As we reach the halfway point of 2023, the Irish Sport on Social Media monthly reports produced by Olytico have analysed close to 64,000 posts and 25.4 million public engagements generated by the Sports for Business member organisations this calendar year.

For context, in comparison with the first six months of 2022, activity is down slightly (-4.5%) but we have seen a massive 39.4% increase in engagements across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

With the Women’s Football World Cup and the Men’s Rugby World Cup on the horizon, we expect to see a continued rise across both metrics in the second half of 2023.

June’s analysis covers individual success on the track for Team Ireland in Berlin, the business end of the GAA season, a century of caps for an Irish footballer, and building on their Grand Slam success, more excellent results for the Men’s U20 rugby team in South Africa.

With 11,309 posts (+3.42%) and 3.58 million engagements (-8.5%) generated it has been another busy month for our sporting bodies.

The decrease in overall engagements (including a 17.5% decrease on Instagram) can be directly correlated to the end of the rugby season and once again highlights what an influential platform it is for the sport.

As we continue to develop our TikTok analysis, Olytico analysed over 300 TikTok videos in June, which generated close to 11 million views and 580,000+ public engagements in the last calendar month.

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.

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.

 

June 2023 Highlights on Twitter

 

Activity on Twitter fell slightly during June, with 5,931 tweets generating 326,936 engagements, an 8.4% decrease on the previous month.

The GAA topped the activity charts for the second month in a row, their 719 posts was an 11% decrease on May. Their top tweet featured Cillian Buckley’s last-gasp winner as Kilkenny sealed the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship (link).

 


In second, the LGFA account (634, +30%) saw LGFA President Michael Naughton present the U14 All Ireland Gold trophy to Áine Young from Derry, and in third Team Ireland (526, +526%) celebrated the Men’s Rugby 7s team joining the Women in qualifying for Paris 2024.

 

Cycling Ireland (472, +183%) kept fans up to date with all the goings on from the National Championships as Linda Kelly showed her bottle with some picture-perfect handling skills. The GPA (65, +171%) stood in solidarity with their players #UnitedForEquality and Ireland Lacrosse (13, +160%) finished the Men’s World Championship in 12th place.

 


Ireland Football topped the engagement charts with an average of 554 engagements per post as the MNT beat Gibraltar 3-0 at the Aviva Stadium. In second, the Irish Rugby account (168, -9%) celebrated qualification for Paris, and in third, Munster Rugby (155, -48%) announced a mouthwatering #ClashofChampions against Super Rugby Champions the Canterbury Crusaders in February of next year.

 


Hockey Ireland (33, +200%) enjoyed the support of the Women’s Football squad as they drew their series against the United States and announced Anne McCormack as their new CEO. Gymnastics Ireland (22, +120%) congratulated Lily Russell who placed 1st in the individual All-Around gymnastics event at the friendly international Šalamunov Memorial in Maribor, Slovenia and Basketball Ireland (19, +73%) brought us joyous scenes as the SOI Basketball team won gold.

 


Athletics Ireland (520) topped the ‘average engagements per 1,000 followers’ metric as Rhasidat Adeleke continued her stunning run of form claiming gold at the NCAA Championships becoming the first ever Irish sprinter to win an NCAA title.

 

The most engaged with content Twitter in June was a statement from Ireland Football as they took the commendable action of abandoning their U21 fixture against Kuwait after a racist remark was made by a Kuwaiti player towards Sinclair Armstrong as he was warming up.

From memory, this is the first to top the engagement charts as a plain text post.

 


June 2023 Highlights on Facebook

 

 

Facebook activity increased 19% in June, 3,504 Facebook posts resulted in 782,198 engagements, a 36% increase on the previous month.

For the third month in a row, the GAA (509, +9%) topped the activity charts as they crowned Limerick Munster Senior Hurling Champions for the fifth year in a row.

 


Cricket Ireland (358, +13%) enjoyed Paul Stirling’s 14th ODI century, scored against the UAE, and in joint second (358, +64%) the LGFA saw Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh hit 1-6 as Kerry defeated Dublin in Parnell Park.

Team Ireland (134, +379%) congratulated Leona Maguire on her Meijer LPGA Classic win and Paralympics Ireland (31, +182%) congratulated Shauna Bocquet who won the Elite Wheelchair Category at the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon in a time of 26:59.

The IRFU (3,115, +50%) topped the Facebook average engagement charts for the fifth month in a row as they celebrated the Men’s 7s team joining the Women’s 7s team in Paris 2024. Special Olympics Ireland (2,094, +180%) brought us all the news from Berlin, and in third, the FAI (620, +6%) reminisced back to USA 1994 as Ray Houghton scored this stunner against Italy.

