Hi there! I’m Jere and this is going to be my first blog post. This blog will focus on two things that interest me the most; sports and technology (mainly AI and other data driven applications). Thus, I will post digital marketing subjects regarding these two topics.
My first deep dive is on how social media marketing differs between the NBA and the two other popular sports leagues in the US (NFL and MLB). In this case, I will mainly focus on OSNs (Online Social Networks). According to data from Social Blade (https://socialblade.com/), NBA has a major advantage in followers across Twitter, Instagram and Youtube (Facebook isn’t included due to lack of data). This can be seen from the graph I made below:
The graph above shows the total amount of followers in the aforementioned social media platforms. As the graph shows, NBAs total amount of followers exceeds both NFLs and MLBs number of followers – even if you combined the number of followers for those two leagues!
You might wonder if the number of followers actually make a difference, but according to Nielsen Sports (https://nielsensports.com/nba-teams-score-slam-dunk-social-media/), the value of NBAs social media activity for sponsor exceeds 490 million US dollars! Because the NBA is thoroughly followed on social media, sponsors and their brands are constantly viewed by fans of the NBA, thus displaying the brand and its products to potential customers.
Next week I will show you why NBA dominates the social media scene. See you!
Jere’s digital marketing journey 
Interesting topic there Jere! I’m also a sports fan and love the NBA and NFL! Interesting to see that NBA is the most followed on social media compared to the NFL and MLB. Do you think that the NBA has a larger following because of its higher audience reach and recognition internationally, since the audience of NFL and MLB are mostly in the US?
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Yeah, popularity is definitely one major reason (if not the biggest reason) for the larger following. However, it’s still surprising that NBAs social media accounts are more followed than MLBs and NFLs accounts together. This is largely due to the fact that the NBA has capitalised on social media, which I explain in my second and third posting (the third post will be out soon).
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How does the EPL stack up in this equation?
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Even though football/soccer is more popular than basketball, EPL has ”only” about 47 million followers in total on Twitter and Instagram, while the NBA has about 65 million followers on those two platforms. This is another evidence on the superiority of the NBA in social media!
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