NFL Teams and Social Media: Who's Hot And Who's Not.

by One.Cool.Customer on May 31, 2011 4:30 AM CDT in Dallas Cowboys General

On this day exactly one year ago, I wrote a post about how effective NFL teams are at exploiting the opportunities alternative media has to offer, and looked at each team's internet reach, Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers.

Today, I revisit that post and update the numbers to find out what has changed in the last 365 days, and who the winners are. But before we do that, let's start a little closer to home. On the left side of this post, you can see the Twitter and Facebook icons that you can also find further down the left side of the BTB front page. On May 31st last year, BTB had 806 Facebook fans and 1,556 Twitter followers. One year later those numbers stand at 1,631 (+102%) and 2,729 (+75%), a combined increase of 85%.

Social media, and Twitter in particular, has changed the way fans interact with the game and its players. So much so that there is now even talk about an eventual CBA possibly containing a social media policy aimed at protecting players and teams. Regardless of whether that happens or not, social media has ramped up the NFL experience to an entirely different level.

But the NFL and NFL teams have a long way to go yet. Among the top six global teams in terms of Facebook fans are are five European Soccer clubs (In order: 1. FC Barcelona, 15.8 M; 2. Manchester United, 14.8 M; 3. Real Madrid, 8.7 M, 5. Arsenal, 6.0 M, 6. Liverpool, 5.9 M) and one North American professional team, the Lakers at No. 4 with 8.7 million Facebook fans. The best NFL team has 'only' 2.8 million Facebook fans. Find out who that team is after the break as we look at each NFL team's number of Twitter followers, Facebook Fans and the page rank of their internet sites.

The table below ranks the NFL teams according to the reach they generate in three categories. Here's what I looked at:

Twitter Followers: Number of Followers as shown on a teams official Twitter site.
Facebook Fans: Number of Fans on each teams' official Facebook page.
Home Page Traffic Rank: Traffic rank among all US internet sites for the official team homepage (as listed on NFL.com) according to Alexa.com, who compute the average daily visitors and pageviews over the last three months to arrive at their ranking.

Social Media Reach by NFL team

Team		Twitter Followers	Facebook Fans	Total (Change vs 2010)	Traffic Rank
	Cowboys	78,824	2,817,415	2,896,239 (+2,247,996)	4,739
	Steelers	93,411	2,434,612	2,528,023 (+1,942,077)	10,842
	Patriots	95,302	2,130,086	2,225,388 (+1,759,308)	11,247
	Packers	77,497	1,635,605	1,713,102 (+1,420,057)	9,401
	Bears	51,529	1,639,090	1,690,619 (+1,171,758)	7,844
	Saints	55,508	1,397,583	1,453,091 (+866,578)	41,533
	Colts	37,645	1,110,609	1,148,254 (+787,313)	21,920
	Eagles	39,846	1,023,087	1,062,933 (+856,581)	5,243
	Vikings	50,150	987,434	1,037,584 (+618,525 )	18,127
	Jets	147,930	821,410	969,340 (+813,480)	27,171
	Raiders	57,646	891,655	949,301 (+807,452)	24,291
	Giants	16,516	891,683	908,199 (+896,593)	17,233
	Chargers	62,291	781,763	844,054 (+582,741)	20,289
	Dolphins	51,837	708,744	760,581 (+537,345)	18,801
	49ers	54,403	667,925	722,328 (+545,528)	13,661
	Broncos	48,176	662,000	710,176 (+501,779)	15,133
	Redskins	21,176	589,329	610,505 (+358,098)	10,710
	Ravens	35,509	558,742	594,251 (+472,739)	16,173
	Seahawks	36,985	497,580	534,565 (+366,598)	27,513
	Chiefs	32,487	436,405	468,892 (+365,378)	23,457
	Bengals	40,304	414,161	454,465 (+260,020)	11,228
	Lions	26,428	361,230	387,658 (+310,822)	14,408
	Browns	35,624	287,514	323,138 (+193,494)	22,150
	Texans	25,336	285,037	310,373 (+245,801)	33,193
	Bucs	20,295	279,807	300,102 (+229,751)	30,783
	Cardinals	6,009	272,333	278,342 (+212,468)	27,186
	Bills	26,875	239,523	266,398 (+168,864)	12,283
	Panthers	17,600	232,239	249,839 (+212,200)	24,441
	Titans	32,457	215,532	247,989 (+175,562)	46,464
	Falcons	46,976	170,212	217,188 (+152,576)	19,061
	Jaguars	14,888	174,592	189,480 (+137,141)	11,326
	Rams	16,934	101,210	118,144 (+84,667)	49,562

