Behind the Scenes at Bournemouth Poppies: Giancarlo Bocchetti

Non-League clubs need a variety of people behind the scenes to keep operations running smoothly.

With building up a club’s brand online being of huge importance, Buzz spoke to Bournemouth Poppies’
Social Media Manager Giancarlo Bocchetti to find out about his role at the club.

It was back in 2017 that Bocchetti became involved with the Wessex Premier League side, after
taking driving lessons from Bournemouth Poppies manager Leo Cabeleira, and here to two built up professional relationship.

“I told him about my background, what I used to do back in my country of Venezuela,” Bocchetti said.
“We spoke about that. He said what kind of experience do I have, and I explained about the projects
I did back then.

“He was quite excited to hear about the stories, the people I had the opportunity to get to know. You always have these possibilities and professions that life will bring you chances.”

From those conversations Bocchetti was appointed Social Media Manager, and had a lot of work to
do to set up profiles on various different sites.
“Everything had to be built from scratch,” he said. “Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, every single media channel, so it was quite a difficult job at the beginning.”

Building Up the Brand

Since then, Bocchetti has grown the club’s social media presence, taking on a lot of responsibilities in
the process.

“Because it’s a small club you try to put as much content as you can, [whilst] obviously linking up
with responsibilities in your daily life,” he said. “You have to be at the games on time, do photography, doing interviews, taking videos, running the social media on different levels.
“Sometimes we obviously need a pair of extra hands. People from Bournemouth University [have] helped us out in the last couple of years, bringing really nice people such as Josh [Hurwood], Dan
[Davis], yourself Carlo [Simone] and Ross [Millen].

“It’s been quite a bit of an adventure, obviously [working] with students and people who are
everyday trying to look and learn from [the experience].
“At the same time you guys have the chance of learning at bigger clubs [such] as AFC Bournemouth,
so it’s fantastic to work together on a single project,” he added.

A notable achievement the Poppies have made on social media thanks to Bocchetti’s guiding hand, is
through their Twitter. From June 2019 to June 2020 their Twitter account gained 1,050 followers,
more than any other club in the Wessex Premier League in the same time period. It’s something
Bocchetti is extremely proud of.

“During the last season we received a nomination from the League [for] being the club with more
people following within weeks and months” he said.
“It’s something that is difficult to achieve, but when you start believing in something you start doing
things in a different way to the others.
“In order for you to grow you have to do something different from the others, and if that includes
quality in your images, quality in your content, quality in the things that you do then everything will
become more enjoyable, and it’s something your audience will enjoy.

“Even though it is still a small club there’s so much potential within this organisation, the club, the
guys and everyone involved in this project.”

A Varied Career

Before Bocchetti joined the Poppies he had had an eclectic career that had helped prepare him for
his future responsibilities.
In 2017 he was working as a quality adviser for a financial company in Ringwood, and currently
works in the fields of expertise and delivering for Amazon.

Bocchetti had a number of journalistic opportunities before getting to know Cabeleira that helped shape
his experience: “I had the opportunity to be contacted by other media sources from Italy such as TuttoNapoli.net
[and] other websites which asked me to cover the Napoli team when they came over here to play
against AFC Bournemouth, or Real Madrid when they came over here,” he said.
“Back in 2014 I had an opportunity to cover the Emirates Cup, and it’s quite a bit of an adventure.
It’s quite exciting to be amongst the best people covering the media and it’s very enjoyable,” he
added.

Looking Forwards

Whilst Bocchetti has done a lot to improve Bournemouth Poppies’ social media presence there are
still areas in which he feels there could be improvement.
“I wish our YouTube channel could have more content on that,” he said. “I know our plans are to have a YouTube television or something [so] that the experience can be greater for the people who are watching.

“Sometimes in order to do this sort of thing you obviously need equipment and investment, and it’s difficult because behind all of this there has to be an investment and most of the time we are just individuals putting in extra effort without getting anything back. “I’ll also say to have a good podcast, which we used to have when Ross [Millen] was around with us, and trying to add to other areas of social media,” he added.

With the Covid-19 pandemic having brought an earlier end to the season, Bocchetti is looking
forward to the next campaign as the Poppies seek to put in improved displays. They were third from
bottom before the season was voided.

“We know how last season ended, and obviously we all miss the old days,” he said. “But I know at the club we are all looking forward to do the best we can, to learn from our previous mistakes.

“Obviously it’s up to the management to look for where those areas of improvement are, and I’ll
definitely be looking forward to next season as it’ll be another adventure,” he added.

Follow the Bournemouth Poppies’ Twitter account @O_BournemouthFC