News

OUR LATEST NEWS, INSIGHTS AND UPDATES

Sports Federations: harnessing the power of social media

The Olympic cycle isn’t just important for the athletes, it also represents an incredible opportunity for International Federations to futureproof and promote their sports on a global scale through the power of social media.

The Olympic Games is the biggest global sporting event in the world and with that comes millions of global fans all looking for ways to interact and get closer to the action. With several restrictions on broadcasting rights, the easiest and most cost-effective way for federations to do this in Tokyo was through their social media accounts. A recent RedTorch report on the Tokyo Games, showing that several International Federations including FEI, UCI and FIBA were able to gain 2.8 million new fans on social media, with total engagement during the games reaching 106m [1]. The way in which this was achieved involved a mixture of media content, from throwback videos, raw inspirational footage, emotive imagery and social campaigns using sporting stars and purpose-led messaging [1]. However, what is important now is for the Federations to keep building momentum from their Olympics engagement and increased following.

It’s not just Olympic sport federations that harness the power of social media; sport federations such as the International Cricket Council (ICC), the International Teqball Federation and the International Cheer Union all feature in the top 10 International sports federations Social Media Ranking [2]. Even though Cricket may not be surprising due to its huge following, younger Federations such as Teqball and Cheerleading have developed their strategies to cultivate communities and fans.

Both traditional and younger federations need to recognise the benefits of improving their social presence and building that online fan base. The events of 2020 and beyond have shown the sports industry that fans crave more on-demand, creative content and they engage greatly in the digital space.

At Story10 we understand the importance of an increased social media presence for federations. We offer a unique distribution vehicle, providing direct access to the sports news desks of 400+ media organisations across broadcast, digital and social. In addition to our core social reach, we have a social partner network that includes some of the largest multisport channels in the world, we can guarantee access to an engaged audience of over 25 million fans across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Find out how we can help you through our network of owned and earned media channels.

GET IN TOUCH

[1] Red Torch #SportOnSocial Tokyo 2020 Report https://redtorch.sport/sport-on-social/

[2] BCW Sports 2020 International Sports Federation Social Media Ranking Report https://bcw-global.com/thought-leadership/2021-01-19-bcw-sports-ranking-of-international-sports-federations-social-media-activities-shows-the-digital-power-of-younger-sports