It was a ground-breaking month for the Olytico and Sport for Business analysis as 13,500 posts set a new record.

This represents an increase of 16 per cent on the previous monthly high of 12,426 posts set in March of this year.

With the Irish Rugby Men’s tour to New Zealand, two All-Ireland Finals and the culmination of the LGFA season, there was a plethora of sporting achievements to enjoy and analyse.

The record output did not however translate to the number of engagements, as July’s 2.97 million engagements were 10 per cent down on the previous month’s 3.29 million. Perhaps there was just too much going on for people to fully absorb.

Whilst Facebook and Twitter engagements were up, by 9 per cent and 14 per cent respectively, there was a significant 24 per cent decrease in engagements on Instagram, the poorest performance for the platform for over 12 months.

This may in part have been down to changes the platform made to its users’ experience, but which were subsequently reversed due to a public backlash.

The Irish Men’s Rugby test series victory over the All Blacks proved to be the most engaged with content across all three platforms, and we saw excellent months for the Ladies Football, Women’s National League, and League of Ireland 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.

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.

 

July 2022 Highlights on Twitter

 

 

 

July’s 6,812 tweets were an eight per cent increase on the previous month’s 6,313 and the second highest output for the platform since the start of the analysis.

This increased output led to a nine per cent increase in engagements (from 381,732 to 435,804), second only to July 2021’s figure of 497,659 engagements.

The Ladies Gaelic Football account topped the activity charts for the first time since March, their 782 tweets a 13 per cent increase on the previous month.

In second Cricket Ireland (618,+81 per cent) featured content from their series against India and in third, the GAA (571, -18 per cent) enjoyed one of the iconic moments from the month as Sean O’Shea sent Kerry in to the All-Ireland Final with a last-gasp free, to date the content has generated over 761,000 views.

 


The SSE Airtricity League in fourth (544, +169 per cent), their highest finish to date, congratulated Sligo Rovers on making it into the third round of European competition for the first time, and Athletics Ireland (269, +61 per cent) celebrated Thomas Barr’s qualification for the semi-finals of the 400m in the World Athletics Championships.

 


With the domestic rugby season completed, the output levels of the four Provinces fell in July; but thanks to the Irish Men’s team’s success in New Zealand, rugby accounts took six out of the seven places in the Twitter engagement table.

Irish Rugby topped the charts with an average of 715 engagements per post, an increase of 233 per cent on the previous month. They were followed in second by the FAI (237,-28 per cent) and Leinster Rugby (216,+94 per cent) who celebrated the career of the Province’s most capped player, as Devin Toner retired after 17 seasons and 280 appearances.

Team Ireland (32, +66 per cent) congratulated Sean Cronin on his Bronze Medal in the Boy’s 1500m at the #EYOFBanskaBystrica2022 and Pentathlon Ireland (28, +162 per cent) updated fans on the progress of Sive Brassil as she finished the fencing ranking round of the Senior World Championship with a personal best of 200 points.

In the ‘average number of engagements per 1000 followers’ metric, the Women’s National League returned to the top of the table with an average of 698 engagements per 1,000 followers as they announced an extension of their deal with TG4 which will see the broadcaster extend their commitment to women’s sport, televising 10 live WNL games this season.

The IRFU’s ‘WE’VE DONE IT!’ post at full-time of the third test against the All Blacks generated the most engagement across the platform, with close to 15,000 likes and 3,000 retweets.

 


July 2022 Highlights on Facebook

 

 

A second consecutive record-breaking month for the platform as activity increased a further 33 per cent from last month.

With posts increasing from 3,666 to 4,870, engagement levels broke the one million barrier for the very first time with an increase of nine per cent (from 960,612 to 1,050,829).  Who said Facebook was in decline as a medium?

