#LeTour: The social media story
We’re always treated to a vast selection of sporting events over the summer, and 2014 was no exception to the rule.
We’ve followed Roland Garros, Wimbledon, the World Cup and of course, the Tour de France. So, we decided to take a look at the social media highlights around this year’s race.
Le Tour’s social media strategy steps up a gear
The Tour de France went multi-platform on social media, using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Vine to report on 198 cyclists’ progress along the 3,664km route, making the race much more social than in previous years.
The Tour de France Facebook page was the main social platform used, relaying race updates and information to its 1.6m fan base.
The Facebook page highlighted the first hour of the tour on both sides of the road…
…and those recreating the tour behind the screens.
Videos on Facebook offered a different perspective from the televised content, and served as a thrilling back-stage tour of the race.
And over on Twitter…
The Tour de France also set up a ‘social corner’ which showcased the Twitter mentions about the race across the globe on a daily basis.
The Tour’s Twitter account, @letour, allowed fans to follow each stage of the tour in real time, sometimes prompting for predictions at vital stages of the race:
RT if you think @bryancoquard will win the final sprint in Paris today! #TDF pic.twitter.com/bdG5EkFip9
— Le Tour de France (@letour) July 27, 2014
Delving deeper with Instagram
TDF’s Instagram account visually offered rich and diverse content, and explored behind the scenes moments as well as the landscape beauty of the event. Content ranged from picturesque scenery that cyclists raced through…
..to behind the scenes moments..
..with some lovely hostesses.
Vine replay
In the World Cup, Vine was used to share gob-smacking goals, amazing footwork and the astounding atmosphere. Similarly, Tour de France allowed users to capture and share beautiful moments to their heart’s content.
Vine highlighted the falls, the sprints, and all the key moments of this year’s tour. One of the world’s most popular Vine videos watched poor Nibali bow down to give thanks to an LCL hostess, only to be faced shortly after with blank rejection. Something we’re sure Nibali will never quite forget…
Snapchatting backstage
Instant messaging app Snapchat also showcased live moments to followers of the Tour de France account:
A balanced social strategy on ‘all-terrains’
The popularity and excitement surrounding the event resonated across multiple social platforms. The Tour de France managed to engage its online community in a visual and social way, allowing fans to experience the event via real time, of-the-moment content. Each network was used in a different way, and all tied together to perfectly compliment the speed, the variety and thrill that is at Tour de France.
These figures help show some of the social impact:
- 313,395 Facebook fans accumulated in 3 weeks
- Over 88K followers on Twitter were acquired in 3 weeks
- 2,668,500 mentions on Twitter using hashtags #TDF and #TDF2014 *
- 285,495 mentions on Twitter for the first stage of the tour *
- 51,814 mentions on Twitter on stage 20 (the least spoken stage) *
- 36,866 mentions on Twitter on Vincenzo Nibali’s notorious rejection *
- 2,063 mentions on Twitter for the winning Trek Factory Racing team – the most tweeted team out of TDF*
- 166,178 Instagram photos posted with hashtag #TDF & #TDF2014
- 1,171 Vine videos produced in 3 weeks with hashtag #TDF & #TDF2014
* According to the Tour de France’s Twitter ‘social corner’
And just a little something to finish off on: here’s a pretty incredible video of a GoPro cruising alongside the pack…