An examination of social media use and the FA Women’s Super League: The challenges of going professional

This paper explores the use of social media, specifically Twitter, in two English football clubs during their first season under the professional structure of the WSL. The study uses data from the clubs’ Twitter accounts and interviews with key employees. A total of 1088 tweets were analysed. Four themes emerged: player availability; status; cooperation and social media strategy. The findings showed that while women’s football has made great strides, the increase use of social media by players has been not supported by proper media training. Furthermore, the increase in status has not been matched by better funding. It is important than the increase awareness surrounding women’s football is matched by an increase in player well-being as this will impact the standing of women’s football.