World Cup social media update – group stage round-up

Many are hailing this the greatest opening to a World Cup and we can certainly say that it’s been a great opening for social media and our predictions too. One key development has been the way that social networks allow fans to respond quickly (and with lots of humour) to what happens on the pitch. As we’ll see later in this article, the Suarez biting memes started minutes after the incident and have continued to provide lots of entertainment. Overall our success rate with social media is 50%, which is more accurate than the predictions made by Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg. We’ve updated our original predictions to reflect the group stage results. Download new predictions

Social media performance after third matches

During the third matches we maintained a 44% accuracy rate putting us on par with Bloomberg. Goldman Sachs improved on their week 2 performance with 50% correct.
Match Result Goldman Bloomberg MintTwist
Brazil v Cameroon Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil
Mexico v Croatia Mexico Draw Draw Draw
Netherlands v Chile Netherlands Netherlands Draw Netherlands
Spain v Australia Spain Spain Spain Spain
Colombia v Japan Colombia Draw Draw Colombia
Greece v Ivory Coast Greece Draw Draw Greece
Costa Rica v England Draw Draw England England
Italy v Uruguay Uruguay Draw Draw Italy
France v Ecuador Draw Draw France France
Honduras v Switzerland Switzerland Draw Draw Draw
Argentina v Nigeria Argentina Argentina Argentina Draw
Bosnia v Iran Bosnia Draw Bosnia Bosnia
Portugal v Ghana Portugal Draw Portugal Draw
USA v Germany Germany Germany Germany USA
Belgium v Korea Belgium Draw Belgium Belgium
Russia v Algeria Draw Draw Russia Russia

Overall performance of social media predictions

Combining all the group matches gives us an overall rate of 50%. Social media has proved itself to be more accurate than other data as our table below shows.
Matches MintTwist Goldman Bloomberg
1 57% 43% 50%
2 50% 31% 44%
3 44% 50% 44%
Average 50% 41% 46%
Why were we more accurate? Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg predicted substantially more draws than we did and this hurt their rates. When we compiled our rankings it was clear there were going to be surprises, e.g. the USA, that other data may not have shown. Our overall group qualifiers prediction came out at 69%. We’re not surprised to see Chile and Uruguay qualifying as they had strong rankings (11 and 7 respectively) but drew tough social media groups. Algeria is a genuine surprise.

Revised predictions

We've revised our predictions with the new qualifiers and have also revisited the rankings to see how teams have improved over the group stage.

Revised top ten rankings

Rank Country Social rank
1 Brazil 2
2 Germany 4
3 USA 1
4 Netherlands 3
5 Uruguay 5
6 Belgium 6
7 Colombia 9
8 Argentina 13
9 France 8
10 Chile 11
We are still predicting a win for Brazil, however, the gap has closed and it is much tighter between the top 10 teams. Germany has overtaken the USA in the rankings and could meet Brazil, who we are still predicting to win, in the semi-final. Download new predictions Greece’s Twitter followers grew by 94% over the competition, and the Netherlands have almost doubled their following. Instagram feeds have also seen significant growth. Argentina's social media has benefited from the genius touch of Messi. Networks who underperform are Facebook, Google+ and YouTube. These have seen steady growth for teams but not as quickly as Twitter or Instagram, which are much better placed for quick reactions to live moments such as goals, bookings and vampire attacks.
Network Average growth in followers
Facebook 25%
Twitter 49%
Google+ 27%
YouTube 22%
Instagram 45%
Uruguay’s social following and mentions have improved its ranking, however this is not necessarily an indication of support for them. The Suarez biting incident inevitably stimulates conversation about Uruguay and we have considered the impact of the negative sentiment when predicting their match with Colombia.

Top social moments

#Suarez

The meme world exploded after the Suarez biting incident.

USA v Germany

The USA support has grown as they have advanced, helped by a note from Klinsmann.

England v Croatia

Fans were not impressed with the performance.

Join the conversation!

We're looking forward to the next round and our social media marketing London team want to hear who you think will win! Keep up-to-date with MintTwist and your favourite team by downloading our guide to each team's twitter handle and hashtags. Download World Cup Teams Twitter Guide What have your favourite #WorldCup social media moments been? Tell us what you think @minttwist or [email protected] .
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