There was an abundance of top-class sport to enjoy and engage with on social media in February.

The return of the League of Ireland, and the GAA season in full swing, records broken by Irish Athletics superstars Rhasidat Adeleke and Israel Olatunde, and a thirteenth consecutive win at the Aviva Stadium for the Men’s Rugby team, February 2023 was a bumper month for the Sport for Business Member Organisations on Social Media.

With over 6,300 posts and 4.28 million engagements to analyse, Olytico’s report highlights some of the key moments from the past sporting month.

By way of comparison, while the number of posts has fallen from a covid inspired high in 2022 of 10,372, the number of engagements has climbed from 3.39 million in 2022 and 2.4 million in 2021.

Are our sporting organisations focusing on quality over quantity to achieve their goals?

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.

 

February 2023 Highlights on Twitter

 

 

Activity on Twitter fell 8% compared to the previous month, however, the 4,488 tweets resulted in 218,860 engagements, an impressive 41.5% increase on January’s outputs, again highlighting the quality question we posed above.

The Ladies Football account was the most active amongst the Sport for Business member organisations, their 596 posts (+44% on January) included the announcement of Kildare’s Róisín Byrne as the LGFA Player of the Month for January, the GAA in second (504, +95%) elected Jarlath Burns as Uachtarán Tofa at their GAA Congress and in third Dublin GAA (407, ~) had Cormac Costello to thank for a last gasp victory for the Senior Footballers against Clare.

 

 

Gymnastics Ireland (15, +1,400%) saw Rhys McClenaghan make the Final of the Pommel at the World Cup in Germany, where he finished in fifth place, Special Olympics Ireland (37, +270%) had their first Badminton event of the year as athletes from KARE and SOCGA took part, and Swim Ireland (122, +107%) celebrated back to back SEC Champ victories for Mona McSharry in the 100m Breaststroke. Swimming for Tennessee, McSharry broke the SEC meet record with a time of 57.25 seconds.

 

 

With an unbeaten start to their Guinness Six Nations campaign, Irish Rugby topped the engagement charts, their 313 posts averaged almost 400 engagements.

Both the Men’s Senior and Men’s U20 teams have impressed, with Sam Prendergast pulling the strings for the U20s. In second, the FAI (238, +53%) welcomed Irish Legend John O’Shea as Ireland Assistant Coach ahead of UEFA EURO 2024 campaign and in third, Munster Rugby (109, +28%) hosted yet another sell-out at Musgrave Park as the Irish U20s defeated France.

 

 

Paralympics Ireland (59, +490%) celebrated the reuniting of Ellen Keane and Gemma Sellick in the pool after the pair first met on Bondi Beach in 2019. Since that first meeting the pair have stayed in touch, as shown in this thread from Ellen’s Twitter feed and the story epitomises the importance of the ‘Can’t see, Can’t be’ campaign.

 

 

The GPA (12, +200%) hosted their Rookies Camp, at which Joanne O’ Riordan provided the inspiration, the Irish League for Wheelchair Rugby took centre stage for IWA-Sport (6, +200%) and Triathlon Ireland (8, +60%) enjoyed James Edgar’s third-place finish at the  Maselspoort Africa Cup in South Africa.

 

Ireland Women’s Cricket topped the  ‘average engagements per 1,000 followers’ metric for Twitter thanks to a dramatic win over world champions Australia in the final warm-up match before T20 World Cup.

 

As the top two teams in the Rugby World rankings faced each other at the Aviva Stadium, Ireland’s victory against France was the most engaged with content for Twitter in February, the full-time tweet generating over 8,600 public engagements to date (link).

 

February 2023 Highlights on Facebook

 

 

Facebook was the only platform this month that saw an increase in activity, the 2,666 posts were a 5% increase compared to January, and the platform saw a massive 65% increase in engagements as they rose to 661,000.

The Ladies Gaelic Football account topped the activity charts with 317 posts published (+36%) as they updated followers on the progress of The Steering Group on Integration (SGI) of Camogie, GAA and the LGFA, the group responsible for managing the integration of the three organisations.

In second, the GAA (306, +51%) showcased this great run and finish by Paudie Clifford (link) with the video generating over 75,000 views to date.

