Facebook Engagement of MLS teams

Earlier this week we looked at the Twitter stats of the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams to see if there were any baseline trends.  This week we will take a look at Facebook as a social media platform for reaching out to fans and the soon-to-be fans.  I do have some updated stats from February but I thought the first set of stats would be good to keep them all in January so we get a similar baseline. So these were taken on January 2, 2012.

As with the Twitter stats I used the metro area population as a reference point to normalize the widely variable populations among all the different MLS cities.  The two stats we took from the official Facebook MLS pages are Likes and 'people talking about.' Likes you should probably already comprehend, but it is important to realize that it can be a passive measure, since you could click once and forget you ever clicked a few days ever and never engage with the brand again.  For a better understanding of the "people talking about' (PTA) metric see Mashable's overview. Basically 'talking about' means any time someone interacts or mentions your brand on Facebook or its' various platforms it will count you as a 'PTA'.

So looking at the Facebook stats sorted by likes, we can see the two teams (LAG and NYR) near the top based simply on the enormous population advantage. Also LA would likely be at the top on sheer numbers because of the recent MLS Cup win, ownership group AEG and the efforts put into securing world-renowned players giving it the likely top spot in most recognized MLS team.

 

But also impressive is Seattle being in the number 2 spot, likely reflective of the Northwest city enthusiastic embracing of the Sounders FC as evident in the sheer numbers that attend matches.  Also at the bottom of the table, you can find Chivas USA as they are overshadowed by their neighbors/host at the Home Depot Center, the Galaxy.  But to get a better sense of the degree which a team has made an impact we can calculate Facebook likes per 10,000 people:

Facebook likes per 10k = (FB likes/Metro Pop)*10,000

Biggest winner:  +8 Columbus Crew moving from 17 to 9 and San Jose Earthquakes moving from 14 to 6.
Biggest loser: -14 New York Red Bulls from 3 to 17

Now we sea that 4 small-market teams (Real Salt Lake, Seattle, Portland Timbers and Sporting Kansas City) have jumped to the top with Salt Lake and Seattle having nearly twice the number compared to even the #3 spot.  External factors that may help explain some of the high ratings here:

• Real Salt Lake: 2009 MLS Cup champs, Strong CONCACAF run in 2011, Soccer Specific Sttadium (2008)
• Seattle Sounders: Breaking Attendance records every year, MLS expansion team ('09), strong Cascadia rivalry, Three time Lama Hunt US Open Cup Champs ('09,'10,'11), strong supporter culture with Emerald City Supporters
• Portland Timbers: MLS expansion team ('11), strong Cascadia rivalry, strong supporter culture in the Timbers Army
• Sporting Kansas City: Successful rebranding in 2011, new Soccer Specific Stadium (Livestrong Park), strong finish in 2011

Again some surprises at the bottom with Chivas, FC Dallas, and the Red Bulls being bested by newcomer Montreal Impact.  The Red Bulls have a well known international brand with Red Bull but do not be able to capitalize on this locally with the diverse population, probably because of lackluster play on the field as of late and the wide range of entertainment options in New York.  FC Dallas also is surprising to see near the bottom with entertaining players like Brek Shea and David Ferreira (injured in 2011) and a recent rebrand and soccer specific stadium (although it is pretty far from downtown.)

Now let's look at 'People talking about' abbreviated as either 'PTA' or 'Talking.' (See the beginning for the explanation).

Again the Galaxy are on top when sorting by raw number of PTA.  But before analyzing this too much lets again adjust for population as we did before. (NB: I had to increase the per number from 10k to 100k to make the number a little more meaningful without resorting to decimal points.)

Facebook PTA per 100k = (FB likes/Metro Pop)*100,000

Again we see the rise of the small market clubs like Real Salt Lake and San Jose jumping up.  But as I looked at this chart I began to think if this stat really captures engagement by fans on Facebook.  Is population the best denominator here to even out different size cities?  What if we looked at PTA in comparison to total likes?  This would help weed out the effect of  'click and forget fans' who never log on to Facebook again or go see what DC United is up to.  This shows a little bit better how well a team is able to keep fans coming back for more.  This shows the teams that gets fans to like, comment, share and talk with their friends about the team, which is MUCH more valuable.

PTA per 1k FB likes = (PTA/Likes)x1000

Why did I use this calculation instead of percentage?  Because looking at 2.9% vs 0.8% of fans engaging wasn't very exciting.  With this stat you can say for every 1,000 people who like the page, you can expect X number of people to talk about you.  With this chart you can see the difference between teams that continue to engage fans at the top and those who are having a harder time capturing that same enthusiasm.  Of course the PTA stat is related to time but I'm not sure how long it looks back.  We will take a look how this evolves in the regular season on a day after all teams had played. But again this gives us a baseline.

