From the running track to tracking the run: The evolution of experiencing sport.
Standing at the finish line of a marathon is an emotive experience. The anticipation of thousands of spectators finally seeing their family member, friend or colleague crossing the line after a gruelling 26.2 miles makes for an electric atmosphere. But has the evolution of social media changed that experience?
From midnight on Bank Holiday Monday to midnight on Tuesday 15,951 social media posts featured a mention of the Dublin City Marathon. Every single aspect of the event from the warm-up, to the struggles through ‘the wall’, to triumphant crossing of the finish line was tagged, photographed and described in detail.
Through twitter we can now track participants from the second they cross the start line, and monitor their marathon. However, does this accessibility remove the mystery or increase the excitement of the race?
From Newsaccess’ tracking of the Dublin Marathon we can see that the peak in coverage was just after 11am on Monday morning as winner of the 35th Dublin Marathon Eliud Too crossed the line. We know that ‘second screening’ is now commonplace with TV Shows, but by all accounts it seems to have taken hold at live events as well.
Globally there was huge interest in the Dublin Marathon. More than 7,000 social media mentions of the event were logged from the United States – a very impressive figure accounting for over 50% of the total mentions on the day itself. Twitter, in particular, is allowing fans from around the world to follow the event, and experience the excitement it generates.
One thing is for certain. If just one encouraging tweet or inspirational Instagram picture pushed one of the 14,600 participants over the line, then it was absolutely worthwhile.
Congratulations!
Paul Moriarty is Head of Insight at Newsaccess Media Intelligence. For more details of Newsaccess' SocialMetrics monitoring and analysis suite for social media contact (01) 6799407
