This weekend sees the Women’s Super League return as a winter league for the first time in its history, switching from playing summer soccer this autumn.

That in itself is exciting news for fans of women’s football, but perhaps the most exciting part is the league’s use of social media to promote its game.

Don't forget we've got a LIVE #FAWSL game for you to watch on Sunday.

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— The FA WSL (@FAWSL) September 23, 2017

The FA will show some live games on its Facebook page, as well as having games broadcast by partners at the BBC and BT Sport, in an exciting development. Facebook live-streaming is becoming a more common place to watch live sport, but it’s also a medium which can allow emerging sports who are growing their fan base – like the WSL – to get their product in front of more people and hopefully gain plenty of new followers. It’s a clever digital strategy aiming to boost the sport’s popularity among both spectators and grassroots participants.

The WSL isn’t the only footballing organisation to attempt something new in a drive to engage with its fans, though. The Premier League might be the big player, but there’s a whole world of football out there beyond that, and it’s each club’s duty to make sure that fans want to watch. For many lower league clubs, though, that’s not about enhancing the TV coverage or creating access to live streams, but making sure the matchday experience in the stadium is a draw in itself.

League One side Blackpool have experimented with an augmented reality strand to their matchday programme, bringing new technology to the staple of weekend football matches. Whereas the programme always represented a way to stay up to date with the club and would be a piece of media for fans to consume, these days all that information is online, from publishers and websites who provide the articles, interviews and insights, to the club’s Twitter feed which updates fans on the latest goings on. Getting a programme is still a huge part of going to a game for many fans, but with a section that brings highlights and great goals to live via your phone screen and through innovative use of AR, matchday can be more than just a relic of a sadly lost time and become very relevant again very quickly.

Engaging with your fans shouldn’t stop at matchday, though, everyone would agree that the conversation should never stop. And being part of that conversation is also about understanding what fans are talking about. More often than not, the media fans are consuming isn’t coming directly from the club but from various other media outlets. No one watches games in isolation. The storyline and the ability to have an opinion on what’s happening is just as important. This week, the Arizona Cardinals proved that they’re in touch with their followers with a very neat infographic featuring line backer Chandler Jones and literally all the information you need to follow the team this weekend.

Game info for #DALvsAZ. pic.twitter.com/mGBDPgmgN8

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) September 21, 2017

Not only did it give fans handy stats ahead of their game against the Dallas Cowboys, but it also outlined the times and channels where fans can access all the talkshow previews on various media outlets around the game, both on TV, radio and on social media live-streams – and, of course, information on the all important kick-off time and the channel to watch the game on. Everything you need.

No weekly wrap would be complete, however, without mention of the soap opera circus that never stops, the Premier League. This week, Manchester United executive Vice President, Ed Woodward, predicted that Amazon and Facebook would join the bidding process for access to media rights.

Given the landscape, and the fact that Twitter, Amazon and Facebook seem to be taking part in an arms race to buy up as many live sports rights as possible, that doesn’t seem to be a particularly outlandish prediction, even if either platform actually landing a Premier League package in the next cycle would be a massive coup indeed.