WWE And Social Media: Boon or bane?

With over one billion followers across various social platforms, WWE is a worldwide leader when it comes to promoting their product through this medium. The company is very active on every platform, posting pictures and videos on a regular basis without fail, which are viewed by millions of people across the globe.

Take YouTube, for example, WWE is currently the 7th most subscribed YouTube Channel, with a subscriber base of 39.5 million. The company has uploaded over 39500 videos on the video streaming platform, garnering over an estimated 23 billion views.

The company adds an estimated 1 million subscribers every month.

These numbers are staggering, and they are a big reason why WWE emphasizes so much on social media, as it has become one of their major sources of revenue over the past few years (H/T- Socialblade).

Companies like Facebook partnering with WWE shows how big of a deal the company is in the online circle. The company also ranks in the top 3 when it comes to social media engagement across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But as with everything, there is a huge flip-side to WWE's rise on the social media ladder.

Over the past few years, there has been a constant decline in WWE TV ratings, with its flagship programme, RAW, seeing a sharp decline in its ratings, with the show not being able to cross the 3 million mark in 2018.

The less said about SmackDown the better, as WWE's Tuesday offering barely managed the 2 million viewers weekly, during the same time period.

While the nature of the business might have changed drastically over the past few years, the constant decline in ratings, once considered to the company's strong suit, will surely be giving them sleepless nights, especially after her multi-million deal with FOX, which sees SmackDown moving to the FOX network in early October (H/T - Wrestling Inc).

Now you might be thinking, how does WWE's social media presence impact it's weekly TV shows' ratings?

Well, it does, in a huge way, if one looks at it closely. Why will anyone watch an entire episode of RAW or SmackDown when he can get short video clips of the same on YouTube, which he/she can watch at will.

These video clips are shot, easy to consume, neatly edited, and gives the viewer all the information he/she needs to know about the show, thereby making it their go-to-destination whenever they want to get themselves acquainted with the current happenings in WWE.

Why sit around for three hours when you can practically watch the entire show in less than half an hour. These videos are uploaded almost immediately after the segment/match ends, which means that the viewer doesn't even have to wait long for the content.

This has arguably been the biggest reason for the company's declining TV ratings. It seems like WWE themselves aren't very serious about the ratings, as we are pretty sure that they would have analyzed the reasons for the slump.

TV deals remain the biggest source of revenue for the WWE, and the company should put serious thought into balancing their social media presence and their TV viewership, considering the huge amount of money being offered to them by TV stations.