article_snippet: Popularity has been measured by combined followings on Facebook and Twitter - the two biggest social media platforms, used by more than a billion people - while wealth has been measured by income in the most recently completed season, namely 2013-14.
article_snippet: Manchester United are closing in on five million followers on social media site Twitter .
article_snippet: Manchester United have also attracted a staggering 63 million likes on Facebook .
article_snippet: At the other end of the scale, Northampton Town have fewer than 30,000 followers on Twitter .
article_snippet: Manchester United were slower than most clubs in embracing social media, not setting up an official Facebook page until 2010 and only starting an official Twitter account in 2012.
article_snippet: But with a following now of more than 70 million people across those two platforms, Manchester United are way ahead of Chelsea in second place (47m), Arsenal (38m), Liverpool (30m) and City (21m).
article_snippet: ‘followers’ on official social network platforms.
article_snippet: No other teams have as many as two million, although every club in the country now has an official Facebook and Twitter presence and all clubs have at least tens of thousands of followers on these sites.
article_snippet: ‘Big’ clubs almost by definition will have lots of supporters of one kind or another; increasingly these are spread around the world, fans whose primary engagement with the teams these follow being via television and the internet.
article_snippet: It is notable how significant membership or recent membership of Premier League appears to be in influencing the number of social media followers.
highlights_snippet: Manchester United have almost 25 million more followers than the next club Chelsea .
  