Social Media Influencer Analysis

04.07.2024:

Do you also want to increase your engagement, engagement rate and earned media value on Instagram? Silly question, isn’t it 😉

But how should you go about it? We’ll give you tips and advice on what works. To this end, we looked at the best performers in these three areas over the last few days. We compared their increase in engagement, the increase in their engagement rate and their increase in earned media value during the EURO 2024 period with the same period before the European Championship. You can see the top 20 brands in each of our charts.

Increase engagement rate and engagement

Let’s start by increasing the engagement rate. A look at the top 20 brands shows that a number of companies are represented here that have a clear connection to the European Championship, but not only! So the first finding is that you don’t necessarily have to post about a major event or be in its neighbourhood in order to perform well. That’s already good news. Second finding: Your content has to go viral! There are different approaches to this. The nhow Berlin, for example, has teamed up with twins_on_ice for two content pieces. The influencers have provided a huge boost to the engagement rate for the music hotel. The redbulleisakademie, on the other hand, went viral without influencers, with its own video of an ice skating treadmill. As you can see (finding number three), it doesn’t always have to be an influencer to promote you and your brand. Great, interesting content of your own also works! Check 24, for example, was faced with the challenge of increasing an already extremely strong engagement rate. They unpacked their entire portfolio of tools to achieve this. On the one hand, self-made humorous posts in meme style, on the other a partnership with Malle star Icke Hüftgold. Naturally, this is a hit with users. Oh yes, and then there are the competitions with which you can score points. Finding number four, for example, shows you the Hilton Vienna Park. An exciting prize always increases your engagement! But use competitions sparingly! Too much can quickly tarnish your reputation. Last but not least, reels are of course always a bit more engaging than static images. This can be clearly seen in the viral post by IMAGO Art Gallery Lugano (our finding number five).

To summarise, you can say: You don’t have to cling to big events (such as the European Football Championship, Oktoberfest or a music festival) or swim in their shadow; your content must go viral (for example, by working with suitable influencers or producing good content yourself); competitions are always well received (but please use them sparingly); and videos (such as reels) have a greater chance of pushing your engagement rate than static content.

Take a look at the other brands on our top 20 list and pay close attention to the points we have mentioned. The companies have all worked with one of these stylistic devices in the last few days. Take a look and do it yourself 😉

The points we listed above for increasing the engagement rate also apply 1:1 to engagement. The same applies here: your content must go viral for you to have a chance. Example Bitburger with its art at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Nur so am Rande: Falls du dich jetzt fragen solltest, wo der Unterschied zwischen Engagement und Engagement Rate liegt und wieso es einige Brands auf eine Engagement Rate von um die 50% schaffen, können wir dir helfen. Engagement ist die abolute Anzahl der Likes, Comments und Shares pro Content Piece bzw. aller Content Pieces eines gewissen Zeitraums. Die Engagement Rate setzt die Likes, Comments und Shares in ein Verhältnis zu den Followern einer Brand. Da ein Content Piece aber nicht nur den Followern einer Brand ausgespielt wird, sondern auch in den Feeds anderer User landet, kann es passieren, dass die Engagement Rate explodiert. Das klappt aber nur, wenn dein Posting viral geht!

Would you like more tips on how to get more engagement and a higher engagement rate on your social media posts? Then check out our Influencer Marketing 101 or browse through our exciting blog articles!

And if you’re looking for the right tool for your social media presence, check out our app and secure your free, no-obligation trial!

We also looked at the Earned Media Value growth in the days of EURO 2024 compared to the same period before the event. It is noticeable that the majority of brands in the top 20 were also at the forefront in terms of engagement and engagement rate. And that should come as no surprise.

But one thing at a time. What is earned media value anyway? Earned media is the free visibility that a brand receives from others in the form of their user-generated content, mentions, links, reviews or engagement (likes, shares, comments). The reach of the content pieces also plays a role here. Earned media value therefore stands in contrast to paid media value, i.e. the value of the advertising you have paid for, and owned media value, i.e. the value of your own content pieces.

In order to increase EMV, you can only do something directly yourself to a limited extent by offering high-quality content, good customer service and, above all, strong and active community management. In this way, you receive mentions, links and UGC from other people or users and can thus push your earned media value.

