Editor’s note: Whether you were on a business trip, stuck in a conference or on a train heading home, who among us didn’t at least hear about yesterday’s World Cup match between the US and Belgium? The game went viral – especially on Twitter – as US goalkeeper Tim Howard made 16 super saves against Belgium before a 2-1 loss. My friend social media strategist Lisa Malcom went from World Cup newbie to avid fan after watching the game, but for our purposes, she found it as entertaining from a sports perspective – as she did from a social media marketing perspective. Given our interest in social media, I wanted to share her report:
By Lisa Malcom
I have a confession to make. Before 4pm ET yesterday, I had no idea who Tim Howard was and I had never watched a World Cup match. So let me say this: WOW, what a match, what a superstar and what an experience!
Social media is my specialty, so naturally I watched the game on Twitter too – and came away equally impressed with the non-stop action and engagement by fans and companies alike.
There were tweets from celebrities like Jimmy Kimmel, Ivanka Trump, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and pop star Katy Perry; hotel chains such as Loews, and household consumer brands like Pringle’s potato chips as the world came together to cheer on Howard and Team USA. Even the cheeky Twitter account “God” participated! These weren’t sponsored Twitter posts that companies pay for but these were posts written from corporate accounts with a “goal” of being part of the conversation – and global experience.
A few examples that caught my eye during the World Cup game:
Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 11.40.12 AM.png
Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 11.40.57 AM.png
Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 11.42.47 AM.png
The data suggests that seemingly everybody took a break to watch yesterday’s game, helping #WorldCup to break Olympic-sized Twitter records.
Social media pro Sean Gardner – @2morrowknight – shared some twitter facts from CBS News: As of yesterday, there had been more than 300 million Tweets related to the #Worldcup, which is nearly double the number of Tweets during the 2012 Summer Olympics!
Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 11.39.49 AM.png
Another interesting stat:
Over 1.8 million mentions of Tim Howard (@TimHowardGK) during #BEL v #USA, with major spikes during the most memorial big saves, according to Twitter Data (@TwitterData) July 1, 2014.
I have no clue what is next for Howard, but I’m sure it will be pretty spectacular. And I’m doubly sure we’ll hear about it on Twitter.
So what’s my takeaway? When you have an event that’s being talked about as much as this match was – and your’e not being part of the conversation, you lose.
Readers: Did you spot any stand-out Tweets during the World Cup game yesterday?
