Which MLB Teams Are Winning At Social Media?
We’re just a couple of days shy of Memorial Day Weekend, and the 2014 Major League Baseball season is well underway. At almost a third of the way through the season, teams across both leagues are fighting for a postseason berth, and a shot at winning the “Fall Classic” in October. A quick Google search will reveal which teams are currently leading their division, but do you know which team is leading in social media reach? Thanks to Rival IQ, you can compare social media metrics for all 30 Major League Baseball teams.
(Note: All data presented in this blog entry was taken from Rival IQ, on Thursday, May 22nd, 2014)
Twitter provides a great opportunity for fans to join in on conversations, and live-tweet during games. Rather than wait until the next day to read the paper, fans can also follow beat reporters and get up-to-the-minute reactions while watching the game. As a Mets fan, a couple of my favorite beat reporters to follow are Adam Rubin and David Lennon.
Without question, the best way to grow you’re a topic of conversation on Twitter is to have a lot of followers. So which MLB teams are doing Twitter the best? Check out this chart below:
According to Rival IQ, the team with the most Twitter followers is the “Bronx Bombers” themselves, the New York Yankees, with 1,139,448 followers. Following the Yankees are the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox, with 824,218 and 782,745 followers respectively. Needless to say, the “Evil Empire” have quite the following when it comes to Twitter,
Google+
Ah, the red-headed step child of social media, Google+. Not as widely used as some of the other social media platforms I’m covering in this blog, Google+ had some pretty interesting results. While they dominated the rest of the league on Twitter, the Yankees are only second in Google+ “Plus Ones” with 773,002. Leading the Google+ conversation are the San Francisco Giants with a staggering 1,172,283 plus ones. Also, coming in at sixth are the Oakland Athletics, so Google+ appears to have quite the user base in the bar area.
Even more shocking is that the lowly Miami Marlins have the 8th largest Google+ following, with 182,253 plus ones. Really makes you wonder who is actually using Google+.
One of the more visual of social media channels, Instagram is a great way for MLB teams to appeal to their younger, more mobile-friendly fans. Coming in at number one are the Los Angeles Dodgers with 512,937 followers.
When it comes to social media marketing, Major League Baseball puts a lot of focus on Facebook. Of all of the results, the data from the Facebook graph is probably the least surprising. The Yankees are in first, once again, with 7,592,544 Facebook likes. Coming in at 2nd are their mortal enemies, the Boston Red Sox, followed by the Dodgers and Giants.
Unlike Google+, the Marlins have 29th largest Facebook following, more befitting of their rank in team payroll.
Overall Social Media Reach
The chart below is my favorite, and shows you just how powerful some social media channels truly are. Here, you’ll find every team’s social media reach, with each platform having a different color to indicate the number of followers. Unfortunately, my beloved New York Mets are right in the middle of the pack with only the 14th largest social media reach. I guess a few consecutive losing seasons will do that.
So where does your favorite team rank? Feel free to comment below, or reach out to us on social media with your results.