Feel free to share your comments or ideas about other stats to compile!

MLS Social Media Stats

MLS has typically had to fight to grab some attention on the mainstream sports and media outlets, so I have watched with interest how the different clubs have utilized social media to push their own content to fans and get them engaged in spreading the passion for one's club.  Being in Kansas City I have been really lucky because Sporting Kansas City (as a team and as players) has been very active on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in addition to creating their own private social media site in Sporting Club.

At the beginning of each month starting with January 2012, I will collect the following pieces of data:

Facebook: Likes, People talking about
Twitter: Tweets, Followers
YouTube: Uploaded videos, Subscriber, Views

 I will be making the data available to anyone who is interested in analyzing it on their own, as long as they share the findings with the public.  Just email me and I will send the link to you on Google Docs.  I will also use this post to link to each analysis I do.  Sometimes it will be an overview of a certain SM platform, other times it will be just picking up on interesting trends.

MLS Twitter Engagement

Let's start with some baseline numbers as we track social media stats through the season. Measuring engagement is not easy without using some sophisticated (read: expensive) tools, but there are some crude measures that may give us an idea of how some teams may stack up against others in utilizing various social media platforms to get their team in front of your eyeballs.

To give us an idea of a level playing field we need some baseline to compare different size markets against each other.  You would think if you had more people in your market, say New York or Los Angeles, you would probably have higher gross numbers then a small market like Columbus.   So using the census for American (2010) and Canadian (2006) metro areas (source: Wikipedia, OMB).*

*You may have some objections but hey these are statistically regular so I am not technically including San Francisco-Oakland in the San Jose metro area.

Now lets include their Twitter stats (followers and tweets) for January 2012:

 As you can see the LA Galaxy fresh off their 2011 MLS Cup win, 2nd largest metro area and arguably with the strongest international presence are at the top with number of followers. You would kind of expect that. So are they resting on their laurels?  Also newcomers Montreal are near the bottom, but still doing pretty well for a new club given that Colorado and San Jose have been around long enough to make a splash.  I'm especially looking at you San Jose, with all your tech savvy companies there I would expect a much higher presence.

But let's make local metro population a factor and calculate the Twitter followers per 10k people in the lcoal metro area.  Written mathmatecially as:

Twitter per 10k = (Twitter followers/Metro Pop)*10,000

Now we see a much different picture that drops the LA Galaxy down to 8th, and puts RSL, Sporting, Seattle, Columbus, Portland and Vancouver far ahead of the pack given their metro population.  One could make a solid case that in a large metro area there are more opportunities for other sports and non-athletic interests, but it does show a different side of things.  Especially seeing New York and Chivas way at the bottom in another class.  So why the stark differnce?  One hint might be the number of tweets.  Some of the better performing clubs on Twitter engagement by this metric have considerably more tweets posted.  But then even Chicago has a pretty high volume of tweets but lacks the following per 10k.

Largest drop in position:  

-14! New York Red Bulls going from 4th by Followers to 18th when adjusted for metro population.

Biggest gain in position: 

+14! Real Salt Lake going from 15th by Followers to number one when adjusted for metro population.

So if you are in the relegation zone of MLS Twitter accounts, you may want to start paying attention to the top 5 here because they are doing something you are not.

Here are the two charts side by side for easier comparison:

Do you see any other trends here?  More to come on Facebook and YouTube later this week.

Sporting KC 2012 Schedule with Analysis, Stats

Hooray the MLS 2012 schedule is finally here so we can at least talk about something other than potential sponsors for the kit!  Check out the Sporting blog post on the schedule to get links to download a desktop background with the schedule, import the schedule into various phones, and other info.  With the schedule out I wanted to compile a list of observations by myself and others.

Here is the spreadsheet I have been working from if you want to take a look and see if you find any interesting items or trends.

Unbalanced Schedule

With 10 teams in the East and 9 in the west, MLS has gone with an unbalanced schedule.  Many have griped, but that doesn't change the fact that it exists so let's see how it may benefit or hinder Sporting.

Getting to play three tough Western conference opponents at Home is a big benefit.  It is also nice to have Houston and Chicago at home twice given the playoffs last year and the real/fake rivalry with Chicago.  Hopefully New England and Toronto will give us some high scoring affairs that will please the home crowd as well. Overall I am pretty pleased with how the unbalanced schedule played out in Sporting's favor.

