With the Women’s FIFA World Cup, the Men’s Rugby World Cup, Solheim and Ryder Cups and a plethora of top class sport to look forward to, 2023 promises to be a bumper year for Irish Sport on Social Media.

With the Guinness Six Nations kicking off it’s no surprise that the IRFU and rugby content features prominently in the analysis, as does Basketball Ireland who topped the charts across all the platforms for ‘average engagements per 1,000 followers’ thanks to the Finals of the National Cups.

January 2023 saw close to 9,000 posts and over 2.85 million engagements generated by the Sport for Business member organisations and provided a number of highlights for Olytico’s analysis.

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 with, and the most engaging content as well as engagements per 1,000 followers.

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.

 

January 2023 Highlights on Twitter

 

 

Activity on Twitter increased during January, the 4,882 tweets were a 32% increase on December, however engagements remained level at just under 200,000 for the platform.

For the second month in a row Connacht Rugby were the most active account, their 467 posts (+27%) included Jack Carty becoming the Province’s all-time leading points scorer. Munster Rugby in second (435, +53%) started the year strongly with victory against Ulster in the URC and in third, the Ladies Football account (413 (+25%) announced unprecedented TV coverage for the Lidl Ladies National Football Leagues.

Ireland Women’s Cricket (158, +732%) thanked their fans as the Women’s team played in the inaugural U19T20 World Cup in South Africa, and Dublin GAA (405, +297%) kicked off their Allianz League campaign with a win against Kildare.

The FAI finished 2022 at the top of the Twitter engagement charts and this continued into 2023 as they averaged 156 engagements per tweet, and featured some outstanding skill from Irish Schoolboy International Eoin Kenny. Irish Rugby in second (121, -5%) remembered this iconic Guinness Six Nations moment from Ronan O’Gara in 2009, and Munster Rugby (85, +33%) completed the top three.

Basketball Ireland topped the ‘average engagements per 1000 followers’ metric as they celebrated Charlie Crowley’s achievement of becoming a National Cup winning head coach at the age of 25.

 


Munster Rugby celebrated the most ‘engaged’ with content for Twitter in January as Clodagh O’Halloran proposed to Chloe Pearse on the pitch at Musgrave Park after victory against Leinster, with their tweet generating over 5,000 likes.

 


 

January 2023 Highlights on Facebook

 

 

Facebook activity increased 21% to 2,529 posts compared to December, as engagements rose 7% to just under 400,000.

Leinster Rugby (246 posts, +59%) topped the activity charts as they continued their unbeaten season with victory against Racing 92 in the Heineken Champions Cup.

Ladies Gaelic Football (233, -14%) in second announced Olivia Divilly from Kilkerrin Clonberne as the December LGFA Player of the Month and Connacht Rugby in third (219, +4%) celebrated over €9,000 being raised as Darragh Murray said goodbye to the mullet.

Cricket Ireland (215, +412%) announced their return to Test Cricket with a tour to Bangladesh in the spring, IWA-Sport (60, +88%) showcased the Rebel Wheelers as they claimed the InsureMyHouse.ie National Cup title and Irish Sailing (27, +59%) appointed Tim Bourke as their new CEO.

 


Irish Rugby (1,867, +407%) topped the average engagements per post chart as they saw the return of the #AldiPlayRugby campaign, Ulster Rugby in second (370, +6%) enjoyed victory against Sale Sharks in European competition and the FAI (360, -38%) celebrated having three underage teams in Europe’s Top 10 rankings.

Continuing their excellent January, Basketball Ireland, with an average of 416 engagements per 1,000 followers topped this metric.

As the focus turns to the Men’s first fixture against Wales, the IRFU’s picture from the 2023 Guinness Six Nations launch proved to be the most engaged with content on the platform, generating close to 5,000 public engagements.

 


January 2023 Highlights on Instagram

 

 

Instagram activity rose 28% compared to December. The 1,547 posts generated 2.25 million engagements (+38%).

Leinster Rugby topped the Instagram activity charts with 144 posts (+95%) as they looked back on Johnny Sexton’s 17 years with the Province along with their top Reel showing a unique angle of Jimmy O’Brien’s try against Racing 92.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby)

In second, Basketball Ireland (135, +214%) saw University of Galway Maree Men become the InsureMyHouse National Cup Champions and in third Connacht Rugby (134, +18%) gave fans a player’s eye view of the walkout to The SportsGround.

Triathlon Ireland (28, +367%) kicked off 2023 with Round 1 of the Duathlon National Series at Galco and Team Ireland (31, +82%) presented Eabha McKenna and Ethan Bouchard as the PTSB Team Ireland Flagbearers for the Winter EYOF Opening Ceremony.

 

 

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A post shared by Team Ireland (@team_ireland_olympic)


The IRFU (7,957, +130%) topped the average engagements per post charts as 2009 and the Grand Slam victory against Wales once again provided the backdrop for top content as Tommy Bowe’s try evoked fond memories for Irish rugby fans.

The GAA (4,661, +130%) showcased some stunning photography from Round 1 of the Allianz Leagues.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Official GAA (@officialgaa)

The FAI (4,509, -22%) released ‘The Making of Chiedozie Ogbene’ – the story of how he became the first African-born player to play for Ireland.

Basketball Ireland (4,430) completed the slam-dunk for ‘average engagements per 100 followers this month as Ireland U16 women’s head coach Laura Mullaly named a 19-strong squad for the upcoming Four Nations Tournament.

Top Instagram content for December came from the IRFU as Andy Farrell announced his squad for the Guinness Six Nations. To date, the post has generated over 350,000 public engagements.

 

January 2023 Engagement Per 1,000 Followers

 

 

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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