NBA Team Social Media Authority Rank
One of the most disputed topics is which NBA team is the best. The NBA itself deems the best team based on their regular season record while fans base it on biased opinions. While it may be hard to define who is the best team in the NBA, we are able to determine who has the most Social Media Authority among the 30 NBA teams through our unique Social Media Authority metric system. Our Social Media authority metric system measures a sports teams social influence among its peers.
The following is a list of all 30 NBA teams and where they rank amongst each other based on their social media platforms. The platforms that were evaluated were the team’s Twitter and Facebook accounts as most if not all the teams had an account setup. The data used is updated as of May 1st, 2009. All team data was gathered from Twitter and Facebook accounts deemed “official” and claimed by the organization. Accounts that were fan created and no affiliation with organizations were not included in the metrics and were denoted with an N/A*.
Don’t like where your favorite team is ranked? Help them out by following and joining other fans just like you!
1. Los Angeles Lakers 
Twitter Followers: 83,533
Facebook Members: 330,543
Total Score: 42.15
2. Boston Celtics 
Twitter Followers: 5,000
Facebook Members: 337,528
Total Score: 13.17
3. Chicago Bulls 
Twitter Followers: 6,864
Facebook Members: 94,719
Total Score: 5.73
4. Cleveland Cavaliers 
Twitter Followers: 3,442
Facebook Members: 78,186
Total Score: 3.9
5. Phoenix Suns 
Twitter Followers: 6,633
Facebook Members: 41,531
Total Score: 3.86
6. Portland Trail Blazers 
Twitter Followers: 5,903
Facebook Members: 31,645
Total Score: 3.26
7. Detroit Pistons 
Twitter Followers: 2,841
Facebook Members: 51,862
Total Score: 2.79
8. San Antonio Spurs 
Twitter Followers: 6,295
Facebook Members: 6,060
Total Score: 2.55
9. Houston Rockets 
Twitter Followers: 5,075
Facebook Members: 13,490
Total Score: 2.34
10. Miami Heat 
Twitter Followers: 2,614
Facebook Members: 34,974
Total Score: 2.14
11. Los Angeles Clippers 
Twitter Followers: 5,051
Facebook Members: 2,479
Total Score: 1.96
12. Utah Jazz 
Twitter Followers: 2,464
Facebook Members: 27,694
Total Score: 1.84
13. New York Knicks 
Twitter Followers: 2,272
Facebook Members: 24,129
Total Score: 1.65
14. Dallas Mavericks 
Twitter Followers: 1,967
Facebook Members: 18,063
Total Score: 1.34
15. Philadelphia 76ers 
Twitter Followers: 2,653
Facebook Members: 5,154
Total Score: 1.16
16. Orlando Magic 
Twitter Followers: 2,917
Facebook Members: N/A*
Total Score: 1.09
17. New Orleans Hornets 
Twitter Followers: 1,213
Facebook Members: 17,689
Total Score: 1.04
18. Milwaukee Bucks
Twitter Followers: 1,872
Facebook Members: 9,922
Total Score: 1.03
19. Sacramento Kings 
Twitter Followers: 2,578
Facebook Members: N/A*
Total Score: 0.96
20. Oklahoma City Thunder 
Twitter Followers: 1,222
Facebook Members: 12,164
Total Score: 0.86
21. Toronto Raptors 
Twitter Followers: N/A*
Facebook Members: 22,610
Total Score: 0.76
22. Atlanta Hawks 
Twitter Followers: 1,361
Facebook Members: 5,187
Total Score: 0.68
23. Minnesota Timberwolves 
Twitter Followers: 1,268
Facebook Members: 5,220
Total Score: 0.65
24. Memphis Grizzlies 
Twitter Followers: 1,417
Facebook Members: 904
Total Score: 0.56
25. Indiana Pacers 
Twitter Followers: 878
Facebook Members: 5,544
Total Score: 0.51
26. Charlotte Bobcats 
Twitter Followers: 1,104
Facebook Members: 2,765
Total Score: 0.5
27. Washington Wizards 
Twitter Followers: 1,159
Facebook Members: 764
Total Score: 0.46
28. Denver Nuggets 
Twitter Followers: 945
Facebook Members: 1,330
Total Score: 0.4
29. Golden State Warriors 
Twitter Followers: 67
Facebook Members: 9,866
Total Score: 0.36
30. New Jersey Nets 
Twitter Followers: 664
Facebook Members: 2,077
Total Score: 0.32
Looks like the SM outreach person at the Lakers is to be commended heavily. A lot of opportunity clearly exists for communication between fans and teams. Look at the growth in websites, memorabilia and game ticket sales for professional sports over the past 20 years. It’s an unbelievable revenue stream…and any method where athletes can interact directly with fans I view in a positive manner.
My favorite athletes who interact with the public are Shaq, Nash, and Davis. Have you seen that video where Davis and Nash are step brothers?
