It's the holiday season once again! For many, that means time spent with family, turkey dinners and gift giving. For many Canadians, this also means it is time for the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship!
Kicking off on Boxing Day, this tournament sees players aged 20 and under from across the hockey world compete in an international ten-team tournament. In 2019, the event takes place in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. Canada most recently hosted the event in 2017, splitting venues between Montreal and Toronto.
Canada is seen as a powerhouse in this tournament, but only have won gold twice in the past nine years. The powerhouse title also has something to do with the incredible support that the team sees from their country and fans. This passion is highlighted through social media engagement.
We took a brief look at some of that engagement through social media below.
# WorldJuniors
With one day of competition underway, the conversation on social media has already began, as fans, brands, organizations, players and coaches weigh in on the annual tournament.
Here are some quick stats on discussions from the past 24 hours on Twitter (via keyhole.co, December 27, 2018):
- Canadians amount for 66% of chatter, USA 25%, Sweden 3.5%
- 66.7% Male, 33.3% Female discussing #WorldJuniors
- 76% of discussions are occurring on mobile devices
- Top Influencers based on Frequency: @tsn_sports, @iihfhockey, @bardown, @tsnhockey, @hc_wjc
- Top Influencers based on Engagement: @gongshowgear, @nyrangers, @usahockey, @flyersnation, @hc_wjc
- Top Accompanying Hashtags: #represent, #gocanadago, #canada, #tsnhockey, #wjc2019, #usawjc, #tsnhockey
Here are some quick stats on discussions from the past 24 hours on Instagram (via keyhole.co, December 27, 2018):
- Top Accompanying Hashtags: #teamcanada #hockey #represent #iihf #canada #hockeycanada #gocanadago #hockeygram
- 176 posts with 70,062 engagements within 24 hours
Hockey Canada on Social Media
On social media, Hockey Canada has a large following - a true testament to the passion for the country's national winter sport.
Hockey Canada has 626,000 likes on Facebook (1st among competing teams), 418,000 followers on Instagram (1st among competing teams) and 361,000 followers on Twitter (2nd among competing teams).
It's important to think about the factors at play in Hockey Canada's numbers, though. Canada had 637,000 registered hockey players in Canada in 2017-18 and that doesn't include all of the unregistered adult/recreational league players still playing the game. Hockey Canada also has a team of communications and social media staff devoted to the entire organization and the various teams that represent Canada on the national stage.
The Russian Ice Hockey Federation surpasses Canada by a landslide in terms of Twitter followers - an interesting stat seeing as Russia is home to other popular platforms like VK.com and OK.ru.
Facebook Likes
Canada - 620,000
Finland - 470,000
USA - 335,000
Sweden - 203,200
Slovakia - 108,000
Switzerland - 52,700
Russia - 29,600
Czech Republic - 9,700
Denmark - 1,400
Kazakhstan - 200
Instagram Followers
Canada - 418,000
USA - 228,000
Russia - 213,000
Finland - 151,000
Sweden - 109,000
Czech Republic - 90,000
Switzerland - 33,700
Slovakia - 13,700
Kazakhstan - 6,900
Denmark - 1,450
Twitter Followers
Russia - 721,000
Canada - 361,000
USA - 316,000
Finland - 114,000
Czech Republic - 78,200
Sweden - 46,300
Switzerland - 38,400
Denmark - 2,350
Slovakia - 380
Kazakhstan - N/A