The social media report for the 14th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), held in Hangzhou, China from December 11-16, 2018, and the FINA World Aquatics Gala “Soirée des Etoiles” is now available and reveals encouraging and positive figures.

The report includes the data breakdown of all social media platforms FINA is active on, namely Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Figures on social media have been recording peaks which reflect the coverage provided at those two major events, the swimming competition and the World Aquatics Gala. FINA provided an extensive coverage, live and non-live with a smart use of graphics and video assets, including near-live clips.

Instagram is the platform that has seen the biggest growth over the World Swimming Championships (25m). A total of 91 posts were shared, while daily stories were followed by thousands and thousands of followers who engaged with FINA. Almost 4000 followers were gained in a six-day period, with a total reach of 3.3M and 4.6M impressions.

On Twitter, 2.9M impressions were earned over the six days, a total of 478.5K per day, with the biggest peak on the last day, December 16, when the Gala was held. 20.2K likes, 6.2K retweets and 4.2K clicks were also generated from the platform.

Almost 400K people have seen videos shared on Facebook, while the total engaged users was 105.6K.

Cameron van der Burgh’s retirement announcement was definitely one of the highlights of the Championships in Hangzhou. It has consolidated FINA’s aim to continue to maintain and develop further its relationships with athletes in order to grow the fan-base.

 

 

Japan’s Daiya Seto’s World Record on the first competition day was also one of the most successful stories of Hangzhou. The coverage included instant result, video highlights, live pictures, head to head with opponent Chad Le Clos narrative, personal interview, behind the scenes footage and focus on Tokyo 2020.

The FINA Gala 2018, an evening that pays tribute to the best athletes of the year across FINA’s six disciplines, was also covered and sparked a lot of interest from the audience. Materials about the winners were prepared in advance and delivered in a timely manner to recap their successful year and their best moments. On-site coverage including short live footage, photos and quotes were shared as well.

 

Generally in 2018 (before the World Swimming Championships), Instagram and Twitter have exceeded the targets fixed for the year. Instagram in particular has seen an impressive growth both for the average of comments per month (+496%) and follower-base (+70%).

The consistent and strategic use of video assets has definitely been a catalyst in FINA’s social media evolution on 2018.