The Sports Info Business

Yesterday, we tackled the NFL and today we feature the National Basketball Association and how its teams use social media.

Let me just begin by saying, if you did not see yesterday’s article on the NFL, you can easily click on it here. Overall, I applaud teams for entering into the next stage of sports marketing and that is using social media to listen, brand and communicate with fans via different platforms.  However, just because they develop a site does not mean the team is using best practices.

Today, we begin with Twitter.  I put together a brief chart on the top five teams using Twitter. based on the number of followers each organization has listed over the weekend.

Okay, it has been a while between normal posts.

It is not that I have been ignoring my blog.  Rather, my business Coast 2 Coast Experts, has kept me very busy of late.  We have been assisting companies launch email marketing programs, develop company-wide social media guidelines, pitching and placing clients on the front pages of magazine as well as other strategic marketing initiatives.

Currently, I am preparing to assist a professional sports team and began doing research in how the top four sports organizations (NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL) are using Facebook and Twitter.  I know that there are dozens of social media tools, but based on current understanding, critical mass and immediate impact, I chose these two platforms for today’s discussion.

On January 23, 2010, I surveyed each individual team in the National Football League as well as the National Basketball Association for their activities in Twitter and Facebook.  I started by looking on the league sites and then, I went to each individual team to see the following:

1) Were the actively participating?

2) Were they/How were they marketing the tools?

3) What were they saying?

THE NFL

For all but two teams, the 2009 NFL season is over.  The upstart Jets’ season came to a premature conclusion last night when the Peyton Manning and the Colts figured out New York’s defense and is returning to the Super Bowl.  The second game between the Saints and Vikings proved to be a thriller and the Saints are now scheduling their first visit to the Super Bowl in franchise history.

Before the games were played however, I wanted to see  how every team in the league was tackling these two social media platforms.  First, some stats to digest.

Team                             Facebook Fans

1. Pittsburgh Steelers 458,252

2. Minnesota Vikings 323,197

3. Indianapolis Colts 242,032

4. Green Bay Packers 218, 232

5. Washington Redskins 210,037

Now, if you click on any of the teams listed above in red, you will find that the numbers of fans do not match the numbers I am reporting.  Why?  Because I did a survey over the weekend of every team around the same time.  As with any social media tool, the numbers will fluctuate n a real time manner.

I know what you are saying as you read this, of course the Colts and the Vikings are on the list, they were playing for the Super Bowl.  If that is so, then why are the Redskins, Green Bay Packers and Steelters on the list then?  Some of it is winning no doubt, but some of it is applying the social media tools and marketing them tot he fans correctly.  Why weren’t the aints or the Jets there?  The Saints have one of the lowest facebook fan followings with a but more than 42,000 folks adding them to their accounts.  And the Jets?  They were ranked 13th with nearly 87,000 fans.

On to Twitter….

The Micro-blogging tool turned up these top teams in the number of followers.

1. New England Patriots 33,401 followers

2, San Diego Chargers 31,857 followers

3, New York Jets 20,971 followers

4 Oakland Raiders 20,687 followers

5, San Francisco 49ers 20,535 followers

All of these numbers are fine and dandy if we were doing a straight popularity contest, but here is the thing.  Just about every sports team is getting it wrong, including some of the teams listed in these two charts.  First of all, they are not taking a strategic approach, second of all they are not marketing and reaching fans in the correct manner, yet most of them know they need a presence.

I would be willing to bet dollars to donuts that fewer than 10% have an actual social media policy.  Even fewer still have had key executives trained on these communication tools.

I would call it opportunity missed.

Giving current employees additional duties or putting an intern in charge of communication is not the right business decision.  There are a few leading companies that do get it and they have developed or appointed someone or a team devoted to digital strategy.  The world is changing and sports teams need to change with it.  Now.

Tomorrow, I tackle what the NBA’s teams and numbers look like from the weekend.

————————

Notes:  I could not locate official Facebook fan sites for the following teams:  Dallas Cowboys, NY Giants, Carolina Panthers, St. Louis Rams.  As for Twitter, the following teams, according to my research, are not using the tool:  New Orleans Saints, Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers.  If they are and I have missed something, please help me locate their sites.  Not only are they missing an important communications strategy, they are letting others control their name and message.

The numbers are from my own research.  One of the issues sports teams as well s businesses have is sites like Twitter have not created a tool to verify business sites.  So, there is a chance that some of these sites might not be the “official site of” — Another job for someone at the league offices.