How Lobi Stars dominated Social Media with Cristiano Ronaldo tweet

 

 

 

 

By Abidemi Oluwatobiloba

  

Innovative football clubs have used the power of social media to create brand awareness for brands and boost fan engagement with witty tweets.

Italian side, AS Roma became a favourite of many across the globe with their social media accounts management style.

The controversy raised by the talented Portuguese forward, Cristiano Ronaldo, following his interview with Piers Morgan and his exit from Manchester United became a subject of discussion across the globe.

Following his exit from United, the Portuguese legend became a free player and his next destination became another subject of discussion.

With Ronaldo trending and fans wondering what next for their idol, a few clubs in the United Kingdom and Nigeria chose to go the innovative way by mentioning the subject on their social accounts.

 

Lobi Stars FC

Nigerian side, Lobi Stars posted a tweet on its official handle: @LobiStars, announcing it will not sign the Portuguese captain.

 

The outcome was amazing and Twittersphere was abuzz, thanks to Lobi Stars, a team from Benue State that campaigns in Nigeria’s top flight, the Nigeria Professional Football League.

A dose of fun and lets-not-take-life-too-seriously was injected by the Lobi digital team.

 

This resonated globally with comments, retweets and likes on its Twitter account and Facebook page: Lobi Stars.

Since the tweet was posted on Wednesday, November 23, it has generated huge impressions and the analytics have been incredible.

sportbusinessbrand.com’s findings revealed that the tweet has resulted in social media growth and brand awareness.

Lobi Stars practically seized the internet from a Nigerian perspective!

According to the report: “Top media agencies like BBC London, BBC NEWS Yoruba, The Niche, Instablog9ja.com, Channels TV & PUNCH Newspapers reported it. Blogger, Linda Ikeji, and online platform, Peoples Gazette equally made reviews from the tweet.

 

“Others include @AfricaFactsZone, nairaland.com, @nairaland, Idoma Voice, Complete Sports, Goal.com & Pulse Sports amongst others.”

 

 

Additionally, the club had 4, 130 Likes, 2,654 Retweets, 2,610 Quote, close to 500k Impressions, over 26,000 engagements following the tweet.

Result has been the same on the club’s Facebook page.

Expectedly, Lobi Stars’ tweet generated mixed reactions across the globe.

BBC Focus On Africa Presenter, @okwoche described it as “as a great tweet.”

 

How It Happened

Lagos based Sports PR, Digital Media and Sponsorship Activation agency, MatchRoom Sports and Media Limited manages the club’s PR & Digital account.

“It was a rare chance to create excitement around Lobi Stars and we grabbed it. The Nigeria Professional Football League is on break and we wanted to create a buzz. Excitingly, it has generated brand awareness internationally for, Lobi Stars and Benue State.

“Nigerian clubs have to be creative with social media to make an impact because there is a big competition out there. We used it to interact with Lobi Stars consumers and it generated impressive engagement,” said Sports PR and Brand Expert, Ojeikere Aikhoje, who is the Lead Consultant at the MatchRoom Sports & Media.

Indeed, at a time the global football community was away from club football and focused on the FIFA World Cup, in Qatar, Lobi Stars scored a “World Cup” goal on football twitter.

With the success of the Ronaldo humorous tweet, the club should invest more and more resources into their social media departments with improvement in the quality and quantity of posts.

The result will be sustained social media growth in the coming years with followers, engagement, video views amongst others.

 

About Lobi Stars

Lobi Stars is a Nigerian football club based in Makurdi, the capital of Benue State and prides itself as one of Nigeria’s family teams which exists to make its consumers happy.

It attracts and engages families.

Over the years, the club has nurtured homegrown talents to become Nigerian Internationals.

The club is sponsored by the Benue State government and plays at the Aper Aku Stadium.

Homegrown talents include Michael Eneramo, Timothy Anjembe, Tony Okpotu, Moses Orkuma and Stephen Eze, who plays in Scotland for Queens Park.

In addition, it has a culture of developing youngsters. Former Nigerian International, Taye Taiwo, left Lobi to Olympic Marseille, in France, for a record transfer.

Another youngster, Bartholomew Ogbechie, now with www.hyderabadfc.co.in, moved to PSG, in France, from the Makurdi side. Ogbechie was in the Nigerian squad to the 2002 World Cup, in Korea/Japan.

Lobi Stars have won the Nigerian League as well as Cup and have featured in the CAF Champions’ League group stage.

 

About MatchRoom Sport & Media Limited

MatchRoom Sports & Media is a specialist Sport PR, Sports Sponsorship, Branding as well as Social Media agency under one roof and well known for activating everything from big global sport sponsorships to market-specific social media campaigns.

Armed with passionate sports consumers and sports PR specialists, MatchRoom understands better than anyone what it is that drives consumers, excites audiences and engage consumers in the world of sport.

For more about MatchRoom, visit: www.matchroom.com.ng

 

About Ojeikere Aikhoje

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