FC Bayern are Social Media champions of Germany

After sealing the domestic double in 2019/20, FC Bayern are now celebrating another notable success away from the field of play. In a study by a renowned football management institute, FC Bayern came joint top with Schalke 04 on 50 points in the Social Media Index (SMI) and are therefore German Social Media champions for the second time after 2018.

The International Football Institute (IFI) independently and scientifically evaluated the official social media accounts of the 18 top flight clubs throughout the Bundesliga season. The four most important social media communication channels - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube - each with four subcategories - post interaction, post frequency, percentage growth and number of followers - were included in the results.

The top spot is the result of the record champions' successful content strategy, which focuses on fans on all club media channels, enabling them to get up close and participate. This has been particularly critical in the past few months during the coronavirus pandemic.

"At the beginning of the coronavirus break and then again when games restarted behind closed doors, FC Bayern have steadily increased their contribution frequency on both Facebook and Instagram to provide fans with even more digital information during this unprecedented time," said Katharina Schöttl, who heads the Digital Marketing department at the IFI.

FC Bayern Director of Media, Digital & Communication Stefan Mennerich said: "Obviously we're very happy about this award. Our entire social media team have increased the number of hits once again, especially during the Bundesliga coronavirus break, and they've done an excellent job. We've been able to let our global fanbase participate in FC Bayern and at the same time compensate our sponsor partners through our platforms for the lack of TV reach."

FC Bayern have achieved record numbers this season, especially on the social media accounts.

More than 51,000 posts have been published to inform, entertain and participate in FC Bayern events. In total, the German champions can celebrate 4.5 million new followers, a reach of over 8 billion and approximately 350 million user interactions.