Looking for the perfect influencer marketing tool or want to thoroughly vet your potential football advertising partner? Start your free influData trial now and get all the information you need to make an informed decision in influencer marketing!

27.06.2024:

In our weekly analysis of the EURO 2024 from a social media perspective, we are not focussing on the teams or players this time, but on the official sponsors. In doing so, we are looking in particular at the engagement rate, the engagement in absolute figures and the earned media value – in comparison before and during the European Championships. We want to find out which insights can be relevant for you, your company and your social media strategy. What works and what doesn’t? We’ll tell you!

First, let’s take a look at the engagement and engagement rate of sponsors before and during EURO 2024. The left-hand column shows the change in the engagement rate in %, while the right-hand column shows the change in engagement in absolute figures – in each case comparing the 11 days before and during the European Championships.

It would have been expected that both KPIs would improve during such a large event. However, this is only the case for around half of the companies. The huge advertising hype before and around major events leads to a flood of companies wanting to attract attention on social media. The competition is enormous during such a major football event. They all want a slice of the cake. So think carefully about whether you want to be particularly active on social networks during such a major event. The times before and after could be very interesting for brands. Many people also switch their viewing habits a little – towards TV and away from their mobile phones. You should also take this into account.

At the very least, you should lower your expectations, as the example of Adidas shows. They would have products perfectly suited to football, but even they are struggling at the moment. Both ER and engagement are in minimal decline. The counter-example is Hisense, the TV and kitchen appliance manufacturer from China was able to increase both KPIs during the EURO 2024. A new TV for a better picture during the finals seems to be at least exciting for many users. Bitburger also showed a remarkable performance, as did Wiesenhof and Alipay. All of these companies were even able to achieve an engagement rate of over 100%. And if you’re wondering how this is possible, it’s because the engagement rate is calculated by dividing the total engagement by the number of followers. An ER above 100% is therefore an indicator of content that has gone viral. Postings have therefore attracted the attention of many, many users – many of whom do not even follow the brand. That’s an extremely strong performance! As you can see, it depends on the product you are selling and your strategy. Good quality (e.g. very emotional or funny) content is always well received. So don’t just post anything, but think about what will go down well with your target group. Quality beats quantity!

Next, we looked at the earned media value. After all, you don’t just want to receive likes and comments. We differentiate between posts that were made by a brand itself and content pieces that are UGC and have mentioned the brand.

Here, too, we looked at the 11 days before and the 11 days during the EURO 2024 and compared them. This shows that the sponsors sometimes sell an abstruse amount of content pieces during the EURO 2024. As a result, the earned media value naturally increases significantly, despite the enormous competition during this period. Bitburger and Wiesenhof in particular are once again doing very well. Be sure to check out these accounts for best practice examples!

Postings that have mentioned the brand, on the other hand, have not gone through the roof as much. That should come as no surprise. Many users mention Bitburger and thus ensure an enormous EMV for the brewery. A negative counter-example is Adidas, where things have gone downhill in terms of the number of mentions, but also in terms of EMV. Did Puma and Nike organise their social media strategy better? Or did Adidas, unlike Bitburger, fail to motivate its followers enough to post something?

Would you like more tips on how to gain more followers on your social media account? Or how to achieve an excellent engagement rate or a high Earned Media Value? Then check out our Influencer Marketing 101 or browse through our exciting blog articles!

And if you’re looking for the right tool for your social media presence, check out our app and secure your free, no-obligation trial!

Last but not least, we looked at all the content pieces containing hashtags and mentions of the 18 sponsors and created this beautiful word cloud. The size of the word indicates the frequency of the hashtag or mentions and the word colour of which brand was mentioned here. Bitburger stands out once again. Their social media strategy for the EURO 2024 is working really well. Adidas was also able to place some hashtags and mentions. As shown in the analysis by ER and EMV, however, it did not convert.

Looking for the perfect influencer marketing tool or want to thoroughly vet your potential football advertising partner? Start your free influData trial now and get all the information you need to make an informed decision in influencer marketing!

20.06.2024:

The UEFA EURO 2024 is in full swing, and the footballers are giving their all on the field. We are examining the performance of the players, teams, and the companies that are official sponsors of EURO 2024 off the field on social media. Are footballers suitable influencers for you and your business? And how do the teams, players, and sponsors perform on Instagram during the tournament? Find out in our comprehensive influData EURO 2024 Social Media Influencer Analysis.

