Lancashire sports star has the second most loyal Instagram followers out of all UK athletes
With the Olympics, Silverstone GP, and EURO 2024 just around the corner and athletes poised to dominate our social media feeds, new research has revealed which athletes craft the most engaging content on social media and one Lancashire sports star just misses out on top place.
The world of sports is big business, attracting audiences from all over the world and social media has become a tool where athletes can use their influence to monetise brands by engaging with fans in real-time.
However, it’s not just about gaining followers on social media, athletes strive to retain their audience by consistently producing captivating content that resonates with their followers.
A positive likes to follow ratio is a clear indication of the impact of their efforts, sparking intrigue, admiration and sometimes influence amongst fans. But which athletes have a good likes to follow ratio?
Researchers at Spin Genie UK have dived into the data, looking at each likes to follow ratio to determine which athletes are most engaging to their fans on social media.
Lancashire can boast a whole of famous athletes from footballers like Scott McTominay and Phil Jones to cricketers James Anderson and Freddie Flintoff or combat sports stars like Tyson Fury and Stuart Bennett but only one actually makes the top 10...
Which Lancashire star has the most loyal Instagram followers?
Cricketer James Anderson comes out as having the second most loyal Instagram followers out of all UK athletes.
The 41-year-old from Burnley currently has 1 million Instagram followers and Spin Genie calculates that he has a 14.80% like-to-follower ratio. This means the average amount of likes each of James’ posts gets is 14% of his total Instagram follower count.
It is worth noting that you do not have to follow someone however to like their Instagram post.
But who else has the most loyal fans?
These are the top ten athletes with the best likes to follow ratio:
| Rank | Athlete | Likes: follow ratio |
| 1 | Mark Selby | 16.62% |
| 2 | James Anderson | 14.80% |
| 3 | Katarina Johnson-Thompson | 12.02% |
| 4 | Lando Norris | 6.87% |
| 5 | Joe Root | 6.1% |
| 6 | Jos Buttler | 6.09% |
| 7 | Keely Hodgkinson | 6.03% |
| 8 | Anthony Joshua | 5.91% |
| 9 | Ben Stokes | 5.89% |
| 10 | Steph Houghton | 5.86% |
Does the research have any other intersting findings?
Besides looking at which athletes have the best like: follower ratio, Spin Genie also looked at who earns the most amount of money per Instagram post.
Again James Anderson makes the top 10, but as does Morecambe based boxer Tyson Fury.
You can read more about these findings here.