This weekend, the importance of upping your game on social media was laid bare with some great examples from both sides of the Atlantic ocean.

American sports have been innovators in social media fan engagement for years, but they are still often the go-to accounts across the weekend if you’re looking for something new and entertaining.

This weekend, on Instagram, the Minnesota Vikings’ Instagram account was the place to be if that’s what you were looking for.

The Vikings took on the Green Bay Packers in a derby game this weekend, as Minnesota faced Wisconsin, and the Vikings’ social media team weren’t going to let the opportunity for some derby day fan engagement pass up unnoticed.

Check the @Vikings Snap story for exclusive stickers courtesy of @emgarbersnaps. #Skol #smsports pic.twitter.com/6142w7hsp4

— sᴄᴏᴛᴛ ᴋᴇɢʟᴇʏ (@ScottKegley) October 15, 2017

They weren’t the only sports team to indulge in an interesting Instagram strategy around a game this weekend, though. Manchester City, whose home game against Stoke City perhaps doesn’t quite fall under the title of a derby, allowed their injured – but incredibly popular – full-back Benjamin Mendy take over, producing videos of himself supporting his teammates from afar. Unsurprisingly, given Mendy’s popularity and social media charisma, it went down a treat.

Instagram wasn’t the only area which was used to great effect this weekend, however. As this behind the scenes style video shows, you might want to up your Facebook live game over the next few months.

Impressive post game #FBLive setup. #smsports pic.twitter.com/NYLlMphMt4

— Jeff O'Keefe (@jeffokeefe) October 15, 2017

The Atlanta Falcons made use of the platform for a post-match review, and you can see the amount of effort that was put into making this production of the level you’d expect from live TV. It’s clear that, if live-streaming on social media is to be a winner for sports teams and leagues alike, the streams themselves have to be polished. Creating a Facebook Live, perhaps, shouldn’t be seen as anything different to creating a live TV broadcast, then, as streaming continues to become what is essentially broadcasting, just on a different platform.

Live-streaming is also something we’ve been talking about recently with regards to growing sports as well as the likes of NFL. After all, Facebook Live offers scale and ease of access, and allows you to reach an audience that may never have thought to seek out your product before.

Last week, netball’s European Open was broadcast live on Twitter as well as on the BBC Sport website and to impressive numbers, too, proving that live-streaming is a huge string to the bow of any sport looking to grow its fanbase and reach as many people as possible.

So latest viewing figures for our NEOpen livestreaming?? Reach of over 2.5million and views 360,000! Netball is such a sport in demand!!

— Netball Europe (@NetballEurope) October 10, 2017