With more individual success for Ireland’s athletes on the track, in the pool and on the bike in Italy, Olympic qualification for the Women’s 7s team, and a first league title since 2011 for Munster Rugby, May’s Sport for Business Irish Sport on Social Media analysis from Olytico reflects a golden month for Irish sport on social media.

With close to 11,000 posts and 4 million engagements across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and a further 6.5 million views on TikTok, the member organisations of Sport for Business continue to deliver month on month.

As we continue to develop our TikTok analysis, Olytico have analysed over 1,200 TikTok videos which have generated over 3.5 million engagements and a staggering 52.5 million views in the three-month period to date.

We will expand this further with a special event in the Autumn to learn more about the medium and watch out as well over the summer for a new Sport for Business Podcast series with some of those behind the accounts.

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 where possible.

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.

 

May 2023 Highlights on Twitter

 

 

Activity on Twitter fell slightly during May, however the 6,022 tweets resulted in 357,028 engagements, a 15% increase on the previous month.

The GAA topped the activity charts, their 804 posts was a 5% increase on April, their top content having over 250,000 views to date, saw David Clifford lifting the Munster Senior Football Championship.

 


In second, Dublin GAA (633, -26%) claimed the Leinster Football Championship, and completing the hat-trick for Gaelic Games, the Ladies Football account (488, +8%) brought us the highlights from the Lidl Team of the League Awards with Charlene Tyrell.

 


Ireland Women’s Cricket (133, +343%) kept fans up to date with the #SuperSeries23, Rowing Ireland (67, +235%) congratulated UCC’s Dr O’Donovan and Vision Sports Ireland (55, +244%) held the first vision impaired rugby game to be held in Ireland.

 

Munster Rugby, with an average of 297 engagements per tweet topped the engagement charts as they won URC silverware on South African soil, Ireland Football (200, -43%) featured wholesome content from the #U17EURO as Romeo Akachukwu got his hugs at full-time, and Irish Rugby (184, +77%) have France 2024 to look forward to, thanks to the Women’s 7s team.

 


Cycling Ireland (25, +257%) celebrated success at the Giro D’Italia as Ben Healy became the youngest Irish rider to win a Grand Tour stage since Sean Kelly, and Pentathlon Ireland (17, +113%) congratulated Sive Brassil and Hanna D’Aughton who finished 6th & 18th respectively at the German Championships.

A special mention to Swim Ireland (36, +16%) as Mona McSharry set a new Irish Record in the 200m Breaststroke at the Glasgow International, the Women’s Irish Water Polo won the Home Nations Championship and the governing body unveiled the #Dublin2023 logo to mark 100 days to go until the LEN European U23 Championships in Dublin.

 


Not a month goes by without Irish track superstar Rhasidat Adeleke setting a new record  and in May Athletics Ireland (135, +57%) had more success to celebrate as Ciara Mageean broke the Irish national 800m record.

The LOI Women’s account (608) topped the ‘average engagements per 1,000 followers’ metric as this stunning strike from Sarah Rowe extended Boh’s lead against Athlone and has been viewed over 50,000 times to date.

 

 

Unsurprisingly Munster’s URC success was the most engaged with content for Twitter in May, with this full-time celebratory tweet generating over 8,300 public engagements.

 


May 2023 Highlights on Facebook

 

 

Facebook activity in May fell 11% to 2,929 posts, resulting in 575,669 engagements (-8% on April).

The GAA (466, -10%) topped the activity charts for the second month in a row as they crowned Kerry as the Munster Senior Football Champions for 2023.

Cricket Ireland (316, +76%) contested a close Series with Bangladesh and the Ladies Gaelic Football account (218, -24%) remembered Didi O’Sullivan of Southern Gaels Ladies Football Club.

Paralympics Ireland (11, +100%) highlighted outstanding breakthrough performances by Shauna Bocquet in Switzerland which included PBs in the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500m events. Ireland Lacrosse (11, +120%) celebrated a successful weekend at the Heritage Cup as the Men’s Team, U15 and U13 teams came away with medals, and the FAI (67, +76%) remembered this wonder strike from Ronnie Whelan against the USSR at Euro 88.

 


The IRFU (2,078, +160%) topped the Facebook engagement charts for the fourth month in a row as they celebrated the Ireland Women’s Sevens squad making history by securing their maiden Olympic qualification for Paris 2024.

Special Olympics Ireland (747, +846%) looked back fondly as the Special Olympics took over Croke Park 20 years ago, as they held an event at the venue which saw over one hundred supporters abseiling to raise money to support Team Ireland at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin later this year.

The FAI finished the month in third with an average of 583 engagements per post, an increase of 13% on April.