Conflicts/Synergies with Major Events

Local
March Madness - 3/17 Home Opener vs. New England - Same night as 3rd Round of NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Don;t really think it will be too big of a deal since it is opening night, which would be expected to be a sell out regardless of other events.  3/25 at home also is the same night as the Elite Eight, so if local teams like KU, K-State or Mizzou are playing might put a small dent in attendance.  But no SKC games conflict with any game nights in the Final Four.

NASCAR - No Sporting games are during NASCAR weekends (April 22, October 21) although part of me thinks there might be an interesting synergy if they timed it right to get some of the 80,000+ people going to the races a package deal on tickets to a soccer game across the street.  I just hope we see a Sporting KC die cast NASCAR in the stores this year.

MLB All-Star Week in Kansas City - 7/7 vs Houston - I actually think this might work well for Sporting.  A lot of visitors in town might pick this as a non-baseball sporting event to go to if they are in town for the week.  In fact I think that would be a god way to market it to Houston fans, if only their poor Astros were good enough to have some All-Stars to watch during the baseball game 7/10.

Chiefs games: No fall dates are on the same day as a Chiefs game away or home. No back to back Chiefs/Sporting games this year.

Friday Night HS Football: While this conflict is not too large when you consider one HS game might attract people just identifying with their local high school, if you multiply this across the whole metro it can become a big hit on attendance.  Hopefully it won't ding SKC too much but maybe aim for any Friday night games earlier in the year next time.  (H/T @atlashill)

National/International

Olympics - The Olympic soccer tournament in London goes from July 25th to August 11th.  That covers 3 games for Sporting: 7/28 vs Columbus, 8/4 at New England, and 8/11 vs. DCU.   The Gold Medal match will be played on 8/11 at 3pm London time, meaning we can watch the US and Teal Bunbury win the Gold medal at 9am before the DC game. (Note: the US has not even qualified yet for the Olympics, but you can watch them do that at Livestrong Park though in March and April!)


FIFA/CONCACAF Dates - the MLS stretched the season to avoid these important dates when your best players may be called up to their national teams.  A few teams mutually agreed to move games to these dates but Sporting was not one of them.

Holidays
St. Patrick's Day - 3/17 vs New England - You can bet they will play up the Irish theme with this one against Boston's lost team.  I really hope they don't wear green uniforms though.  That just smacks of minor league baseball and we have already been there.

Cinco de Mayo - 5/5 vs Montreal - Not really the Spanish side you might be expecting but hey it is the return of Davy Arnaud to LSP so that is a reason to celebrate right?  And playing an expansion team, might be just the thing the fans need to give us even more reason to have a good time.

Memorial Day Weekend - Sunday 5/27 vs San Jose - Nothing special here, but maybe with the long weekend more people might come out and tailgate before and after the early start game (3:30pm).  Maybe an excuse to have a Parking lot BBQ competition?

Fourth of July - 7/4 at Montreal - yes the team will be away so no fireworks, but that gives you a chance to have a good Sporting KC themed party at your house.  Invite people over to watch the early game (6:30p) and then light your fireworks (safely people!)

Labor Day Weekend - Saturday 9/1 vs. Toronto - Early in the holiday weekend. Again maybe a BBQ competition and long tailgate? Maybe Toronto will remember to bring their team player images this year.

Travel Opportunities

As many people have pointed out on Twitter two pairs of road games are only 3 days apart and within car/bus/train distance of each other that you could make a little Sporting vacation out of it: 4/18, 4/21 Vancouver, Portland AND 9/19,9/22 New York, Montreal. Apparently the Cauldron has made claims on at least one of them as THE road trip of the year.  Also don't overlook the chance to check out Houston's new soccer specific stadium on Wed 7/18.  The kids will be out of school so take two days off and make it a road trip.

Some other interesting stats/observations:

Full sched- Mean and Median length between games is 6.91 and 7. Min is 3, Max is 20.
Home games - Mean and Median length between games is 14.81 and 14.5,  Min is 7, Max is 27.
Away games - Mean and Median length between games is 13.97 and 13.5,  Min is 3, Max is 32.

Sporting KC ends the season on 10/24 at home.  The rest of the MLS including Philly have to play on either the 28th or 29th setting us up for a little extra rest time prior to the playoffs. Nice.

