European teams lead social media boom

'Like'

leaders Top teams worldwide for social media

(combined Twitter and Facebook totals) RANK TEAM TOTAL 1 FC Barcelona 13,540,055 2 Real Madrid 13,255,196 3 Manchester United 12,157,901 4 Los Angeles Lakers 9,577,996 5 Arsenal 5,903,251





Despite the continuing meteoric growth of sports on social media outlets, particularly Facebook and Twitter, most North American sports properties remain well behind top European and Asian soccer clubs in terms of global followers.

Of the 20 individual sports teams in terms of largest combined Facebook and Twitter audiences, nine of them, including the top three and seven of the top eight, are soccer teams from England, Spain or Turkey.

“If there’s anything to be learned from what’s happening abroad, it’s that these [soccer] teams are global brands,” said Bryan Perez, NBA Digital senior vice president and general manager. NBA Digital, a partnership between the league and Turner Sports, collaborates with NBA executives, notably marketing vice president Melissa Rosenthal Brenner, on the property’s social media efforts.

“They have truly vibrant global followings, exactly the kind of thing we’re trying to build here, and social media, of course, is going to be a key tool in that,” Perez said.

Fenway Sports Group, owner of Liverpool FC, which sports a Facebook following of more than 5.2 million, said marketing and commercial elements are not necessarily as overt on social media with many European soccer clubs.

“A lot of what’s happening there is content-based, a lot of unique content, and the players are really involved,” said Billy Hogan, managing director for FSG’s Fenway Sports Management and a key liaison to Liverpool FC and the club’s head of technology, Andrew Robinson.

“They’ve taken extra pains to make sure the social media is primarily about engaging fans, as opposed to it being more marketing related. In fact, they don’t market as much as they maybe could. But they’ve really grasped that it’s one thing … to have someone sign up and follow, but yet another to keep them engaged.”

Back in the U.S., another set of emerging dynamics is at play. The NBA, as it has for some time, holds the largest following of the major leagues with more than 37.8 million total fans and followers when combining the Twitter and Facebook audiences for the central league feed and those of the 30 individual teams.

But numbers and rankings are changing almost by the day. Major League Baseball’s total Facebook and Twitter audience of more than 20.6 million has more than doubled in size just since the end of the 2010 World Series, and projects to be north of 30 million by this fall. The more even balance among team-level followings in MLB and the NFL show a more localized social media fan development strategy than the more league-centric strategies shown by the NBA and others.

“We have an overarching strategy that we want Facebook users to become baseball fans, and not necessarily the other way around,” said Bob Bowman, MLB Advanced Media president and chief executive. “And beyond sheer numbers, we want to grow our [social media] users in two dimensions, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and be truly engaged.”

Clubs’ social media followings are getting large enough that they are dictating long-term, high-level strategic thought on the same level given to traditional broadband and TV programming efforts.

“You’re going to see every league realize that … these are sort of parallel cable networks,” said Michael Lazerow, chief executive of Buddy Media, which has counseled many teams and leagues and built tools for their social media endeavors. “That means you have to program against them with content in a concerted, dedicated way. We definitely continue to move into uncharted waters here.”

Still, debate within the industry percolates as to what social media audience sizes really mean beyond bragging rights.

“Whatever you do in social media ideally has to be tied to some kind of measurable business objective,” said Pat Coyle, president of Coyle Media, which also counsels sports properties and has created SportsFanGraph.com, a real-time ranking of social media followers for teams and leagues. “Whether it’s selling tickets, building an audience for sponsorship or whatever, there needs to be a stronger, direct link.”



MLB RANK LEAGUE/TEAM TWITTER FACEBOOK TOTAL — MLB 1,186,103 321,018 1,507,121 1 N.Y. Yankees 352,191 3,548,692 3,900,883 2 Boston 64,582 2,292,832 2,357,414 3 Philadelphia 618,503 834,722 1,453,225 4 Chicago Cubs 37,049 1,143,409 1,180,458 5 San Francisco 115,534 908,811 1,024,345 6 Atlanta 60,090 662,383 722,473 7 St. Louis 20,957 688,506 709,463 8 L.A. Dodgers 49,085 593,053 642,138 9 Detroit 8,935 595,491 604,426 10 Chicago White Sox 18,409 583,393 601,802 11 Texas 34,982 565,964 600,946 12 Minnesota 9,162 564,309 573,471 13 N.Y.Mets 25,017 375,760 400,777 14 Milwaukee 15,807 357,980 373,787 15 Cincinnati 8,156 340,265 348,421 16 Cleveland 9,560 332,108 341,668 17 Seattle 19,287 301,619 320,906 18 Colorado 10,757 283,627 294,384 19 Tampa Bay 19,480 270,082 289,562 20 Toronto 32,286 249,529 281,815 21 Houston 8,406 271,852 280,258 22 L.A. Angels 16,319 249,052 265,371 23 Oakland 4,894 254,156 259,050 24 Baltimore 16,091 234,827 250,918 25 San Diego 5,968 239,469 245,437 26 Kansas City 18,661 197,670 216,331 27 Pittsburgh 7,647 171,741 179,388 28 Florida 5,350 150,390 155,740 29 Arizona 10,277 126,288 136,565 30 Washington 11,610 84,422 96,032 TOTALS 2,821,155 17,793,420 20,614,575

