Guest post: Krishan Majithia is an Economics graduate and the Social Media Executive at We Play. He is an FA level 2 qualified coach at Headstone Manor as well as being the brains behind ‘Tactical Sunder’ and part time writer for FTBpro. Follow him @krishm91

Last Saturday saw the biggest British boxing fight in the post-war era, the rematch between Carl Froch and George Groves, with the IBF and WBA champion retaining his title with a devastating knockout in the 8th round. This was reflected on Twitter where the fight dominated the top trends and was driven by brands and fans, including 888sport.

888sport came out on top of the social media charts, according to an article posted today by iGaming Business.

“888sport’s re-tweeting of Vine content and humorous Twitter posts enabled it to pull away from other operators in terms of awareness and audience.

In total, 888Sport garnered 273 boxing-related mentions thanks to its posts. The contest, which pulled in a live audience of 80,000 and put boxing at the top of the sporting headlines, was won by Carl Froch in the eighth round.”

Brands are up against it on social media, particularly those marketing to a sports fans. It’s no secret that 3-5 years ago social media was innovative, it was breakthrough and those brands that invested in their social strategy, creating a story telling pitch and not a sales pitch would now be reaping the rewards. Today social media is a jungle and for most brands and agencies, the only way to cut through is through targeted advertising spend. Facebook knows this and is the reason they have reduced their organic reach to a lowly 2%.

However, we have found that, 1) by positioning your tone of voice to be ‘one of the fans’ , 2) engaging with influencers by curating their content and 3) by welcoming contributions; we can travel much farther than any promoted post. Here are two examples we posted that cut through delivering a knockout blow in the form of reach and brand awareness… excuse the pun.

They will definitely be talking about this punch for years! #FrochGroves2 #888sport https://t.co/hCMb4DBA6z

— 888sport (@888sport) May 31, 2014

OOOOHH BOXING FWENDS! #FrochGroves2 pic.twitter.com/aDY9O0ajZE

— 888sport (@888sport) May 29, 2014

You can see below the influence that having social media experts manage your activity can have on share of voice (the % conversation to related terms that competitive brands are sharing). The analysis done through Social Monitor, shows the difference in share of voice between April and May (we activated on May 1st), social media mentions per sport and boxing mentions between the two months.

There have been around 34,000 mentions as part of share of voice in May, compared to 6000 in April. Football has been the dominating driving force of conversation on @888sport, which is unsurprising with the end of the Premier League season, the Champions League Final, and the build up to the World Cup. 888sport has also had the highest share of voice compared to its competitors in regards to boxing and fighting, with 29%.