An Aging Fan Base: Using Twitter to Develop a New Generation of Baseball Fans

Editor's Notes

• #2 Twitter is becoming one of the most common ways for fans to get information about sports, especially baseball. In fact, for individuals under 25 recent Twitter statistics suggest that their primary source of information is Twitter. It is clear that Twitter and other forms of social media are the key way to integrate younger fans into baseball. This presentation will start by discussing my previous work on Twitter usage during baseball games, particularly the world series. Then I’ll examine the concepts of hashtags and mentions in the context of both communications and sports research. Following this discussion I will examine the 2014 World Series to begin to understand how MLB can utilize twitter to generate new fans and retain younger fans Finally I will discuss how this study will continue to evolve.
• #3 World Series---all fans in one place
• #4 For those who are not aware- twitter on the web or through various applications lets you look at just tweets from a particular hashtag. Popular desktop and tablet programs such as Tweet Deck even let you make a column to just follow a particular hashtag. Community---Watch a show alone- use hashtag to see reactions from other people. And debate theories—GOT, Scandal In sports, especially baseball, fans tend to have an existing community. Especially when looking at the World Series fans watch together or if they can’t – text and talk on the phone. For those that post community concept is more of proving knowledge. Watching the game with friends and saying, nothing good ever happens when you walk the pitcher and then having the announcer say the same thing- or something bad happening. Hashtag communities in sports tend to be more of that. Calling shots, making predictions and the ego boost of being right without any public ridicule if wrong. Hashtags are frequently used in sports to resolve uncertainty.. For newer fans it may be following along a popular hashtag to understand what is going on beyond what they see on the television. A true 2nd screen. For more dedicated fans thy may use hashtags to try to understand what is happening. it may be something as simple as, why did he leave the pitcher in or is player x hurt. Or it might be more complex such as a rules question. Game 3 of the 2014 WS - tied 4-4 heading in the bottom of the 9th inning. The RedSox threw to 3rd base to attempt to catch Allen Craig off the bag. The throw careened off of Craig. The umpire ruled that the Red Sox third baseman got in the way of Allen Craig standing up and running home and thus Allen Craig would have scored but for the obstruction, and the game ended 5-4. Since most diehard fans had never seen an obstruction call, let alone one that ended a game, not surprisingly, they sought out an online-community to look for answers to make sense of the unknown. Similar activity was seen in 2014 when Madison Bumgarner was originally given the win in Game 7 and fans went on Twitter to try to understand how that was possible since the rulebook indicated he was not eligible for the win.
• #5 Mentions are crucial because this is the equivalent of talking to a person or agreeing with a person. It is like saying I agree. These differ from hashtags because hashtags are merely a tool people can use to narrow twitter to a topic. Mentions are a direct response to the author of the Tweet. It may be Retweeting the author’s tweet, thus causing more people to see it and possibly also retweet. Mentions may also be direct comments to a user- these tend to me more personal because the user has to have the motivation to either answer a question or compose a unique tweet. Those users that can post tweets that are frequently retweeted and/or who can generate a lot of interaction with their followers are referred to as influencers. This is because the majority of Tweets are just read or glanced at. Users generally fall into two camps, people who follow very few accounts or people who follow an extremely large number of accounts. In both cases they are probably seeing a fraction of the tweets that may be of interest to them. Influencers change that by increasing the odds that an account somebody reads frequently will rt or respond to a post- causing their friends to check out what is going on. When looking at how to engage fans on Twitter, the idea of mentions becomes important. Tepid fans or uninterested fans (give nba ex) have to be motivated to turn on the game. This concept becomes even more complex when looking at baseball or any sport specifically, When something happens you can easily get the same information on multiple accounts---not just media but also MLB, ESPN, FOX, MLB Network and in some cases from players or teams.. If I want to RT or respond---which one do I chose?