NBA RANK LEAGUE/TEAM TWITTER FACEBOOK TOTAL — NBA 2,464,557 8,234,810 10,699,367 1 L.A. Lakers 1,944,384 7,633,612 9,577,996 2 Boston 163,676 3,949,904 4,113,580 3 Miami 140,828 2,099,736 2,240,564 4 Chicago 112,249 1,949,103 2,061,352 5 Orlando 1,061,001 771,877 1,832,878 6 N.Y. Knicks 93,409 806,243 899,652 7 Cleveland 65,208 669,770 734,978 8 San Antonio 56,743 612,260 669,003 9 Denver 41,123 530,254 571,377 10 Dallas 48,921 439,799 488,720 11 Phoenix 61,031 425,986 487,017 12 Oklahoma City 38,075 371,321 409,396 13 Houston 42,415 306,261 348,676 14 Portland 32,600 252,356 284,956 15 Detroit 26,226 251,026 277,252 16 Utah 36,090 229,750 265,840 17 Toronto 30,693 204,690 235,383 18 GoldenState 25,700 203,337 229,037 19 Philadelphia 31,229 154,015 185,244 20 Milwaukee 22,524 137,442 159,966 21 New Jersey 38,782 103,223 142,005 22 Atlanta 21,968 119,081 141,049 23 Sacramento 23,295 116,935 140,230 24 L.A. Clippers 34,475 77,865 112,340 25 Indiana 22,787 84,273 107,060 26 Washington 25,563 77,556 103,119 27 Minnesota 18,524 79,813 98,337 28 Charlotte 20,524 60,939 81,463 29 Memphis 23,882 55,419 79,301 30 New Orleans 26,140 33,912 60,052

TOTALS 6,794,622 31,042,568 37,837,190

NHL RANK LEAGUE/TEAM TWITTER FACEBOOK TOTAL — NHL 570,605 1,491,130 2,061,735 1 Montreal 124,808 641,313 766,121 2 Chicago 65,830 698,308 764,138 3 Boston 39,875 577,970 617,845 4 Pittsburgh 80,386 522,482 602,868 5 Philadelphia 43,925 518,549 562,474 6 Detroit 54,049 502,026 556,075 7 Vancouver 86,485 364,941 451,426 8 Toronto 48,679 378,764 427,443 9 Washington 39,247 305,748 344,995 10 N.Y. Rangers 34,212 242,980 277,192 11 Colorado 18,900 228,201 247,101 12 SanJose 29,197 206,652 235,849 13 Buffalo 24,663 195,921 220,584 14 New Jersey 22,684 165,880 188,564 15 Edmonton 41,818 127,345 169,163 16 Minnesota 19,149 126,285 145,434 17 Los Angeles 27,535 110,674 138,209 18 St. Louis 22,479 115,501 137,980 19 Anaheim 19,727 118,138 137,865 20 Carolina 14,908 115,837 130,745 21 Tampa Bay 18,949 109,923 128,872 22 Dallas 20,546 100,457 121,003 23 Ottawa 17,579 89,879 107,458 24 Calgary 37,492 61,943 99,435 25 Nashville 14,014 59,650 73,664 26 Phoenix 10,962 46,073 57,035 27 Columbus 14,055 42,859 56,914 28 N.Y. Islanders 10,629 32,969 43,598 29 Florida 11,332 32,074 43,406 30 Atlanta 11,895 30,574 42,469