Social Media on the rise

Social Media has taken the NFL by storm. Last year at this time, all NFL teams combined had 6.8 million fans following them on Twitter and Facebook, this year that number has quadrupled to 27.2 million.

Yet individual players like Chad Ochocinco (2,044,787 Twitter followers) and Reggie Bush (1,698,568 Twitter followers) have more followers than all NFL teams combined (1,454,394). Twitter appears to be a medium that NFL teams have not yet fully embraced, and probably have not fully understood either.

The Recession Session

While all these social media numbers look great for the teams, the traffic to their websites has taken a decidedly negative turn. The Cowboys homepage for example was ranked the 2,302nd most frequented internet site last year, this year it has slipped to 4,739. The average of all NFL websites dropped from being ranked around 15,000th to around 20,000th.

Roger Goodell remarked recently that the NFL Network had seen a significant decline in viewership for the NFL draft. Visits and page views to the team's internet sites are also taking a considerable hit as the numbers above show. The lockout is having an obvious impact on fan interest in the NFL, and the owners would do well to take heed.

For your reference, the SBNation blog with the highest traffic, the Chiefs fansite Arrowheadpride.com, is ranked as the 14,297th most frequented internet site by Alexa.com. That ranks them just behind the 49ers, the 11th best team in the NFL by traffic rank, and ahead of 21 NFL teams. In case you're wondering, BTB ranks 35,286th. Still ahead of the Saints, Titans and Rams, and the second best value for an SB Nation NFL blog according to Alexa.com.

Now consider that we writers here at BTB work for nothing more than the promise of blog groupies, which have yet to materialize so far, while most NFL teams are likely to have a significant budget for their internet activities, and you have to wonder why they aren't able to generate more interest and traffic for their teams.

The Cowboys have a certainly embraced social media. The official Cowboys twitter feed @dallascowboys (used for the stats above) is just one of many twitter accounts used by the Cowboys, as the beat writers each have a separate account which they use heavily. And compared to some of the wastelands I've seen masquerading as team sites, the mothership is a veritable Garden Of Eden.

Oh, and by the way, the Cowboys are America's Team. The numbers prove it once again.

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Comments

How can soccer

consistently get such better ratings than American football? This is a much better sport. Watching soccer may as well be watching baseball or GOLF!
League should be using the web more in this moment. As has been discussed, the rulings that have potential to come out of this are historical. Of course, judge demanded silence, but they could have started earlier, IMO could have opened books and layed out how increased costs affect fans. This is a battle for the public’s heart as much as carving out a CBA, in this economy if you are saving me money and delivering quality, I love you.
The only reason Chief’s traffic so high is because fans know our franchises are related.

Give me UR calls! Give me highstepping by CBs and PRs entering the endzone! Give me screaming on the sidelines and headbutting! Give me Fortitude, Solidarity and VIOLENCE! Bring me CHAMPIONSHIPS!
Bring me Ridolin LOL! - BNSB

by BlueNSilverBlood on May 31, 2011 8:03 AM CDT reply actions

Nice post.

