August 2025: How the month unfolded on Instagram

The football season in England is well and truly underway now. Teams across all four of the top divisions have played at least three games, and as I write this the transfer window has been closed a little over 24 hours.

This is my first round-up of the season. I'm going to commit to doing these monthly and having a look back at how clubs' use of Instagram is changing across the months. Below you'll find the following:

• How many posts are clubs sending?
• How have their follower counts changed?
• Which teams are getting the most likes and comments?
• Which post formats are most popular?
• And which are the top performing posts in each league?

I'll throw in anything else I find interesting as we go. I'll start with an overview of all four leagues before breaking them down. Let's start.

Across the divisions

Brace yourself. Here's how active the 92 clubs have been on Instagram.

• Number of posts: 16,849 (average of 183 per club).
• Most popular post format: single images, accounting for 44% of all activity.
• Total number of likes: 393,687,298.
• Total followers: 315,865,563.
• Total growth across all clubs: 1,422,235.

Now let's look into the leagues separately in more detail.

Premier League

Starting with the Premier League, here are the headlines:

• Most followed club: Man Utd (64.7m).
• Most new followers: Chelsea (246k).
• Most new followers as a percentage: Sunderland (20.05%).
• Most posts: Spurs (598).
• Least posts: Wolves (101).
• Most posted format: videos (35% of all activity).
• Most likes: Liverpool (110m).
• Highest share of total post interactions: Liverpool (29.2%).
• Format with the most likes: videos (39.5%).

The most liked post in the league this month was Liverpool's video of Dominik Szoboszlai's free kick against Arsenal.

The post with the highest interaction rate (average interactions on posts per follower per day) is Forest's third kit announcement which had a rate of 35%.

Championship

Moving to the Championship, here are the headlines:

• Most followed club: Leicester (7.9m).
• Most new followers: Wrexham (15.7k).
• Most new followers as a percentage: Coventry (4.6%).
• Most posts: Middlesbrough (297).
• Least posts: Birmingham (96).
• Most posted format: single images (41% of activity).
• Most likes: Wrexham (1.6m).
• Highest share of total post interactions: Wrexham (12.6%).
• Format with the most likes: single images (43.3%).

The league's most liked post was this contract announcement for Ipswich's Elkan Baggott.

The post with the highest interaction rate (average interactions on posts per follower per day) is QPR's match day post with Chloe Kelly that had a 34% rate.

League 1

Here's the picture for League 1:

• Most followed club: Luton (396k).
• Most new followers: Luton (1,320).
• Most new followers as a percentage: Stockport (1.81%).
• Most posts: Bradford (292).
• Least posts: Port Vale (29).
• Most posted format: single images (50%).
• Most likes: Luton (434k).
• Highest share of total post interactions: Luton (14.1%).
• Format with the most likes: single images (45.6%).

Northampton Town had the post with the most likes in this league, with this video of Ethan Wheatley's first professional goal. It also had the highest interaction rate (average interactions on posts per follower per day) with a staggering 95%.

League 2

In League 2, here's how things stand on Instagram:

• Most followed club: Salford (289k).
• Most new followers: Grimsby (15.6k).
• Most new followers as a percentage: Grimsby (22.42%).
• Most posts: Bromley (3524.
• Least posts: Grimsby (33).
• Most posted format: single images (54%).
• Most likes: Grimsby (149k).
• Highest share of total post interactions: Salford (19.6%).
• Format with the most likes: single images (50.8%).

Grimsby's growth this month was no doubt fuelled by their win over Man Utd in the League Cup. Their 22.42% growth was the most of any of the 92 clubs, slightly ahead of Sunderland's 20.05% and way ahead of third-placed Coventry's 4.55%.

Their post celebrating their team after the victory was also the league's most liked with 33k. It's a great post that really captures the emotion of the moment. Nothing posed or setup, just a natural dressing room shot.

The post with the highest interaction rate (average interactions on posts per follower per day) is Barnet's sad announcement of the passing of academy player Arash “AJ” Javanmardi.

ICYMI

Bolton hand fans the keys to content

The team at Bolton Wanderers have had a novel idea: give fans access to raw footage to edit and share as much as they like.

They spotted that fans were screen recording posts to make their own content so added it all to Dropbox and posted the link.

The club benefits from free marketing as a result of this. With easy access to high quality video there will likely be more edits made and posted online, furthering their reach. It also helps fans be part of the storytelling, creating stronger bonds by allowing them to join in. It'll also give the team more posts to share.

Man Utd and personalisation

Personalisation is one of the most powerful tools you have for making fans feel invested in your club.

Man Utd's approach is one of the best in the world. They've welcomed me and given me a virtual shirt that I can add my name and chosen number to (left). And, when new shirts are released, they can show you what it'll look like with your name on (right, courtesy of the club's head of CRM Matthew Watts).

If you're launching a shirt you should definitely be thinking about how you can add personalised assets to the reveal. It increases fans' attachment to the shirt and allows them to see what it looks like with their names on.