Sunday, 15 July 2018: France leads in goals on the field and mentions on social media

Deschamps’ Le Bleus worked their way up to the World Cup Final in Moscow last night where they went head-to-head with Croatia for what was “one of the most exciting finals in FIFA World Cup history.”

Given that it was France’s Independence Day, or Bastille Day on Saturday, we can say that the nation had a pretty good weekend.

What did social media have to say about it?

Global media intelligence company, Meltwater, analysed social media mentions and trends surrounding the World Cup. In the week leading up to the final, 7 – 14 July, there was 1,5 million mentions of “France.” In the same week, “Croatia” was mentioned 998,000 times on social media. Of course, this could have been due to the fact that France celebrated Bastille Day on the 14th.

World Cup or “#WorldCup” rallied up a total 9,8 million hits on social media in the last seven days. Of that, nearly 50% was positive chatter. 25% of the mentions were on Sunday, the day of the final.

Of the positive conversation, the majority included mentions of the words “nation,” “celebration” and “victory,” showing the celebratory nature of the social chatter.

Twitter was the most popular platform for hosting conversations about the much-anticipated final, followed by Facebook, online forums and YouTube – where thousands of videos of goals, highlights and playing time have been uploaded.

The UK and USA were the most vocal about the World Cup on social media in the last week with 12% of the chatter coming from each region. Other countries that tweeted significantly was South Africa (4, 25%), India (3, 10 %) and Russia (0, 50 %), where the World Cup was hosted. The data illustrates that although two European countries were playing against each other, people all over the world were tuning in to watch the game and chipping in to the conversation around the match.

One person tweeted about their setting for their World Cup final from Syria:

Meanwhile, in Paris:

Although France was mentioned over 880,000 times on social media on Sunday and Croatia 353,000 times, both nations celebrated their presence in the final accordingly. “Congratulations” was one of the most popular terms seen in the same sentence with both France and Croatia yesterday. This can be seen as an indication of good sportsmanship - as both did deserve congratulatory wishes.

One thing is for sure, though, the data indicates that there was a sense of unity all over the world.

With words like “unity” and “world” trending with regards to the World Cup Final 2018, and terms like “multicultural” and “multinational” trending with regards to France – it’s safe to say that this World Cup had a strong influence on national pride for many countries, and the unity of cultures within nations for many more.

That being said, we still can’t help but wonder - perhaps 2022 will be the year the underdog wins the World Cup?

Meltwater helps companies make better, more informed decisions based on insights from the outside. More than 26,000 companies use the Meltwater media intelligence platform to stay on top of billions of online conversations, extract relevant insights, and use them to strategically manage their brand and stay ahead of their competition. With over 55 offices on six continents, Meltwater is dedicated to personal, global service built on local expertise. Meltwater also operates the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), a non-profit organization devoted to nurturing future generations of entrepreneurs. For more information, contact moc.retawtlem@acirfa.gnitekram.lla.