2024 started strongly for the Sports for Business member organisations on social media. Olytico’s analysis covers 9,400 posts, 4.79 million engagements, and includes qualifications for Paris 2024 in Sailing and Hockey, and a first HSBC Sevens title for the Irish Women’s 7s team.

12 months ago we were reporting just less than 9,000 posts and 2.85 million engagements.  Social Media’s acceleration continues.

On TikTok we report on over 12 million views of Sport for Business member content, with special mentions to the League of Ireland, Ulster Rugby, Ireland Football, Irish Rugby and Leinster Rugby accounts who all racked up over 1 million views on the platform in January.

Sport for Business is hosting a TikTok Masterclass with our friends at Fabric Social on March 29th.  To find out more and book one of the few remaining places take a look here.

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.

Read about our Inaugural Irish Sport on Social Media Conference that took place last November.

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 2024 Highlights on X

 

 

Activity on X rose 24% to 5,016 posts, however engagements on the platform fell 3% to just over 265,000.

The Ladies Football Association account topped the activity charts again with 592 posts (+10%) as Lidl launched their #getbehindthefight campaign aimed to smash inequality in sport. Dublin GAA (467, +268%) remembered a magic moment from Dean Rock as he scored the fastest goal in All-Ireland football final history in 2020, and in third place Hockey Ireland (462, +2,000%) saw the Men’s team qualify for Paris 2024 after defeating Korea.

 

 

Ireland Women’s Cricket (160, +2,567%) travelled to Zimbabwe where Amy Hunter was named Player of the Match , Team Ireland (127, +263%) saw Rhasidat Adeleke continue her impressive form winning the Women’s 60m Invite Final in the US, and Basketball Ireland (207, +141%) brought us incredible action from the Insuremyhouse National Cup semi-final.

 

 

 

With the start of the Guinness Six Nations and success on the 7s circuit, the Irish Rugby account returned to the top spot on the X engagement charts with an average of 520 engagements per post, a 46% increase on the previous month. The video of the Women’s 7s team claiming victory in Australia has been viewed over 310,000 times to date. In second, Ireland Football (221, -41%), announced a WNT fixture against Italy on the 23rd of this month and in third, Munster Rugby (123, +31%) came away from France with a victory against Toulon thanks to this Crowley/Zebo moment of magic.

 

 

 

Irish Sailing (9, +200%) saw Eve McMahon secure a nation place for the Paris 2024 Olympics with a race to spare, and the League of Ireland (81, +31%) announced Virgin Media would be doubling the number of live broadcasts for the 2024 season.

 


With fantastic performances from both the Men’s and Women’s team in their Olympic Qualifiers in Valencia, and with Ayeisha McFerran being named Goalkeeper of the Tournament, Hockey Ireland topped the ‘average engagements per 1,000 followers’ metric for January with an average of 361 engagements per 1,000 followers.


As the Six Nations was launched in Dublin, Peter O’Mahony was announced as the new Captain of the Irish Rugby team, and this post was the most engaged with content on X in January, generating over 7,000 public engagements.

January 2024 Highlights on Facebook

 

 

Facebook activity rose 3% in January (2,679 posts) and saw a 12% increase in engagements to 657,857.  Both figures are still climbing from where they were twelve months ago.

The Ladies Gaelic Football account topped the activity charts once again with 407 posts (+13%) with Leinster Rugby (202, -14%) in second, and Cricket Ireland (193, +25%) in third.

Team Ireland (69, +229%) took us pitch side as the Men’s Hockey Team qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics, the Gaelic Players Association (8, +167%) wished Monaghan’s Kieran Hughes all the best as he announced his retirement from inter-county football after 15 seasons, and Golf Ireland (27, +87%) congratulated the Men’s Octagonal team as they finished in second in Spain, narrowly losing out to Italy in the Final.

 

For the third month in a row, Irish Squash (1,743) topped the average engagements per 1,000 followers metric.

The announcement of Peter O’Mahony as the new Irish Men’s rugby captain was the most engaged with content on the platform during January, with over 32,000 public engagements to date.


January 2024 Highlights on Instagram

 

 

Instagram activity fell 3% in January (1,741 posts), however, engagements increased over 33% when compared to the previous month with the platform generating 3.86 million public engagements.

