Following the recent release of the annual 2022 BCW International Sports Federations Social Media Ranking, World Aquatics maintained its leading position on Facebook rankings, following strong growth across all digital platforms in 2022.
The report by Burson Cohn & Wolf (BCW), designed to show the measurable outcomes International Federations have made in social media and the digital actions to engage with fans, highlights the considerable success that World Aquatics has achieved by attracting almost half a million new followers on Facebook.
“Following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, we implemented a new digital and social media strategy with immediate success and we’re happy to see these great results continued in 2022,” said World Aquatics Marketing Director James Moy. “During the year, we launched new collaborations with our athletes and National Federations, who are always at the heart of our content production. This has really driven our social media objectives which have clearly paid off with the incredible increase in numbers and they are a testament to the continued popularity of our sport. With 450 million Facebook video views, we are delighted to top the table for the most video views for another year.
“These are exciting times for World Aquatics. The ability to promote our six disciplines across so many digital platforms allows us to us reach people far and wide and harness the all-encompassing world of water,” Moy emphasised. “Our biggest growth in 2022 was on Instagram, with a 567 percent increase on video views and TikTok which we launched last May, where we achieved almost one million likes in less than eight months. Our social media followings are growing daily, which is a good sign for promoting aquatic sports to the younger generations.”
World Aquatics Digital Manager Luca Fasani noted the creative process of creating content that resonates with audiences.
“We aim to make our content as varied as possible as our most viewed video entitled ‘Have you ever dived vertically into a pool?' Our content ranges from Olympic athletes and successes in the pool to the more quirky and amusing clips in and around water.”
“We are fully focused on continuing to give our audiences new and exciting content across our digital channels,” added Fasani. “We’re united by water, and this is the perfect playground for us to continue pushing our creative storytelling.”
The BCW IF Social Media Ranking report aims to capture the social media footprint of sports federations across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok, and includes both Olympic and recognised non-Olympic IFs. You can find the full BCW report can be found here.