Influenster, a community of social media tastemakers, said 75 percent of its members will use online social networks to keep
up-to-date with the World Cup. Facebook and Twitter lead as the most
popular.
The findings come from a survey of a panel of members on the FIFA World Cup.
Sports have become increasingly visible on social media: 86 percent of Influensters with Twitter accounts tweet interactively while watching sports events — more than half say they live tweet because they enjoy interacting with the larger community of sports fans. Two-thirds of Twitter users are likely to retweet, favorite, or respond to a tweet from an expert or another sports fan. These active Tweeters are looking to get in on the action — 71 percent are interested in attending World Cup related Twitter Parties.
This year, there's an expected increase in US audience watching in the 2014 World Cup. 14 percent of Influensters planning to watch this year's games did not watch the 2010 games in South Africa. Notorious for tuning out of the world's largest sports event, US audiences cite sharing a timezone with the hosting country, which makes the games easier to track and watch, the number one reason to tune in this year. Influensters also cited an eagerness to see and learn more about Brazilian culture as a reason to tune in.
Finally, the overwhelming reason to watch the World Cup for Influensters is to show support for Team USA. 71 percent will cheer for Team USA, followed by Mexico, Brazil, and Spain. And yet supporters of Team USA remain realistic – only 33 percent see the US taking home the trophy. Still, 75 percent of Influensters will continue to watch the games even if Team USA does not progress, and those fans favor Brazil for the win.
These are some of the key findings from an Influenster survey conducted June 3 – 6, 2014, with a sample of 1,015 men and women, ages 18 – 45. The survey was conducted online in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3.0 percentage points. Please find more results in the data tables attached.