 

And in third, Leinster Rugby (176, -28%) congratulated James Ryan and Andrew Porter on their 50th Irish caps .

The League of Ireland (120, +900%) celebrated as history was made at Mounthawk Park.

Camogie (36, +157%) crowned MTU Cork as the Electric Ireland Third Level Purcell Cup Final Champions  and Rowing Ireland (34, +70%) announced that their 2023 Affiliation process was finally complete, with 99 clubs affiliated (67 senior member clubs, 4 junior member clubs and 28 coastal/offshore only clubs).

The IRFU topped the Facebook engagement charts with an average of 3,849 engagements per post in February, an increase of 106% on the previous month, as Johnny Sexton made his 100th Test start in green.

The FAI in second (472, +31%) enjoyed a Women’s U17 victory against Switzerland thanks to Aoife Kelly’s header and Ulster Rugby in third (468, +26%) featured Ricky Millar and his incredible milestone as he made his 500th appearance for Ballymoney Rugby Club.

The FAI Women’s National League (57, +185%) crowned Athlone Town FC as the President’s Cup 2023 Champions, and Badminton Ireland (88, +110%) celebrated Carol Joy’s success at the Kent U13s Tournament.

Athletics Ireland led the way with 949 engagements per 1,000 followers, their February dominated by the continued success of Rhasidat Adeleke as she broke her own Irish 400m record on her way to winning the Big 12 Conference final in Texas in a time of 50.33 seconds, and Israel Olatunde as he broke the Irish 60m indoor record in a time of 6.57 seconds.

With a Grand Slam on the horizon, the IRFU provided the top content on Facebook for February with their highlights of Ireland’s bonus point win against France, to date the footage has had close to 435,000 views.

 

February 2023 Highlights on Instagram

 

 

Instagram activity fell 5% compared to January with 1,463 posts, however the 3.34 million engagements was an impressive 48% increase on the previous month, with this figure primarily driven by the IRFU’s 1.73 million public engagements.

Two rugby accounts and one football account make up the top three of the activity chart. The IRFU in first (144, +148%) were followed by the League of Ireland (126, +56%) as Bohs scored the first goal of the 2023 SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division season, and the BKT URC     (114, -5%) featured this massive 50:22 from Springbok Morne Steyn on his 150th appearance for the Blue Bulls.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by BKT United Rugby Championship (@urc)

Rowing Ireland (12, +71%) celebrated February’s Volunteer of the Month, Caitríona Mannion of St Josephs RC and Galway RC  and Ireland Lacrosse (8, +60%) introduced their Strategic Plan for 2023 to 2026 entitled ‘Together As One’.

 

 

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A post shared by Ireland Lacrosse (@irelandlacrosse)

The IRFU topped the engagement charts with an average of 12,036 engagements per post, a 51% increase on the previous month – and as excitement builds ahead of the TikTok Women’s Six Nations, Head Coach Greg McWilliams named his 32-player squad for the Championship.

In second, the GAA (5,612, +20%) featured the best imagery from Round 2 of the Allianz Leagues and in third place, the FAI (4,158, -8%) featured this piece of Katie McCabe ‘magic’ from the training ground.

 

 

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A post shared by Ireland Football (@irelandfootball)

Team Ireland (544, +125%) marked 520 days to go to the Paris Olympics 2024 with a photographic account of Paris 2024 Scholar Adam Hession’s ‘Day In The Life’, Canoeing Ireland (66, +69%) featured imagery of great paddling at the Freestyle Team Trials in Limerick as the team prepares for this year’s World Championships in the US, and Hockey Ireland    (438, +29%) celebrated an invitation to join the FIH Pro League from next season.

Taking first place for ‘average engagements per 1000 followers’ for the platform were Athletics Ireland, with an average of 4,227 per 1,000 followers, their top Reel in February looked forward to Israel Olatunde being back in an Irish Vest at the recent European Indoor Championships in Istanbul.

 

Top Instagram content for February came from the IRFU as they celebrated an epic test match win against France at the Aviva Stadium. To date the post has generated over 50,000 public engagements.

 

February 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 ross@olytico.com