Teams and players ranked by number of Instagram followers

We waited for the first match day for all teams and looked at which teams gained the most followers on Instagram after one round. It’s no surprise that the top 8 winners are exclusively the teams that won their first-round matches. Has football fever finally arrived in Germany?

We also noticed (spoiler alert) that even before Portugal’s first match, the follower growth for the Federação Portuguesa de Futebol was enormous. It’s likely that many Cristiano Ronaldo fans were at work here. If you like Ronaldo, you probably have a soft spot for the Portuguese team in general. Overall, Portugal gained 276,000 new followers. Respect! This ranks them second behind the German national team. Germany managed to gain a whopping 280,000 fans on Instagram in the first round of the tournament. For the ÖFB team from Austria, a respectable 8,200 new fans were gained. And Switzerland managed to attract just under 550 new followers on Instagram, despite winning their first-round match. There’s certainly room for improvement here!

There are no surprises at the top when it comes to the players. In general, the top stars of EURO 2024 managed to attract many new fans in the first round, especially the young German players. Arda Güler and Lamine Yamal, who are relatively unknown in these parts, also made it into the top 10. The 19-year-old Turkish player Arda Güler, often called the Turkish Messi, impressed with a dream goal against Georgia and gained over 366,000 new followers. We admit: it’s easy to become a fan after that strike. The Spaniard Lamine Yamal, who is just 16 years old and one of the youngest players in the tournament, won almost 250,000 new hearts on Instagram. Also worth mentioning: Riccardo Calafiori increased his followers by more than 60%. Wow!

Sponsors by Number of Followers

Many companies are now wondering if it’s worth being a sponsor at a football tournament like the EURO. Well, the final answer probably lies with the companies themselves. However, it can be said that many sponsor brands gained a significant number of followers on Instagram during the first week of the tournament. This isn’t solely due to the EURO, but the increased screen time has certainly contributed. Leading by a wide margin is Adidas (+18,500 followers) followed by booking.com (+9,600 followers) and AliExpress (+5,500 followers). All three of these companies represent leisure and zest for life, which fits very well with the EURO. Nonetheless, the percentage increase in followers for these brands was less than one percent. The brewery Bitburger, on the other hand, saw an increase of almost 8.3% new followers on their channel. Not bad for a week! The EM week brought hardly any gains for the insurance company ERGO and the French IT service provider Atos. However, this doesn’t mean that these companies aren’t benefiting from their sponsorship deals with UEFA!

influData EURO 2024 Social Media Influencer Analysis of Brands

We took a detailed look at two of the EURO 2024 sponsors, Adidas and Lidl, and analyzed their social media performance during the first week of the tournament.

Both brands gained a significant number of followers in absolute terms, though the percentage increase was small. More interesting is the analysis of engagement during the tournament compared to the week before the start of EURO 2024. Adidas saw engagement rise to 596,000, a 185% increase from the previous week (totaling 285%). Lidl showed a similar pattern with over 51,000 engagements and a 2.7% increase (totaling 102.7%).

Both companies also achieved substantial Earned Media Value (EMV). Adidas reached over $200,000 worldwide, while Lidl exceeded $475,000. Impressive! This clearly shows that social media marketing works!

Would you like more tips on how to gain more followers on your social media account? Or how to achieve an excellent engagement rate or a high Earned Media Value? Then check out our Influencer Marketing 101 or browse through our exciting blog articles!

And if you’re looking for the right tool for your social media presence, check out our app and secure your free, no-obligation trial!

Are footballers suitable influencers for you and your business?

If you have ever wondered whether footballers are the right brand ambassadors on social media for you and your business, our analysis can definitely help.

Sure, a content piece from a footballer will cost a lot of money—especially if a superstar like Toni Kroos or Jude Bellingham is promoting you. But you can also expect a theoretical reach of over 47 million followers (with Toni Kroos) or 33 million followers (with Jude Bellingham). Your sponsored content reaches many people. However, be aware that only a fraction of all these followers will actually see the content piece with your product or service. The audience reach may be less than expected unless the post goes viral like the one with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for Louis Vuitton.

