The International Volleyball Federation has topped the latest edition of #SportOnSocial's league table for Olympic IFs ©Getty Images

The International Volleyball Federation has topped the latest edition of sports marketing agency Redtorch’s #SportOnSocial League Table, which has revealed the challenges the coronavirus pandemic has posed International Federations from a social media perspective.

The fifth edition of the rankings, released today, examines how International Federations performed on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram during 2020, a year that saw the majority of live sporting events around the world halted because of the coronavirus pandemic.

To determine the standings the social media pages and handles of all summer and winter Olympic IFs were analysed using measures including growth, engagement and views.

The FIVB tops the standings, rising two places from the 2020 edition of the table, while the Badminton World Federation in second, and World Athletics in third, also rise two places compared to the previous year’s table.

In fourth place in this year’s table is FIFA, rising two places, and in fifth this year is the International Federation that topped the previous year’s standings - the International Basketball Federation.

The International Federation that saw the biggest rise on the table this year was the International Gymnastics Federation, which rose nine places from 20th up to 11th. 

The biggest drop in the rankings was the International Weightlifting Federation, which fell 14 places from 14th last year to 28th this year.

Of the new Olympic International Federations to have entered the league table the highest placed is the World Karate Federation, which entered 17th.

Redtorch’s head of insight Ollie Davis attributed the FIVB’s rise up the rankings to "an analytics-driven, agile content strategy that incorporated players and influencers."

Chief executive of Redtorch Jonny Murch paid tribute to International Federation's work on social media, despite the challenging circumstances.

"To their enormous credit, IFs managed to increase overall fan numbers," he said.

"They did so by adapting, maximising archive video, working more closely with athletes, delivering virtual events and being increasingly creative in their output."

To read a full copy of the report click here. 

Murch has written a blog for insidethegames about the latest edition of the #SportOnSocial League Table, which can be accessed here.