World Cup 2014: Social Media Update – Week 1

The opening week has not disappointed from a football or a social media perspective. Hundreds of thousands of updates, memes and videos have been sent and shared across the world about the opening games.

How accurate have our social media predictions been?

Before the tournament started, we predicted each stage using social media. Our current accuracy rate after every team has played their first match is 57%. Other notable organisations that also made predictions are Goldman Sachs (43% accuracy), Bloomberg (50% accuracy) and Australia Zoo’s Predictaroo (60% accuracy). Currently Flopsy the Kangaroo is beating all of us, however she hasn’t made a prediction for every match.

PREDICTIONS SUMMARY

Match Result Goldman Bloomberg MintTwist Predictaroo
Brazil v Croatia Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil
Cameroon v Mexico Mexico Draw Draw Mexico N/A
Netherlands v Spain Netherlands Draw Draw Spain Netherlands
Australia v Chile Chile Draw Chile Chile Chile
Colombia v Greece Colombia Draw Colombia Colombia N/A
Costa Rica v Uruguay Costa Rica Draw Uruguay Uruguay N/A
England v Italy Italy Draw Draw Italy Draw
Ivory Coast v Japan Ivory Coast Draw Draw Draw N/A
Ecuador v Switzerland Switzerland Draw Draw Ecuador N/A
France v Honduras France France France France N/A
Argentina v Bosnia Argentina Argentina Argentina Argentina N/A
Germany v Portugal Germany Germany Germany Germany Portugal
Iran v Nigeria Draw Draw Draw Nigeria N/A
Ghana v USA USA Ghana Draw USA N/A
Algeria v Belgium Belgium Draw Belgium Belgium N/A
Korea v Russia Draw Draw Russia Russia N/A
NB Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg also predicted the scores for each match. Only Predictaroo called the Spain v Netherlands game correctly. Uruguay’s loss to Costa Rica was also unexpected. These upsets are hard to predict but they have also made the competition compelling to watch and unmissable. Want to find out our predictions for the next matches? Download the report now! Download predictions

A team performance

Those that use social media are using it well.  Fans are being fed training, pre and post-match updates, and motivational messages. They are also using it as an opportunity to thank fans for support and share their images. We even got a special mention from the Socceroos! We’re delighted to see that England joined Instagram. This was set-up a few days before the opening match and it already has over 44,000 followers. Can this latest social media addition give them the edge over Uruguay on Thursday?

Twitter - managing the conversation

Twitter has made an excellent effort at managing and distributing data about the World Cup. Embracing their own description of themselves as the “live medium”, the site and feeds are organised to make it easy to follow teams and what’s happening. You can find trends quickly and pick a team to support – you can then pick a profile picture to show who you are following. The Twitter Data feed pushes out informative data about where the conversation is happening, most mentioned players, number of tweets during games, conversation peaks and most popular images. Every tweet has an image with key stats to maximise engagement. By doing this Twitter have a much greater share of the conversation and buzz around the World Cup and also makes their advertising platform more attractive. If they create this type of structure for major events such as the Olympics and elections then they will firmly establish themselves as the go-to social network.

Taking advantage of the event

You don’t have to be a sponsor or in the football business to use the World Cup as a promotion. The competition opens up opportunities to touch open cultural and country differences (what would a fish finger sandwich be in Brazil?), or to raise awareness of what’s happening in Brazil such as the weather. With a little bit of thought you can use events such as the World Cup to start a conversation about what you do. Using the event hashtags and promoting tweets can drive awareness and traffic.

Top social moments

#spainsdefense

Defeated by the Netherlands, Spain’s defence came under Twitter’s beady eye:

#flyingdutchman

We’re looking forward to see what RVP’s next move will bring!

Phil Neville

Apparently almost as many people complained about first-timer Neville’s commentary during the England v Italy match as they did about the vuvuzela horns during 2010. His dulcet tones didn’t please everyone but Neville has at least addressed his detractors on Twitter:

Wayne Rooney

No one in the England team has come under more scrutiny than Rooney. He has even taken to Facebook to confront the issue:
Post by Wayne Rooney.
Hopefully on Thursday he will be putting his critics to rest:

Join the conversation!

Keep up-to-date with MintTwist and your favourite team by downloading our guide to each team's twitter handle and hashtags. Download World Cup Teams Twitter Guide Have we missed out your favourite tweet? Are your predictions coming true? Tell us what you think @minttwist or [email protected].
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Published by

Alexis Pratsides