Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Social Media and the American League East - An Update

Back in May I wrote an article showing how the Rays fare compared to the rest of the AL East in terms of social media. Today I noticed an article by Jason Collette over at the great Rays site Dock of the Rays detailing the growth of the Rays in the area of social media. Reading Jason's piece prompted me to post an update of my earlier article.

So you don't have to jump back and forth to the May article to compare numbers, here was the data as of May 20th:
Rank Team                Twitter    Facebook       Total
1.   New York Yankees    277,803   1,362,011   1,639,814
2.   Boston Red Sox       11,469   1,111,584   1,123,053
3.   Tampa Bay Rays        5,922     119,813     125,735
4.   Toronto Blue Jays     6,768     104,406     111,174
5.   Baltimore Orioles     4,523     100,464     104,987
And here are the same teams today:
Rank Team                Twitter    Facebook       Total
1.   New York Yankees    311,594   2,646,046   2,957,640
2.   Boston Red Sox       19,634   1,688,313   1,707,947
3.   Tampa Bay Rays       13,304     209,608     222,912
4.   Toronto Blue Jays    14,918     176,547     191,465
5.   Baltimore Orioles     8,473     154,604     163,077
That is a 77% increase in social media followers for the Rays in just seven months. Overall, the Rays are the 19th most-followed team in major league baseball, just behind the Mariners and Athletics, and just ahead of the Rockies and Astros.

Since we focus more on the Rays minor league system, here are how the Rays affiliates are doing:
Team                   Twitter    Facebook       Total
Durham Bulls             3,382      10,411      13,793
Montgomery Biscuits        487      10,699      11,186
Charlotte Stone Crabs      593       2,141       2,734
Bowling Green Hot Rods     854       6,888       7,742
Hudson Valley Renegades  1,547       2,854       4,401
Princeton Rays             133         841         974
Hot Rods' fans really prefer Twitter over Facebook, and I agree with them.

For those who like Twitter, Steve Slowinski at DRaysBay put together a great list of people to follow in the Rays Twit-O-Sphere last week. If you follow everyone on his list you should be covered at both the major and minor league level. If you know of others worth following, post them in the comments.

[Update]: I looked at the wrong Facebook site for the Bowling Green Hot Rods. The correct info is now in the chart and my comment redacted. I was looking at this site, the correct site for the Hot Rods is here.
-- By Doug at 4:00 PM

6 comments:

  1. Collette FamilyDecember 22, 2010 at 10:31 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 22, 2010 at 10:33 PM

    Thanks for doing this, Doug. I'm sorry I overlooked your story in May and I have updated my story today to include both that post and your update.

    Jason

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tom Gauthier, Bowling Green Hot RodsDecember 23, 2010 at 10:12 AM

    Doug,
    Just an FYI...we have 6,888 Facebook followers here at the Hot Rods. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DougDecember 23, 2010 at 10:30 AM

    Jason, no worries about the May story. I had meant to update it at the end of the season and just forgot. Thank you for reminding me with your article.

    Also, I'm trying to think of a more comprehensive way of showing the impact of social media on the Rays and baseball in general. My ideas include not only FB and Twitter, but also blogs covering the teams, maybe by Technorati ratings.

    Basically I want to show how much of a following the teams have outside of traditional standards such as attendance. If you have thoughts on what to track and how to present it, I'd be happy to work with you on the project. My email is dougmilhoan@raysprospects.com

    This offer applies not only to Jason but anyone else who is interested in the subject. I know it's a little off topic for Rays Prospects, but it really does affect how the Rays and their affiliates interact with their fans (us). Some of it is direct (team twitter and fb pages), and some indirect (blogs that cover the teams, both MLB and milb).

    So again, let me know if anyone has ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  5. DougDecember 23, 2010 at 10:32 AM

    Tom, thanks for the info. I must have looked at the wrong fb site for the Hot Rods. I will correct the original post. Sorry for the mistake!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousDecember 23, 2010 at 4:28 PM

    No worries. Merry Christmas to everyone.
    -Tom Gauthier

    ReplyDelete

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