Goodfellas lead the Battle of the BNL Facebook Fans
With weekend 3 around the corner for the Basketball National League, we are looking forward to bigger and better on-court matchups, funny and memorable moments on the stadium big screen, and more fantastic entertainment like this past Sunday’s halftime dunk show by the Philadelphia 76ers Flight Squad. Everything a great basketball sports show should offer and more! After all, let’s not be fooled into believing that the success of the BNL rests on the shoulders of administrators. Like any other sport, the fans will be a significant determining factor and are the primary reason why Supersport signed up in the first place. In the absence of home ground games for the league, we look at the second most important platform that fans go to share their passion for the game – Facebook.
In South Africa, Facebook is the most popular social media platform attracting almost 10million users*. This means that 1 in 5 South Africans are keeping up to date with their social networks and interests on FB. So it’s safe to assume that if most of us are using social media to keep up to date with the BNL, we’re most likely going to do it on our phones on Facebook. So how do the BNL teams shape up on engaging with their FB fans? The table below summarises who has a FB presence**, how many likes they have and how many people are “talking about” them. Of the 11 BNL teams, 5 have an official fan page and only Egoli Magic has a group. The Goodfellas Basketball Club are leading the FB fan-off with 233 likes, and the Mountaineers have the most active fan base. Even with this modest lead, the bottom line is that all the franchises need to do more off-court to engage their fans, who will ultimately decide their futures once ticket sales and endorsements become a reality. Coming to the courts and fan engagement is highly emotive, and if SA soccer is anything to go by, we know how to be emotional about our sports. We want a show, we want a legend, we want a hero, we want a villain, we want a rivalry, and most of all we want to connect.
*http://www.worldwideworx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Exec-Summary-Social-Media-2014.pdf
**As at 30 October 2013
Team | Likes | “Talking about this” | Founding date |
Goodfellas Basketball Club | 233 | 76 | Oct 1 |
Cape Mountaineers | 208 | 103 | Oct 15 |
Polokwane Trailblazers | 180 | 36 | Oct 1 |
Tshwane Suns | 140 | 63 | Oct 22 |
Mbombela Wildcats | 94 | 10 | Oct 9 |
Egoli Magic (group) | 89 | Approx jan 13 | |
BNL Official Page | 2136 | 1671 | Oct 16 |
Connect with the MyBasketball team on Facebook, either on the official MyBasketball.co.za Fan Page or on the MyBasketball.co.za Facebook Group.
Facebook Page vs Group
Hosting a Facebook page is a little different from hosting a Facebook group. A FB page allows you to create a ‘shop front’ for your interest or brand, and is essentially an extension of the marketing effort. Once you have more than 30 likes on your page, you can get detailed stats about the people who you attract to your page, as well as how many of these people are sharing content from your page (“Talking about this”) and helping you go viral. On the other hand a FB group is about creating a higher level of engagement or community for your interest or brand. Only individuals can be members of a group, which is a powerful statement about the way people want to connect.
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