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Euro 2016 & Social Media: 5 Things We’ve Learned From the Data

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that UEFA Euro 2016 has begun! Using Talkwalker social media analytics, we have created a live, open data dashboard to uncover unique insights about the discussions surrounding the tournament on Twitter: who are the most discussed players, coaches and celebrities? Where is the conversation happening? Who’s the most talked about national team? Here are a few social media insights we have gathered based on the three first days of competition.

*Note: As Euro 2016 has now finished our tournament tracker is no longer live. Here are some social media insights about the 2018 World Cup

#FRAROU the biggest game on social but a German spreads the word?

No surprise to see the opening match between France and Romania deliver the biggest Twitter buzz over the first weekend of Euro 2016 with over 600k uses of the match hashtag, almost double that of second place England v Russia. The peak was Dimitri Payet’s stunning last minute winner which drove 177 tweets per second! More unusual was the top influencer for this match:

https://twitter.com/MesutOzil1088/status/741364444542971908

Germany star Mesut Ozil dominated the hashtag with the above tweet generating over 7000 retweets. The reason? Most likely Ozil’s 11.1 million strong Twitter following which sees him receive thousands of engagement almost every time he takes to Twitter.

Turkey: The Best 12th Man on Social

Social media plays a special role in this year’s Euros: every day of the tournament, fans have a chance to light up the Eiffel Tower in the colors of their country depending on the popularity of their official hashtag (their team also has to be playing on that very day). And let me tell you: Turkish fans really, really wanted to see their flag projected on the French landmark Sunday night. On that day, #TUR was used over 1,573,000 times just on Twitter, far ahead of any other official country hashtag.

Yet this Turkish dominance on social was not limited to Sunday: #TUR took over 53.9% of all country hashtag mentions over the last three days!

talkwalker statistics

Using Talkwalker social media analytics, we’ve tracked all the Euro 2016 official country hashtags over the last three days (June 10-12)

Dimitri Payet: Most Spectacular Goal of the Weekend?

talkwalker statistics

This weekend, France’s Dimitri Payet was the king of Euro 2016 discussions on Twitter with over 55,100 mentions in just three days – more than Gareth Bale, Olivier Giroud and Luka Modric combined – following his last-minute goal in the opening match of the Euros! All the players that were in this top 5 actually scored a goal in their respective matches. Here’s the exact ranking:

1. Dimitri Payet (France – 55,178 mentions)

2. Gareth Bale (Wales – 22,219 mentions)

3. Olivier Giroud (France – 16,658 mentions)

4. Luka Modric (Croatia – 16,687 mentions)

5. Eric Drier (England – 13,524 mentions)

Fun note: this was the most popular tweet mentioning Croatia’s Luka Modric (/David Guetta):

The Best Tweet That Did Not Come From A Player

If social media analytics has ever taught us anything, it’s that a One Direction tweet always works! Add some country pride and a bit of football to that mix, and you’ve got the recipe for the best Euro 2016 tweet of the weekend with 42,203 retweets.

Adidas Takes Best Euro 2016 Sponsor

Sponsors are another big part of Euro 2016 that you just cannot avoid if you want to watch the matches. But how much do these brands really benefit from their sponsorship? On Twitter, Adidas managed to collect the most text mentions over the weekend, but Carlsberg was close behind with several peaks in social mentions and its popular “Man of the Match” action.

talkwalker statistics

Image Credit: CC/Flickr/Nazionale Calcio

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