Minnesota WildSocial Media AnalysisTeam 3Z

Goals Understand the digital marketing

activity of the Minnesota Wild NHL team through the analysis of its Facebook campaign.

Reviewed fan activity between March 26, 2008 through June 14, 2012.

Methodology Formatted data into dates and used formulas to

derive data. Wild vs Fan created content. Weekend vs Weekday postings. Pre-Gameday, Gameday, and post-Gameday

postings. Type of media created: comments, pictures, videos.

Used a combination of Pivot tables and multiple linear regressions to quantitatively determine best engagement.

Analysis Wild created content

elicited greater response.

Fan response was higher the day after a win.

Fan response was higher day before a game, if they went into the game after a loss.

Regression Three (3) regressions: likes, comments, and shares as

dependent variables. Assumes R-square value > 25% was considered good

fit. Assumed P-value =< 0.05 for variables to be

considered significant to model. Removed insignificant variables and re-ran regression

until all P values were =< 0.05 and R-Squared was > 25%.

Findings We found two models: comments and likes.

Comments (R2 = 27%) Weekday and content created by Wild were the two

variables most likely to elicit fan responses. Comments = 1.34 + 0.49 * isWeekday + 28.2* Created by

Wild. Likes (R2 = 33%)

Weekday, content created by Wild, post-gamedays, pre-gamedays, and comments were the most likely to elicit fan responses.

Likes = 11.91 + 1.98 * isWeekday + 96.58 * Created by Wild + 4.32 * isPostGameDay + 4.16 * isPreGameDay -13.42 * isText.

Qualitative Analysis Reviewed Wild-sourced comments with 200+

likes. They had the following common themes: Image-led content; Fully edited professional video Humanistic and emotive topics:

Introduction of new players; when players interact on the ice (i.e. brawl); profiling of juniors, images from those that are serving the country, celebrating player birthdays (injured ones especially)

Qualitative Analysis Topics that were unpopular included:

Merchandize sale posts, unidentified non-players, Postings with limited or no captions –

informing the reader appears to be key considering the posting length identified in the quantitative analysis.

Stand-alone clips were less popular.

Recommendations Having a social media platform can make athletes more

‘accessible’ to fans, can promote sponsors by having ‘authentic’ interactions directly with devotees

Allowing fans to ‘scrape and share’ exclusive content to their own networks will extend the Wild’s influence beyond traditional media platforms.

Strategy should be postings coupled with expert timing for the delivery of engaging competitions, emotive images and milestone announcements (like player birthdays, injury status).

Promotions activities (such as giveaways or ticket discounts) should be targeted to specific growth segments.

Finally social media team should integrate and leverage existing communications activities to increase content richness and interest for Facebook followers.