National League football's online presence booms during lockdown
25.02.2021
Clubs up and down the National League system saw a huge uptick in online following throughout the recent months. This trend arrives despite, or perhaps because of, the pandemic lockdowns and havoc wreaked upon the league.
A non-league statistics monitor called Non-League Data, @UKFDFC on Twitter, revealed the surprising numbers in a series of posts. The average National League team saw a 24 per cent increase to Twitter followings since 2018, an unprecedented level of growth.
This growth spiked in the 20/21 season, which was hardest hit by uncertainties around health and finance crises. After increasing by 9 per cent in the 19/20 season, National League Twitter followers boomed by 13 per cent in 20/21.
Lockdown forces people online, driving traffic to online streaming and social media sites like Twitter. This phenomenon combined with other attention-grabbing events like promotions, FA cup runs and takeovers to radically change the National League’s online status.
According to the Non-League Data account, the largest Twitter following growth occurred at King’s Lynn Town, who’s followers skyrocketed by 76 per cent since 2018. This trend follows King’s Lynn’s remarkable promotion to the National League’s top flight, but kudos must also go to their digital manager Joshua Yates.
However, the National League’s biggest victor appears elsewhere, as an ancient football institution joined forces with North American millionaires. Wrexham AFC knocked Chesterfield off their Twitter perch as the most followed club in all of National League football, following their takeover by Hollywood superstars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
The worldwide reds’ new-found fame hints at their meteoric potential. On the other hand, they’re still not even half as popular as seventh-tier media moguls Hashtag United, so it’s all relative.
Regardless, the general trend reveals non-league football’s sustained importance to British culture and its slow but capable evolution into a future-proof multimedia industry.
