Equestrian Sport is on the Up!
Friday 21 April 2023
Great News! Equestrian Sport has shot up the charts on social media interaction and engagement in an analysis survey of all Olympic Sports.
The latest rankings on the performance of Olympic International Federations (IF) on social media put Equestrian Sport in the Top 10 on YouTube and Facebook.
The Sport on Social report, powered by Redtorch, has measured the social media performances of IFs across 2022 and analysed the pages of all the Olympics IFs alongside the active pages of all their respective disciplines on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.
2022 saw a growth in social media activity and engagement across Olympic sport, with big moments and unfiltered behind-the-scenes content resonating best with fans.
The Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) finished 13th overall in the #SportonSocial League Table 2023. Volleyball claimed the top spot followed closely by the Football Association (FIFA) in second with World Athletics taking third. Badminton, Rugby, Cycling, Skating and Wrestling all featured in the top 10 with Equestrian Sport beating Gymnastics, Tennis and Boxing.
The FEI finished 8th in the Facebook Top 10, moving up three places from 2021 and finished third in the ‘Most engaged with Posts’ category. For content, the FEI was again in the top three, scoring 138% above average with most engaged posts, beaten only by Football (FIFA) and World Rugby.
On YouTube, the FEI finished in 10th place, leaping up the League Table by five places. Football, Athletics and Volleyball filled the top three.
THE FEI have several areas they are focusing on in order to raise the profile of equestrian sports globally, one of which was the launch of the new fei.org website in 2016. This had the role of attracting a new, younger audience to equestrian sports with a more ‘equestrian lifestyle’ tone of voice. The 'Two Hearts’ aspect was a part of the Rio 2016 campaign that the FEI kept on after the Games as it was so successful, and it is still a movement that is used on social media today.
There are several other facets to the FEI’s ongoing work to raise the profile of equestrian sports. These include:
1. Increasing the universality of equestrian sports by expanding the number of participating countries and athletes.
2. Developing new formats and events that are attractive to a wider audience, including the creation of new equestrian series and competitions.
3. Promoting equestrian sports through contemporary digital and social media platforms to reach new audiences and engage with existing fans.
4. Enhancing the TV and digital production of the sport, and increased promotion of the athletes, the horses, the grooms.
5. Focusing on storytelling and finding role models around the world that accurately reflect the diversity of the equestrian fanbase and population.
6. Working with event organisers to ensure that competitions are broadcasted to the highest standard.
7. Collaborating with sponsors to support the growth of equestrian sports and provide new opportunities for athletes and events.
8. Providing education and training programmes to support the development of equestrian sports at all levels, from grassroots to elite competition, with the FEI Solidarity department
9. Ensuring the welfare of horses is a top priority in all aspects of equestrian sports, including competition, training, and transportation.
British Showjumping is also focusing on upping the profile of the sport. Great Britian’s Olympic gold medal haul since 2012 has not just attracted column inches but full pages in national newspapers and TV coverage; especially Nick Skelton’s well-documented, amazing comeback from a broken neck to winning two gold medals.
The official website britishshowjumping.co.uk is growing. Page views in the year 2022 was in excess of 195k and the month-on-month growth of users is up by 20.64%.
British Showjumping’s Facebook page currently has more than 157,000 followers, reached 160,860 people in the month between 14 March to 10 April, up 86% in the latest report, while post engagement was up 96%.
BritishEquestrianSport.TV (CMH.TV Livestream) logged 24.3k page views from 1 January, 2023 – 12 April, 2023. YouTube has 24.9k subscribers, Instagram has 35.7k followers, TikTok has 17.6k likes and Twitter boasts 45.6k likes.
Good news for the sport and British Showjumping.
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