When marvelling at Roma’s stunning comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League it was hard not to also marvel at how the club captured the moment on social media, too.

Without wishing to harp on too much about one club’s social media team, a short follow-up is necessary: last night wasn’t just a case study in how to enhance the moment with smart reaction, it was also a night in which the club saw some serious digital engagement.

Of course, good engagement is the flip side of hitting the right notes on Twitter. The better the content, the more likes and shares you’ll get.

#RomaBarcellona di ieri sera ha visto l'@OfficialASRoma guadagnare la #Semifinale di #ChampionsLeague con una prestazione eroica.

La passione dei #tifosi è esplosa sui #socialmedia facendo registrare numeri incredibili ???? > https://t.co/BFJEo2wTUV#UCL #ASRoma #FanEngagement pic.twitter.com/sbGWmqubN2

— IQUII Sport (@IQUIISport) April 11, 2018

Italian digital agency IQUII Sport analysed Roma’s Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts after the game and up until the following morning in order to measure just how far their big night on social media translated into engagement and new followers.

The results were emphatic.

By IQUII’s calculations, in just a few hours after the game Roma added 238k new followers (that’s a growth of nearly 2%) and saw around a 2.5% engagement rate on Twitter and Facebook. Most interestingly, however, the Giallorossi managed to get an engagement rate of 16.51% on Instagram.

DAJEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeifefefbejfwjofnwjfnwjfbrufbwfubweufbewfuewbewbfwejfwjlfjfwfjlwfjbfjwfbwjfbwjofwjfnewjofnewjofnwjfnweAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! #RomaBarca 3⃣-0⃣#ASRoma #UCL

— AS Roma (@OfficialASRoma) April 10, 2018

The entertainment value of the content shows why so many people were interested in engaging with it. But it’s still heartening in a world which often feels so fast-paced and shallow that producing quality work still generates the most interest.

DAJEEEEEE ROMAAAAAAA!!!! ????❤️

A post shared by AS Roma (@officialasroma) on Apr 10, 2018 at 1:38pm PDT

It also shows the power of Instagram.

At a time when growth on Twitter and Facebook seems to be stalling somewhat, Instagram is powering ahead in its quest to be the number one platform for sport. And whilst you would think that Twitter is the natural home for instant post-game reaction, Roma’s Instagram figures show that the platform is more than useful for reacting to big events which are happening in real time.

Nights like these happen in football, and that’s why the sport is so beloved the world over. But they are also infrequent occurrences for individual clubs. When they happen, you have to capitalise: and if you do it properly, the results are great.