TOTALS 1,596,614 8,361,046 9,957,660

NFL RANK LEAGUE/TEAM TWITTER FACEBOOK TOTAL — NFL 2,033,992 3,002,111 5,036,103 1 Dallas 72,466 2,573,707 2,646,173 2 Pittsburgh 83,925 2,209,866 2,293,791 3 New England 87,209 1,935,500 2,022,709 4 GreenBay 71,436 1,500,069 1,571,505 5 Chicago 45,988 1,498,398 1,544,386 6 New Orleans 49,175 1,292,911 1,342,086 7 Indianapolis 8,831 1,066,858 1,075,689 8 Minnesota 47,351 918,788 966,139 9 Philadelphia 33,945 904,106 938,051 10 N.Y. Jets 134,346 747,875 882,221 11 Oakland 53,981 784,584 838,565 12 N.Y. Giants 10,668 789,205 799,873 13 San Diego 58,340 720,539 778,879 14 Miami 47,843 643,620 691,463 15 San Francisco 49,903 597,615 647,518 16 Denver 44,505 595,507 640,012 17 Washington 19,130 555,803 574,933 18 Baltimore 32,901 501,231 534,132 19 Seattle 34,587 460,163 494,750 20 Kansas City 30,109 408,098 438,207 21 Cincinnati 38,190 386,092 424,282 22 Detroit 21,443 316,817 338,260 23 Cleveland 32,650 265,944 298,594 24 Houston 22,966 259,056 282,022 25 Tampa Bay 18,287 246,987 265,274 26 Arizona 5,614 245,479 251,093 27 Buffalo 24,635 221,201 245,836 28 Tennessee 30,663 204,755 235,418 29 Carolina 15,956 205,144 221,100 30 Atlanta 43,495 160,486 203,981 31 Jacksonville 13,692 160,422 174,114 32 St. Louis 15,241 90,754 105,995 TOTALS 3,333,463 26,469,691 29,803,154

Worldwide

teams RANK TEAM TWITTER FACEBOOK TOTAL 1 FC Barcelona 660,378 12,879,677 13,540,055 2 Real Madrid 1,441,758 11,813,438 13,255,196 3 Manchester United 0 12,157,901 12,157,901 4 Los Angeles Lakers 1,944,384 7,633,612 9,577,996 5 Arsenal 567,179 5,336,072 5,903,251 6 Galatasaray 101,801 5,203,835 5,305,636 7 Liverpool 4,109 5,260,015 5,264,124 8 Chelsea 170,095 4,898,204 5,068,299 9 Boston Celtics 163,676 3,949,904 4,113,580 10 New York Yankees 352,191 3,548,692 3,900,883 11 Fenerbahçe 0 3,790,151 3,790,151 12 AC Milan 60,604 3,417,345 3,477,949 13 Dallas Cowboys 72,466 2,573,707 2,646,173 14 Boston Red Sox 64,582 2,292,832 2,357,414 15 Pittsburgh Steelers 83,925 2,209,866 2,293,791 16 Miami Heat 140,828 2,099,736 2,240,564 17 Chicago Bulls 112,249 1,949,103 2,061,352 18 New England Patriots 87,209 1,935,500 2,022,709 19 Orlando Magic 1,061,001 771,877 1,832,878 20 Green Bay Packers 71,436 1,500,069 1,571,505

Leagues and Properties LEAGUE/PROPERTY TWITTER FACEBOOK TOTAL NBA 2,464,557 8,234,810 10,699,367 WWE 311,614 5,122,833 5,434,447 UFC 239,423 5,157,739 5,397,162 NFL 2,033,992 3,002,111 5,036,103 IOC 53,796 2,120,292 2,174,088 NHL 570,605 1,491,130 2,061,735 NASCAR 116,039 1,421,220 1,537,259 MLB 1,186,103 321,018 1,507,121 WTA 17,482 752,335 769,817 ATP World Tour 62,859 383,151 446,010 USOC/Team USA 13,004 325,247 338,251 PGA Tour 73,339 261,710 335,049 NHRA 10,532 217,313 227,845 MLS 20,877 171,408 192,285 Formula One 88,406 41,481 129,887 Indy Racing League 19,966 37,874 57,840





About the research

The charts presented here show the number of Twitter “followers” and Facebook “likes” for team and league sites as of April 19. The teams are ranked by their combined number of fans across the two sites.



The sites tracked were those sites identified as “official sites” by the leagues and teams. Many teams do have multiple sites — official and unofficial — used to reach fans, including sites created by front-office personnel.



Player sites also provide points of access, but for this listing, only “official sites” were monitored.



Numbers listed reflect what was reported on each individual site. For the league/property and worldwide teams charts, teams were identified for listing by the rankings available from SportsFanGraph.com, and the individual sites’ updated numbers were then taken directly from the listed sites.