Nine of the top ten accounts increased their output from June. The Ladies Gaelic Football account finished the month on top of the activity charts, their 790 posts a 117 per cent increase on the previous month as Player of the Match content continued to resonate with their followers, on this occasion it was Laois’ Aisling Donoher’s Player of the Match performance against Wexford in the All-Ireland Ladies Football Intermediate Final that proved to be their most engaged with content.

Cricket Ireland in second (455, +54 per cent) celebrated Harry Trector’s maiden One Day International hundred against New Zealand and in third, the League of Ireland (396, +238 per cent) continued to champion Sligo Rovers’ run in Europe, this time their victory against Motherwell.

Swim Ireland (159, +99 per cent) kept fans up to date with the latest from Birmingham as Barry McClements claimed Northern Ireland’s first-ever Commonwealth Games medal in the pool.

The top four in the engagement rankings were all rugby accounts, benefitting from the Irish Men’s results in New Zealand.

Irish Rugby, with an average of 8,562 engagements per post, an increase of 208 per cent on the previous month topped the charts followed by Leinster Rugby (599, +144 per cent), the United Rugby Championship (575, -16 per cent) and Ulster Rugby (517, +42 per cent).

Hockey Ireland in 10th (276, +110 per cent) celebrated victory against South Africa in the Hockey World Cup and Irish Sailing (67, +280 per cent) celebrated a hat-trick of Golds for Eve McMahon as she retained her ILCA 6 Youth World Championship title in America, building on previous victories in The Netherlands and Greece.

 


For the fourth month in a row, Badminton Ireland took the top spot in the ‘average engagements per 1,000 followers’ metric with 1,544 engagements per 1,000 followers, following on from last month’s 68 per cent increase the organisation doubled down on their success with yet another 61 per cent increase (from 958 engagements per 1,000 followers to 1,544).

The top Facebook content for July is no surprise, and the IRFU’s post has generated over 45,000 public engagements to date.

 

July 2022 Highlights on Instagram

 

 

July’s 1,818 posts (a seven per cent increase on June’s 1,693 posts) are the second highest monthly output for the platform, and yet, with a 24 per cent decrease in engagements (from 1,957,164 to 1,484,345) this is the lowest total for the platform since May 2021.

Eight of the top ten accounts increased their output month on month, but conversely, only three of the top ten accounts increased their average engagement per post figures compared to June.

As suggested above this is most likely down to changes in Instagram’s user experience that were quickly rolled back.

The League of Ireland topped the activity charts with 366 posts, an increase of 218 per cent on the previous month, with the penalty save by Sligo Rovers’ Ed McGinty completing the League’s hat-trick for European-themed top content.

 


They were followed by the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (182, +67 per cent) which featured highlights of a lightning-quick goal nine seconds into a U16 Dublin v Cork fixture and Cricket Ireland (152, +31 per cent).

Special mentions to Volleyball Ireland (45, +29 per cent) as they continued their junior beach tours around the country and Rowing Ireland (43, +30 per cent) as they announced a new partnership with fitness wearable brand and fellow Sport for Business member WHOOP.

 

 

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A post shared by Rowing Ireland (@rowingireland)

 

There was no change in the top three in the engagement charts. Irish Rugby topping the table with an average of 7,225 engagements per post, an increase of 30 per centon the previous month followed by the GAA (3,582, -14 per cent) and the FAI (2,495, -32 per cent).

Special mentions to the Camogie Association (465, +120 per cent) who crowned Laois as the Tesco All-Ireland U16B Camogie Champions and Golf Ireland (203, +42 per cent) who announced the teams to represent Ireland at the Home International matches.

The League of Ireland (3,277 engagements per 1,000 followers, +184 per cent) topped off an impressive month finishing first in the Instagram ‘Engagements per 1,000 followers’ chart’ with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (1,991, +88 per cent) in second and Basketball Ireland (1,783, +21 per cent) in third.

The top Instagram post for May came from the IRFU and their post generated close to 40,000 engagements in the form of likes and comments.

 

July 2022 Engagement Per 1,000 Followers

 

 

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