Nike Wins Brand Battle On Social Media, According To Socialbakers

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Nike may not have been a headline sponsor, but insight from Socialbakers' CheerMeter tool today revealed that Nike was top of the podium for sporting social engagement during the London Olympics. From the 27^th of July to the 2^nd of August, Nike's Facebook fan base grew by 166,718 - more than double the growth of its sporting rival, Adidas, who despite core sponsorship deals, netted just 80,761 new fans over the same period. Nike dominated in the Twittersphere too, with over 16,020 tweets associating the brand with the word Olympic - 6,725 more tweets than Adidas, who were part of just 9,295 Olympic-themed tweets.

In fact, in the first week alone, Nike's Facebook fan growth was three times that of a normal week. By comparison, Adidas netted just 4,129 new fans. Nike wasn't the only non-sponsor causing a social buzz around the Games either, Mars generated over 29,740 Olympic-themed tweets, compared to Cadbury who attracted just 2,232.

Jan Rezab, CEO of Socialbakers commented on the trend: "There was a time when primetime slots around major sporting events were essential for maintaining position as a household name; but social media has levelled the playing field. Through its savvy social strategy, Nike demonstrated that you no longer need prime time to create brand buzz."

In addition to its brand insights, Socialbakers also revealed wider social trends from the Games. Swimmers led the pack as most talked about athletes, with Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in first and second place respectively and Missy Franklin in 7^th place. Meanwhile, British diver Tom Daley just missed the Twitter social podium as 4^th most discussed athlete.

English-language speakers around the world were the loudest twitter cheerers, with 90% of tweets around the games in English and the most tweeted about day was the Saturday of the opening weekend. Further insights from Socialbakers' CheerMeter can be found at http://cheermeter.socialbakers.com/ and a breakdown of the data is available graphically below. 

Socialbakers.com is the fastest growing social media analytics platforms in the world and, since its launch in March 2010, has become the most widely visited site for Facebook statistics and brand metrics; the company is now the most cited source for Facebook global data, with over five million social pages being tracked. Socialbakers specializes in statistics for Facebook globally, Facebook pages, Facebook applications, developers on the Facebook platform, as well as Facebook advertising prices, as well as for LinkedIn and Twitter users. Additionally, Socialbakers provides advanced monitoring technologies including Socialbakers Page Analytics, which is now used by many leading brands to measure their Facebook presence. With its easy-to-use analytics, audits and benchmarks, Socialbakers is the only solution that allows brands to measure, compare, and contrast the success of their social media engagement and that of the competition. For more information, visit www.socialbakers.com

SOURCE Socialbakers