How to Use Social Media to Grow Your Sports Club

Social media is often the first place a new player, parent or sponsor comes across your club. A lively page with fixtures, results and photos tells people the club is active and welcoming. A page that hasn’t been updated since last season tells them the opposite. 

The good news is that you don’t need a marketing team or a big budget. You need a plan, a few volunteers sharing the load, and some simple habits. This guide covers which platforms to use, what to post, how to use social media to recruit members and raise money, and how to keep it safe, especially with junior sections. 

Why does social media matter for sports clubs?

For most community clubs, social media is the cheapest and quickest form of sports club marketing there is. It does a lot of jobs at once. 

• It’s your shop window. Before someone turns up to training, they’ll usually look you up. An active page answers their first questions and makes the club feel welcoming before they’ve even arrived. 

• It brings in new members. Parents looking for a junior section, adults getting back into sport and people new to the area all search locally. Regular posts, shared into community groups, put your club in front of them. 

• It keeps current members involved. Results, photos and player spotlights give members something to share and a reason to feel part of the club, not just a team. 

• It helps you find volunteers. Most people never volunteer because nobody asks them. A clear post about what help is needed, and how little time it takes, often works better than a word at the AGM. 

• It gives sponsors something back. Local businesses want to be seen. Regular thank-you posts and sponsor features make it much easier to keep sponsors and approach new ones. 

• It supports your fundraising. Your followers are your supporters, and they’re the people most likely to buy draw tickets or come to a quiz night. 

None of this needs a big following. A few hundred local followers who care about the club are worth far more than thousands who don’t. 

Pick the right platform for your club

You don’t need to be everywhere. Most clubs do best by picking two platforms and doing them well. 

• Facebook: still the main channel for parents, older members and local community groups. Good for news, events, fundraising and sharing into local groups. 

• Instagram: best for players and younger members. Match day photos, short videos and Stories work well here. 

• X (Twitter): useful for live scores and league updates, especially in cricket, rugby and football. 

• TikTok: optional. Great if you have a volunteer or senior player who enjoys making short videos, but don’t force it. 

WhatsApp groups are for team admin, not for growing the club. Keep promotion on your public channels and team communication somewhere the club can manage properly.

Get the basics right first

Use one official club account on each platform, not separate pages for every team. 

• Give admin access to at least two or three volunteers, so the page doesn’t stop when one person steps down. 

• Use the same club name, crest and colours everywhere so people recognise you. 

• Add a link to where people can join, pay or find out more, and keep it up to date. 

Agree a simple social media policy (more on that below). 

What to post: A simple weekly plan

The hardest part is posting consistently. A weekly routine takes the guesswork out of it. 

It’s on the calendar.

Make the Schedule Available to Everyone Through ClubZap

Creating the calendar is only half the job. The real value comes from making sure people can actually find it.

Day	Post idea
Monday	Weekend results, scores and a photo from each team
Tuesday	Player, coach or volunteer spotlight
Wednesday	Training times, or a ‘come and try’ post for new members
Thursday	Sponsor thank you, or fundraising update
Friday	Weekend fixtures and venues
Weekend	Live updates, match day photos and short videos

You won’t hit every day, and that’s fine. Two or three good posts a week beats seven rushed ones. 

Use social media to recruit new members

Recruitment posts work best when they answer the questions a newcomer has: who is it for, when is it, where is it, and what does it cost. 

• Post ‘come and try’ sessions with a clear date, time and location. 

• Share them into local community Facebook groups, school parent groups and neighbourhood pages. 

• Use photos of real members, not stock images. People want to see who they’d be playing with. 

• Make joining easy. Link straight to your membership sign-up rather than asking people to message the page. 

• Time it well. Push junior recruitment before the season starts and adult sections in January and September, when people are looking for something new. 

Promote your fundraising

Social media is one of the best ways to sell tickets for club draws, quiz nights and events, because your supporters are already following you. 

• Announce draw winners every time. It shows the draw is real and reminds people to enter next time. 

• Show what the money pays for, like new kit, a minibus or pitch improvements. 

• Count down to events in the final week. 

• Thank sponsors publicly. Regular, visible thank-you posts make sponsorship much easier to renew. 

Looking for fundraising ideas to promote? Have a look at our Fundraising Hub.

Graphics for sports clubs social media

You don’t need a designer. A few templates will make every post look like it came from the same club. 

