Ranking Social Networks — Brazilian football clubs

According to the research institute itself, the survey released monthly by IBOPE Repucom, aims to track the development of the digital databases of 40 clubs with the largest number of followers in the country, but what do these numbers really mean?

D.Gamba
D.Gamba
Aug 8, 2017 · 4 min read

The number of subscribers on the digital platforms of clubs is important to give visibility to the club and potentially to its partners, being able to create new businesses and properties for sponsorships. However, quantity generally does not tend to mean quality, so it is necessary to consider the relevance of the use of these social media by football clubs from the point of view of engagement.

Source: IBOPE Repucom — Digital ranking of Brazilian football clubs. AUG/17

Some observation points since the initial publication of the ranking:

The rise of Chapecoense

Source: IBOPE Repucom — Digital ranking of Brazilian football clubs. AUG/16

Accordingly to the August 2016 ranking, the club occupied the 24th place in the combine ranking, with modest numbers (for instance, less than 1k subscribers in their Youtube channel) compared to the bigger clubs in Brazil. The club has been involved later that month a unfortunate tragedy, which led them to an unprecedented increase of followers on their social media channels of almost 1000% (from over 500k to over 5mi combined) in just over two weeks of time. The overnight jump from 24th to 7th place has just endorsed the overwhelm worldwide support the club has continuously received ever since, but would be possible for the club to keep these new followers around, converting a significant portion of them into loyal supporters for life?

Streaming of “Atletiba” doubles the number of subscribers in the official channels of Atlético PR and Coritiba

In early March 2017, the classic “Atletiba” was broadcast on the internet, generating more interest and engagement of fans in their respective channels on Youtube. Atletico Paranaense registered growth of more than 150%, while Coritiba achieved more than 110% growth in the number of subscribers in its channel, compared to the February survey, according to IBOPE Repucom survey. So although such “unique” initiate in Brazil have significantly increased the number of followers for both teams, have the teams had any financial gain with such abrupt “overnight” increase?

Santos X Grêmio — the 5th most important Brazilian football club

With Corinthians, Flamengo, Palmeiras and São Paulo solidified on the top 4 spots, the battle for 5th place over the years have been interesting, to say the least. Vasco once seemed to be Brazilian’s 5th biggest football club, but recently the club has lost popularity and Grêmio and Santos are the biggest contenders for such prestigious spot. Analyzing the social media ranking thoroughly, together with external factors (such as the average fans per game, for instance), we can assume Santos is ahead of Grêmio on the ranking simply because its worldwide support based on their player development efforts, having brought up to the world’s attention, footballers like Pelé and most recently Neymar, among many others. Santos is globally recognized as one of the best player development football clubs in the whole world, and that generates an increase of followers on its social media channels, but not necessarily means more followers on their home ground, as the team continuously struggles to fill out their home stadium. In the other hand, Grêmio has gain some traction over the years as the CBF Ranking leader based on performance and results on the field, and seems to be in a good track to consolidate itself as the 5th most important Brazilian football club. Grêmio’s regional marketing efforts and accomplishments have been remarkable over the past 5 years, but does the team would have the necessarily national support it takes to be considered the 5th most important Brazilian football club, once and for all?

The production of quality own content is crucial for retention and development of engagement in social media. Brazilian football clubs and their respective partners should promote interactivity and connection with their fans, aiming to increase the engagement of their content. High engagement rates mean a valuable qualification, and will certainly make it easier to generate new business opportunities, but who’s measuring such engagement? What other aspects would you take from these type of rankings?

Originally posted on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ranking-social-networks-brazilian-football-clubs-dan-gamba

D.Gamba

Written by

D.Gamba

Master in Sports Organization Management. Brazilian, of Italian heritage, married to a Mexican, living in the USA. My kids could probably be diplomats. #Atípico

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