The Top NBA Teams on Facebook in January

Which NBA teams are scoring serious social media hoops already for 2016? We take a look at the teams getting the best buzz on Facebook.
When we last looked at basketball, we uncovered their highest ranking Facebook videos of the year. There were already some big trends there, like Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors getting massive social attention.
Now we’re getting into all  Facebook content, and the likes, shares, and comments from NBA fans, for the big picture.
The data, as always, comes from Spike — our powerful database that tracks social media engagement in real-time and predicts the virality of content. To score the teams, we took all the content they posted on their Facebook pages, and totaled up likes, shares, and comments. Let’s dive into the rankings.

In January, the Golden State Warriors slam-dunked the ratings. With 14.5 million engagements on Facebook, they leave even the second place (San Antonio Spurs with 6.1 million) and third place (Chicago Bulls with 5.2 million) in the dust.

With 492 posts, the Warriors also produced the most Facebook content of the NBA teams in January. The top ten teams had an average of 352 posts in January, while the bottom ten averaged 138.
What other insights can we glean from those top teams?

Shining Star Stephen Curry

Nine of the ten biggest pieces for NBA teams in January were all from the Golden State Warriors. Of those, all were related to Stephen Curry.

This was the top post of the NBA team content in January. It drove nearly 430,000 likes, over 21,000 shares, and 2,800 comments. It showed Steph Curry meeting his brother, Seth Curry of the Sacramento Kings, at a game between their teams.
Stephen Curry has fans outside of his team, as enthusiasts of the sport are enthralled by seeing basketball’s golden boy break record after record. He’s affable both on social and during the game. As well, he comes from a basketball legacy, and that creates a nostalgia factor for fans who remember seeing his father play.
One basketball fan said it best, asserting that all true basketball fans can admire Steph Curry’s contributions to the game.

Other Teams Still Rely on Heroes

We saw in our “Athletes vs. Teams” breakdown that the NBA especially, derives a lot of traffic from its basketball stars. Though the Lakers had relatively low comments comparatively, their likes made up for it and kept them in 4th place. Their best content was about Kobe Bryant being named the Western Conference All-Star.

Like the brotherhood photo that was top for the Golden State Warriors, the San Antonio Spurs also had a photo of opposing players finding camaraderie during a game. The post, showing LeBron James and Tim Duncan, had over 153,000 likes, 6,000 shares, and 1,500 comments.
The Chicago Bulls’ most shared post spotlighted their team legend, Michael Jordan, while the LA Laker’s top shared content was about Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game in 2006. The Jordan piece had over 31,000 shares, and the Kobe one had over 24,000.
Even historical moments or players can continue to drive engagement. Nostalgia is a powerful motivator for fans who remember seeing star players in their glory days.

Contests Drove Comments

The most comments on Facebook also were driven by Curry. This post allowed fans to vote for Steph Curry to kick-off the NBA All-Star game. The votes were cast through comments using the hashtag #NBAvote.

Just how many comments? A staggering 41,000 comments were left on the post, along with 92,000 likes and 3,200 shares as well. Asking followers to participate in a vote or contest creates an interactive experience and encourages engagement. Fans feel like they make a difference, and are part of something as it unfolds.

The second, third, fourth, and fifth most-commented posts were also about the “#NBAvote”, prompting fans to vote for Curry.
Plodding behind a video of Stephen Curry leading the Warriors against the Spurs, the 7th most-commented post was from the Chicago Bulls, a #NBAvote entry for Jimmy Butler. Unlike Steph Curry, Butler only had 166 comments on this post.

Raptors Sneak in For Shares and Comments

Though they were 13th in our total rankings, the Toronto Raptors made it to the number 2 spot for both shares and comments.

Over 20 of their most-commented posts were about the #NBAvote for the all-star, promoting players Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. With an extremely creative approach, their fun content turned the contest into something users would want to interact with.
In one post, they turned the contest into a game, per this post with easy instructions. In another, they showed Kyle Lowry in a onesie.
Social media that is fun sees a marked increase in engagement. It creates a memorable experience for fans, one that they connect positive sentiments to. Fun, interesting content is more likely to be shared as well.

Video with Soaring Views

As we noted that video continues to be huge this year, let’s highlight the top videos in January for the NBA teams.

Again, all about Curry. The highest video, third in our rankings of all content from NBA teams, was the aforementioned “Dubs vs. Spurs: Stephen Curry Highlights”. It had nearly 7.6 million views, along with 185,000 likes, 113,000 shares, and 13,000 comments.
The second top video showed Curry’s best plays of 2015, and following that was a video from the January 22nd game of him making an incredible shot.
Lest we forget just how much individual athletes in basketball matter, the fourth best video was from the Chicago Bulls. It showed Pau Gasol matching up against Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. Even athletes from opposing sides can give a team social buzz.

January Takeaways

Between now and December, we can see some of the same insights as we kick off 2016.
Team legends continue to define the social media landscape for the NBA. The hype around basketball star Stephen Curry isn’t going away anytime soon. As far as social media is concerned, we have a new LeBron, Kobe, and Jordan through Steph Curry.

Explore Spike to find which players are bringing the biggest social buzz to basketball in real-time.
Engagement can come from many tactics. Teams can see big engagement from league-wide contests like #NBAvote. Contests create a sense of urgency in fans to participate, and increase pride for their favorite players. By asking users to vote more than once, this prompts users to return again and again to contribute to their team’s success.
But more than anything, it appears basketball success comes down to celebrating individual players and their triumphs. We’ll be keeping an eye to see if this particular trend shifts.

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