Football club launches FB app to engage fans

MADRID, SPAIN: Barcelona launched a new Facebook application on Wednesday designed to help the Spanish, European and world champions engage more effectively with their 28 million global fans on the social networking site.

FCB Alert would allow fans to access interactive features including games, polls, video and other multimedia content, and share it with fellow supporters, developer MicroStrategy said in a statement.

The Virginia-based business intelligence software company also said fans could follow news about the Catalan club and its partners and sponsors, and purchase Barca merchandise.

Barca will be able to crunch the data fans are asked to submit to gain a more accurate understanding of what their followers in countries such as United States, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and China are interested in and how best to serve them.

"Alert is the perfect way to reach the club's tremendous Facebook following, both locally and worldwide," said Didac Lee, Barca's director of new technology.

"Using the Alert platform is a big step forward on multiple fronts and connecting to our fan base at a deeper level is what we're here for."

Barca have the most fans of any sports club on Facebook with 28.3 million clicking on the "Like" button on their page. Spanish rivals Real Madrid are second with 25.9 million, followed by English Premier League club Manchester United in third with 23.5 million.

The Los Angeles Lakers NBA team have 12.5 million fans, while baseball's New York Yankees have 5.3 million.

The new application would be officially unveiled at a news conference in Barcelona on Thursday, MicroStrategy said.