As many sporting seasons ended, August allowed Cricket and Athletics to shine.

Wins for the Men’s cricket team against Afghanistan, and stellar performances from Ireland’s athletes in the European Championships dominated August’s analysis.

Activity for the month was down 17 per cent compared to July (from 13,500 to 11,319 posts) mainly due to the off seasons for GAA and Rugby, and the total number of engagements fell accordingly (down 37 per cent from 2.97 million to 1.88 million).

Last year’s figure of engagements was 2.7 million in August but that included Olympic and Paralympic action from Tokyo and the conclusion of the All-Ireland Championships in Gaelic Games.

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.

 

August 2022 Highlights on Twitter

 

 

August’s 5,890 tweets were the lowest output for six months, down 14 per cent on the previous month (6,812) and resulted in a 38 per cent decrease in engagements (from 435,804 to 268,595).

The decrease in activity and engagements is linked to rugby’s off-season, with only Connacht, out of the usual table-toppers, featuring in the top ten for activity.

Cricket Ireland topped the activity charts for the first time since January with 617 tweets.

The account’s busiest day came on the 21st of August with over 60 tweets keeping fans up to date with the latest score from the Clear Currency All-Ireland T20 Cup Men’s Final, eventually won by CIYMS Cricket Club.

In second, the SSE Airtricity League account (533,-2 per cent) celebrated Shamrock Rovers’ progress in Europe and the Ladies Football account in third (370, -53 per cent) crowned Antrim Ladies as the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Junior Football Champions, with Cathy Carey the Player of the Match.

In fifth, Basketball Ireland (331, +37 per cent) followed the progress of the U18 Women’s team in Bulgaria as they beat Iceland and Cycling Ireland in sixth (329, +103 per cent) celebrated Ronan Grimes’ World Championship win.

Special mentions to Canoeing Ireland (66,+94 per cent) as Jenny Egan-Simmons won bronze in the World Championship, and Ireland Lacrosse (20, +54 per cent) as the Men’s U21 team played in the World Championship against Puerto Rico.

 


Only four of the top ten accounts ranked by engagement increased their ‘average engagements per tweet’ in August, and with five rugby accounts still in the top ten, despite recording considerable decreases compared to July, this explains the decrease for the platform’s overall figures.

That said, Irish Rugby still topped the engagement chart with an average of 222 engagements per tweet (down 69 per cent on the previous month), as they celebrated a historic win for the Women’s team in Japan.

Athletics Ireland in second (212, +381 per cent) enjoyed an excellent month thanks to success on the track in Munich and the FAI in third (180, -24 per cent) showcased this wonder strike from Luke Casey.

 


Rowing Ireland in 11th (43, +105 per cent) celebrated a number of successes including a Gold for Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy in the LM2x A Final at the European Rowing Championships.

Swim Ireland (35, +45 per cent) celebrated Clare Cryan’s 5th in the 3M Springboard at #Roma22.

Paralympics Ireland (27, +30 per cent) and Cycling Ireland (32, +261 per cent) celebrated two teams on the podium in the World Championship.

Athletics Ireland took first place in the ‘Average Engagements per one thousand followers’ tables with an average of 1,785 engagements per 1,000 followers as well as taking the top Twitter content for the month of August as they celebrated an unheralded 24 hours for the Irish Team in Munich, topped off by Rhasidat Adeleke’s 5th place in her first senior final with a new National Record of 50.53 seconds. The tweet generated close to 3,000 likes and over 250 RTs.

 

August 2022 Highlights on Facebook

 

 

August saw a 28 per cent reduction in the activity on Facebook (from 4,870 to 3,523 posts) and with it a 27 per cent decrease in engagements (from 1,050,829 to 772,173).

As they had done on Twitter, Cricket Ireland topped the Facebook activity charts with 511 posts an increase of 12 per cent on the previous month. Their most engaged with post celebrated their T20 Series win over Afghanistan.

In second, the League of Ireland account’s (409, +3 per cent) top post congratulated Shamrock Rovers on reaching the Group Stages of European competition and Athletics Ireland finished in third (331, -6 per cent).

Athletics Ireland’s 331 posts led them to the top of the engagement podium for the very first time with an average of 519 engagements per post, as Israel Olatunde and Rhasidat Adeleke took centre stage at #Munich22.

Cricket Ireland (460, +20 per cent) were in second, with Irish Rugby (444, -95 per cent) in third.

Camogie (123, +191 per cent) congratulated sisters Molly and Lucy Lynch from Sarsfields Camogie Club in Cork on winning the All Ireland Poc Fada titles.

Molly successfully defended her All Ireland Senior Poc Fada title while her sister, Lucy, won the U16 All Ireland title; and Volleyball Ireland (26, +75 per cent) enjoyed success in Wales, as their junior beach squads bought back bronze medals.

 


Following their success on Twitter, Athletics Ireland topped the ‘average engagements per 1,000 followers’ metric with 2,962 engagements per 1,000 followers, with Cycling Ireland (1,097, +310 per cent) and Hockey Ireland (797, -11 per cent) in third.

The top Facebook content for August came from Cricket Ireland, with their simple ‘Yes!’ post celebrating success against Afghanistan generating an incredible 30,000 public engagements to date.

 

 

August 2022 Highlights on Instagram

 

 

August’s 1,726 posts (a 5 per cent decrease on July’s 1,818 posts) resulted in 1,882,007 engagements for the platform.

The League of Ireland topped the activity charts for the second month in a row with 392 posts, a 7 per cent increase on their previous month’s output. Athletics Ireland followed in second with 190 posts and Cricket Ireland (95, -37 per cent) were in third.

Horse Sport Ireland (55, +150 per cent) kept everyone up to date from the Dublin Horse Show as Mike Pender won the Land Rover Puissance with Hearton Du Bois Halleux and Ireland won the Aga Khan Trophy.

Gymnastics Ireland (35, +94 per cent) competed at the European Championships in Munich as Halle Hilton finished 38th and teammate Emma Slevin placed 48th in the All-Around event. Team Ireland finished 19th overall in the team event.

Vision Sports Ireland (28, +133 per cent) launched their ‘Come and Try’ event in conjunction with Triathlon Ireland in Athlone.

 


The GAA topped the engagement charts with an average of 6,044 engagements per post, an increase of 69 per cent on the previous month.

The FAI followed in second (2,855, +14 per cent) as goals from Luke Casey and Eoin Murphy secured a memorable 2-1 victory over Wales, with Dublin GAA (1,801, -12 per cent) in third as they announced a new two-year term for Dessie Farrell.

Horse Racing Ireland (759, +85 per cent) celebrated Little Big Bear winning the Phoenix Stakes and Triathlon Ireland (239, +176 per cent) showcased a weekend of triathlon in Youghal.

Completing a hat-trick of golds, Athletics Ireland topped the ‘Average Engagements per 1,000 followers’ charts, with 12,699 engagements per 1,000 followers as Israel Olatunde finished sixth in Europe with a new Irish 100 M record of 10.17 seconds.

The most engaged with Instagram post for August came from the GAA as they remembered Tipperary’s Dillon Quirke, and sent sympathies to his friends and family.

 

August 2022 Engagement Per 1,000 Followers

 

 

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