Social analytics firm Socialbakers has released data on the Formula 1 drivers and teams, revealing Facebook fans and engagement stats on each. Jensen Button lead the pack, seeing a 28% increase in engagement from his Facebook fans.
The statistics were published before last weekend’s race in Malaysia, and focuses on the stats after the first race of the season in Australia.
Using its analytics platform, Socialbakers compiled Facebook insights on the drivers and teams from 16 – 19 March 2012, to analyse what effect the results had on their engagement on Facebook.
Jan Rezab, CEO and co-founder of Socialbakers: “If the teams want to use their already popular Facebook pages to full effect, regular, unique and rich content will continue to encourage engagement. For global brands such as Red Bull and McLaren, this brand visibility is invaluable. Both teams and drivers can create a two-way dialogue with consumers and sports fans using social media, which not only benefits the teams such as McLaren, but also benefits the sponsors of the team, such as Vodafone and aigo.”
British driver Jensen Button is currently leading the pack, seeing a 28 per cent increase in engagement from his Facebook fans between 16 – 19 March. Former World Champion Button started the Australian Grand Prix on the front row of the grid and went on to win the race.
Fernando Alonso and Kamui Kobayashi also experienced an uplift in engagement of 4.48 per cent and 3.74 per cent respectively, after finishing in 5th and 6th place at the weekend.
Interestingly, Marussia was the team with the highest increase in engagement, despite its drivers finishing 14th and 15th. Kimi Raikkonen‘s Lotus and Kobayashi‘s Sauber were the teams that experienced the next greatest uplift in engagement over the weekend, suggesting that fans follow the ups and downs of teams, not just individual drivers.
Despite Button’s recent win, it is his McLaren teamate Lewis Hamilton who tops the popularity charts, with over 1.1 million fans. Current World Champion Sebastian Vettel comes in second with over 800,000 Facebook fans. Echoing this, it is the McLaren team that is most popular, with over 465,000 Facebook fans, followed closely by Red Bull with 463,000 fans.
Jan Rezab, CEO and co-founder of Socialbakers commented on the results: “McLaren and Red Bull dominated Formula 1 in 2011, and this looks set to continue this season. In addition to this, the two teams have three previous World Champions between them. Given this, it is unsurprising that the McLaren and Red Bull teams are attracting both fans and engagement on Facebook.
“If the teams want to use their already popular Facebook pages to full effect, regular, unique and rich content will continue to encourage engagement. For global brands such as Red Bull and McLaren, this brand visibility is invaluable. Both teams and drivers can create a two-way dialogue with consumers and sports fans using social media, which not only benefits the teams such as McLaren, but also benefits the sponsors of the team, such as Vodafone and aigo.”
Methodology:
Engagement Rate is calculated as the average number of likes, comments, and shares per post on a given day, divided by the total number of fans for a page. It shows the percentage of your fan base that interacts on average with your post (Socialbakers measurement).
Source: www.socialbakers.com.
