As we look forward to the Olympics and Paralympics starting later this month, our look back at June reveals a busy month for the Sport for Business member organisations. With over 9,000 posts, 2.7 million engagements and a busy schedule of activity, June’s analysis points towards an exciting time for Irish sport.

If we look back twelve months we find that the equivalent numbers were as low as 5,320 posts and 1.1 million engagements, a reflection of how quiet things had become and how high we have bounced back.

Olytico analysed the performance of 30 members of Sport for Business in June. Collectively, they published over 9,000 posts across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The 9,221 posts analysed (an 11 per cent increase on the previous month) generated 2,716,836 engagements (+34 per cent) in the form of likes, shares, comments, and retweets.

Twitter activity increased 21 per cent and Instagram posts increased 20 per cent whilst Facebook saw a 6 per cent reduction in activity.

With the increased activity on Instagram, it is unsurprising that Twitter’s share of engagement fell one per cent (to 11 per cent overall), Facebook’s share of engagement fell two per cent (to 14 per cent overall) whilst Instagram’s share rose four per cent to 76 per cent overall.

In the infographics below, we have ranked each of the organisations across a range of metrics on each network, including the most active, the most engaged, and the most engaging content.

It is important to note that this analysis is based on publicly available data. It does not include any analysis or insight on paid or promoted content. When % figures are used (unless otherwise stated), they refer to the previous month’s figures.

 

June 2021 Highlights on Twitter

 

 

Over 5,180 tweets were sent by member organisations in June, a 21 per cent increase on the previous month (from 4,301 to 5,189) which resulted in a 20 per cent increase in engagements for the platform (from 240,993 to 288,258).

Cricket Ireland topped the Twitter activity charts for the first time, their 769 tweets (+64 per cent) smashing their previous record of 429 set in September 2020.

Their busiest day on Twitter involved keeping fans up to date from the #IP2021 on 27th June.

Ladies Football, dropping one place to second (622 tweets, +26 per cent) focused their activity around the weekend of 12th June as they live-streamed 7 games from across the Lidl National Leagues.

The top three was completed by the GAA with 463 tweets (-1 per cent) bringing updates from the #AllianzLeagues.

Special mentions are merited for the Camogie Association in 8th place (233 tweets, +288 per cent) as they celebrated crowning Kilkenny as the Division 1 League Champions and showing their support for Pride Month.

 

 

And also for Athletics Ireland in 9th (221 tweets, +211 per cent) who kept everyone abreast of the action from the Irish Life National Senior Track and Field Championships.

The FAI continued their dominance of Twitter engagements with an average of 435 engagements per post (+15 per cent), with Irish Rugby (148, +22 per cent) and Munster Rugby (122, +53 per cent) in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Paralympics Ireland reached their highest ever position of 7th (56, +138 per cent) as they celebrated Niamh McCarthy winning gold for Ireland at the World Para Athletics European Championships.

 

 

Irish Hockey in 9th (44, +14 per cent) announced the 16 players that will be representing Ireland at the Olympics and will be travelling to Tokyo with a spring in their step after Deirdre Duke’s goal against England was named the #EHC2021 Women’s Goal of the Tournament.

The most engaged with Twitter content for May came from the FAI as they sent their thoughts and prayers to Christian Eriksen, his family, the Danish team and their supporters after the Dane collapsed on the pitch whilst playing for Denmark against Finland on the opening weekend of Euro 2020, the tweet generating close to 20,000 engagements.

 

 

June 2021 Highlights on Facebook

 

 

Facebook activity decreased six per cent in June (from 2,889 to 2,717 posts). However this must be viewed in the context of a bumper previous month, as the 2,717 posts equate to the second-highest ever monthly total.

Engagements rose 17 per cent (from 316,770 to 370,058), the platform’s highest total since November 2020 and due in part to the FAI (+64 per cent) and IRFU (+550 per cent) having active months on the platform.

For the second month in a row, Cricket Ireland topped the Facebook activity charts with 380 posts (-17 per cent), with the GAA in 2nd (363, -10 per cent) and Athletics Ireland (235, +126 per cent) in 3rd.

Badminton Ireland in 13th (68, +39 per cent) celebrated Rachael Darragh’s silver medal at the Lithuanian International and Nhat Nguyen’s Qualification for the Olympics.

 

Golf Ireland (60, +186 per cent) announced their team for the European Amateur Team Championships in Northern Ireland (Women’s) and Spain (Men’s)  and Irish Sailing announced that Annalise Murphy, Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove would be representing Ireland at #Tokyo2020.

Irish Rugby continued to top the overall Facebook engagement charts with an average of 584 interactions (likes, shares and comments) per post (+six per cent), holding off the FAI yet again (528, +30 per cent) and a new entrant into the Top 3.

For the first time Paralympics Ireland (408, +500 per cent) have entered the top three – thanks to the success of Niamh McCarthy, Katie-George Dunlevy and Even McCrystal winning silver in the 33.6km Time Trial at the Para-Cycling Road World Championships (link) and Greta Streimikyte winning gold in the T13 1500m European Championships (link) the account generated an impressive 8,800+ reactions, 230+ comments and 350+ shares throughout June.

 

The IRFU’s post congratulating Munster’s Conor Murray on the British and Irish Lions captaincy, proved to be the most engaged with post on the platform in May, generating close to 11,000 reactions, 330+ comments and the post was shared on over 400 occasions. The IRFU’s most shared Facebook content came from the Irish Men’s 7s Team qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics – this post was shared just over 450 times.

 

June 2021 Highlights on Instagram

 

 

Instagram bounced back from a dip last month to record a 20 per cent increase in posts, and the second-highest monthly total ever (up from 1,099 to 1,315) and a resulting 40 per cent increase in engagements (from 1.47 million to 2.06 million).

As the IRFU prepared for the U20 6 Nations, Summer Tests against Japan and U.S.A. and the Olympics, they topped the Instagram activity charts (148, +85 per cent), Cricket Ireland fell one place (132, -16 per cent) and the FAI completed the top three (108, +120 per cent).

For the second month in a row, there was no change in the engagement charts with Irish Rugby (5,167, +18 per cent) keeping the FAI (4,851, +14 per cent) and the GAA (4,038, +38 per cent) at bay.

The FAI’s most engaged with Instagram post celebrated the debut of Chiedozie Ogbenere, the first African-born player to play for Ireland, and generated over 26,000 engagements (likes and comments).

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by FAIreland (@faireland)

The Ladies Gaelic Football Assoc (10th place with 626, +17 per cent) highlighted this wonder goal from Armagh’s Blaithin Mackin against Monaghan, and this was their most engaged with content in June, generating over 3,000 interactions.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by FAIreland (@faireland)

The top Instagram post for June generated over 27,400 likes and comments, as the IRFU congratulated Conor Murray on becoming the third Munster man to Captain the British and Irish Lions after Paul O’Connell (2009) and Peter O’Mahony (2017).

 

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If you would like to be part of the Sport for Business community and be added to the list, email us today and let’s see what is possible. If you would like a more detailed analysis of your social media activity, contact stephen@olytico.com

 

Olytico and the sporting organisations featured here are among more than 250+ members of the Sport for Business network of sporting and business organisations working together across a number of key areas.

 

Sport for Business Partners