The month of April was a long month without racing and most of the world was living quarantine life. That said, it was a chance for riders and the media to engage us fans. This edition of Advanced Analytics is taking a look at how well they did.
Before we get into the details, a special thank you to Seth and the crew at Rival IQ for providing the data to bring this column to you. Be sure to check them out for all your social media analytics needs.
Let’s start with the winner, Dean Wilson. DEANO ranked first in arguably the most important metric with Total Engagement at 391K while maintaining an Engagement Rate of 1.9%. He started the month strong with a behind the scene look at his recovery from a hard crash at the Monster Energy Cup that was set to Fat Boy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now”. You’re devoid of emotion if that video and music combination didn’t give you the feels. He then opened up to some personal challenges fighting anxiety. He also did some great collaborations with O’Neal Racing, Rockstar Energy, Husqvarna, Alpinestars, Lululemon, and Artificial Grass Liquidators. Put this all together and he ran a solid social media playbook in the month of April and it’s no surprise he had great engagement.
The icing on the cake for DEANO was another +9.2K new followers from those 23 Instagram posts. While it’d be easy to say you just need to replicate DEANO’s strategy, a word of caution for the aspiring social media mavens that (a) engaging your audience and (b) growing your audience require different strategies. It’s similar to how you’d approach training very differently for a 20+2 moto at Loretta Lynn’s vs. lining up for a supercross main event.
Dean Wilson wasn’t the only one with some solid results in the month of April. Keep reading to get the highlights for the 450SX and 250SX riders as well as the moto media…
450SX April Highlights:
- Eli Tomac made a total of 1 post but added +8.5K new followers, the 2nd most of any rider. Eli is social media gold even though he doesn’t participate much.
- Marvin Musquin is ranked 9th in Followers but was 2nd in Total Engagement in April. People seem to like that he puts a chair on his coffee table to play Supercoss: The Game 3!
- Ryan Sipes continues to lead the way in Engagement Rate for accounts with more than 50K followers (even topping DEANO) and he’s on the cusp of hitting Top 10 for Total Engagement (currently sits 11th) amongst current 450SX riders.
250SX April Highlights
- While Christian Craig tops Total Engagement, he’s got the benefit of a long and storied career to build that following. Most impressive is Carson Brown at 2nd overall with a 121K Total Engagement, a 2.6% Engagement Rate and +2.7K new followers. In addition to some solid results in his sophomore year, Carson’s got some influence. #pitbikesareawesome
- For a 16 year old, Jett Lawrence doesn’t spend a lot of time on Instagram with only 3 posts, but that drove 53K in Total Engagement and +4.2K in new followers (6th overall across all riders)
- Cameron Mcadoo had the best Engagement Rate out of all riders, not just the 250SX riders. Signs of an upcoming prospect with some influence amongst the community.
Moto Media April Highlights
For the moto media, Racer X continues to lead the way with 850K in Total Engagement, a 3.2% Engagement Rate on 176 posts. That said, honorable mention to Motocross Action Magazine for the leading 5.3% Engagement Rate. They’ve got a bit of a magic touch for getting their followers to engage.
- Our own Steve Matthes doesn’t have quite the following as the major moto media outlets, but a 3.5% Engagement Rate drives a lot of sales with key sponsors. Have you seen how many people are riding Intense Tazers cause of him!?
- Similarly, Brett Smith over at We Went Fast has a 3.3% Engagement Rate. If you haven’t seen his latest Carlsbad USGP tee-shirt, be sure to check it out.
Got questions or want to know more!? Hit me up on Instagram or Twitter @3lapsdown with questions.
