Women’s football has experienced rapid growth over the past six years. Interest in women’s football began to surge around the 2019 World Cup and continued to grow following the Lionesses’ victory at the 2022 Euros. The final attracted 50 million viewers – a dramatic increase from the 15 million who watched the 2017 final. Since then, women’s football has continued to grow and attract increasing mainstream attention.
Women’s football has been known to receive very little coverage in mainstream media, which is why maintaining a social media presence is critical. Through social media, teams are able to reach millions without depending on traditional media. Although, the use of social media in football isn’t new, it has evolved. In the last couple of years, TikTok has taken social media by storm and teams are capitalising off of it. Teams use TikTok to show game highlights, behind-the-scenes content, and they also participate in trends and challenges on TikTok to gain views.
FC Barcelona Femení has over 2 million followers on TikTok and post regularly on their channel. During the release of Spotify Wrapped, the team leveraged their platform to promote one of their key partners, Spotify, by sharing their players’ personal Spotify Wrapped playlists. Not only did this campaign promote their team partner, Spotify, but it also helped strengthen the connection between fans and players by offering a more personal glimpse into the players’ lives. Barcelona shared three posts related to Spotify Wrapped – two videos and one image carousel. One of the videos garnered over 2 million views, while the image post attracted nearly 400,000 views.
They also create TikTok’s showcasing their players abilities, team celebrations and players participating in TikTok trends. Barcelona’s most viewed TikTok video features Aitana Bonmatí celebrating their Spanish Super Cup victory, with 6.9 million views. Interestingly, another top-performing clip, of a capybara on the pitch, has nearly 3 million views, highlighting how jumping on TikTok trends can significantly boost engagement.
Manchester United Women’s team has a following of 1.3 million on TikTok and 19.2 million likes. Their account, similar to Barcelona’s, showcases game highlights, behind the scenes content and players participating in trends. Manchester United excel at creating content that showcases individual players. By highlighting standout performances in matches and sharing behind-the-scenes TikToks, they help new audiences connect with the players on a more personal level. While secondary, this also reflects the club’s appreciation for its players by celebrating their individual contributions.
Manchester United have many videos that are filmed professionally and that are “planned”, such as Q&A’s, interviews, and promoting matches. However, their most viewed video features the team’s progression in the 2024 FA Cup. The video is clearly filmed by someone celebrating alongside the team – unscripted, unpolished, and full of genuine joy and passion. It’s unfiltered and authentic, which people love, and is something that isn’t seen enough in social media.
When it comes to national teams, there is ongoing debate about whether to have joint or separate social media accounts for the men’s and women’s teams. One argument against joint accounts is the risk of unequal representation – if the men’s team has a significantly larger following, the women’s team may receive less visibility and engagement, leading to underrepresentation, which is often the case for women’s teams. However, some argue that shared accounts present a unified front, emphasising that the men’s and women’s teams are equal.
Many of the big national teams have shared accounts with the men’s team on TikTok. Nations such as England, USA, France, Germany and Spain share their TikTok platform with the men’s team, which can remove attention from the women’s team as it can affect the reach their content has in comparison to their male counterpart. Yet sharing a platform can also be beneficial as it shows a unified front, and create content across the respectable teams. While sharing platforms with the men’s team can have it ups and it downs, two national teams that have kept their social medias separate are Australia and Norway. The Matildas and Kvinnelandslaget have their own social media accounts and similar to the club teams, create fun and engaging content on TikTok.
The Matildas started their TikTok account in 2022 in collaboration with Football Australia and TikTok to give fans exclusive content and for the team to gain a bigger audience. The Matildas account has 396k followers and 16.8 million likes since starting in 2022. They’ve collaborated with Australian skincare brand ‘tbh Skincare’ to launch Matildas-themed pimple patches, and collaborated on TikTok campaigns such as #SaferTogether which promoted online safety. Their presence on TikTok has fostered a stronger connection with younger fans, as the platform encourages authentic and light-hearted content that resonates well with its audience.
Kvinnelandslaget, in contrast to all the other teams mentioned here, don’t have as big of a following. With just over 5,500 followers and 104,200 likes, the Norwegian national team does something the others team don’t do, or necessarily have to. This is creating content in their own language, but with English captions. Kvinnelandslaget are trying to reach more people and have found that to do so, they need to make their content available for everyone. Not all of their videos have English captions, but in recent videos there have been more of it. Videos with English captions tend to receive higher view counts and reach a broader audience, indicating that the captions are effective. Norway excel at showing appreciation for their fans by sharing fan interactions on social media. This recognition helps fans feel valued and encourages continued support, whether by attending games or purchasing jerseys featuring their favourite players.
The growth of women’s football has been supported in large part by the teams’ ability to connect with fans through platforms like TikTok. By sharing highlights, behind-the-scenes moments, and personal insights into players’ lives, teams are building stronger relationships with their audiences and reaching new supporters globally. TikTok offers a space where content can feel more authentic and approachable, helping to increase visibility and engagement without relying solely on traditional media. As more teams continue to explore and invest in this kind of content, social media will remain a key part of how women’s football expands its reach and strengthens its connection with fans.
