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The ingenious way in which rugby teams are using Tik Tok to gain millions of new young followers
By Tom Parker
A new platform has completely taken over the social media sphere for young people between the ages of 10-21. The name of that platform is Tik Tok. We look at the rugby teams which are dominating Tik Tok.
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As of today, the platform has been downloaded 1.5 billion times. The platform is growing at a rate that is 5x faster than its leading competitor Instagram.
The platform is a video-only social media app where the app chooses what videos you watch. The algorithm works out the kind of videos that you like and it will show you content that it thinks that you will enjoy.
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Recently, rugby teams and players have started to grow on this platform. Clubs have started showing fans behind the scenes videos of what goes on behind the team to try and appeal to this young fresh audience.
Some teams have certainly managed to crack this audience faster than others.
RugbyPass has a Tik Tok account which you can look at here.
We take a deep dive into the teams that are doing everything right with their Tik Tok accounts, getting thousands of new followers every single day.
The Blues
Followers: 25.5k followers
Likes: 179.k
The Auckland based team have without a doubt dominated the Tik Tok scene among the Super Rugby teams. The team has really ramped up the amount of posts that they have put out over the last two weeks, with posts featuring Beauden Barrett and Dan Carter.
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The post above shows them giving fans a behind the scenes view of the now-famous Bronco test where Beauden Barrett broke the club record.
The Blues have by far the biggest following of any of the Super Rugby teams on this platform.
England Rugby
Followers: 48.7k followers
Likes: 381.8k likes
The English rugby social media team has been a shining light on how to appeal to new audiences ever since the 2019 World Cup. Their approach to Tik Tok has been no different with the team giving previously unseen insights into how the men in white go about their day to day business.
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This post below shows the kind of unprecedented access that the team is giving their young followers.
Of all the International rugby teams in the World, England rugby has the most followers. The average age of a Tik Tok user is 14-years-old. This shows how teams can really benefit from using the platform to appeal to an exciting new audience.
Toulon
Followers: 1953
Likes: 10.1k
The French galacticos have only recently started to establish themselves on the new video platform. However, the kind of content that they are releasing truly is incredible.
Their most recent video that they released shows World Cup winner Eben Etzebeth and his team celebrating in the changing rooms after the match. Whilst another post from last week portrays just how different training conditions are for players as they train in a post-lockdown world.
This video showing Anthony Belleau wiping down weights after a session has garnered 80,000 views.
Of all the Top 14 teams, Toulon without a doubt are putting out some of the best content that we have seen on that platform.
Ulster Rugby
Followers: 4085
Likes: 53.9k
Similarly to Toulon, the Pro 14 club have only recently got into the Tik Tok bubble. The club is already creating a unique brand for themselves on the app. Videos of Jacob Stockdale doing funny skits are getting hundreds of thousands of views.
This remix of a Stockdale try-saving tackle has almost reached 300,00 views.
It truly illustrates the power of sharing video on this platform.
World Rugby
Followers: 399.6k
Likes: 8.1m
Without a doubt the biggest producer of rugby content on the social media app. World Rugby has been producing brilliant content on Tik Tok since just before the 2019 World Cup.
The organisation is close to accumulating 10,000,00 likes on the Chinese-owned app and there appears to be no signs of stopping them.
This post showing a Kenyan try from the World sevens Series has almost 500,000 views.
The video is just 20 seconds long.