Sporting will be on seven nationally televised broadcasts and all of these amazingly are at Livestrong!  So let's make that crowd look good Kansas City.  4 are on NBC Sports, 2 on ESPN2, and one on Galavision. in 2011, 11 was on ESPN2, 3 on Fox Sports, and 1 on Galavision.  An improvement but sadly only places Sporting 12th out of 19 teams for national television appearances.  Of course NY and LA lead with 21 and 20 respectively.  Who am I surprised to see get more screen time: Chivas (12), Dallas (12) DC (12), Chicago (14).  Why would anyone want to watch Chicago or New York, they both tied 16 games apiece in 2011?!

Also check out this very detailed post from Sounder at Heart showing Strength of Schedule and Distance traveled. (H/T @AndyEdSKC). Sporting has the 3rd easiest schedule based on Opponent PPG, and 8th easiest travel schedule (by miles traveled)

Check out these other Sporting bloggers who have their own thoughts on the schedule:
Down the Byline
The Daily Wiz
The Full 90
Sporting KC Reports
Footy Chronicles 

So you want to be a soccer blogger?

If you have been following Sporting Kansas City at all in 2011, you probably have stumbled across a few blogs dedicated to our boys in blue.  Maybe you have found more than just a few but a plethora of blogs. It can be a lot to follow and doesn't even begin to account for SKC talk on other platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Big Soccer.  When looking at other teams we are in the top echelon of fan based blogs.

Some have complained online we actually might have too many blogs, or that the blogs do not do enough to stand out.  Personally I think it is fantastic to have many blogs to choose from, and over the next few weeks as we start through the pre-season I will be giving reviews of the various blogs covering SKC.  If you want to see a list of all the current SKC blogs, check our News Sources post (currently 25 sources). 

But before I begin reviews of the blogs, I thought I would offer some advice to anyone thinking of starting a blog for SKC.  (And just so you know I am speaking from experience, I have been blogging for 6 years on various subjects and seen many different blogs come and go, and have reported on other blogging communities, don't just think it is the 4 months I have been blogging for Ad Astra.)

First of all, yes you can do it, but it does take dedication if you are going to be successful.  Don't let anyone scare you off from contributing just because 'the pool is full.'  There is always room for more insight and opinion.  And we do not all have the same audience.  If you don't believe me check out TweepDiff for an example of how two key blogs have only half of their Twitter followers in common.

Second, come up with goals, a strategy and a basic schedule.  Blogging takes time and if you are going to be successful, it is good to start with some structure.  You will probably hear bloggers say they never did any of that and they are still here.  True but for every successful blog there are hundreds of dead blogs because of a  lack of a little bit of planning and research.  Find subjects and opinions that are not yet being heard in this community or add a new twist to information that is already out there.

Third, partner with someone.  You do not need to be alone in your endeavor, in f act you will increase the value to readers if you have multiple bloggers because you get five things:

1) Consistency: Good partners will keep the flow of information consistent and not dated
2) Unique voices: Partners add something different.  You will each have a different approach and possibly feature different types of posts to contribute.
3) Established commentary: A good partner will post comments to your posts and vice versa.  Someone posting a single comment increases the likelihood that someone else will comment.  And if your partners get into a heated discussion in the comments section it is more likely others will jump in.
4) Promotion: More people promoting their blogs to their family, friends and the SKC fan base.
5) Immortality: Well that may be a bit of a reach, but having partners does allow for succession if any one person decide to bow out.  Your words will live on without you at the blog's helm.

Four, learn the importance of networking.  Work with other bloggers and key voices in and outside of the organization and you will find good opportunities.  You may be ignored or dismissed until you have a bit more of a track record, but keep looking you will find a group that welcomes and supports you.  A well developed network will help you with getting feedback (as comments and behind the scenes) as well as helping with promotion.

Hopefully this helps give you some guidance.  The more we can foster this small but vibrant community the better it is for our team and for all of us bloggers!

Here are blogs open to possibly having more bloggers (let me know if I missed any):

Ad Astra SKC - christian@adastraskc.org

South Stand SC - admin@southstandsc.org

The Daily Wiz -info - justingmayhugh@hotmail.com

Please feel free to ask questions about blogging here.  Simple or complex, I would be glad to help.

