The 2014 World Cup Brazil became the most mentioned sporting event on social networks. For a month, Facebook and Twitter timelines were filled with comments about the FIFA cup which is played every four years.
For example, during the first rounds, more than one million posts were made on Facebook about the World Cup. This has never happened with any other sporting event, or other category. Put another way, it is estimated that between June 12 and July 13, more than 350 million users participated in discussions on Facebook generating over 3 billion distributed interactions including sharing content, status updates, comments and “likes”.
The final between Germany and Argentina produced 32.1 million of total tweets and 280 million of Facebook interactions. The peak on Twitter occurred during the match between Brazil and the Netherlands which generated 35.6 million tweets making it the most discussed sporting event in the history of the 140-character microblogging site.
The prize for most outstanding player Brazil 2014 could well having been granted to the memes that became an entertaining, funny, controversial, viral and fundamental aspect of this World Cup.
Social networks allowed the games to extend well beyond 90 minutes, generating a conversation over the entire course of the playoffs and the intense activity on social media platforms which resulted in allowing more people to participate.
Maria Elena Meneses, Researcher ITESM and expert on issues of technology said: “Soccer is a social phenomenon that generates many passions and is highly suitable to be debated or discussed on social networks.”
Looking to the future: What will be the next sporting event to dominate social networks? Euro 2016? The Olympics in Rio de Janeiro 2016? Leave me your comments further down and start the debate.
Jorge Chavez is Senior Editor at Mijo! Brands, Mexico.