The Portuguese professional footballer Cristiano Ronaldo reigns the social media stakes by having the most valuable reach.
According to a report by D’Marie Analytics, the former Manchester United winger has the most valuable reach, across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, with a worth of a cumulative $728,973.35 per post. This makes him both the most valuable soccer player and athlete overall on social media.
Trailing behind him is the Barcelona and Argentina star Lionel Messi, who is also a longtime rival of Ronaldo. Messi has a reach estimated at $558,000 worth. Brazil’s Neymar Jr., who recently became the most expensive soccer player in the world when he transferred from Barça to Paris Saint-Germain, settled to third place in D’Marie’s rankings with $432,000.
The three became dominance in the chart that is dominated by women.
The sports sector is the only field where men typically come ahead: and the highest ranked female athlete was tennis legend Serena Williams, who comes in at 14th among all sports professionals. A post from Williams who famously won the Australian Open while pregnant with daughter Alexis Olympia across the three major social media platforms is worth $111,3999.
11 of the top 20 accounts on D’Marie’s overall index represent women, seven are men and three are for brands.
D’Marie’s rankings are created by algorithms that took factors like overall number of followers and fan engagement.
Ronaldo came out ahead because of his sheer number of followers. "His social feeds combine a well-crafted look into his life on and off the pitch," said Frank Spadafora, chief executive of D’Marie. "His imagery of cars, fashion, athleticism and, quite frankly, abs are aspirational to many men and women across social media."
Recently, Ronaldo generated $36 million in value for Nike on social media alone via his own accounts through 59 posts over the last 12 months, according Hookit which tracks sponsorship value in social and digital media. The global sportswear giant also agreed to a $1 billion (£820 million) lifetime pact with Ronaldo in December 2016.
All of Ronaldo's partners got a total of $176 million in media value from his promotional work on social platforms.
