them share pictures, thoughts, online.

According to the article How Social Media Marketing Helped Soccer Take Over The

World by author whose name is Gary Parkinson, in no other sport is the shift to digital media

more pronounced than in soccer (or football if you will). Statistics compiled by the European

Sponsorship Association demonstrate that the hottest topic during the English Premier League

opening weekend in August reached over 62 million fans on social media. Whats even more

interesting is that approximately 75% of the engagement occurred outside the UK. Instagram is

one part of social media but there are many of different social media portals and one of them is

VK. This website is the largest European social media portal which is the most popular among
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former Soviet Unions countries such as Ukraine, Russia etc. So basically, a lot of people say that

VK is Russian Facebook. As I know VK is the 4th most popular web portal in the world.

This website provides everything that is possible on social media. Everyone can chat, share

videos, pictures, Not only your personal photos and videos, but also third-party music and

videos. Naturally, this kind of free file sharing is considered to be illegal, but no significant steps

have been taken against these functions at this point in time. This is part of what initially set VK

apart from other sites like Facebook at a time when Facebook was mostly focused on profile

pages and status updates, VK was essentially functioning as a Facebook-Spotify hybrid!. But

the most useful option of this website is an opportunity to find some people who you have not

seen for a long time. Basically, you just have to write down the name and city of that person and

look for this person in the search list. VK has a lot of group communities that promotes soccer.

Those communities post fresh news about soccer, share comments about soccer games and post

fresh video soccer highlights. A lot of soccer celebrities have own page on this website but a lot

of people who prank others make fake pages of those celebrities.

Nowadays, a lot of famous soccer players connect their free time to the social media. Most

of them sign contracts with advertisement companies, websites etc. One of the best example of

those players is Cristiano Ronaldo. Cristiano has 94 million followers on Instagram. That is

almost 100 million followers who see online Cristianos life every day and they share those

pictures with others. Almost every day he posts 2-3 pics of what he does or pictures of himself,

his pictures gather millions likes and I have seen that Cristiano spends a lot of his free time by

advertising companies such as Nike, Clear Vita Abe etc. Moreover, Cristiano established his own

brand which is called CR7, basically company sells underwear, clothes, shoes, towels etc.

According to Alan Dawsons article, Unprecedented success is typically rewarded with financial
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gain and, in 2016 alone, Forbes estimated Ronaldo's total earnings for the year to be $88 (72.2)

million $56 (45.9) million in salary/winnings and $32 (26.3) million in endorsements.

To sum up, I would like to say that whether we realize it or not but social media has

become something more than just posting pictures, sharing videos, chat etc. Social media is

important part in our lives since if we had no TV, internet news we would not be able what

happens in our world, if we had no Instagram, Facebook we would not be able to have fun online

since these portals have been created for people, for their needs, to entertain every person who

really needs it. Social media is a huge step into the future, social media connects people

everywhere. Online applications such as Instagram, Facebook are really simple programs but

they still connects people from all the countries and it gives positive vibes to everyone while it

shares the freshest news with us and it entertains us. I personally think that in the future social

media portals will lead our world in terms of connection because it is essential to stay in touch

with your closest people even if they are on the other edge of the world. People have to develop

social media and create a new online programs that will help people to develop themselves.

Works Cited

Parkinson, Gary. "How Social Media Marketing Helped Soccer Take Over The World." Scribble

Live. N.p., 04 Nov. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.

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Parrack, Dave, Tim Brookes, and Briallyn Smith. "10 Incredible VK Facts You Should Know

(AKA Russias Facebook)." MakeUseOf. N.p., 18 July 2016. Web. 17 Mar. 2017

Dawson, Alan. "Cristiano Ronaldo's Social Media Channels Are worth $500 Million a Year to

Nike." Business Insider. Business Insider, 12 Mar. 2017. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.