World Cup study: Portugal and Instagram win the social media world cup
In the next four weeks, 32 countries will play for the World Cup trophy. Portugal can already be pleased about one victory: The soccer players of the current European champions have a total of more than 360 million followers on the three big platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In first place among the individual players is Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese superstar has 320 million fans [...]
In the next four weeks, 32 countries will play for the World Cup trophy. Portugal can already be pleased about one victory: The soccer players of the current European champions have a total of more than 360 million followers on the three big platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In first place among the individual players is Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese superstar has 320 million fans or followers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.Thanks to Ronaldo, Portugal makes it to first place in the ranking, followed by Brazil and Spain with 350 million and 333 million followers respectively. The Swiss team has a total of 11 million followers, putting it in 19th place.The last place in the overall ranking is occupied by Iceland. The players from the Nordic island nation have fewer than 1 million followers.
Instagram is No. 1 In total, World Cup players have 2.5 billion followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 89% of all players are active on the social networks and have at least one account. On Instagram alone, the players have a total of around 1.1 billion followers. That corresponds to a share of 43%. Instagram is therefore the number one platform used, well ahead of Facebook and Twitter. 81% of the 736 players have an account on Instagram.World Cup stars as influencers Each team has its social media star. The 32 first-place teams have a combined total of around 1.2 billion followers. This means that 32 players account for 47% of the total number of followers. Top players turn their own name into a brand and are among the most important influencers in the digital world. Worldwide, almost all professional soccer players now use social networks; only 10% are not officially active on social media.Shaqiri at the top The number of followers of Swiss footballers varies. Mario Gavranović is at the bottom of the Swiss list with just over 8,600 followers on Instagram. The No. 1 Swiss player is Xherdan Shaqiri with 4 million followers. However, he has 80 times fewer followers than Christiano Ronaldo.
About the study: The social media study was conducted by the international PR network ECCO. The study also involved the agency Bernet Relations which is a member of the global PR network. For the study, ECCO's experts analyzed the social media activities of all soccer players in the 32 World Cup participants. In total, the ECCO agencies analyzed 736 players worldwide. For the evaluation, the number of followers or fans on the social platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter was added up.