 

The League of Ireland and Basketball Ireland jointly topped the activity charts with 171 posts. The League of Ireland with 151 posts and 20 Reels, saw Sam Curtis moving to Sheffield United and the Premier League, and Marcelo Pitaluga moving from the Premier League and Liverpool to St.Pat’s; whilst Basketball Ireland (118 posts and 53 Reels) announced their squad for the Four Nations tournament in April and brought us all the action from the National Cup. In third, Leinster Rugby (166, -18%) featured Andrew Porter after he shared his story and starred in the Six Nations’ ‘Full Contact’ documentary on Netflix

 

 

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A post shared by League of Ireland (@leagueofireland)

 

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A post shared by League of Ireland (@leagueofireland)

 

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A post shared by Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby)

Dublin GAA (31, +182%) announced Dean Rock’s retirement from inter-county football, Hockey Ireland (66, +120%) featured the Finals of their National Indoor Championships with Railway Union and Three Rock Rovers claiming glory in the Women’s and Men’s respectively, and Irish Squash enjoyed a brilliant weekend of action which included the Leinster Senior Open.

 

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A post shared by Dublin GAA (@dubgaaofficial)

 

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A post shared by Hockey Ireland (@hockey_ireland)

 

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A post shared by Irish Squash (@irishsquash)

Irish Rugby continues to dominate the average engagement per post chart (16,215, +21%), topping it now for nine consecutive months, followed by Ireland Football (5,168, +19%) as they congratulated Katie McCabe on her inclusion in the EA Sports FC Team of the Year after her sensational 2023.  In third, the GAA (5,145, +47%) looked ahead to all that is in store for 2024.

 

 

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A post shared by Ireland Football (@irelandfootball)

 

 

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A post shared by Official GAA (@officialgaa)

The Irish FA account (2,166, +121%) congratulated Conor Bradley on his first goal for Liverpool, Cycling Ireland (162, +95%) saw Lara Gillespie continue to knock on the door for a European medal as she finished fourth in the Women’s Points Race after another excellent performance and Ireland Lacrosse (289, +81%) announced their roster for the Senior Women’s National team, who are set to compete in the 2024 European Championships in Portugal.

 

 

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A post shared by Northern Ireland (@northernireland)

 

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A post shared by Cycling Ireland (@cyclingireland)

 

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A post shared by Ireland Lacrosse (@irelandlacrosse)


Basketball Ireland (3,984, +124%) took top spot for the ‘average engagements per 1,000 followers’ metric.

 

Completing the X, Facebook, and Instagram hat-trick for the second month in a row, the IRFU generated the most engaged with content on Instagram in January. This Reel from the Men’s team’s training camp in Portugal generated over 114,000 public engagements.

 

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A post shared by Irish Rugby (@irishrugby)

January 2024 Highlights on TikTok

 

 

 

310 TikToks (+32%) were published in January by member organisations, up from 235 in December, which led to 746,500 engagements (+88%) and 12.44 million views (+172%).

These views were driven by the League of Ireland (2.67 million), Ulster Rugby (2.43 million) and Ireland Football (2.15 million) – with special mention to Irish Rugby (1.94 million) and Leinster Rugby (1.16 million).

Leinster Rugby (66 posts) topped the activity charts for the second month in a row as James Lowe starred in the Province’s Investec Champions Cup win away to Leicester. The URC in second (46 posts) thanked South African referee Jaco Peyper as he announced his retirement and in third, Athletics Ireland (27) brought us action from the Indoor Nationals as Galway took the win in the Men’s Relay.

 

@leinsterrugby James Lowe is even better in real life. 🤩 #leinsterrugby #JamesLowe #ChampionsCup #rugby ♬ original sound – Leinster Rugby

 

@urc Happy retirement Jaco Peyper & thank you for your legacy ❤️ #rugby #sixnationsrugby #unitedrugbychampionship ♬ original sound – United Rugby Championship

@athleticsireland The fastest route from point A to point B is a straight line 🫡 Nothing was stopping our lads from Galway taking the W on Saturday 👏⚡️ #IrishAthletics #nationals #athleticsfall #relay ♬ original sound – Athletics Ireland

When ranked by average engagement per post, Ulster Rugby topped the charts (16,975), followed by Ireland Football (12,473) and Irish Rugby (11,201).

For the second month in a row, Ireland Football and Ruesha Littlejohn content topped the most public engagements chart on TikTok in the form of likes, comments, and shares as Ruesha looked forward to the fixture against Northern Ireland. The clip has generated close to 100,000 public engagements and has been viewed over 1 million times to date.

 

@ireland Struttin’ into the New Year like Ruesh 😭 #coygig #ireland #irelandwnt #iwnt #woso #2024 #rueshalittlejohn ♬ original sound – Tigger

 

 

 

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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

 

Olytico and all of the Sporting Bodies listed in this report are among the nearly 300 organisations that are members of the Sport for Business community.

 

Get the full benefit of a Sport for Business membership by joining us at one of our upcoming events where sporting and business leadership comes together.

 

 

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