At Nielsen Sports, we’re monitoring the online trends across social media as COVID-19 continues to impact the sport and entertainment landscape with events being postponed and cancelled across the globe. Athletes, teams and leagues are finding new and creative ways to engage with fans and throughout this period, we’ll be putting together a social media best practice snapshot-list for you. Keep up to speed with the best initiatives close to real-time.
Donations and Community Support led by teams and athletes:
With sports being directly impacted by COVID-19, athletes, organizations and arenas are providing relief to parties affected by the virus and showing their support to local communities through individual efforts and donations. With the virus affecting most communities globally, athletes and leagues have made it their mission to reach out to their local communities where the repercussions of this virus could be felt for the next coming months.
- Steph and Ayesha Curry are helping to provide 1 million meals to Oakland students who can’t attend school due to COVID-19 closures
According to Nielsen research, this post generated 2.5x more engagement than the average post on Steph Curry’s Instagram page; generating video views of 3m plus, 745k plus likes and over 8k of comments.
- NBA players are donating money to cover salaries of arena workers amid the COVID-19 shutdown
- The beauty of football: players and rights holders unite to donate almost 2 million euros
- LFC backs fans supporting food banks with 40k donation during league suspension
- Aston Villa provide packed lunches and hot food for the postponed game to donate to charity
Sporting Influencers sharing useful information with their followers:
With COVID-19 on the rise, athlete influencers have been using their platforms to positively impact their local communities and followers. With the extended reach that many of these athletes have through their social channels, they have begun to change the tone of their messaging to reflect one of safety and awareness.
- Raja Club highlights 11 ways to properly protect yourself from COVID-19
- Ronaldo urges fans to follow the safety advice of WHO and governing bodies
- Athletes, like Mesut Ozil and Virat Kohil, are urging fans through their online channels to stay at home
- Italian basketball player Pietro Aradori starts a GoFundMe for his local hospital
Creative ways Rights Holders are engaging their fan bases:
Governing bodies continue urging people to work from home and to practice social distancing. People who have been used to a regular routine have been told to stay home for an unknown period of time with almost all sporting events being cancelled. For rights holders, they know that their fans are at home wanting to stay connected and this is a great opportunity to engage with them in a different way.
- Rights Holders have become creative by switching to video game tournaments to keep fans engaged
- Athletes are encouraging fans to stay fit and healthy by joining in on the #stayathomechallenge
- Most engaging posts in the last 7 days are all coming from 433 on instagram:
- Rights Holders have already switched to other games away from the pitch like connect 4
- Red Sox offering their fans the chance to create photoshop graphics bringing their crazy ideas to life
For more information on our social listening services, please contact know@nielsen.com