It’s chilly out, but things are heating up on the ice for NHL teams’ Facebook pages. Which teams scored the most on Facebook in January?
Last time, we only analyzed the content published by NHL teams’ specific domains, and how they did on Facebook. As sports teams assemble robust social media teams, we’re looking at NHL native content on Facebook.
The data comes from Spike, our social signals platform. We can total up Facebook engagement—likes, shares, and comments, for all the NHL teams’ content across January. Check out Spike to explore the stories about your favorite team before they go viral.
The Chicago Blackhawks are our winners of January. Unlike this month’s rankings of both the NFL and NBA teams, there isn’t a staggering disparity between their total Facebook engagement and the other contenders. Still, they received nearly 800,000 more engagements than both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings.
Additionally, the NHL bucks a trend we’ve noticed of more articles generally meaning more engagement for the other sports leagues.
The top ten teams averaged 187 posts in January. The lowest-performing teams averaged 164 posts, not as big of a difference. In fact, the Nashville Predator had the second most posts overall, but is the 27th team in our social engagement rankings.
Let’s look at how that native content does.
Native Content Vs. Linked Content
Despite shifting to native content, the Blackhawks are still our #1 for social engagement. The Penguins remain in second. Meanwhile the Red Wings bump up to third, and the Kings down to fourth.
The Capitals, Rangers, Sharks, Oilers, Avalanche, and Bruins all take the remaining top ten spots, replacing the Maple Leafs, Canadiens, Flames, Islanders, Canucks, and Stars.
Once again, rather than a straight comparison of the NHL teams, this change suggests the new top contenders are producing native content that is more engaging than content from their domains.
Chicago Blackhawks Holding Strong
The Chicago Blackhawks are keeping their social game going. Nine of the ten most-engaging posts were from their page. Their best performing content this month was all about celebrating both team and individual player triumphs.
Of course, it wasn’t difficult to highlight their victories last month. The team made a franchise record with a 12-game winning streak. Their top content all was tied to the streak. Fans love when their teams win, of course, and more than that, seeing their team make history.
The Blackhawks’ most-shared content of January had over 17,000 shares, marking their 12-game record.
The most-liked content focused on Patrick Kane’s first career regular-season hat trick. The Blackhawks doesn’t fail to show off their players. This helps fans cheer for individual players and feel like they’re part of the player’s legacy. The post had 84,000 likes, 10,000 shares, and 1,700 comments.
Comments on Trends and Innovation
Despite Chicago Blackhawks getting the most comments on all their content in January, they were third place for the most-commented post.
Socially savvy Pittsburgh Penguins took advantage of “#PenguinAwarenessDay”. We’ve noted their provocative social tone before. In this post, which scored over 3,800 comments, they even responded to their fans with memes. The post also saw over 50,000 shares and 38,000 likes.
The San Jose Sharks had the second most-commented post, on a Facebook Live video of the Sharks’ 25th anniversary celebration. Facebook Live presents fans with an opportunity to actively engage with their favorite team and get a response. The video had over 2,200 comments, with nearly 40,000 views.
The NHL is big on incorporating new social technology. The fourth most-commented post, from the Philadelphia Flyers, used Facebook’s 360 video feature and had over 406,000 views and 1,700 comments.
The other top commented pieces follow some trends we’ve seen before. The Blackhawks took third, celebrating a record Patrick Kane set, and the Washington Capitals showed off T.J. Oshie’s impressive moves. As we’ve seen consistently in sports, focusing on team heroes brings a boost to fan engagement.
Video Shout-Outs
The NHL teams like to show off their best players and their personal triumphs. The most engaging video of this month was from the Detroit Red Wings, of Dylan Larkin’s ‘fastest skater’ performance.
The action-packed videos work—or so say 1.2 million views. The video also drove 31,000 likes, 13,000 shares, and 966 comments.
Our second most-engaging video came from the LA Kings. With 959,000 views, the video was brief—it showed defenseman/winger John Scott embracing a fan with Down’s Syndrome after the All-Star game. There were 27,000 likes, 6,600 shares, and 479 comments.
Showing a team and players’ personality, especially gestures of philanthropy and goodwill, resonates with fans.
The top Facebook videos speak to the passion of hockey fans – they’re eager to support their team. The third top video, from the Blackhawks, showed the team scoring six goals against the Avalanche as they made their seventh straight win.
Hockey fans are passionate, and they want to relive the thrilling moments of games over and over. Especially since it’s such a fast, action-packed game.
Nostalgia For Mascots and the Good Old (And Violent) Days
We’ve seen nostalgia engage fans by stirring up sentiment and pride for a team’s legacy. A few of the most-engaging posts used throwback footage to hype up followers.
Check out this video from the San Jose Sharks, captioned “Happy birthday S.J. Sharkie!”. It celebrated the team mascot’s birthday, and spurred over 1 million views. The 4th highest-engaging video for January, it saw over 19,000 likes, 6,600 shares, and 765 comments from fans.
This throwback was captioned in typical snarky Penguins’ fashion, “Watch Penguins folk hero Darius Kasparaitis destroy his enemies”. It compiled Kasparaitis throwing down, crashing into, and generally smacking opposing players. The video had over 386,000 views, along with 8,800 likes, 5,700 shares, and 925 comments.
Both of these videos spoke to longtime fans, bring back some of their favorite moments and players again on social. The videos spark comments about the good old days, and fans’ personal experiences and memories of the team.
Top Trends of January
So what are the leading trends on Facebook for the NHL teams last month? Winning streaks, like we saw for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, kept the Blackhawks at the top. Highlighting the best players and plays strengthened fan connections to individual athletes and bolstered pride in a team’s capabilities.
Plus, the NHL continued their strategy of incorporating social media innovations as they arise, with Facebook 360 and Facebook Live.
As we continue into the season, we’ll keep watching whether the Blackhawks can keep their social media throne, or if the Detroit Red Wings or sassy Pittsburgh Penguin might steal their crown.
With Spike capturing every social story out there, we’re ahead of the curve. Or the hockey puck.
