Like it or not, social media is changing football in many different ways.Supporters now have a much more powerful voice than ever before thanks to platforms like Facebook and Twitter.They can also interact with players in a way that simply wasn’t possible as recently as 10 years ago.It’s now impossible for football clubs to ignore what is being said on social media.You have to assume that managers have lost their jobs and players have been signed as a direct result of what the general fan consensus is on these platforms.

Social media is here to stay and will only become more influential moving forwards.

And West Ham are embracing this change by becoming the first Premier League club to partner with a mobile app which allows fans to vote on selected club decisions.

It may sound like football is turning into X-Factor - giving fans the power to decide things like team selection, etc - but we’re not at that stage just yet.

Instead, Hammers supporters will have the opportunity to decide ‘soft issues’, such as voting for the Man of the Match in certain matches and to determine which players television cameras focus on during warm-ups.

Supporters will also be able to take part in exclusive polls and share their opinions if they purchase ‘fan tokens’ from the start of next season.

The mobile app in question has been produced by Socios.com, a blockchain-based fan engagement platform, who have made similar agreements with European giants Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.

“West Ham United's presence on Socios.com's state-of-the-art platform will further give us the ability to interact and get direct feedback in real-time from our global fanbase which will be important to our future fan engagement strategy,” West Ham digital and commercial director Karim Virani said in a statement, per the Daily Mail.

“We're very excited about the possibilities Socios.com offers us to give fans the best experience possible, whether they live within a mile of the stadium or thousands of miles away.”

Fans can increase their influence by purchasing more tokens, while the value of the tokens will fluctuate based on market demands.

Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO and founder of Socios.com, expects to work with other Premier League clubs in the future.

“Having a club like West Ham adopt fan voting is a big step in realising our goal of building the world's biggest global football community and marketplace for football fans, alongside demonstrating that blockchain and cryptocurrency is the trusted technology of the mainstream,” he said.

“We will be announcing more European partners very soon, with more Premier League clubs set to follow West Ham's lead in creating the best-in-class fan engagement.”