In January 2021, across the Sport for Business member organisations, engagements rose 10 per cent compared to December 2020, coming in at just over 2 million in total.
The impact of Covid can be seen clearly however in the fact that activity for January 2021 was 28 per cent down on the corresponding period last year, pre-Covid, pre-lockdown and when access to sporting facilities and live sport were still part of everyday life.
We are hopeful the return to sporting normality is edging ever closer, and with high-profile fixtures to look forward to over the next few weeks and months, we expect a steady rise in activity and engagements across the three main social media platforms.
Olytico analysed the performance of 31 members of Sport for Business and collectively they published over 5,600 posts across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The 5,607 posts analysed (a decrease of 14 per cent on December) generated over 2 million engagements in the form of likes, shares, comments, and retweets.
January 2021 also saw a significant reduction in activity across all three of the main platforms for the second month in a row.
Facebook saw the largest decrease, with the number of posts falling 15 per cent compared to December (to just over 1,750), and whilst still the most utilised platform, the number of tweets fell 13 per cent (to just over 3,000 in total), and Instagram activity fell by 14 per cent (to just over 800 posts).
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.
January 2021 Highlights on Twitter
Over 3,000 tweets were sent by member organisations in January, down 13 per cent on the previous month; however, this was not reflected in the number of engagements which rose over 31 per cent compared to December.
January saw Twitter’s overall share of engagement rise 2% to 10% overall.
With no GAA action in January (a key reason for the overall decrease in activity on the channel), Leinster Rugby rose to the top of the Twitter activity charts for the first time in over 12 months.
Their 461 tweets was an increase of 43 per cent on December’s output. They were joined in the Top 3 by Cricket Ireland (366 tweets) thanks to the coverage of their ODI series against Afghanistan, a series they ultimately lost but noticeable for seeing Paul Sterling overtake William Porterfield to become Ireland’s all-time leading run-scorer across all formats of the game.
Leinster and Cricket Ireland were joined in the top three by Munster Rugby with 326 tweets (an increase of 27 per cent on December’s activity). The Leinster v Munster Guinness PRO14 matchday on 23rd January accounted for 131 tweets from the sides (68 from Leinster and 63 from Munster) and Leinster’s full-time tweet provided the Province with their most engaged with tweet across January.
Special mention to Basketball Ireland whose ‘Mind Your Mental Health’ week programme of activity, in aid of Jigsaw and Aware, saw their activity rise by 19 per cent in January (108 tweets compared to 91 in December)
9 out of the top 10 accounts ranked via engagements increased their average number of engagements per post compared to last month.
This was a key contributing factor to Twitter’s 31 per cent increase in engagements throughout January (149,540 to 196, 133 overall).
There was no change in the top three with the FAI on top with an average of 222 engagements per tweet, holding off Irish Rugby (with an average of 158 engagements per tweet) and Munster Rugby (averaging 87 engagements per tweet).
It was the FAI’s ‘Happy Birthday’ tweet to Robbie Brady with the inclusion of footage of his famous header to claim victory for the Republic of Ireland against Italy in Euro 2016 which claimed the top spot for most engaged with Twitter content in January. The tweet generated over 2,400 likes and was shared on close to 300 occasions, the content has now been viewed over 400,000 times on the FAI’s platforms.
January 2021 Highlights on Facebook
Facebook activity fell for the second month in a row and decreased from December with a 15 per cent reduction in posts (from 2,065 to 1,755).
However, the platform saw its engagements increase by 43 per cent (from 232,165 to 332,729) the biggest % increase across all the platforms this month.
As with Twitter, the Facebook activity charts were topped by Leinster (271 posts, an increase of 12 per cent) and Cricket Ireland with 259 posts.
The GAA slipped to third with 193 posts. This is the first time in over 12 months that the GAA has not been at the forefront of Facebook activity.
Of the 31 accounts analysed only 6 Sport for Business member organisations increased their activity on Facebook compared to the previous month.
These were Leinster Rugby and Cricket Ireland (detailed above), Ulster Rugby (up 25 per cent from 118 to 147 posts), Basketball Ireland (up 35 per cent from 55 to 74 posts), Canoeing Ireland as they launched their ‘Coach Connect’ community (up 40 per cent from 30 to 42 posts) and Irish Sailing (up 10 per cent from 29 to 32 posts).
The Athletics community paid their respects and celebrated the life of Olympian Jerry Kiernan. Kiernan competed in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984, where he finished 9th in the Marathon. He also coached many of Ireland’s top athletes, including Ciara Mageean and John Travers.
Irish Rugby kept their top spot for Facebook engagements, with an average of 683 engagements per post (up 26 per cent on December), and Cricket Ireland rose from 6th to their highest ever position of second in the engagement tables with an average of 570 engagements per post. Connacht stayed in third place despite increasing their average engagements per post by 49 per cent (from 220 to 327 per post) with their victory away to Leinster providing their most engaged with content.
Irish Rugby announcing Paul O’Connell was to join Andy Farrell’s coaching team ahead of the Guinness 6 Nations was the most popular Facebook content across the Sport for Business Members during December enjoying over 4,700 reactions, 340+ comments with the post being shared on more than 220 occasions.
January 2021 Highlights on Instagram
Instagram has seen a reduction in posts on the platform for the second month in a row, a 14 per cent decrease in January (down from 943 to 808 posts) following a similar decrease in December.
This trend has led to a 5 per cent fall in Instagram’s share of engagement from 79 per cent to 74 per cent, the platform’s lowest share since September 2020. This fall in share is relative and has to be viewed in context of the platform’s overall recent success; even with fewer posts, Instagram delivered 1.48 million engagements in January 2021 (up 2 per cent) reflecting the demand for quality content.
Leinster Rugby top the Instagram activity charts for the third month in a row with 136 posts, and it completes an impressive month for the Province with a hat-trick across the three platforms. They were joined in the top three by Cricket Ireland (themselves completing an impressive triumvirate of second places for the month) with 101 posts closely followed by Irish Rugby (100 posts).
Munster (92 posts), Ulster (50 posts) and Connacht (48 posts) in 4th, 5th and 6th respectively demonstrate the value live sporting content delivers for rights holders and organisations, especially during the current Level 5 restrictions.
There are no changes within the top seven places based on average Instagram engagements, a first for the Olytico Sport for Business report.
For the second month in a row the top three stay the same with Irish Rugby leading the way (5,127 engagements per post) followed by the GAA (3,710 engagements per post) with the FAI in third place (2,908 engagements per post).
Within the top three only the FAI saw an increase in their month-on-month engagements, (up 4 per cent on December’s figures).
Rugby accounts continue to dominate the top ten, once again filling five out of the top seven places. All of the four Provincial accounts saw an increase in average engagements, with Connacht enjoying the largest hike (a 33 per cent increase from 1,050 to 1,400 average engagements per post).
Jack Carty’s Player of the Match performance against Leinster generated their highest engagement figures for January with over 4,600 public engagements (likes and comments).
The IRFU (and Paul O’Connell) once again claim the top spot for engagement on Instagram for January. With over 22,000 interactions to date, the inclusion of the Ireland and Munster legend on the coaching tickets has met with universal approval with Irish sports fans. As we come into February and the beginning of the Guinness 6 Nations we would expect the Irish Rugby account to generate significant engagement figures over the coming weeks and months.
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
Sport for Business Partners
