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Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Document Type

Article

Abstract

With the power of social media transforming the way people connect and interact with each other, the dynamics of community formation on platforms such as X during major events are of crucial importance. While social media is an increasingly key driver in determining interactions, little is known about the online influence forming and developing fan communities in high-stakes events. This study looks into the development of user communities for datasets drawn from Kaggle on two of the world’s largest sporting events: the FIFA World Cup 2022, or football, and the T20 World Cup 2022, or cricket, with the aim of tracing the formation and transformation of X fan communities during these sporting events by analyzing the influence of retweets, hashtags, and mentions. Using the Louvain algorithm, it provides a modularity-based approach in capturing and analyzing community structures and their interactions in real time. In total, community nodes such as 61561 and 10415 were identified during the FIFA World Cup and T20 World Cup, respectively. These findings have very actionable implications for sports marketers and professionals, providing them with a framework to leverage social connections in a strategic manner. This work goes beyond the insights of sport and will be useful in areas of social circles and management to help improve understanding of community dynamics toward strategic impact in a digital world.

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