• Create templates for results, fixtures, player of the match and sponsor posts in a free tool like Canva, then reuse them every week. 

• Stick to your club colours and one or two fonts. 

• Keep text short and big enough to read on a phone. 

Use square or portrait images, which take up more space in people’s feeds. 

Keep it safe: Photos, juniors and consent

If your club has junior sections, safeguarding has to come first. 

• Get photo consent from parents or carers when players register, and keep a record of who has opted out. 

• Avoid posting a child’s full name alongside their photo. 

• Check your sport’s governing body guidance on photography and social media. The NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit also has free guidance on taking and using photos of children. 

Don’t tag junior players, and turn off location tagging on posts from junior sessions. 

Write a social media policy for your club

A short social media policy protects the club and your volunteers. It doesn’t need to be long. Cover: 

• Who can post on behalf of the club and who has admin access 

• Photo consent and rules for junior players 

• How to respond to negative comments (politely, or take it offline) 

• What coaches and volunteers shouldn’t do, like private messaging junior players 

• What happens if someone breaks the policy 

Many governing bodies publish template policies you can adapt, so check your sport’s website first. 

Check what works

Every few months, look at which posts got the most reactions, shares and clicks. You’ll usually find a pattern: results photos and real people do well, text-only posts don’t. Do more of what works and drop what doesn’t. 

Running social media ads for club lotteries

A small ad budget can help your club draw reach supporters who don’t already follow you. But lottery ads come with extra rules, both from the platforms and from UK advertising law, so it’s worth getting them right before you spend anything. 

Get permission from Meta first 

Meta treats online lotteries and raffles as online gambling. Before you can run ads for them on Facebook or Instagram, your ad account needs Meta’s written permission, which you apply for through the Permissions and Verifications section of Meta Business Suite. You’ll need to show your lottery is lawful, for example with your local authority registration or Gambling Commission licence. Boosted posts count as ads, so the same rule applies to them. 

Once approved, your ads can only be shown to people aged 18 and over, and only in the areas Meta has approved you for. 

Follow the UK advertising rules 

In the UK, lottery advertising, including ads for small society lotteries like club draws, is covered by the CAP Code, which the Advertising Standards Authority enforces. The key rules for clubs are: 

• Don’t aim lottery ads at under-16s through where or how you place them. 

• Don’t show anyone who is, or looks, under 25 taking part in the draw. 

• Don’t make the ad likely to have strong appeal to under-18s, or feature someone under-18s would look up to. That rules out using junior players, or a senior player with a big young following, to promote your draw. 

• Don’t suggest the draw is a way to solve money worries or personal problems. 

If your club is in Northern Ireland, the law is different, so get advice before advertising your draw. 

Make the ad work 

• Lead with the good cause. ‘Help us fund new floodlights’ does more for a club draw than a picture of the jackpot. 

• Target locally. Set a small radius around the club and your main towns rather than trying to reach everyone. 

• Keep it simple: what the draw is, what it costs, when it’s drawn and one clear link to enter. 

• Start small, run it for a couple of weeks and check how many entries it brings in before spending more. 

If ads aren’t worth the paperwork for your club, organic posts still work well. Share winners every week, show what the draw has paid for, and pin a link to enter at the top of your page. 

How ClubZap helps

Social media gets people interested. ClubZap turns that interest into members. Your club’s news, fixtures and results live in the ClubZap app, and you can share them to your Facebook and X accounts, so volunteers aren’t writing the same update three times. When someone clicks through, they can sign up, pay for membership or buy draw tickets in a couple of taps. 

And because members get push notifications from the app, important updates reach them even when the social media algorithm doesn’t show your post. 

Frequently asked questions

Which social media platform is best for a sports club? 

For most UK clubs, Facebook and Instagram are the two to focus on. Facebook reaches parents and the local community, and Instagram reaches players and younger members. 

How often should a sports club post on social media? 

Two or three good posts a week is plenty for most clubs. Consistency matters more than volume. 

Can we post photos of junior players? 

Yes, as long as you have consent from parents or carers, avoid using full names with photos, and follow your governing body’s safeguarding guidance. 

Does my club need a social media policy? 

It’s strongly recommended, especially if you have junior sections. It sets out who can post, how photos are handled and how coaches and volunteers should behave online.