BGN is 44,236. Got some ground to make up! Blogging the Beast is 12,807,487. Woohooooo!

http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/ - Eagles
http://bloggingthebeast.com/ - NFC East

by JimmyK on May 31, 2011 8:22 AM CDT reply actions

don't feel bad

my sites rivvid and trivix are ranked 4,926,497 and 3,545,522 respectively. Just a matter of time before we dominate! ;)

Dezth Star - Beware his Force

by LucyFur3d on May 31, 2011 12:17 PM CDT up reply actions

'Ell yeah, good luck JimmyK!

by BlueNSilverBlood on May 31, 2011 8:46 PM CDT up reply actions

baaaaaaaaaaaaa hahahahahaha

he said BLOG GROUPIES!!!!!!!!! hahahahahaha

Bruce Carter+Sean Lee=BRUCE LEE!!!!

by Archie Barberio on May 31, 2011 8:56 AM CDT reply actions

I have my doubts about the veracity of web ranking services

and I’m very incredulous about a Chiefs blog ranking ahead of a Cowboys blog. Or maybe Kansas is just too boring.

check out my bands nanoSMASH and Day vs Night

by AustonianAggie on May 31, 2011 9:19 AM CDT reply actions

You’d better believe it. Even our own internal figure show that the Chiefs blog is far and away the most frequented on SB Nation, incredible as that may sound.

by One.Cool.Customer on May 31, 2011 9:36 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions

Bills are right up there too.

http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/ - Eagles
http://bloggingthebeast.com/ - NFC East

by JimmyK on May 31, 2011 9:41 AM CDT up reply actions

I’m pretty stunned. Maybe it reflects the lack of formalized media creation around those teams. I mean the way Dallas Morning News + Ft Worth Star telegram cover the cowboys, and the paper in San Antonio writes about them often too, and all the other media organizations that follow Dallas. But for KC, no one writes about them so their fans find their way to SBNation. Thats my theory

check out my bands nanoSMASH and Day vs Night

by AustonianAggie on May 31, 2011 10:15 AM CDT up reply actions

That probably helps, but it’s also a very good blog.

http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/ - Eagles
http://bloggingthebeast.com/ - NFC East

by JimmyK on May 31, 2011 11:35 AM CDT up reply actions

True

The SB Nation Big Boys in terms of page views for the full year 2010:

Arrowhead Pride (Chiefs): 22.8 million
Mile High Report (Broncos): 11.0 million
Buffalo Rumblings (Bills): 10.4 million
Bleeding Green Nation (Eagles): 8.2 million
Blogging The Boys: 8.2 million

by One.Cool.Customer on May 31, 2011 12:37 PM CDT up reply actions

I looked over at Arrowhead and they manage to post 3 stories a day, so thats one thing. They cover outside their team though, like an article about Elway not liking a punk band named Elway. Those are some impressive totals. I just can’t believe the Chief’s blog gets more traffic than the Cowboys and Eagles combined

check out my bands nanoSMASH and Day vs Night

by AustonianAggie on May 31, 2011 12:43 PM CDT up reply actions

so you added to their page views by going to their site….how are we going to catch up that way? =)

don’t the chiefs have a rep for being the loudest place to play in the NFL? I guess with that much passion it doesn’t surprise me that they take that passion to view their SB Nation site.

by beWARE94 on May 31, 2011 12:50 PM CDT up reply actions

They post way more than 3 per day. BTB and BGN post way more than 3 per day, too. Without looking , my best guess on Arrowhead Pride would be north of 10/day.

http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/ - Eagles
http://bloggingthebeast.com/ - NFC East

by JimmyK on May 31, 2011 1:06 PM CDT up reply actions

Posts from Jan 1 – May 31:

Arrowhead Pride: 1285, 8.5 per day
BGN: 696, 4.6 per day
BTB: 717, 4.7 per day

AHP likely has an average around 10 on weekdays, just like BGN and BTB usually have a higher frequency on weekdays than on weekends.

by One.Cool.Customer on May 31, 2011 3:35 PM CDT up reply actions

but whyyy

Its hard to imagine how AHP is so high. Good blog or not its almost has 3x more traffic than BTB. I can’t think of a logical explanation. Well written or not. Unless they advertise and everyone in the city of KC is required to log on 5x a day haha

