With the NBA Playoffs in full swing as we head toward June, social media pages for the teams remaining in the playoffs are starting to put more of a focus on their fan engagement. With much of the sporting world's focus fixed firmly on the race for the Larry O'Brien Trophy, keeping up appearances on social media is very important to teams right now.
Here, we are going to look at which teams are garnering the most attention on their Facebook pages.
Los Angeles Lakers
You can see here that the Los Angeles Lakers are a huge talking point at the moment, with over half a million of their Facebook fans actively engaging the Lakers on Facebook in some way. Even though it's less that 4% of their total Facebook fans engaging, it's phenomenal considering they have over 13 million fans and are averaging half a million new fans per week. Will that number decrease if the Oklahoma City Thunder eliminate them? Stay tuned, folks.
Los Angeles Clippers
The crosstown rival Los Angeles Clippers, who are actually cross-arena rivals, are featuring in the second round of the playoffs for only the second time since the 70s, but still can't get close to the global Facebook phenomenon that is the Lakers. The Clips have nearly the least amount of Facebook fans from the teams remaining in the playoffs, but their numbers saw a massive spike on April 29th. The same April 29th when they came back from a double-digit deficit to beat the Memphis Grizzlies to steal home court advantage.
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics have been a regular in our Sports Geek posts due to their trailblazing ways to engage fans on social media, so we can't leave them out of this post. Especially when they look the goods to reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the third time since 2008. They have a great number of likes at over 6 million, are gaining around 15-20,000 new likes per day, and around 100,000 active users. With the #IAmNotSouthBeach Pinterest page and Twitter hashtag, expect that fan engagement number to skyrocket if the two teams tangle in the Conference Finals.
San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are doing the same on Facebook as they are doing on the court; just gettin' it done. They only sport a fan engagement number of around 40,000 but do have over 1 million fans. It's only half the amount of likes as the in-state rival Dallas Mavericks, but the Mavs benefitted hugely from winning it all last season.
Indiana Pacers
The Indiana Pacers could definitely do with some more Facebook numbers but, lacking a true superstar that is globally recognised, and being the number two team in Indianapolis for the last 15 seasons, their numbers aren't terrible. In fact, with around 10% of their total fans actively engaging them on Facebook with shares, likes, comments and posts, the Pacers fan engagement percentage is one of the strongest, even though it's total number is smaller than most.
Philadelphia 76ers
Like the Pacers, the Philadelphia 76ers have to contend with a large NFL-oriented fan base in Philly, but did get a large boost from knocking off the Bulls in the first round. Again, like the Pacers, the smaller market 76ers, lacking a genuine superstar, could be doing better numbers wise, but the passion of their fans shines through, with over 8% of them engaging on Facebook.
Oklahoma City Thunder
This year's favourites to take home their first championship in franchise history, the Oklahoma City Thunder Facebook page has more likes than the average small market team, thanks largely to superstar scorer, Kevin Durant (who, funnily enough, boasts over 2 million fans on his personal Facebook fan page). The 1 million fans are being joined by around an extra 15,000 fans per week, and are sure to see a boom in numbers if the young guns of the Thunder roll past the Los Angeles Lakers and in to the Western Conference Finals.
Miami Heat
The spoils of having (arguably) the most recognisable current NBA players on their squad has been a huge boost for the Miami Heat. With over 5.5 million fans and a fan engagement number of over 200,000, the Heat are big players on and off the court in these playoffs. Like the Lakers, their engagement could be a higher percentage of their total likes, but with over 200,000 people engaging them on Facebook through likes, wall posts and comments, the Heat are making waves at the moment.
How can you do this?
So there you have it, folks. As you can see, the bigger market teams generally have the greater engagement on Facebook. While smaller teams like the Sixers and Pacers have great engagement, percentage wise, the raw numbers are in favour of the bigger market teams such as the Heat, Celtics and Lakers.
To search a team's Facebook likes and fan engagement numbers, simply click on the Likes button in the Facebook Apps section as shown below.
Until the next post, thanks for reading.
Sean's Take
Great post Dion, if you're not following Dion, you should be. It should be noted that “Talking about this” is just one metric that Facebook offers publicly at least. It is calculated based on likes, comments & shares your Facebook posts get. Other metrics that need to be tracked to get a full understanding of how your Facebook is tracking. That said is it all part of the game designed by Zuck, you need to keep those engagemnet numbers up to maintain a good Edgerank & keep you Facebook posts in front of your fans.
If you want some assistance boosting your Facebook engagement numbers please contact us.