The Lionesses’ social media surge begins
With England’s triumph at the women’s Euros and their star players reaching new mainstream audiences, social media agency Battenhall has published an analysis of the social media winners from The Lionesses.
In total, The Lionesses’ social media following grew by 1.6 million from 20th July to 1st August across Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, with the players together gaining 983,000 new followers on Instagram, 475,000 on TikTok and 171,000 on Twitter.
This growth is coming from unexpected places, and while some Lionesses have made it overnight, many are yet to make their move. Taking our data analysis which focused on the period between 20th July, just before the Spain quarter final, and the day after the final win against Germany, 23 of the Lionesses actively use Instagram, with 22 of them on Twitter, and 17 on TikTok. During these knockout stages of the Women’s Euros there were a total of 1.6 million new followers for the Lionesses across the three social media platforms.
The biggest name on social media as of August 1st 2022 is the team captain, Leah Williamson, who became the first of the Lionesses to reach 500,000 Instagram followers after England’s final win. This is the biggest fan base for any of them on any social network, followed by Lucy Bronze with 380,000 followers on Instagram, and goalkeeper Mary Earps.
Mary Earps is the undisputed star of TikTok, with 355,000 followers (+143% increase), more than double the fan base of the next biggest name on the social network, which is Beth Mead with 144,000 followers on TikTok. Forward Chloe Kelly’s winning goal propelled her to the fastest-growing profile on both Instagram (99%) and on Twitter (125%). While Instagram has given Kelly the username @chloekelly, Twitter’s @chloekelly profile is a dormant account that has never posted, and the England match-winner is making do with the @chloe_kelly98 moniker while the social network joins the dots. Forward Fran Kirby has the biggest Twitter following with 165,000 followers.
Across the period of our research, the number of followers of the Lionesses’ personal social media profiles and those of the official @lionesses profile combined grew by 2.3 million in total, with 1.3 million new followers coming on Instagram, 575,000 on TikTok and 318,000 on Twitter.
TikTok however has the fewest players from the Lionesses actively using the social network, even though it has the most followers of the @Lionesses team profile. Where 100% of the Lionesses use Instagram personally, only 74% use TikTok, and a further 30% of the team have under 10,000 followers. TikTok therefore poses arguably the greatest opportunity for almost half of the England squad.
The Lionesses: drivers of profile growth
Whilst Instagram has the greatest penetration with players, with all of the Lionesses active on the social network, TikTok showed the most promise, delivering the greatest growth numbers in audience size for players, and the largest following for the team itself. This can be largely attributed to TikTok’s algorithm, which focuses more on entertainment content. This means that if a TikTok post is deemed entertaining, it reaches a potentially huge audience, whereas other social networks rely on advertising boosts or friend connections in order to reach audiences.
The success of the Lionesses will see brands looking to use this rise in social capital to support these stars and collaborate with them in future. As the women’s game grows there’s no doubt that these stars will continue to gain success on and off the pitch.
Battenhall’s Nicole Mezzasalma, who worked on the data analysis, believes that the success of the Lionesses will see brands looking to use this rise in social capital to support these stars and collaborate with them in future.
Commenting on the findings of the analysis Mezzasalma said,
“As the women’s game grows there’s no doubt that these stars will continue to gain success on and off the pitch, and it’s no surprise that there has been a huge increase in support and social following of the main stars from the Lionesses.
Since the Women’s Euros 2022 began on July 6th, overall social mentions of the Lionesses and key players have gone up by more than 1,000% on Twitter alone, peaking at nearly 900,000 mentions on the day of the final. Unsurprisingly, sentiment has been overwhelmingly positive and most messages have been supportive.
As the women’s game isn’t as commercially advanced as the men’s, women footballers are much more likely to manage their own social media channels ensuring a more authentic relationship with their followers compared with the England men’s team.
With the huge increase in popularity for the women’s game, it’s likely brands will look to work with the Lionesses stars from now on as they attract a completely new audience with them of girls and women who might be disengaged from men’s football.”
Adapted from a blog post and infographics originally published by Battenhall London.
Image by filipefrazao on iStock