Tony Romo 2011's League's Most Valuable Player

by thebigham on May 31, 2011 3:42 PM CDT up reply actions

I think BGN and BTB are right in that sweet spot. At about 4/day, if you check it at 8am, and then go back at noon, there’a a great chance there will be something new, and then again at 8pm while you’re watching TV at home. If you check at 8am, and go back at noon, you don’t really need 3 new posts to read. Over-posting can affect quality posting, unless you truly have a bunch of writers that are really good.

http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/ - Eagles
http://bloggingthebeast.com/ - NFC East

by JimmyK on May 31, 2011 4:09 PM CDT up reply actions

I suck; I don't follow the Cowboys on Facebook or Twitter. I will remedy that.

by Fernie67 on May 31, 2011 10:56 AM CDT reply actions

don't forget the only BTB writer to bit the twitter bullet

@KDP10For10

For those that remember my 10 For 10 Eye Candy girls, following me would be a great idea. One of my side gigs is creating flyers for DC’s top 2 gentlemen’s clubs.

SB Nation's Dallas Cowboys Site, Blogging The Boys | Follow me @KDP10for10
Flood The Block Radio on THEFLOW, every Tuesday 730p on www.rocktheflow.com | The new social pulse of the DMV.

by KD Drummond on May 31, 2011 3:25 PM CDT up reply actions

Thanks!

by Fernie67 on May 31, 2011 5:20 PM CDT up reply actions

Off the subject.

I heard in a nationwide poll, 70% of the people said they will be rooting for the Mavs in the finals. Lot’s of people hate King James and the Heat.

Lock n Load

by DIRE WOLF on May 31, 2011 11:42 AM CDT reply actions

Yup

I don’t know anything about basketball just I’d hate to see that guy Lebron James, self proclaim king win it.

Tony Romo 2011's League's Most Valuable Player

by thebigham on May 31, 2011 11:53 AM CDT up reply actions

I’m really pulling for Dirk. Lebron pretty much wrecked his shot at being “King” of anything because he’s not even the biggest star in Miami, where I’d argue Wade is. Wade is not only established there he won a title with out Lebron. Having Shaq helped!

check out my bands nanoSMASH and Day vs Night

by AustonianAggie on May 31, 2011 12:45 PM CDT up reply actions

Things have gotten rough when I read through the comment section on BTB and the two things that stick out to me to comment on

are “Soccer” and “Basketball”. I said this when you put together that article on the effects of the lockout, and we had this thread argument on whether fans would lose interests. It’s starting to happen, big time. I used to change the station when ever the sports talk shows were talking about anything other than football. Now I change it when they do. This CAN’T be good for the NFL. And they WILL face consequences if they miss games or a season. I believe I’ll come back of course, but not with nearly the passion I once had if they disrespect me as a fan by not having a season. GO HEAT!!!! (Yeah I said it!!!!!)

Anyone else wondering why Romo's talking to the media about the "Secret Practices"?

by Feeling Blue & Silver on May 31, 2011 2:26 PM CDT reply actions

Everyone has their own opinions and feelings, but I don't get this.

This CAN’T be good for the NFL. And they WILL face consequences if they miss games or a season. I believe I’ll come back of course, but not with nearly the passion I once had if they disrespect me as a fan by not having a season.

I don’t give one gorram about the NFL. I love the Cowboys. Even if we lose the entire season, I will come back just as strong and passionate to cheer on my Cowboys when they play their next game, and every game after that.

I don’t care if it is a lockout or a player strike that causes lost games. Why should I deprive myself of the enjoyment of watching my Cowboys when they do resume games?

- Formerly fan since '65.

by fs65 on May 31, 2011 3:08 PM CDT up reply actions

When The Cowboys Play I will be there

When ever the season starts, and it will start, Ill be just as thrilled as ever. And all this lockout and court cases etc will fade as a bad bad dream.

by meisternance on Jun 1, 2011 5:50 AM CDT up reply actions