Intro

The F1 Social Media Index is a league table of the 11 F1 race teams involved in the 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship, ranked according to the best use of social media by the teams’ official club channels.

Published annually by PR and social media agency Umpf, the table is compiled by measuring the performance of each team based, not just on our custom algorithm, but research from a team of nine people who looked at eight social networks, as well as a panel of three judges who presided over the results.

Well done to Williams who claimed overall top spot - see case study below - and congratulations also go to the McLaren and Mercedes teams who claimed second and third places respectively.

Adrian Johnson MD, PR and social media agency, Umpf

Methodology

There are three elements to our methodology – with a maximum score of 100 being attainable.

The first element (which accounted for 70% of the total score) was a full analysis of each team’s social channels.

Scores given at this stage took into account the breadth of official social channels including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. The scores also took into account community growth and engagement on Twitter and Facebook, weighted fairly to reflect the number of fans or followers the accounts already had.

Other considerations at this stage included a score for the breadth of multimedia content posted on Twitter

and Facebook, including video, images, audio, official apps and external links.

The second element to our methodology was the judges’ scoring. Judges marked each team and the combined total from the judges were added together and averaged to give a final additional score for each team. This element accounted for a maximum 30% of the total scoring.

The final element to our methodology was the implementation of ‘Black Flag’ penalties: 2.5% was deducted from the final score for each social media malpractice, including duplicate content, failure to use hashtags, idle periods of four or more days as well as repeated spelling and grammar mistakes.

This grand total was used to rank the 11 F1 teams in the final F1 Social Media Index 2015.

Table

Click the red button for the full F1 Social Media Index ranking.

The document will open into a printable PDF.

Formula 1 league table

Case Study

Williams

Williams achieved pole position in the 2015 F1 Social Media Index by generating a high level of engagement among its fan base – particularly through Facebook and Twitter.

The Oxfordshire-based Team may not have the largest fan base, but in percentage terms, they are certainly the most engaged F1 audience. Judges praised the use of channel-optimised imagery and use of branded asset design to bring its social content to life.

Williams was praised highly for its live race updates through Twitter and behind-the-scenes content.

Judges noted that Williams could further improve its score by picking back up its presently-dormant Vine channel.

Judges

  • Simon Banoub

    Director of marketing at sport data experts Opta

    Simon is Director of Marketing at sport data experts Opta. Simon has responsibility for the global Opta brand and has been involved in the development of the successful Opta Twitter accounts, such as @OptaJoe, which boasts over 450,000 followers as well as positioning the company as the leading providers of sports data.

  • Adrian Johnson

    MD, PR and social media agency, Umpf

    Adrian Johnson is MD and founder of PR and social media agency, Umpf. He has over 17 years’ experience in the sector.

  • Amy Byard

    SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER, UMPF

    Amy is a PR and Social Media Account Manager at Umpf, with a keen interest in data analysis. She has proven experience compiling indices and league tables based on qualitative and quantitative data. Amy ranked #14 in The Drum’s 30 Women in Digital Under 30 2013.