Athletes and Facebook
Of the total of 87 Czech athletes competing for medals, around 30 have a profile on Facebook, some of which are fan-run pages.
Snowboarders and skiers certainly aren’t holding back, using their social media profiles to engage the general public and thereby boost interest and awareness of their sport. On the other hand, ice hockey players are lagging behind when it comes to social media activity. Jaromír Jágr is a notable exception; the others either have no profile at all, or theirs is not very active.
Does greater success mean more fans?
Quite unexpectedly, it does. There are, of course, exceptions that prove the rule, such as Jaromír Jágr, who had 234,000 fans on 7 February and 330,000 by the end of the Games, recording the largest increase in followers. He is followed mainly by medallists.
In total, the athletes’ profiles received 364,324 ‘likes’ during the Games, which works out at over 11,000 per person. The average, however, was around 1,700, which suggests that the increase is down to just a few of the most active athletes.
The huge increase in Jaromír Jágr’s fan base is likely due to his videos from Sochi, which were also the most successful posts. You can view the changes in fan numbers for all athletes in this table.
The relative increase in followers is somewhat influenced by the initial number of followers, which is why athletes such as Roman Červenka and Nikola Sudová made it into the top 10, even though they gained just over a thousand followers. Ondřej Moravec certainly deserves a mention, having increased his original number of followers more than sevenfold.
Who attracted the most attention?
The most successful athlete in terms of engagement (people talking about) was Ondřej Moravec, whose photo with his medals received more ‘likes’ (over 39,000) than his fan page has. Šárka Pančochová was also popular, with her cracked helmet proving a major draw. Although Jaromír Jágr had the most successful posts in terms of absolute fan engagement, his engagement rate is lower due to his fan page being many times larger than those of others.
Which sports stand out?
According to Facebook, it can be said very simply that the Czech Republic is a country of four sports: ice hockey, speed skating, snowboarding and biathlon. It is important to note, however, that speed skating is represented solely by Martina Sáblíková, and ice hockey is in the spotlight mainly thanks to Jágr. Biathlon and snowboarding, therefore, enjoyed enormous popularity. Once again, it shows that success is the biggest draw.