The URC (419) finished their season on a high, topping the average engagements per 1000 followers metric for Facebook with this piece of content from South Africa, which saw Stormers’ coach John Dobson’s mother presenting him with the URC Trophy Crown.

Cricket Ireland’s Bangladesh Series post took the top post for May receiving over 30,000 public engagements to date.

 

May 2023 Highlights on Instagram

 

 

Instagram activity rose 2.5% to 1,984 posts in May and these posts resulted in 2.98 million engagements, an 11% increase on the previous month.

The League of Ireland continued their impressive level of output, topping the activity charts for the third month in a row with 338 posts, a 9% increase on April as they highlighted this stunning free-kick from Bohemians’ Jordan Flores.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by League of Ireland (@leagueofireland)


The BKT URC (157, +51%) saw Jack Crowley book Munster’s spot in the Grand Final with a late drop goal to beat Leinster at the Aviva, and Munster Rugby claimed third spot with 127 posts (+65%).

Golf Ireland (116, +383%) caught the special moment England’s John Gough met friends and family after becoming the FloGas Irish Men’s Amateur Open Champion, and with Katie Taylor back fighting in Ireland, Team Ireland (26, +225%) took a visual look back through her career highlights.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Team Ireland (@team_ireland_olympic)


Rowing Ireland (24, +200%) kept fans up to date with the latest results from the European Championships and IWA-Sport (23, +156%) launched a new Handcycling Initiative in County Meath as part of National Bike Week.

Irish Rugby (5,567, +24%) topped the average engagements per post chart as Andy Farrell named his Summer squad as we celebrated 100 days to go until the Rugby World Cup starts in France. In second, the GAA (4,992, +49%) launched the 2023 Tailteann Cup, and in third Ireland Football (4,920, +28%) saw their U17 squad start their #U17EURO campaign, which ultimately ended in defeat in the Quarter Final to an impressive Spanish side.

The Northern Ireland National Team account (1,440, +75%) remembered what could have been for George Best against England, with fans still debating whether this goal should or should not have counted.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Northern Ireland (@northernireland)

Canoeing Ireland (87, +67%) congratulated all those who took part in the Liffey descent and the Camogie Association (484, +60%) hosted the Electric Ireland Minor A Shield and Minor A All-Ireland Finals at UPMC Nowlan Park.

Success on the field led to success on social media as Munster topped the ‘average engagements per 1000 followers’ metric as well as producing the top content for May – the post of Peter O’Mahony and Keith Earls lifting the URC trophy has generated over 22,000 public engagements to date.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Munster Rugby (@munsterrugby)


May 2023 Highlights on TikTok

 

 

279 TikToks were posted by member organisations during May, a 39% decrease on April. These posts generated 583,000 engagements and 6.54 million views (39% and 63% decreases respectively).

As their season reached a climax in South Africa, the URC topped the activity charts once more with 80 posts (-63%) bringing us behind the scenes of the Grand Final and the Stormers’ Hacjivah Dayimani’s post-match scenes with fans.

In second, Leinster Rugby (40, -40%) were prepping for their Heineken Champions Cup Final and in third, Connacht Rugby (26) celebrated Mack Hansen’s try against South Africa winning Try of the Year at the Rugby Players Ireland Awards.

 

@connachtrugby Mack Hansen wins Try of the Year at the Rugby Players Ireland awards 🟢🦅 Mack’s finish against South Africa back in November ☘️ #ConnachtRugby #Ireland #IrishRugby #MackHansen #Try #Finish #Score #Award #SouthAfrica #foryoupage ♬ Jericho – Iniko


When ranked by average engagement per post, the Ireland Football account (13,454) came top for the third month in a row. Munster’s post Grand Final win rendition of ‘Zombie’ saw them finish in second with an average of 4,313 engagements per TikTok and the URC finished the month in third with 3,035 engagements per post.

 

@munsterrugby Your #URC champions, Munster 🥳 #MunsterRugby #Rugby #Fyp #foryoupage ♬ original sound – MunsterRugby


Ireland Football generated seven out of the top ten pieces of content on the platform. With the Men’s U15 and U17 teams in competitive action the FAI capitalised on the platform’s audience profile generating 1.27 million views for the month – and in the process taking the top content for May with the goals and celebrations after the Ireland MU15s beat Italy 2-1 to claim the Torneo delle Nazioni trophy, with close to 250,000 views and over 40,000 public engagements.

 

@ireland The goals…the scenes 😍 Ireland MU15s beat Italy 2-1 and claim the Torneo delle Nazioni trophy 🇮🇪🏆 #Ireland #IRLU15 #COYBIG ♬ original sound – Ireland


May 2023 Engagement Per 1,000 Followers

 

 

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