The NFL is one of the world’s most popular brands. NFL fans are incredibly dedicated to their teams throughout the season, and they are equally engaged on Facebook. We decided to take a look at the NFL for a week and see which team won with Facebook engagement.
We analyzed all 32 NFL teams through 12/4-12/10 (Week 14: Tuesday through Monday) to cover all of the games during the week. The Washington Redskins had the highest PostAcumen Score over this time period:
The Washington Redskins benefited from an exciting game end—and ultimate victory—which most likely propelled excessive Facebook engagement. The Baltimore Ravens face mask post had the best engagement, the Redskins’ overtime victory announcement received the second most engagement, and the Carolina Panthers victory announcement rounded out the top three:
What Drives The Most Engagement In The NFL?
Great content, as always, drives the most Engagement on Facebook—which often is a result of a team winning. We examined the relationship between the teams that won in Week 14 vs the teams that lost in Week 14. Of the teams that won in Week 14, their median rank within the NFL was 11.5. Compared to the teams that lost, their median ranking was 20. Six of the Top 10 Posts were victory celebrations for winning NFL Teams. Another interesting tidbit was that of the Top 15 NFL Teams (PostAcumen Scores), 11 of the 16 were in the NFC.
Posting Photos was the most successful strategy as opposed to posting Links, which was the worst. NFL teams tend to post frequently, often throughout the game, providing updates as they happen.
What Were The Most Engaging Photos?
What Did The Top NFL Team Do?
Surprisingly, the Washington Redskins had the most average engagement on Tuesday (12/4):
Taking a look at Tuesday for the Washington Redskins shows that they had tremendous success in the morning, followed by lower engagement throughout the day:
The Top 3 Posts from Tuesday (12/4):
What Can You Learn From This?
NFL teams are extremely popular brands, however their posting strategies are subject to the same rules as traditional companies. NFL teams spend significant money in promoting their brand, creating a fun product, and developing media surrounding their team. Nearly every game, practice, and even downtime is filmed, recorded, and photographed. This gives the teams an incredible amount of content to publish on a variety of platforms. While most brands don’t have this luxury, the concept remains the same: invest in developing interesting and exciting content for the most successful organic reach on the news feed.
Takeaways:
- Invest in creating exciting content
- Use photos to promote
- If covering a live event, don’t be frugal with posting frequency
Quality content comes with a true focus on developing and capturing exciting moments, but it doesn’t have to be a game winning touchdown from the Washington Redskins. Examine what interests your brand’s audience, post it, and see what happens!
