England would top the Six Nations if it were based on social media performance, with Stuart Lancaster’s boys pushed to the top by the sheer size of their following- but they’re also the quietest, according to new research.
The study. From RadiumOne, suggests France would finish a close second thanks to its fanatical supporters driving the boys in bleu on, while Wales, with the second largest social media following, would come third despite trying harder than anyone to get its fans behind the team.
The rankings were calculated by the number of stories shared about each team on popular sports news websites, combined with how effectively each club has been interacting with its fans in the run up to the Six Nations.
It shows that Wales work harder than anyone to get their fans engaging on social media, posting on Facebook 169 times in the last month, with England someway behind, posting 106 times. And despite all the hard work, Wales’s fans are only marginally louder than England’s; with each set of fans the quietest on social media amongst the six nations teams.
In rugby, size often does matter, but it seems the quiet nature of England’s fans could have influenced the recent match with France, which England lost in the dying moments. France’s 180,395 Facebook fans were over five times louder than England’s 647,795 following on the social media platform and, despite England having 208,000 Twitter fans, the England faithful only mentioned their team 21,000 times compared to France’s 10,300 fans tweeting about their team over 14,000 times. With a little more passion, England’s fans could turn it around for their team.
Scotland and Italy, the other two losing teams, are in danger of being cast adrift in the tournament. The Scots, known for their noise in the stadiums, haven’t managed to translate their passion into social media, and despite being over twice as loud as England and Wales fans on social media, they remain the third quietest amongst the Six Nations. And with the second smallest social media following amongst all the teams, Scotland really needs to find a way of growing its online fanbase. This is a problem Italy shares, with the smallest following of only 105,493 on social media. Despite this, the fans are admirably loud, and the second most engaged in total.
The current social standings are:
The rankings were calculated by the number of stories shared about each team on popular sports news websites, combined with how effectively each club has been interacting with its fans in the run up to the Six Nations. The methodology used was designed to focus on more than sheer size, levelling the playing field across the league.
Abeed Janmohamed, Commercial Director at RadiumOne comments: “England tops the league, but a great deal of this is due to the sheer size of its fanbase. What is interesting is France scooping second place. Although it doesn’t have the largest fanbase, it certainly has the loudest with comfortably the most interactions per fans. It clearly motivated the crowd to act as a “16th man” last weekend to clinch victory over England. Our research clearly indicates to all the international federations that today’s rugby fan is always connected and always keen to engage with the sport they love. It’s a massive opportunity for them to get even closer to their fans, who might just be able to provide the extra push that the teams need for the rest of the tournament.”
http://www.radiumone.com
