The Most Popular NBA Teams by Twitter and Facebook Fans
We all know that the NBA has been pushing Twitter like it nobody’s business for the past season and a half. And the popularity of facebook speaks for itself. So are the days of monitoring “which NBA team sells the most jersey’s” behind us? Have sports, particularly basketball, fully entered into the Web 2.0 age?
Regardless, I received a ‘tweet’ from @adamsherk to my twitter account to be quite interesting and thought i’d share with you. Adam Sherk has researched which NBA teams have the most followers on Twitter and Facebook. In the world of social media which NBA team kicks the most ass? It looks like the usual suspects are at the top of the list with the most twitter/facebook followers; the Lakers, Cavaliers, Magic, Celtics, etc.
A few things surprised me however:
1. How low the New York Knicks were all the way down at #12. Don’t get me wrong, the Knicks have been a brutal team for years now, and probably don’t deserve half the fans they still have, but on pure volume alone you would think the Knicks would be leading the pack.
2. The Miami Heat are at #27 of 30 teams? Hmmm….where are all the Heat fans on the ‘net? I guess they are all partying it up at the clubs and forgot to check their Heat Facebook Fan Page….
3. The Toronto Raptors at #14 is not bad. Sort of middle of the pack. But given what i’ve seen as an NBA blogger for a few years, the Raps fans seem to be everywhere. Or maybe its just that they are more vocal and rabid. Hell maybe its just because they are too busy on Raptors Republic to bother checking facebook or twitter. Either way I was surprised I didn’t see Toronto in the Top 5.
4. Is using facebook against the law in Orlando? How is it that they have 985,000 followers on Twitter but they only came in at a whopping 85,000 facebok fans? That’s just pure laziness people!
5. Conversely for the Celtics they only have a mere 25,000 twitter followers, but have a massive 481,000 facebook fans! Damn, I guess it may be due to the fact they won their recent championship before twitter hit its peak in popularity. Or maybe they are just getting all their Celtics needs at Celtics Blog and Reds Army to care about twitter’s updates.
Here is the full table from AdamSherk.com:
| Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles Lakers | 1,415,871 | 657,007 | 2,072,878 |
| 2 | Orlando Magic | 983,232 | 85,265 | 1,068,497 |
| 3 | Boston Celtics | 25,605 | 481,879 | 507,484 |
| 4 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 33,445 | 166,021 | 199,466 |
| 5 | Chicago Bulls | 26,161 | 155,827 | 181,988 |
| 6 | San Antonio Spurs | 19,901 | 90,550 | 110,451 |
| 7 | Denver Nuggets | 15,188 | 87,300 | 102,488 |
| 8 | Houston Rockets | 20,195 | 81,535 | 101,730 |
| 9 | Dallas Mavericks | 15,817 | 72,015 | 87,832 |
| 10 | Phoenix Suns | 21,896 | 64,976 | 86,872 |
| 11 | Portland Trail Blazers | 14,684 | 65,801 | 80,485 |
| 12 | New York Knicks | 14,395 | 43,972 | 58,367 |
| 13 | Utah Jazz | 11,785 | 44,328 | 56,113 |
| 14 | Toronto Raptors | 5,605 | 41,611 | 47,216 |
| 15 | Milwaukee Bucks | 7,089 | 37,197 | 44,286 |
| 16 | Sacramento Kings | 10,798 | 19,855 | 30,653 |
| 17 | Golden State Warriors | 2,655 | 27,826 | 30,481 |
| 18 | Philadelphia 76ers | 12,048 | 17,877 | 29,925 |
| 19 | Indiana Pacers | 7,204 | 14,760 | 21,964 |
| 20 | Los Angeles Clippers | 13,531 | 7,291 | 20,822 |
| 21 | Washington Wizards | 6,787 | 13,579 | 20,366 |
| 22 | Atlanta Hawks | 8,170 | 11,893 | 20,063 |
| 23 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 8,911 | 10,981 | 19,892 |
| 24 | Detroit Pistons | 9,537 | 7,854 | 17,391 |
| 25 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 6,554 | 10,742 | 17,296 |
| 26 | New Jersey Nets | 4,945 | 10,361 | 15,306 |
| 27 | Miami Heat | 13,870 | 599 | 14,469 |
| 28 | Memphis Grizzlies | 7,062 | 6,793 | 13,855 |
| 29 | Charlotte Bobcats | 5,502 | 7,281 | 12,783 |
| 30 | New Orleans Hornets | 8,459 | 1,647 | 10,106 |
P.S. if you’re not following us on our facebook or twitter accounts than what are you waiting for? And aside from our facebook blog page, this post today just sparked us to finally set up a facebook fan page. So don’t forgot to join The Hoop Doctors community there as well!
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[...] The Most Popular NBA Teams by Twitter and Facebook Fans | The Hoop … [...]
[...] The Most Popular NBA Teams by Twitter and Facebook Fans | The Hoop Doctors 3. The Toronto Raptors at #14 is not bad. Sort of middle of the pack. But given what i’ve seen as an NBA blogger for a few years, the Raps fans seem to be everywhere. Or maybe its just that they are more vocal and rabid. Hell maybe its just because they are too busy on Raptors Republic to bother checking facebook or twitter. Either way I was surprised I didn’t see Toronto in the Top 5. [...]
I’m too lazy to do the grand totals, but curious what those would be. Good stats though!
[Reply]
Aside from the Lakers’ and Magic’s on-court success, both teams are on Twitter’s Suggested Users List. This ‘gift’ from Twitter inherently launches them to the top of Sherk’s standings.
It’s a nice advantage to have, but does more for perception than actual fan engagement. Unless new Twitter users uncheck the 20 or so suggested users at the time of sign-up (there’s over 400 suggested users in total that get rotated), the Lakers and Magic, by default, yield the benefits. This, in my opinion, has nothing to do with the quality of their tweets or true size of their fan base.
Sherk hit it on the head with this statement: “While building up followers is great, it’s what you do with that following that really matters.” He goes on to offer great advice for NBA team properties using social tools: listen; interact; be compelling; provide updates; humanize your organization; get the players involved, and tie it to your goals and objectives.
Thanks for building on this article. You’ll soon see the NJ Nets jump toward the top of this list. You heard it here first.
[Reply]
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