IN THE PICTURE

AN ANALYSIS OF YOUR TWITTER FOLLOWERS

SKATEBOARD GB

ANALYSIS OF TWITTER FOLLOWERS

Analysing existing data - your own internal data, ratings and review sites or social media - can give powerful insight into the performance of an organisation.

In this presentation we have analysed your Twitter followers to understand your performance in attracting followers over time and trends in the number of followers you share with other sports related bodies. We have also plotted the network of accounts that are important and influential to your followers.

This information will help your marketing and social media teams to build engagement and will be of interest to all in your organisation who are keen to grow the sport.

The data in this presentation is a light touch review. It provides solid business insights in summary form. We would be pleased to put together something more detailed and bespoke for you.

PARTICIPATION RATES

Before analysing your Twitter followers it is important to look at the trends in participation rates as this will place greater context onto the analysis that follows. Data are available for England only.

Data from Sport England's Active Lives Survey shows that the proportion of adults in England who skateboard regularly (defined as at least twice in the last 28 days) has been reasonably consistent over the last few years. It is estimated that there are just under 70,000 regular skateboarders in England.

Interestingly, the proportion who have done at at least once in the last year is on an upward trajectory since the pandemic. The challenge is to get these casual skateboarders to become regular participants.

Participation among children for the broader category of skateboarding, rollerskating and blading is also trending upwards with an estimated 432,200 taking part in the previous week. This is well above pre pandemic levels of participation.

FOLLOWERS OVER TIME

The graphic shows the number of new followers on Twitter for each year since 2014.

There was a huge spike in new followers in 2021 when skateboarding bronze medallist Sky Brown was the focus of much attention during the Tokyo Olympics.

The problem for Skateboarding GB is that the number of new followers fell sharply in the following year. Given that participation rates are up, this could indicate a lack of awareness of Skateboarding GB among the public. Undertaking activities to increase awareness of you is important because of the positive impact impact it has on participation.

ASSOCIATED ACCOUNTS

This chart shows the number of new followers who also follow other sports related organisations.

The graphic shows that the number of new followers with shared interests in other sports displays the same pattern of spike in 2021 followed by a fall off.

Rugby, football, cycling and athletics have traditionally been sports that your followers also follow and represent an opportunity to reach out to their followers with marketing content on skateboarding.

Cross pollination with other sports is important because research shows that people who are already engaged with one sport or more likely to become engaged with another, compared with those who follow no sports. Appealing to people who follow other sports is a good way to promote participation in your sport.

NETWORK ANALYSIS

We' ve mapped who your Twitter followers also follow to produce a network analysis. A network analysis is a graphical representation of the relationships between nodes (in this case Twitter accounts) and the lines that connect them (in this case shared followers) known as edges.

Network analysis is used to understand the relationships between organisations. By graphing the connections between them we can see which accounts are the most important to people in the network. The size of the node reflects how many connections the account has. The bigger the node the more connections. The width of the edge represents the number of that account's followers that are shared with the account it connects to. The thicker the line the greater the number of shared Twitter followers. The network also identifies clusters of accounts that have things in common.

From this we can assess which types of accounts are the most influential over the network. The analysis is important because information tends to flow through the most influential accounts.

To be included in the network, the number of shared followers must represent a reasonable proportion of both yours and their total followers. This means that accounts such as Barack Obama and Gary Lineker, who have millions of followers, are not included in the network because although a lot of your followers also follow them, the number of followers you share with them is a very small proportion of their total followers. The accounts that we include in the network are, therefore, defined as the most relevant to you.

ANALYISNG THE NETWORK

Hover over an individual account to view its connections. Zoom in to show specific parts of the network. Zoom out to show the overall network. Use the 🔄 button to reset the view.

On the Community tab you will see two distinct communities denoted by different colours.

The 1st community, in blue, is the skateboarding community comprising skateboarders, clubs, federations and related accounts.

The 2nd, in purple, predominantly relates to insurance companies, food and drink and lifestyle brands.

Skateboarding GB is presented in red.

We also show a split in the network by gender. The skateboarding community skews to male, with the lifestyle brands community skewing female. Your followers are more gender balanced.

my plot 2cdjcydxxxxuuhuu5

THE KEY TAKE AWAYS

Currently you have just under 4,000 Twitter followers. After a huge peak in 2021 the number of new followers fell. At the same time, however, participation, at least in England, is going up. There's an opportunity here to engage with people (including the parents of children) who might be interested in taking up skateboarding. We recommend developing a social media strategy for increasing the number of new followers every year at a higher level than the existing trend.

The make up of your network shows differences in male and female interests which could be leveraged to generate marketing content that will appeal to both.

Your network also shows a number of lifestyle brands that are popular among your followers, especially female followers. There is a huge opportunity here to partner with brands to generate income, sponsorship deals and promote the sport.
It would be useful to strengthen your alignment with other sports to build on a shared interest in sport with their followers, which in turn can help you grow. Rugby, cycling, football and athletics are particularly popular with your followers and represent a good starting point.

RESEARCHING PARTICIPATION IN THE SPORT

AWARENESS, INTEREST, PERCEPTION

The starting point is to survey potential participants on your sport. This can be used to highlight how top of mind your sport is, how it compares with others, what people think of it, what is good and what is not so good, what are the barriers to entry and whether they are interested in trying it or going back to if they previously played.

From this we identify priority groups for targeting and what promotional hooks will get people involved be it for fitness, to have fun, for social reasons or simply because they want to try something different.

We give you the evidence to develop a short, medium and long term strategy to grow your sport.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SCHOOLS

Many people are first introduced to sports at school and it is vital to include work with schools and children in the research.

We are able to assess the opinions of children and young people aged 6-16 towards the sport. The survey looks at awareness, what sports they play, perceptions and interest in playing.

We also undertake research with schools to see what PE and sports leads think of it, how it fits in with the need for a broad and diverse sports curriculum, what the barriers are to delivering the sport in school, the equipment and skills needed and how sports governing bodies can support schools.

A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

It is vital for any sport to know the extent to which is it truly inclusive of a diverse range of people and their needs.

Interviews with stakeholders on how the sport can appeal to the widest possible range of people, particularly in relation to ethnicity, gender, disability, faith, body image, and cultural sensitivities, will identify actions needed to maximise inclusivity.

SPEAK TO US ABOUT YOUR INSIGHTS AND ANALYTICS NEEDS