Wimbledon tops social media poll

WIMBLEDON is the top grand slam championship for attracting social media-savvy tennis fans, with more followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram than any of the other three.

The tournament’s 4.1 million followers on the social media websites put Wimbledon on top, a survey released yesterday said, with the French Open second on 3.7 million and the US and Australian Opens lagging behind.

The study, by sports and entertainment intelligence firm Repucom said that the Wimbledon 2014 men’s singles final – in which Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer – was the single most popular grand slam match on social media, with a combined 585 000 posts, almost double that of any other.

The survey found that 34% of all Wimbledon’s Twitter posts include either a video or picture, compared with 25% for the French Open, 15% for the US and 14% for the Australian.

“Wimbledon’s use of archive footage among other content themes, or as we call them, ‘fan stories’, are what drives the tournament’s dominance in tennis while staying true to their strong brand values,” Max Barnett, Repucom’s head of digital for the United Kingdom and Ireland, said in a statement.

“In the month leading up to this year’s tournament, almost 100% of Wimbledon’s Tweets included a video or picture, helping to drive engagement rates while playing into the hands of social media algorithms,” Barnett added.

Repucom, based in Cologne, Germany, says it provides research to more than 1 700 rights holders, brands, agencies and broadcasters in sports and entertainment worldwide. — Reuters