World's oldest leads the way, again!

27 Oct 2017 By David Watters

EVO-STIK League Sheffield FC enjoyed raising the bar on social media this week as the birthday celebrations of the world's oldest football club trended on Twitter!

Messages of congratulations from football's global family marked the EVO-STIK League South club's 160th anniversary on Wednesday, with clubs, leagues and governing bodies from afar away as South America and the Far East setting Twitter's heat maps alight.

BBC News also broadcast a special feature to mark the historic day at the BT Local Stadium before proud officials sent their thanks to well-wishers, @Sheffieldfc tweeting: "From 1857 to 2017 we're proud to celebrate 160 years of football with fans from across the world. Thank you all!#HappyBirthdayFootball".

One of only two clubs to have been awarded FIFA's Order of Merit award, the other 12-time European champions Real Madrid, Club were founded 160 years ago on 24 October 1857 with their existence famously pre-dating even the Football Association's rule book as they played by local 'Sheffield Rules' until 1878.

Many of the EVO-STIK League's clubs can expect to be trending again this weekend after regularly lighting up Twitter's heat maps and soaring on all the major social media platforms since the start of the 2017-18 campaign. In October, @evostikleague also broke through the 17,000 followers mark on Twitter and on Friday night stood at 17,218.

According to the latest social media stats, the EVO-STIK League's Facebook pages recorded nearly a quarter of a million views in September while the new Instagram account attracted more than 500 followers in its first month of operation. Impressively, no matchday so far this season has failed to attract less than 100,000 views on Twitter and 10,000 or more on Facebook, peak audiences often far out-stripping those figures.

The EVO-STIK League's new Vole account also continued to outstrip the Premier League's big guns on the new 'Instagram of football' platform from Europe having grown to more than 2,000 followers within weeks of being set up despite being initially targeted at fans of the pro game.

The popularity of the EVO-STIK NPL Show's podcasts have played their part too, boosting an increasing online presence after returning for the 2017-18 campaign to build on their best ever listening figures last term.

Images courtesy of @Sheffieldfc/Twitter

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Where next?

Heaton signs in the nick of time Defender Josh Heaton will be one of the names on Saturday's lunchtime list of transfers involving EVO-STIK League clubs before making his debut for Ramsbottom United in the Buildbase FA Trophy at Shaw Lane.

NPLFA thank trialists for turning out The Northern Premier League Football Academy's coaches have sent their thanks to the young players and their families who attended this week's trials for next year's intake.