FIFA Ballon d’Or and Its Effect on Social Media
On December 1st, FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, announced the three finalists for the 2014 Ballon d’Or Award: Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid CF), Argentinian Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) and German Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich). How did the news affect these players’ social networks?
We have compared the official Facebook profile of each finalist. The day after the announcement, Cristiano acquired 21,595 new fans, approximately half of what he got each of the three previous days.
That day Messi gained more new fans than Cristiano and Neuer: 32,664, but that was only an increase of around 0.04 percent compared to the total number of fans on his Facebook profile (a whopping 76 million).
The announcement made the biggest splash on Manuel Neuer’s page. The German goalkeeper upped his following by 24,483 fans, an increase of approximately 0.32 percent compared to his total fans.
Both Messi and Cristiano have made the award’s shortlist in the past few years. The Portuguese star has won it twice, while Messi has already claimed the honor four times. Their nomination was taken for granted. However, having Neuer as a finalist is highly significant. Not just because it’s the first time in his career, but also because it’s been over 50 years since a goalkeeper (Russian Lev Yashin) won the award.
Who will take home the trophy? We’ll have to wait for that, but we insist you check out Blinkfire Analytics to see how the winner’s followers react on social media.
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