When Mahrez scored a goal in the 72nd minute of the game to help City lead 5-3 on aggregate, I am afraid that not many people will believe that it will be Manchester City who will finally walk out of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium on this night. Unless, that's what the team opposite is called Real Madrid.
Behind this earth-shattering reversal, what is more worth learning for all footballers is Real Madrid's social media operation textbook. Statistically, Real Madrid posted 94 official tweets throughout the match, receiving about 36,863 comments, 688,241 retweets and 2,624,104 likes, with an average of more than 33,000 interactions per social content.
Inside and outside the stadium, Real Madrid is worthy of the title of "King of the Champions League".
Text / Song Xinyu, Xue Yinbo
Editor / Yin Haonan
In football, the word reversal is always full of wonderful magic. Like a night in Istanbul, like 92:48... just a few words, you can immediately recall the bits and pieces of that game.
In the early morning of May 5, Beijing time, the second leg of the Champions League semi-final ushered in the second matchup, sitting in the Bernabeu Real Madrid until the 89th minute of the game was still behind by a large score of 3:5, even the broadcasters pessimistically gave Real Madrid the probability of qualifying this game is only 1%. However, from the 90th minute onwards, Real Madrid scored three goals in six consecutive minutes to beat visiting Manchester City 3-1, turning the tables 6-5 in two consecutive rounds on aggregate.
People often say "two again, not three more", but Real Madrid is so magical, it can always achieve a "metaphysical" reversal in such an important Champions League knockout round. Therefore, after the Champions League semi-finals, Real Madrid, under the official push of as many as 40 million fans, immediately updated an interesting team "resume":
Name: Real Madrid
Occupation: Reversal!
On the pitch, Real Madrid continues to show the strength and heritage of the team with a reversal; outside the stadium, Real Madrid also uses its own expansion on social media platforms to prove to Real Madrid fans around the world why Real Madrid is "the best team in the world".
Since the rise of social networks, most clubs have posted posters of the corresponding themes on social media before the game to create momentum for the game, which has gradually become a "new tradition" for sports clubs around the world. Pre-match posters are often promotional images released by teams before the game in order to boost the morale of the players and mobilize the enthusiasm of the fans. Or describe the importance of the game, or explain the historical relationship between the two teams... The "poster fight" between the teams has also become another arena now.
Generally speaking, when a team posts the starting list for that night's matches on social media, it is seen as the "start" of a match on social platforms.
In last night's game, from the time real Madrid posted the live broadcast of the match against Manchester City on Twitter, Real Madrid officials pushed a total of as many as 94 tweets before and after this game.
Let's break down one by one, how Real Madrid's nearly 100 tweets were sent.
· Pre-race ·
Total 26 tweets
Of those 94, Real Madrid posted 26 tweets to build momentum for the race. This includes regular information such as game times, starting lineups, and pre-match preparations at the Bernabeu Stadium, the atmosphere of the fans outside the stadium, the arrival moments of the core players, and the pre-match training and opening ceremony.
However, the amount of engagement for this part of the content is relatively low, with an average number of around 2,000 likes. Only some of the content interactions involving Benzema and Rodrigues were significantly on a higher order of magnitude, and the vast majority of interactions increased after the end of the game, depending on the comment section and the timing of the retweets. Among them, there are also real Madrid officials in the middle of the game second forward, driving the fan interaction.
Real Madrid officials forwarded their own previous tweets during the game
· Racing ·
Total 34 tweets
It should be noted that Real Madrid's official Twitter operation will decide the real-time content posted by its own social media according to the real-time game situation and direction, rather than copying a fixed operation routine.
More obviously, throughout the first half of the game and during the intermission, Real Madrid officially released only 5 tweets. At the beginning of the second half of the game, in addition to the goals, substitutions and other game matters in the game, real Madrid official push obviously began to try to drive the emotions of the fan group, and greatly increased the frequency and content of the tweet.
