Abstract

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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title>
<jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of social media in brand associations, particularly in regard to soccer fan clubs.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title>
<jats:p>The study used a professional English Premier League soccer team to investigate the effects that social media interaction had on brand associations of the team’s fan clubs in two national contexts – England and Greece.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title>
<jats:p>In total, 207 online questionnaires from six fan clubs were collected and analyzed using descriptive and inferential (<jats:italic>t</jats:italic>-tests and <jats:italic>χ</jats:italic><jats:sup>2</jats:sup> tests) statistics.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title>
<jats:p>The results revealed similarities on Facebook in terms of positive receptions of brand attributes and resonance of perceived brand benefits, while significant differences were observed on Twitter, particularly in terms of brand benefits.</jats:p>
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