It’s classic
Great analysis, Joe. I really like the way you have compiled every NBA teams with links to their Twitter accounts.
I think, if more and more celebrities follow their respective teams and more NBA players have own Twitter accounts and Twit about what’s happenning inside locker room and give in-depth analysis of the game and with peers, a real competition would start only afterwards..!
One question: How have you come up with ‘Total Score’? What login you have applied to get final figure of ‘Total Score’?
Cheers,
Pritesh
http://twitter.com/mehta1p
Nice to see my Bulls are holding their own - but not surprising at all to see the Lakers totally blowing everyone out of the water! I think there is a huge market for sports teams to engage in social media - I love seeing updates on Cubs games from a couple third-party bloggers who tweet real-time scores and stats. It’s interesting to see how this market will continue to develop.
The Lakers are quite a bit ahead of every other team in the NBA, although I wouldn’t say that it has all to do with them winning games. While it is true that winning games will get you fans, other teams on the list who may not be winning as many games as the Lakers are still putting in the effort to re-connect with fans and are working toward building a community.
Social media is very unique in that it allows organizations to keep fans updated and work as a two way street for communication. Fans frequently “tweet” to their favorite teams and often get a response back.
Awesome list Joe! This should get the sports team to be aware and expand on their social media campaigns!
From the business standpoint, it’s not about the sports, it’s about the fans!
As a Blazer fan, I can say that the Blazers should be higher up on that list when you consider the whole social media spectrum.
The Blazers were one of the first pro organizations to create a whole social network for their fans: iamatrailblazersfan.com.
They were also one of the first to have their broadcasters blog, Mike Barrett.
They also host a weekly podcast with local radio talent and fan blazer blogs.
In the second half of the season they began streaming their postgame show on ustream and during their media days they had the Blazer players talk to fans through ustream and answer questions.
Clearly the Trail Blazer organization knows the significance of a good social media presence.
Sorry buddy, the Lakers are more exciting than the Blazers. When players like Shaq say they’d never play in Portland, that tells you something.
Plus, there’s a difference between 15 championships and…1.
GO LAKERS!
Here’s a list of NBA teams ranked by total U.S. Fans (TNS Research, ESPN Sports poll). Note that Lakers have by far and away the largest fan base, so it follows that the team’s social media following would be large. The Heat have a big fan base, but are not at the top of your list. They might be under-achieving on social. On the other hand, the Clippers are #11 on your list, but near the bottom of the league in total fans. Looks like they’re over achieving on social media.
Los Angeles Lakers (Los Angeles,CA)
Chicago Bulls (Chicago,IL)
Miami Heat (Miami,FL)
Boston Celtics (Boston,MA)
San Antonio Spurs (San Antonio,TX)
Detroit Pistons (Detroit,MI)
Cleveland Cavaliers (Cleveland,OH)
Phoenix Suns (Phoenix,AZ)
Dallas Mavericks (Dallas,TX)
New York Knicks (New York,NY)
Denver Nuggets (Denver,CO)
Philadelphia 76ers (Philadelphia,PA)
Indiana Pacers (Indianapolis,IN)
Sacramento Kings (Sacramento,CA)
Houston Rockets (Houston,TX)
Utah Jazz (Salt Lake City,UT)
Milwaukee Bucks (Milwaukee,WI)
Minnesota Timberwolves (Minneapolis,MN)
New Jersey Nets (DMA:New York) (STATE: NY)
Portland Trailblazers (Portland,OR)
Seattle Supersonics (Seattle,WA)
Golden State Warriors (Oakland,CA)
Orlando Magic (Orlando,FL)
Washington Wizards (District of Columbia, MD)
Atlanta Hawks (Atlanta,GA)
Charlotte Bobcats (Charlotte,NC)
Los Angeles Clippers (Los Angeles, CA)
*New Orleans Hornets (New Orleans,LA)
Memphis Grizzlies (Memphis,TN)
Toronto Raptors (Not Available)
34,000 fans sign up in 8 day on face book,,we dont have a team,it was stolen from us,,The Seattle Supersonics
Even though we do not have a team, this is the most official group that the Seattle Supersonics have.
We are almost to 36,000! It has been a little over a week! Add us to the list! Update this story. I would be interested to see where we fall!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=193317341291&ref=mf
Yo NBA FANS: 41,000 members on the Bring Back The Supersonics group on Facebook. That’s bigger than 24 current NBA teams’ Facebook membership. And this all happened in a couple of weeks. And - in case you weren’t paying attention - the Sonics left Seattle for OKC like a year and a half ago. Now THAT is fanatical fan support!
GO SONICS!!!!! GO SONICS FANS!!!!!!!!!!!! BRING BACK THE SUPERSONICS!!!!!!!!
Joshua, we need to shoot for 100K! How high can we get?
we can take the Cavs AND the Bulls.
You are awesome Speed hahaha! I think we can hit 100K easy! One million would be simply unbelievable.
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