Before any trade movement happened, the entirety of the NBA waited with baited breath on one event: the decision of LeBron James. Everyone in the sports world knew that once LeBron picked his destination, that the shakeout would be swift and violent. Now that the smoke has cleared, what did it all mean in terms of NBA Teams’ social media presence? Our colleagues at MVP Index took a look, and while the Cavs gained, the demise of the Heat seems greatly exaggerated thus far. Are the Heat in retreat?
In short: no. Miami still reigns supreme in the MVP Index’s rankings of NBA teams. They maintained their seat atop the social media mountain by staying the course and by having built such a solid global following that has stayed loyal, which is great, but probably not surprising news, for brands and partners in South Florida. Since LeBron vacated his throne in Miami, the Heat’s Facebook likes and Twitter followers have increased by over 413K and 28K respectively. If you’re wondering what those numbers look like compared to the rest of the league; the Heat gained the most Facebook likes in the entire NBA followed by Chicago, Cleveland, LA Lakers and San Antonio. Twitter, however, is an entirely different story. The Cleveland Cavaliers hold the title for the most Twitter followers gained since Decision II with over 75K. The next four teams in that category are the Lakers, Bulls, Heat and Knicks.
MVP INDEX TOP 10 NBA TEAMS
Miami Heat
Los Angeles Lakers
Boston Celtics
Chicago Bulls
San Antonio Spurs
Oklahoma City Thunder
Golden State Warriors
New York Knicks
Portland Trail Blazers
Los Angeles Clippers
TRENDING UP
Sacramento Kings + 5
Cleveland Cavaliers +4
Portland Trail Blazers +3
Memphis Grizzlies +3
Los Angeles Lakers +2
Chicago Bulls +2
Denver Nuggets +2
Minnesota Timberwolves +2
Golden State Warriors +1
Dallas Mavericks +1
Socially, Cleveland has made some serious strides. In addition to those over 75K new Twitter followers, the Cavs also gained over 240K Facebook likes. Additionally, they gained the most followers of any NBA team on Instagram at over 91K. They also more than doubled their monthly Facebook shares with an increase of over 13K. Overall, the Cavs moved up 4 spots on the MVP index to the 12th slot. In just over 3 weeks after the decision, that’s some significant movement. It will be interesting to watch the rest of the league to see how social strategies change and how fans react to see who will end up with the top spot as deals like the one for Kevin Love play out, and more importantly, how teams perform once training camp gets started in October.
One thing that is pretty clear though; social followings, unless there is something catastrophically negative occurring; remain tough to rock once built, and are still challenging to grow unless the social space is combined with real time results in games. That combination remains king; for LeBron and everyone else.
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