When Rodrigo came on, the Real Madrid official pushed the substitution push
From time to time, Real Madrid officials will use the slogan of "Vamos Real" to drive fans to cheer online
In the second half of the game, the team pushed a total of 29 pieces of content. It includes pictures of the venue, video of the goal, and even an animated goal GIF linked to FIFA.
Especially after Benzema scored a goal against the super, Real Madrid used retweets to arrange Benzema's name "Karim" in the comments section, which triggered many fans to follow and interact. If you add up the original tweet and the interaction of each letter, this tweet also became the most interactive on the official Real Madrid Twitter that night.
Looking at the performance of Real Madrid's official tweets in the past match days, in general, the average number of tweets in the three stages before, during and after the game is about 15, and the total number of a game fluctuates around 50. As far as this game is concerned, in fact, before and after the game, although the number of tweets has increased due to the focus of the game, it is still roughly within the regular range.
Until after the second half, the type and number of tweets from the official Twitter of Real Madrid have increased significantly, output more emotional content, greatly improved the activity of account fans, and the team's topic on social media.
Before the extra time began, Real Madrid's official Tweet: ESTO ES EL MADRID (here Madrid) became the most interactive single tweet of the day
· After the game ·
A total of 40+ tweets
After the game, the content of Real Madrid's official push turned to leading fans to experience the atmosphere of the "Miracle of the Bernabeu" up close. This part of the Real Madrid official push pushed a total of more than 40 tweets, which is the richest part of the volume, quality and form of the entire night's push content.
Whether it's the preview of the final prepared in advance or the passionate celebration of the players after they return to the dressing room. After the whole game, fans can feel the same joy through Real Madrid's social media if they can't go to the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in person.
After the game, Real Madrid officials pushed real Madrid players back to the locker room to celebrate
After the game, the Real Madrid official pushed the terrier map
Statistically, the official Real Madrid tweets directly related to the game received about 36,863 comments, 688,241 retweets and 2,624,104 likes throughout the game, with an average of more than 33,000 interactions per social media content.
For Manchester City, who lost the game, their official push for the content of this game is also quite three-dimensional. According to statistics, Manchester City officials pushed a total of 46 tweets about the game. Its content is basically similar to the content of Real Madrid's official push, but due to the bitter result of the final elimination, Manchester City did not push much content after the game.
In summary, in a high-level competition at the intercontinental level such as the Champions League, no matter which side wins or loses, its official social media has made sufficient efforts in the operation of graphics and text. This is not only reflected in the number, but also in the degree of three-dimensionality.
Daniel Kirschner, president and CEO of digital media streaming management software Greenfly, said of the concept of social media stardom:
"In other words, you can't simply rank an athlete or team by the number of followers, what really matters is the quality, engagement and interactivity of the fans." It may not be the same as the ranking of the world's hottest sports stars, but this is indeed a more interesting way to look at the market value of sports stars."
For the world's top sports clubs like Real Madrid, as early as 2015, they made the social media strategy an important goal of the club's development. Rafael de los Santos, then real Madrid's global head of digital business, said:
"Our core objective is to get to know our fans better and get as much information about them as possible, which will help us communicate with our fans, provide better service to fans and better present sponsors to fans." Pass on the values to the fans, and we'll curate the content for each platform."
Nowadays, in addition to Twitter, Real Madrid also has a strong influence on Facebook and Instagram. Kyle Nelson, CEO of the MVP index, a social media evaluation platform, said that Real Madrid's social media indicators are worth about $1.7 billion, and real madrid also ranked third with 2.3 billion times in the 2021 club social media interaction rankings compiled by The Sun.
In many ways, Real Madrid's series of actions show the latest way for professional sports clubs to play - relying on social media to allow clubs to break the boundaries of time and space and create a huge fan base in more areas. Especially in the midst of the epidemic, offline watching has not fully returned to the past state, and Real Madrid's social media operation teaching class may be a model for domestic clubs to learn.