Potential Chant: Bend It

Name of Song/Chant: Bend It

To the tune of: Bend It by Davy and Dee Dee (1968) 

Lyrics:
Bend it, bend it, just a little bit
C’mon now Zusi, show you're rockin' it
And Sporting, you know that we're gonna win
Right now 'cos I'm sure we will begin
With Zizzo, Benny and Dom Dwyer*
Kick it forceful, show some hustle

Bend it, bend it, just a little more
We love you KC, now we’re gonna score
But you can make me feel that I am sure
I've got a sickness only you can cure
So just relax, there's stacks of time,
but please don't tease me - try to please me

*2011 version - With Sapong, Convey and Kamara

USMNT Lyrics:
Bend it, bend it, just a little bit
C’mon now Zusi, show you're rockin' it
And U! S!, you know that we're gonna win
Right now 'cos I'm sure we will begin
With Bradley, Jozy and Clint Dempsey
Kick it forceful, show some hustle

Bend it, bend it, just a little more
We love you Yanks, now we’re gonna score
But you can make me feel that I am sure
I've got a sickness only you can cure
So just relax, there's stacks of time,
but please don't tease me - try to please me

Original Song:


Chant Origins:
I forget how I found this exactly, but I was probably looking for videos on You Tube of some nice free kicks bending to their target.  As soon as I heard the slow start and the rapid finish in the style of a good Greek folk song, I knew I had to rework the lyrics to apply to Graham Zusi since he had some great placements in 2011.  I initially had Bravo in the place of Convey but with the release of Bravo that had to switch.  Bunbury just doesn't fit in there well so I went with Convey. I guess we could put in Soony too.

Heard at Sporting Park: Never
Heard from other MLS supporters groups: None - an original!

Why it works: original lyrics, incorporates Sporting well, good soccer references, slow start to get everyone timed up right, good change in tempo always sounds good from a coordinated group, positive and supportive

Why it might not: Never been done before, not a familiar radio friendly song, change in tempo could be very tricky with a large group, complex lyrics over two verses (could be cut down to just one, but I like them both!), works well with or without drums.

Got an idea for a chant? Submit it to us!

Sporting KC on Wikipedia

In a constant hunger for all good things Sporting Kansas City, I often find myself at some point referencing Wikipedia.  You can find a good lot of information there, with nearly all of it pretty accurate.  But there are a few pages related to our team that could use some work.  I thought I would highlight a few here so that the diligent online SKC community could get to work and make us whole!

If you make any significant changes, please email or tweet us so we can update this page.

Page: Sporting Kansas City
Needs: Copyediting for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling
Basically when everyone adds little facts incrementally the whole page doesn't always look the best.  So we need someone with a keen eye for good writing to go in and clean it up while retaining the facts and basic story.  Sporting has one of the better Wikipedia pages in my humble opinion.  I have not had the time nor desire to read through every other MLS team's page but DC United has a pretty good one too.  Also only a picture of Arrowhead in the stadiums section.  We need a LSP picture on this page.  The supporters club section needs some citations and some updating as well from an objective third party.  Would be nice if a local paper did an article on the supporter groups because then we could link to that.  Wikipedia editors frown upon blog links unless you are the Huffington Post or in that echelon.  MLS regular season all time record only goes through 2008.  Robb Heinemann is listed as the club's only president?  Who came before Robb?  Not very much about the historical Wiz/Wizards logos.  No (pictorial) history of the different kits. And boy do we have some history.

Page: Livestrong Sporting Park
Needs: Images, story, facts
The Sporting Park page is pretty anemic.  Yeah sure we have only been playing in it for a few months, but if we don't get some of the info down now, it might be harder to recall to tell the great story of LSP.  The two images of the stadium are pretty weak.  Try looking at the Red Bull Arena page for some better ideas.

Our players need some pictures on their Wikipedia pages.  If you have any pictures you took that are quality that is probably the best one to use because you own it and can upload it as a Creative Commons licensed photo.  But if you find a good one online and can contact the photographer maybe they would upload it for fair use.  Don't steal images! (Read the rules on posting a picture to Wikipedia)

Player (current and notable past) pages in need of any picture/head shot:
Besler
Harrington
Aiyegbusi
Zusi
Bunbury
Saad
Warzycha
Olum
Ellis
Espinoza
Sinovic
Kronberg
Joseph
Diop
Kempin
Cyrus
Arnaud
Jewsbury


Player pages in need of a better head shot (typically has action shot there, but might be better suited for head shot in box and action shot in article.)
Nielsen
Myers
Sapong
Kamara
Collin
Cesar

Player pages in need of an action shot (because our players have skills):
Besler

Myers
Zusi
Sapong


Player pages in need of picture of player in Sporting KC kit:
Convey
Kamara
Cesar
Nagamura

Players in need of more facts on their page:
Zusi
Sapong
Kamara
Collin
Cyrus

Now get to work people!