In addition to considering how many of the footballer’s followers will actively see your ad, it’s also important to know how many of an influencer’s followers are real (behaving like normal followers), mass followers (following over 5,000 accounts and thus probably neither real nor useful for you), suspicious (showing unnatural follower behavior, such as rarely posting, liking, or commenting), or influencers themselves. We have examined this for the German, Austrian, and Swiss national team players (and as a small add-on, also for the EURO national teams).

An unusually high number of mass followers is a red flag. Your potential advertising partner should also avoid having too many suspicious followers or other influencers as followers. So, who are the best candidates? Consider Niclas Füllkrug – his metrics are outstanding, and he comes across as genuinely authentic and likable. Other great options include Nico Schlotterbeck from Dortmund or Waldemar Anton. In the Austrian team, Gernot Trauner and Stefan Lainer stand out. For the Swiss team, Michael Aebischer, who is currently on a winning streak, and Ruben Vargas are strong contenders. Check out the list for more options. However, please note that for Aleksandar Pavlovic, Stefan Posch, Marco Grüll, and Matthias Seidl, there is likely an anomaly that may not be accurate. We’ll keep you updated!

Looking for the perfect influencer marketing tool or want to thoroughly vet your potential football advertising partner? Start your free influData trial now and get all the information you need to make an informed decision in influencer marketing!

12.06.2024:

UEFA EURO 2024 is just around the corner and the teams are in the starting blocks. The sporting preparations are as good as complete and all the players are fit and in top shape to perform. But what about the social media appearances of the teams and players? influData has the EURO 2024 Social Media Influencer Analysis!

Teams by number of Instagram followers

If you look at the official Instagram accounts of the teams taking part in EURO 2024, you can see that Portugal and France stand out massively. Do the followers of Christiano Ronaldo (around 632 million followers on Instagram) and Kylian Mbappé (around 119 million followers) also follow the national teams of their idols? This might explain why these two superstars lead the team player rankings. Toni Kroos, who is in third place in the European Championship rankings, has only 47 million followers. In any case, it is no surprise that the top 10 national teams ranked by Instagram followers are all teams with a strong tradition and major successes in World Cups and European Championships. Outsiders in the top 10? Not a chance!

What is a little surprising is the poor performance of the Swiss team account. Why is that? There is extensive coverage of the association’s work and amateur soccer, but almost none at all about the “Nati” (the Swiss national team). There are also other Instagram accounts of the Swiss national team, such as “swissnatimen” (around 278,000 followers), which steal the show from the official account. You can do better than that, dear Swiss!

Teams by Instagram engagement rate

Hup hup Holland! The Netherlands clearly lead this ranking ahead of the Swiss and Slovenians. The football-mad Dutch interact heavily with their team. This proves once again that you don’t need a lot of followers for good engagement, but an interested audience! The Dutch association also posts frequently about children’s and youth soccer, which naturally boosts engagement. We were able to establish the same principle with the Swiss account (see above for the analysis by number of followers).

Would you like more tips on how to make your social media account go through the roof? Then take a look at our influencer marketing 101 or browse through our exciting blog articles!

And if you are looking for the right tool for your social media presence, then take a look at our app and secure your free, no-obligation trial!

Players and matchday analysis

The opening match of this year’s Euro 2024 is Germany against Scotland. Let’s take a closer look at the game, the players and, most importantly, their Instagram presence.

We have sorted the players of both teams according to the number of national team matches they have played (indicated by the size of the circle containing their name) and the number of Instagram followers (strength of color). The players from major clubs like Real Madrid (Toni Kroos, Antonio Rüdiger), Bayern Munich (including Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller), FC Barcelona (Marc-André ter Stegen and Ilkay Gündogan) and Liverpool FC (Andrew Robertson) and Manchester United (Scott McTominay) clearly stand out. So there is a clear connection here too.

What is particularly noteworthy is that over three-quarters of the Scottish national team’s Instagram followers are from the United Kingdom, whereas for the German national team, it’s just over 27%. This highlights the strong international interest in the German team, as they have followers from all around the globe. Interestingly, 6.3% of the DFB team’s Instagram followers are from Brazil, the host country of their last World Cup triumph. Additionally, 6% of their followers are from the USA, which could be a promising sign, considering the next World Cup will be held there in two years.

Are you still looking for the perfect influencer marketing tool or do you want to take a close look at your favorite national team? Then start your free influData trial right now!