The end of June and beginning of July is a special time in the hearts of every tennis player and sports fan. During that period a special tournament is played on grass of the All England Club. From June 29 to July 12 this year, all sports fans, especially tennis fans were nailed to their TV screens and mobile devices to closely follow the matches on the green grass.
Wimbledon is a world famous sporting event. The best and the most exciting tennis tournament has long overstepped the boundaries of ” ordinary ” tournament. Simply put, Wimbledon is something special. Australian Open, French Open and US Open with all their qualities and specifics are still behind Wimbledon. Social media played a great part in promoting this tournament in the world of sports and sports marketing. Wimbledon is way ahead of it’s competition when it comes to social media which is another reason why I find it special.
Special rules, special audience, special tennis … and social network uniqueness. The reasons are many, and we bring you five that make Wimbledon better on social than the other Grand Slams.
1. Nine tools for excellent tournament tracking
From year to year Wimbledon has showed progress when it comes to social networks. The English have realized the importance of form, the content and they acted on that. Although some things in the All England Club remained unchanged, and we all know that tradition has a very important place in the history of the tournament, Wimbledon is in some things more modern than other Grand Slams. The team in charge of monitoring the development of tournament’s social networks did a great job.
For better, smarter and faster track of the tournament you can use any of the nine social networks: Snapchat, Tunepics, Vine, Pinterest and more popular ones such as YouTube, Instagram, Google +, Facebook and Twitter.
Image source: Wimbledon.com
2. Facebook videos
As already mentioned, with the maximum respect for others, Wimbledon is in many ways ‘number one’. One of the things that has made a strong impression on me is the number and quality of Facebook videos. Since the beginning of the tournament until its completion, the team responsible for Wimbledon Facebook account uploaded more than 100 videos. That’s a great number. In 14 days the tournament was played they published more than 100 videos, which is about seven videos per day on average. In addition to other high-quality materials on Facebook that was the “icing on a cake”.
Before the tournament started, Wimbledon digital team showed us how great content easily attracts fans’ attention. Jose Mourinho, or the Special One, announced Wimbledon three months in advance. You can only imagine what effect that had on tennis fans around the globe. And that’s just one of the ways of promoting and increasing popularity.
Other Grand Slam tournaments publish more or less ordinary videos. Daily overviews, players’ interviews, and press conferences have become somewhat standard and expected during this type of events. Wimbledon went a step further. Duration of videos were from only a few seconds to a few minutes. Never too long. Content? Exceptionally rich and very interesting – plays of the day, dramatic moments, most interesting player statements, view from the stands, events outside the tennis courts and other numerous attractions that forced all tennis lovers (and those who are not) to tune in and follow the tournament and everything around it.
How does Đoković eat grass? How the judge got hit in the head? How a celebrity reacted to a certain point? You could see all of that and more in Wimbledon Facebook videos.
Video has proven to be an excellent tool to deliver great content to fans very quickly, and it is content that is viral and that your fans want to see. Videos from Wimbledon have done exactly that.
3. Great content on Twitter
Twitter, as one of the main ”weapons” in promotion of the tournament, also proved to be very successful. #Wimbledon was used very often, which raised promotion to an even higher level. Wimbledon Twitter profile is active since 2008 and has 1.75 million followers.
Once again, the emphasis was on content. Almost every post on the official Twitter profile includes a picture or video, which has increased the number of retweets. Due to this, tournament reach on Twitter was great, and the analysis proved that.
The grand finale between Đoković and Federer raised the temperature and the number of tweets from around the world. That is exactly what they wanted at Wimbledon.
Interestingly, Twitter has launched a new ”collection” of emojis. They were presented by Serena Williams, as you can see in the following image.
Serena Williams and new emojis
Sneakers ✔️ Racket ✔️ Playlist ✔️ New Twitter Emojis ✔️ #Wimbledon #SeeYouOnTheCourt pic.twitter.com/emt4XwbeeY
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) June 26, 2015
Watch, Listen, Blog – tournament was covered at all levels
Back on their stage… WATCH http://t.co/2dWwt7ltWs LISTEN http://t.co/Eqw1yhwuXP BLOG http://t.co/YEdm8mRINJ pic.twitter.com/S1GYeTfJWs — Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 12, 2015
” And then there were none”
And then there were none… 😪 #Wimbledon https://t.co/oFj4dZsGeO
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 13, 2015
#WimbleDONE
To everyone who came along for the ride, thank you. Until next year. #WimbleDONE pic.twitter.com/A6VEmhxrjv — Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 12, 2015
Đoković won the tournament once again
The trophy is ready for our 2015 champion @DjokerNole… #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/gaJpNxSGLz
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 12, 2015
4. Masters of Instagram
Great commendations go to Instagram. Exceptionally high quality images and descriptions that showed the whole tournament in its true splendor, were more or less expected for a sporting event of such rating. But with the great photos from the training, a variety of graphics, view of the Royal Box and many emotions that are inevitable when it comes to this sport and tournament, led to an increased number of likes and comments. Number of comments and likes grew from image to image, and that what was the goal for content creators.
As an example for comparison we can take the Instagram profile of Uefa Champions League, which has 540,000 followers. The winning image in which Barcelona’s players lifted the cup has more than 40,000 likes.
Congratulations @fcbarcelona, champions of Europe! #UCLfinal #ChampionsLeague #Barcelona #barca
A photo posted by @uefachampionsleague on
The photo in which the winners of Wimbledon Novak Đoković and Serena Williams hold their trophies has more than 40,000 likes which proves the popularity of the tournament on Instagram network.
5. The numbers say it all
Although numbers are not always the most important fact, in this case they are very important. On most popular social networks Wimbledon is far ahead of other tournaments. I compared the data of three most popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Wimbledon crushed the competition.
1. Wimbledon:
Facebook – 3.1 million likes
Twitter – 1.75 million followers
Instagram – 407,000 Followers
2. Australian Open:
Facebook – 1.6 million likes
Twitter – 795,000 Followers
Instagram – 302,000 Followers
3. French Open:
Facebook – 1.6 million likes
Twitter – 1.24 million followers
Instagram – 244,000 Followers
4. US Open:
Facebook – 1.1 million likes
Twitter – 837,000 Followers
Instagram – 235,000 Followers
Game, set, and match – the winner is Wimbledon!
PHOTO: Flickr
