MLB on Social Media: Which Teams Lead the Way
Major League Baseball teams have been slow off the pace when it comes to making their presence felt on social media. Teams from other leagues in the country have been using Facebook and the likes to keep their fans engaged and attract a wider audience, and most of them have succeeded in doing so. In fact, research suggests that capturing new fans, especially from the youth, requires sports teams to increase their social media exposure. As far as the MLB is concerned, the teams have launched a battle online, with the aim to get the most likes, shares, retweets and pins.
Three of the teams are clearly country miles ahead of the rest of the pack. This article will look at these three teams and how they rank on social media:
The Yankees
For a long time now, the New York Yankees have been the most popular team in the MLB. It is the team a person who hasn’t watched the MLB ever will name if asked about baseball. Therefore, it is no surprise that their social media presence is the strongest as well. They have well over 10 million fans following their pages on Facebook and Twitter. They are close to 4 million followers ahead of other teams on these two networks. And it is not just the presence. The Yankees’ fans are also active, with over 17,000 on average liking their posts on Facebook. Furthermore, their posts are shared more than 1,700 times on average too.
The Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are ranked second in terms of social media presence, especially on Twitter and Facebook. There is a substantial gap, as they have just over 6 million fans on Instagram and the two platforms mentioned above combined. As far as engagement goes, their average is around 650 tweets a month. The interesting point is that the Red Sox are ranked 2nd on Twitter and Facebook but they are down in 4th place when it comes to Instagram. They are quite popular on Twitter, with 5 of their tweets part of the top 50 MLB related tweets this month.
The Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers may be in third place on this list but they are by far the leading MLB team on Instagram. For some reason, the fans of the team have taken to the photo sharing website more than they have Facebook and Twitter. In terms of followers, they are actually 4th, with just over 4 million fans. But it is their dominance of Instagram which gives them the edge. Just to make it clear, 49 of the 100 top posts on Instagram this month came from the Dodgers, including the entire top 10.
These are the three strongest MLB teams in terms of social media presence. They are leading the way with the remaining teams clearly trailing, some at quite a distance. Yet, there is one more team which is making its presence felt on other media platforms: San Francisco Giants. Not to say they don’t have an active presence on social media, but they are quite active and followed on blogs and other baseball related forums, with the Giants mentioned quite frequently.
Their performances over the recent seasons is the main reason why their popularity is on the rise and it would come as no surprise if their social media presence increases significantly over the course of the season. Till then, as far as this season goes, the Yankees, the Red Sox and the Dodgers are the teams leading the way on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Well, this doesn’t mean any of the three are likely to win.
