By Tom Parsons
August 27 – A Barcelona-based study has found that Real Madrid and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo has the strongest social media presence of all athletes in the world.
The report devised by Apple tree communications calculated that Ronaldo has 167.9 million followers on all of his social media accounts combined.
His rivalry with Lionel Messi is well documented and this is one battle where Ronaldo is certainly way ahead of his nemesis from Barcelona. In fact Messi only makes it third on to the list with 101.6 million followers with his Barcelona team mate Neymar pipping him into second place with just over 102 million followers.
The first non-footballer on the list is basketball player Lebron James who has a respectable 56 million followers on social media. This puts him the 5th most followed athlete in the World.
The report also suggests that the top two teams in Spain are way ahead of any other football club in the world. Manchester United are the third most followed team globally with just over 83 million followers combined on all their social media accounts.
Interestingly the third biggest Spanish side Atletico Madrid only has 14 million followers worldwide which is a big drop from their Madrid rivals who have nearly 133 million followers across all their channels.
Overall the Spanish clubs come out on top against the Premier League with La Liga teams having a combined total of 304.2 million followers compared to 285 million in the Premier League. This is obviously heavily due to the influence of Barcelona and and Real Madrid.
The report doesn’t take in any of China’s social media accounts which could potentially sway things as international football becomes increasingly popular in the country. Facebook and Twitter are banned in China.
You can see the Premier League Twitter table every week on insideworldfootball.com. http://www.insideworldfootball.com/football-marketing/social-media/17706-man-utd-top-twitter-growth-table-in-a-week-that-shows-slowdown-after-boom-start
See the Appletree report at http://www.appletreecommunications.com/97/activos/texto/waptr_archivo_1205-xzkfPkS1zlXW1xXJ.pdf
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734829184labto1734829184ofdlr1734829184owedi1734829184sni@s1734829184nosra1734829184p.mot1734829184