 


Vision Sports Ireland (3,433) topped the average engagements per 1,000 followers metric as Eoin O Connell, a member of D6 Special Olympics Club, from Dundrum, took home bronze in the Open Water Swim 1,500m at the World Special Olympic Games 2023.

Special Olympics Ireland took the top post for May as Emma took gold in the 400m on the final day of competition in Berlin, with the whole team on hand to cheer her across the finishing line, the post has received over 27,000 public engagements to date.

 

June 2023 Highlights on Instagram

 

 

Instagram activity fell 5.5% to 1,874 posts in June and generated 2.47 million engagements, a 17% decrease on the previous month.

For the fourth month in a row, the League of Ireland tipped the activity charts, although their 268 posts was a 21% decrease on their previous month’s output, their top content celebrated Ireland star Chiedozie Ogbene’s transfer to Premier League newcomers Luton Town.

In second, Ireland Football (142, +125%) celebrated James McClean’s 100th cap, and in third, Golf Ireland (100, -14%) caught up with Alex Maguire after his impressive St Andrews Links Trophy victory.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Golf Ireland (@golfirelandofficial)


Special Olympics Ireland (42, +950%) welcomed their Heroes home, and the Camogie Association (59, +354%) featured a fantastic event at Padraig Pearses GAA grounds in Ballinasloe at the Connacht U14 Development Blitz, as over 150 girls across 9 teams from 5 counties took part and the Irish FA account (65, +282%) reminisced about Euro 2016 and their game against Germany.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Northern Ireland (@northernireland)


For the second month in a row Irish Rugby (8,898, +60%) topped the average engagements per post chart as they took us behind the scenes of preparation for the Rugby World Cup.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Irish Rugby (@irishrugby)


In second, Ireland Football (5,130, +4%) crowned Evan Ferguson as their Young Player of the Year and in third, the GAA (3,806, -24%) featured images from the #JohnWestFeile Féile na nGael.

Special mention to Cycling Ireland (254, +83%) as they crowned Ben Healy and Lucy Benezet Minns as National Champions after incredible solo victories .

Athletics Ireland took top spot for the ‘average engagements per 1000 followers’ metric as Sarah Lavin was awarded a European Games Bronze medal .

 


The IRFU posted the top-performing content on Instagram in June as the U20s team beat Australia and claimed a place in the semi-finals of the World Rugby U20 Championship in South Africa. The post has generated over 27,000 public engagements to date.

 

June 2023 Highlights on TikTok

 

 

306 TikToks were posted by member organisations during June, a slight 2% increase on May. These posts generated 578,036 engagements and 10.9 million views (a 1% decrease and a massive 67% increase respectively).

The URC topped the activity charts once more with 126 posts (+58%) with Manie Libbok from the DHL Stormers.

In second, Horse Racing Ireland (28) showed us all the action from Bulmers Live at Leopardstown.

 

@hriracing Bulmers Live at Leopardstown is the party that lasts all summer long 😎☀️🍹 #horseracing #leopardstown #leopardstownracecourse #leopardstownraces #thingstodoindublin #thingstodoinireland #summerinireland #summerindublin #onthisday ♬ original sound – Horse Racing Ireland

And in third, Athletics Ireland (22) celebrated a superb weekend for Adam Nolan who smashed his own 110mH U20 record.

When ranked by average engagement per post, the Ireland Football account (10,652) came top for the fourth month in a row. In second, Basketball Ireland (4,073) showed players putting their bodies on the line in the last minute to gain promotion to the top tier of basketball in Ireland for 2023/24.

 

@basketball.ireland Putting their bodies on the line in the last minute to gain promotion to the top tier of basketball in Ireland for 2023/24 #basketball #Ireland #hoops ♬ original sound – Basketball Ireland

And in third Irish Rugby (3,273) looked back at one of their favourite moments from the season.

 

@irishrugby One of our favourite moments from last season! 😍 #TeamOfUs #IrishRugbyOnTikTok ♬ original sound – Irish Rugby


The top ten TikTok videos (ranked by engagements) during June came from Ireland Football (5), URC (2), Basketball Ireland (2) and Cycling Ireland (1) as they showcased Rona Dunne’s downhill run as he finished 8th in the UCI Downhill World Cup.

The URC generated the most views with 7,637,935 during the month of June – close to 70% of all views generated by the Sport for Business member organisations on the platform, with this TikTok video alone generating 3.3 million views.

 

@urc Count the hang time 😍 #rugby #sports #unitedrugbychampionship ♬ оригинальный звук – AstroPlaneet


Ireland Football generated just over a million views on the platform during the month, and they provided the most engaged with content for the month with ‘A Win is a Win’ following victory over Gibraltar with close to 30,000 public engagements in the form of likes, comments and shares.

 

June 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