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FC Barcelona named most popular sports team on Facebook & Twitter

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By John Glenday, Reporter

July 16, 2013 | 2 min read

A global ranking of the most popular sports teams on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has been topped by FC Barcelona, according to ZenithOptimedia.

The Spanish football team topped The Social League with 43m Facebook fans and 9.1m Twitter followers – way ahead of second placed Real Madrid which reported figures of 38m and 7.9m respectively.

Socialtools, the proprietary research and analysis software, was used to arrive at the findings with over 100 live dashboards that benchmark a brands social performance.

The top 30 ranking was dominated by European football with the top four teams on Facebook and seven of the top ten all belonging to this group.

Rounding out the top ten was an Italian F1 team and two US basketball teams.

International followers drive these figures with followings the top five teams on Facebook; FC Barcelona, Real Madrid CF, Manchester United, Chelsea FC and AC Milan, receiving get 31% of their fans from Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the US, and only 7% from Italy, Spain and the UK.

Belinda Rowe, global managing partner, ZenithOptimedia, said: “The Social League shows that sports teams have the power to reach passionate fans across the world, and one of the most effective ways to do this is provide frequent updates with exclusive content on social media.

“The launch of The Social League demonstrates the power of Socialtools, our new social media application. It gives our planners around the world comprehensive insights about brand performance in the social space, helping them to devise highly engaging social strategies that deliver ROI.”

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