We take a look at how comedy, athletic superstars, and inspiring stories defined the biggest Facebook videos during the Rio Olympics.Â
The Olympics have come to a close but we’re still seeing the aftereffects on social media as stories about the Final Five and Ryan Lochte continue to make news.
We’ve written previously about the Olympics — midway through, we wrote about the Rio Olympics best practices for publishers, and we also analyzed the authors who drove the most Facebook engagements around the games.
With video currently one of the most engaging formats for Facebook, we decided to dive into which videos scored gold medals during the Olympics. For this analysis, we looked at video published from August 4th to August 23rd, 2016.
The Top Facebook Videos of the Rio Summer Olympics
To be included in our analysis, the videos we surveyed had to include an Olympics-related keyword. Below are the top ten videos that made the cut. The data comes from our content discovery platform, Spike.
The top video was from French comedian Rémi Gaillard. His video of trying to do his own Olympics drove over 826,000 shares, 64,000 comments, and 536,000 likes/reactions.
Another humor video, from the LAD Bible, came in at number four. Like we noted in our blog on the top Olympics authors, there is a large breadth of ways to report around the Olympics.
[fb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/gaillardremi/videos/10153890251338525/” bottom=”30″]
The official Olympic Facebook page was responsible for four of the top engaging videos. Their videos covered the actual games, nostalgic moments from previous Olympics, and the story of the Olympian who lit this year’s cauldron.
In-depth looks at the athletes were popular overall, with a piece from the New York Times on Simone Biles, another from Star Sports about India’s youngest medalist, and of course, a Facebook Live video from Michael Phelps.
[fb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/NYPost/videos/10158087795915206/” bottom=”30″]
Feel-good human interest pieces are also often popular in terms of social engagement. The New York Post makes it into our top ten with a video of grandparents cheering for their Olympian grandson.
Live Video Gets Up Close and Personal
As we noted above, Michael Phelps’ live video was one of the top engaging videos of the Rio Olympics. Live streaming has brought a new experience to the games on social media as fans can connect to their favorite athletes in real time.
[fb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/michaelphelps/videos/10153889508991247/” bottom=”30″]
This Facebook Live video of Michael Phelps drove over 238,000 comments, 294,000 likes/reactions, and 9,200 shares. It was the most commented video of our analysis.
Live videos often drive a disproportionate amount of views compared to other content. This is because they create micro-moment experiences for viewers, which they can join in on by commenting or asking questions that might get addressed by the video host.
Did you know you can now track Facebook Live video in Spike, even after it’s stopped streaming? Check it out here.
What were some of the other top Live videos? There were plenty of behind-the-scenes moments with Olympic athletes, like this one with New Zealand’s Valerie Adams after her win.
Then there were live commentary pieces, such as FailArmy’s satirical video.
[fb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/failarmy/videos/1078875022209659/” bottom=”30″]
The video was viewed 829,000 times and drove 13,000 likes/reactions, 663 shares, and 7,400 comments.
Getting Emotional
The Rio Olympics are an emotionally charged event for many. This in mind, we looked at which videos had the most individual Facebook reactions.
Looking at the top reactions, we can see which videos were striking different chords. Rémi Gaillard’s video was unsurprisingly the most liked and the most laughable, while Michael Phelps’s live video drove the most love reactions.
Meanwhile, AJ+ got viewers’ blood boiling with their video on sexist Olympic news coverage. For publishers looking to expose social injustices, the angry response can be a good metric.Â
[fb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/777377342403775/” bottom=”30″]
The Olympic official Facebook page also made an appearance again here, both for the video with the most sad reactions and the most wow reactions.
Facebook reactions are gaining in popularity. In a two week period in August, they accounted for 13 percent of Fox News’s engagements and 20 percent of CNN’s engagements on their main Facebook pages.
Facebook reactions provide a way to gauge the emotional pulse of your audience. Through them, publishers can discover insights around followers’ intentions and emotions toward specific content. Reactions also indicate that people took extra time to click a more nuanced response. Keep up on the latest social video trends by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.Â
That’s a Wrap, Folks!
As we head into American football season and the culmination of baseball season, it’s interesting to note which videos did the best around the Olympics. With social media evolving so fast, we can only imagine how social video will have changed by the next Olympic season.
Social media is vital to connecting with sports enthusiasts and curious viewers alike. Video gives sports publishers the chance to deepen fans’ experience with exclusive content or moments they may have missed. With social publishing, the thrill of the sport going, even after the games have ended.