• #6 The answer Began in books and movies There are certain broadcasters we trust more than others with trades, rumors, reports-- Stations we go to for information– our if we follow everyone, one we chose to RT-we each have our own reasons and the accounts we rely on may be different, but the reason we chose a particular broadcaster, player, media outlet or organization as our “go-to” comes down to a feeling of trust or common ground. With social media- both from MLB, team and player accounts fans get a sense of who the players are. In the past fans were shielded from the “real” player and the behind the scenes story by the team and media-. MLB, teams and other media outlets are responding by posting montages of players answering questions, batting practice, clubhouse rituals, celebrations and behind the scenes interviews. This access helps build these relationships. More successful player accounts and personal media accounts also show a glimpse of their lives. Hunter Pence – John Axford- Bryce Harper. We aren’t all the same- so we develop these relationships with players and teams and broadcasters for different reasons (kids, shoes, activities) we start to know them, we inevitably care more—research shows when that happens we value their opinions but also want to help them if possible—i.e. question asked---where to get pizza—show our followers who has the best information. This is new and evolving, but it is clear that as players and media personalities show their personalities on Twitter, their fan base will grow. As we will see, this will become more and more important as current players retire and pursue media careers. Their fans and influence will follow. –Eric Brynes, Ryan Dempster, Mark DeRossa
• #7 Because the key to fan engagement is developing a relationship with the fans the 2013 study was incomplete because it did not look at mentions at all. Secondly, by only looking at the trending hashtags only, a small portion of the actual tweets were collected and there was no concept of why those hashtags were used. Used a tweet archiver for each search term. Ran from the time the Giants clinched and set the World Series to the day after the series ended. For purposes of this project I only looked at the tweets for the 7 games. The archiver searched all tweets sent while it was running for the search term. It looked for the term anywhere in the tweet—including profiles, links and pictures. As a result the archives collected 12 million tweets. large number had nothing to do with baseball let alone the World Series. The tweets collected for each archive where then cleaned to remove the irrelevant tweets. Once all the archives where cleaned, the data was merged into one spreadsheet and duplicates were deleted—i.e., if I tweeted World Series game 1 tonight! Giants vs. Royals - I’d show up on 4 searches. Once all the data was cleaned a little over 72,200 unique tweets remained. Since the tweets were converted to eastern time- all the games stated at 8:08 pm. That meant many games ended near midnight on the east coast— to maximize the number of tweets relating the to correct game- days were considered from 3am- 2:59 am. Given the nature of the data set and how many different questions it can help us understand-for this project I looked at hashtags and mentions. As I have more time with the data I intend to build upon this project to provide even more detailed insight. So while this analysis is a finished project- the data set itself is a WIP.
• #8 Green- Mention Only Orange- Mention plus a hashtag---usually the hashtag was in the original post the person is @ replying to Yellow- Hashtag only Blue- none Looking at percentage of the type of tweets in each period Some key things to note is that during the day (2:59-6pm), pregame (6pm-8:08) and post game (end of game- 2:59 am)- people are more likely to engage on social media by rt and replying to tweets. In line with the 2013 research and the communication research, once the game starts, people are more likely to use hashtags to join the community and seek information. – a second screen application The data suggests that if Twitter users are following certain users (influencers and/or users who follow the influencers), influencers can generate interest in a particular baseball game. Fans that would be attracted this way would already be established users of Twitter- which based on the Twitter statistics is likely between 13 and 26. Thus these users would understand the workings of twitter and thus will know how to use use hashtags (already do with twitter, awards shows, TV shows, etc.)- r to find community answers—even if they don’t tweet—to understand the game. In other words- Twitter can bring people into game and then teach them what is going on.
• #9 This is not as idealistic as it may seem - top 10 mentioned accounts across the series–I.e., twitter users who fans engaged with—these influencers are directly related to and interested in growing the sport of baseball. By continuing to engage the fans during the day/pre and post game periods—they can continue to bring fans to the game. MLB, ESPN and Fox are all producing their own pre and post game content. The Giants and Royals accounts are most likely engaging their current fans—need to do textual analysis. Two personal influencers- Buster Olney and Alex Pavlovic a Giants reporter. In the top ten there is a huge drop-off between the top 5 and bottom 5- 81% of the tweets using a top 10 mentioned account are represented by the top 5– really demonstrates that the understanding of twitter use is still growing. Comparing just the MLB account from 2013 to 2014—more engaging, more videos, more behind the scenes. First three are sharing or Rting; Last is fans expressing their opinion Important to note that these accounts and others that are still developing—especially MLB personalities- can develop relationships with fans year round s Just like John Axford has bachelorette fans, people who would not identify themselves as baseball fans, they will follow MLB or MLBFanCave if a video goes viral. Just the same people will form a relationship with Sports Center and the two writers from their year round coverage- In other words, they might be hooked by a series of Orbit pranks or crazy dance moves in the offseason or might start following because of sports they are more interested in---basketball or football– once following see and engage if hooked. It is key to note again that parasocial is more than linking to stories or posting stats- at some point whether on TV or on twitter, the user has to see something they enjoy or relate too- I like pranks. I like travel. I like cars, etc.
