The World Cup Fever:
Finally the race to win FIFA World Cup 2014 has got its winner when Germany succeeded in defeating Argentina. The craze for World Cup 2014 had been in the minds of its global fans from last two to three months. Witnessing the win and loss of countries in this tournament, people have gone gaga over social media. Rio De Janeiro was poured with lakhs and lakhs of supporters for both Germany as well as Argentina. Defeated by the fourth title holder Germany, Argentina’s fans were left with utter shock. FIFA World Cup 2014 had driven the world crazy for it. Not only common people but even celebrities from around the world were getting mad over it. However, apart from our big screens, FIFA World Cup 2014 saw its next biggest presence over Social Media Websites.
FIFA at Social Media:
Out of several events happening around the world, including award functions, Wimbeldon, Cricket, etc. FIFA World Cup 2014 has made a record of successfully holding the biggest social media event ever happened. Fans of FIFA have been witnessed to regularly update their timelines with a FIFA status. Over this two to three months period, FIFA World Cup 2014 has been recorded to be talked the most on Social media sites. Right from players to their goals, every news has been mentioned and uploaded on several social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Although America soccer player Clint Dempsey might have scored the maximum goals for his country despite of undergoing a tough match with Portugal, yet the most talked player was Cristiano Ronaldo, the very famous Portuguese player and star. Yet he was three times as much popular as Clint Dempsey was.
People are great fans of Ronaldo throughout the world. Not only common fans but film actors, politicians, leaders, etc… are crazy over the performance of Ronaldo. Fans of Ronaldo consider him as the best soccer player in the world. During Portugal and United States Match, Ronaldo was consistently mentioned 1.5 million times on Twitter which was 465000 times for American Striker, Clint Dempsey.
Some of the famous tweets are:
Nick Folk, New York Jets placekicker tweeted, “I feel like someone (@Cristiano) just punched me and my babies in the gut!”
Popular pop star Justin Timberlake tweeted, “What a match. 30 seconds away from advancing! Still, we control our own destiny… #IBelieve.”
The United States – Portugal match had indeed crossed limits after it supersede tweets and posts of Social Media sites. The match was the most talked one in World Cup. As per the data submitted by Facebook, it had been known that around 10 million people around the world had undertaken 20 million interactions while the match was on. As per the data submitted by Twitter, it had been known that that a total of 8 million tweets happened while the match was happening. With rise in awareness and craze of people for events, United States has been recorded as the biggest social media event popularity countries in short span of time.
Not only US – Portugal match but even the match between host countries Croatia and Brazil had displayed immense popularity. With 12.2 million tweets alone, Brazil is the fifth largest Twitter users’ countries after USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
With usage of #hashtags, not only status but even countries flag also gets popularized. A spokesman from Facebook replied in email, “Sporting events always drive a massive amount of conversation on Facebook, but what we’ve seen so far during the World Cup has been extraordinary. “Facebook and the World Cup are both fundamentally global, and we knew that Facebook would become a global, mobile stadium where people connect and engage during the tournament. It turned out to be a unique moment for us, and one that has seen the highest level of conversation for any event Facebook has ever measured.”
