The social reach of the combined Irish Sporting entities on Twitter and Facebook now stands at over 9.5 million after another month of incredible online growth.
Irish people’s appetite for sports and showing their support shows no signs of slowing down with over 238,000 additional people liking and following Ireland’s major sport bodies and teams during the month of March.
The biggest winner was Irish Rugby with 19,000 new accounts acquired on twitter leaving them just shy of 500,000 followers.
The IRFU broke 1 million followers across the two main social networks last month and have grown their Twitter and Facebook reach by over 30% since July 2015.
There are other success stories too from the month just gone.
Connacht Rugby, heading towards a Guinness Pro12 Play off and a first season in the Champions’ Cup have grown their online reach by 19% in the past eight months, more than double the growth of Munster Rugby for the same period.
The Ulster Bank League may not enjoy the same profile of its more illustrious peers but with a growth over the same period of 23% they now reach 18,362 people, putting them ahead of Basketball Ireland, Cycling Ireland and Rugby League Ireland.
Leading the chase pack behind the IRFU is Cricket Ireland.
Another impressive month, boosted by the presence of the men and women’s national teams at the World T20 tournament saw them increase their reach by almost 32,000. The governing body for Cricket now boasts a social reach on Twitter and Facebook of 529,065.
Their Facebook page grew by 6.69% during the month, beating the 5% growth achieved by the FAI and the 4.68% increase in Cycling Ireland’s following.
The FAI, aided by friendlies against Switzerland and Slovakia continues to grow. Irish football’s governing body has now grown 32.11% in eight months with the majority of that coming since November once qualification for the European Championship Finals was secured.
This report is produced by Trev Keane on behalf of Sport for Business member Sportego.ie, the fantasy Sports and Fan Engagement site.
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