I decided to do a comparison of 2011 NBA Playoff teams on Twitter to see what the numbers were. This is by no means a complete comparison or full audit; it’s just something I put together tonight that I thought would be fun/interesting. Check out the chart and details below.
The numbers above were taken on 4/19/2011 from Twitter and Klout. The numbers for retweets and @ mentions are for the number of retweets and @ mentions a team has received. I’m not sure which type of retweet Klout counts (built in Twitter retweet function vs. using RT in front of a tweet) or if they count both. I wanted to include “average tweets per day” in this table but Twittercounter was acting strange and not giving me completely accurate data.
Take a look at some of the winners and losers below. Obviously the teams below aren’t true “winners” or “losers” since I have no idea how much money and resources these teams are putting into Twitter and what they’re getting in return in the form of sales and cost savings/avoidance, as well as whatever other goals they’ve set that Twitter is contributing to. I just thought it would be fun to look at these numbers.
Winners
- Followers – LA Lakers
- Klout – LA Lakers
- Retweets – LA Lakers
- @ Mentions – LA Lakers
- Tweets – Chicago Bulls
- Bonus – first to join Twitter – Portland Trailblazers (5/28/07)
Losers
- Followers – Atlanta Hawks
- Klout – Atlanta Hawks
- Retweets – Memphis Grizzlies
- @ Mentions – Atlanta Hawks
- Tweets – Memphis Grizzlies
- Bonus – last to join Twitter – Denver Nuggets (3/23/09)
Observations
It is interesting to see these numbers, but it would take a lot more research to dig in and see why the numbers are like this and what teams are doing well/not so well to move the needle. But here are a few observations:
- The Lakers are the second most profitable NBA team (valued at $643 million here vs. the Knicks at $655 million) but are dominating the Knicks and all other teams from a numbers perspective on Twitter
- Twelve teams have more @ mentions than retweets. Four teams (Magic, Heat, Bulls, Nuggets) have more retweets than @ mentions.
- The Chicago Bulls have 1/9 as many followers as the Orlando Magic, but they have six times more @ mentions.
- The average ratio of interactions (retweets + @ mentions) to tweets is 1.75
- Tweets from the Lakers generate the most interactions per tweet – 5.7 per tweet
- Tweets from the Trailblazers (despite being the first of these teams to join Twitter) generate the lowest number of interactions per tweet – .36 per tweet
- The Orlando Magic have the second most followers but the sixth fewest @ mentions. They rank seventh in retweets. They have a relatively low amount of interactions per tweet (.61). I’m not sure what they’ve done to gain such a huge number of followers. Any ideas?
It’s late and I’m tired, so I haven’t done much more digging to understand why the numbers are what they are. What other insights can you find in these numbers?
Next up: A look at NBA Playoff teams and their Facebook pages.
True Life: I'm Jason Peck.
