Digital milestone: Bayer 04 exceeds 10 million followers

"Thanks to all our fans and followers. We are a bit proud of this number, which we have achieved through a clear strategy, quality and high value content and the focus on our digital platforms. Congratulations to the whole content team who have worked really hard in recent years and thereby enabled us to reach this milestone through their excellent work," said Holger Tromp, communications director at Bayer 04. "I would also like to thank our players. They form the core of this club and the players are the focus of attention. Without their active support and the commitment to the fans of Bayer 04, the development in this form would not have been possible. And in the future we would like to invest in stand-out content, target group-specific content and community management and bring players and fans closer together."

Since Bayer 04 became one of the first Bundesliga clubs with a presence on Facebook in 2010, the platform portfolio has continually developed. Including international channels, the accounts of the Women's team and the profiles of the eSports section, the teams with the cross on their chest are successful on eleven platforms. The key to a good presence on social networks is the platform-specific implementation of subjects and content as well as the fast, creative and tailored production and publication of photos, graphics and moving images. After the 2021/22 season, the content team for social media production receive the award of German Social Media Champions from the International Football Institute.

overview of channels

Facebook – Popular history

Bayer 04 Leverkusen started the journey on social media with a Facebook account in 2010. Up to today, this is Bayer 04's biggest presence and is available in the three languages German, English and Spanish. A total of 2.94 million followers are able to keep in touch with subjects in and around the Werkself and the club. Historic articles are popular with the fans on our "oldest" platform – a video of Rudi Völler shooting at a goal wall on Sportstudio in 1985 attracted an credible 6.9 million hits last season and was the most viewed video. That is surpassed on the English language Facebook page by Leon Bailey’s goal after 27 seconds that currently has 9.5 million hits.

Instagram – Fans from all over the world

"The #Werkself has landed in #Lagos. The first official act: Into the water!" Above that a photo of Jens Hegeler and Gonzalo Castro with rolled up trousers in a swimming pool. There were 363 hearts for the first content of now over 10,700 on Instagram from the winter training camp in Greece in January 2014. 2.2 million fans and interested people from across the world now follow the account @bayer04fussball – beyond Germany that following is mainly from South America and Asia.

Twitter – Often quoted

Following the recent sale of Twitter to Elon Musk, Bayer 04 no longer has a blue tick but instead a verified gold tick on the three accounts (German, English and Spanish). The English-language account stands out – with its 453,000 subscribers it is one of the most quoted in international football. That includes a tweet from August 2018 that was taken up by international media and provoked huge interest. The background: At an Arsenal Premier League game Petr Cech was preferred to new signing Bernd Leno and he slipped up with an attempted pass that just missed going into his own goal. The English Bayer 04 account tweeted a video from Leno as a humorous response: "We might know somebody… In case you ask yourself how to play out from the back…"Cech was understandably not too pleased with the tweet. An apology followed and harmony was restored.

TikTok – The newcomer amongst the channels

TikTok is the latest Bayer 04 social media channel and is the third biggest at the club thanks to impressive growth with a total of 1.8 million followers now. Views of a clip of Jeremie Frimpong went through the roof when he hit a small boy in the crowd with the ball at a home game. After the final whistle, Frimpong went to the boy, gave him his shirt and said sorry. The video has now been seen 122.7 million times and it holds the record.

YouTube – "Goose bumps"-Documentaries particularly popular

Bayer 04 is particularly well-known on YouTube for one thing: interesting reports and documentaries. That includes a Youth League tour with the U19s, the historical piece "We beat Juve" or "Bender – The Inseparables" – all these productions have been watched thousands of times. The most successful documentary was "Kai – the Havertz story." When the homegrown player was transferred to Chelsea, Bayer 04 published a 50-minute documentary on the club's YouTube channel highlighting Havertz ten years under the Bayer Cross. Comments from the viewers were overwhelmingly positive including "Brilliant production! Massive respect and credit" through to "This documentary blew me away" or "Sheer goosebumps". Definitely a highlight of Bayer 04 content production.

LinkedIn – die Business-Werkself:

Bayer 04 is represented as a company on LinkedIn, the world's biggest professional network on the Internet. In addition to sporting highlights, the issues dealt with here are related to business and financial as well as social activities of the club. One post that stands out was the USA tour for the Werkself at the partner club St. Louis City SC. The first team squad spent one week in the US state of Missouri during the long winter break due to the 2022 World Cup. The reception for the team was the first highlight of the tour…

WeChat / Sina Weibo / Douyin:

Bayer 04 has enjoyed recognition from many football fans in the Asian markets since the arrival of Bum-kun Cha and Heung-min Son at the latest. So it is no surprise that Bayer 04 is represented on the three big Asian social media platforms. Bayer 04 Leverkusen entered the Chinese market with an account on WeChat. That was followed by Sina Weibo and Douyin. The most successful content on Sina Weibo was a birthday post on Kai Havertz' 20th birthday, which attracted 4.13 million hits. Kai was and is one of the favourites amongst the Chinese Bayer 04 community. One of the favourite clips on Douyin is a video with the title "Goal with great passes."