• #10 Hashtags are tricky because they are case sensitive—With a mention If you are retweeting a post and the mention is included for you. If you are sending a message directly to an account- twitter helps you by narrowing down your list of followers as you type. In other words, Twitter tries to make sure you get it correct. Twitter often suggests- but many options For example- if you are tweeting here are you using sabr, sabr45, sarbchicago, sabrnational. Is SABR all caps? Many conferences tell you what hashtag to use. And in some cases, the influencers discussed previously include hashtags which their followers then use, --over 1000 unique over series- - These top 10 represent over 80% of the unique hashtags. It appears that influencers are also necessary to generate the usage of particular hashtags --- those these influencers maybe different—local radio and TV personalities, celebrities (Paul Rudd, Billy Crystal, Eric Stonesteet, Oliva Wilde, Zoey Deschanel, Lil’ Wayne, Steve Perry). My data set will allow me to begin to preform the analysis of this- since fans easily finding the right hashtag that can help them understand the game is key to generating a new fan base.–who the players are--then-what you didn’t learn on the playground—never make the 1st or 3rd out at third, the shift, and some indication of good movers, bad moves and questionable plays…A 2nd screen learning/educational device—not worried about stories from 1985. While some fans will use many hashtags, on average in the data set most fans only used 1-2 per tweet. In looking specifically at the top 10 hashtags for the series- For general community building-- it should come as no surprise that Royals fans are active online. Royals and Take the Crown. Also a lot of fans who are just interested in baseball as seen through World Series and MLB and postseason. The Giants fans where using two separate hashtags– SFGiants (twitter handle) and Giants - added together they would easily be in 2nd place. Their fan hashtag OctoberTogether lagged behind—confusion- the Giants were using both Orange October and October Together depending on the Tweet
• #11 PREVIOUS SLIDE- KC is an interesting hashtag. It does not appear to be used by many diehard royals fans…rather it was used by people going to Kansas city for games as well as officials of KC and the tourism board who were offering hotel and restaurant suggestions to visitors given the location of the stadium to what would be considered the downtown KC area. This information was then retweeted with the hashtag by KC locals. Mad Bum is another interesting hashtag. It was used sparingly during his game 1 victory- in fact it was not even in the top 10 hashtags for the game. In his game 5 start it was the third trending hashtag for the game- primarily because became the first pitcher to record a complete game shutout in a World Series game since Josh Beckett in 2003 and the first Giants pitcher to accomplish the feat since 1962 It was really game 7 that put him on the list- especially considering the top hashtags trended in all 7 games and 7-10 trended in at least 5 games. MadBum was only in the top 10 in 2 games For game 7 it was the 4th highest trending hashtag and was used for both community and uncertainty. For the second half of the game when Bumgarner who Bochy said he was hoping would pitch 2 innings, hit his 4th inning of unhittable pitching Mad Bum was the most used hashtag—first for his outstanding pitching and then for calls for him to be mvp. Once the game ended, he was the 3rd most used hashtag in that period following Trilogy and SF Giants- This time it was to clear up uncertainty- fans went to twitter to try to understand how he was given the win when the rule book appeared to indicate he was not eligible for a win. The confusion was further exaberated by Joe Buck at the end of the game said we aren’t sure who will get the win, but Bumgarner will get the save and most likely the MVP and then Harold Reynolds said- they gave the win to Bumgarner and Fox went to commercial as you could here Buck say I don’t think that’s possible. Debate continued for approximately 30 minutes until a Tweet from Buster Olney began circulating the the scorers decision had been reversed.
• #12 Just of what I plan to do— As social media evolves understanding these trends will become even more essential. Research by Highfield (2015) followed users across platforms- and discovered their usage trends remain standard. Although it deals with television authors, this project and my previous work cooperates the finding of their 2013 study on hashtags. Until more data is collected and and I have multiple complete world series data sets are compiled—It is only an assumption that this theory will also apply to sports
• #13 As mentioned early- as players develop their own fan bases and retire and join the media or stay involved with their team or join post season coverage during their playing careers, I would expect to see more individuals on the top mentions list along with MLB and SportsCenter. MLBNetwork did not appear high in either 2013 or 2014 which appears to be in part because of the numerous MLB accounts many of which post similar content or just retweet each other. -- People feel the relationship with the brand---not MLB PR – they seem to be bringing on more and more recently retired charismatic former players, most of whom are very active on social media. It may be the case that it is some of these players rather than the network who appear on future top 10 mention lists.