Grab your racket, our six tips for brands ahead of Wimbledon

Twitter users love tennis and this summer’s Wimbledon is already looking like it will be a cracking one for the home crowd. Andy Murray has an historic fifth win at Queens under his belt, and is seeded second in the men’s singles at Wimbledon, while fellow Briton Johanna Konta has been seeded 17th in the women’s competition.

The Wimbledon conversation on Twitter is huge. The graph below charts daily mentions of #Wimbledon through Jun-Jul, 2015. Last year the peak in conversation was on Men’s Final Day with over 264K mentions. There have already been around 120K Tweets in the last month as the excitement around the tournament in what is turning out to be a riveting summer of support builds.

As many as 63% of UK users will be following Wimbledon, according to research* conducted among our community of users, Insiders UK (@insiders_UK). Many of those (39%) will be using Twitter at the same time as watching live matches, and a whopping three- quarters-plus (77%) agree that Twitter improves their whole experience of Wimbledon.

Six tips for brands ahead of Wimbledon

1. Offer behind-the-scenes content
   
   The tennis world is full of bright personalities. They take to Twitter to share their opinions on big events. Twitter users value this kind of engagement, and brands can take advantage by working with sporting experts and influencers.
2. Find and reach a passionate audience
   
   Our community is passionate about everything from shoes to semiconductors. We can help you find your ideal audience using hundreds of different interest targets. Reaching a sporting audience isn’t always about bringing them sport content.
3. Connect with fans watching along at home
   
   With Twitter you can reach people who engage with specific television programming. Use TV targeting to find people talking about particular shows, genres or particular TV channels.
4. Share content with a story
   
   Vine videos are an ideal way to tell a short story, making the content far more memorable And users love to watch them. They particularly like Vines that speak the universal language of humour, which is reflected in the huge growth in the Vine creator community.
   
   

   https://twitter.com/TwitterAds/status/745914296069021696

5. Entertain your audience with GIFs and emojis
   
   GIFs and emojis are an easy way to inject fun into your Tweets. There is a massive selection of GIFs available on Twitter’s mobile apps to quickly add to your Tweets and drive engagement. With 80% of our users accessing Twitter via mobile, it’s the perfect platform for emoji fans to express themselves in fun, creative ways. What’s more, people really love to use emoji on Twitter. The top 10 most popular emoji have been used over three billion times (3).
   
   

   https://twitter.com/DjokerNole/status/746010297798889472

6. Use Twitter Video to maximise engagement
   
   Video views on Twitter grew 220x between 12/14 and 12/15. It highlights how Tweets using Twitter Video generate better engagement and more views.
   
   
   
   
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   *Sources: (1) Source | Jun-Jul, 2015. Terms: #Wimbledon, Wimbledon, @Wimbledon, #tennis, tennis, and Men’s/Women’s finalist @handles & @Andy_Murray
   
   (2) Insiders UK, UK user community 2015 - For further information please contact us at @TwitterAdsUK
   
   (3) According to emojitracker.com.