With spring training wrapping up, the best part of summer is almost here: baseball season! Like their counterparts across the universe of professional sports, Major League Baseball (MLB) teams lean heavily on social media to engage their fan bases. And the competition for MLB social media performance is just as stiff as it is on the field.
So we wondered… Does an MLB team’s performance on the diamond have any correlation with its engagement on social?
Just like our previous look at the NFL, we used the TrackMaven digital analytics platform to find out. We tracked the performance of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram content for all 30 of the MLB teams during the 2014 to 2015 regular season.
By comparing each team’s average engagement rate — or MLB Social Media Batting Average, if you will — and winning percentage, we determined which teams are hitting home runs on social and which are striking out.
Note: We define engagement rate as average interactions per post per 1,000 followers. This way we normalize for audience size, so teams with more fans on social don’t have an absolute advantage. Engagement includes any interaction with a post: likes, shares, and comments on Facebook; retweets and favorites on Twitter; and likes and comments on Instagram.
TL;DR: In general, having a higher winning percentage correlates to greater engagement on social for MLB teams. Playoff-bound teams like the Cubs, the Mets, and the Royals perform predictably well on social media. However, some of the worst teams still manage to get on base. In fact, if the Oakland A’s could bat as well as they tweet, they might have found themselves in the postseason last year!
Take a look at the complete MLB social media analysis below:
The best (and worst) MLB teams on Facebook
There is a strong strong correlation between team winning percentage and average engagement rate on Facebook. The Houston Astros performed best, standing above the Cubs and even the World Series Champions Royals with an average engagement rate of 6.07 (against the Cubs’ 5.61 and Royals’ 5.16).
In contrast, the Yankees and the Rangers, both playoff-bound teams, performed far below the Reds, the second-worst team in the league, on Facebook.
The best MLB teams on Facebook:
Cubs, Astros, Diamondbacks
The worst MLB teams on Facebook:
Yankees, Rangers, Brewers
The best (and worst) MLB teams on Twitter
Twitter has almost the same strength of correlation between fan engagement and winning percentage as Facebook, and also shows some familiar faces on top. The Cubs are batting a thousand on Twitter, out-engaging any of the other teams with their average engagement rate of 1.10. And despite having a rough season, the Oakland A’s are a real contender on Twitter with an engagement rate of 0.64.
Contrary to their performance on Facebook, the Cardinals and the Blue Jays see dismal engagement rates on Twitter. In fact, the number one seed Cardinals are in the bottom 14 percent of MLB teams by Twitter engagement. The Phillies are also a step away from being sent to the minors with their dismal engagement rate of 0.13.
The best MLB teams on Twitter:
Cubs, Mets, Oakland A’s
The worst MLB teams on Twitter:
Cardinals, Phillies, Blue Jays
The best (and worst) MLB teams on Instagram
Instagram is a bit of a knuckleball with a weaker correlation between social engagement and winning percentage than on Facebook and Twitter. Even the Phillies perform well on Instagram, scoring directly in the middle of the pack with an average engagement rate of 25.22. The Giants and the Dodgers lead the league by Instagram engagement, while the playoff-bound Rangers and Pirates struggle to get on base. The Brewers have the poorest performance in the league on Instagram, scoring far below any of the others teams.
The best MLB teams on Instagram:
Dodgers, Giants, Phillies
The worst MLB teams on Instagram:
Brewers, Rangers, Pirates
With a long season ahead, we’re rooting for all teams both on the field and on social media! We’ll keep tracking to see which MLB marketing teams have the winning record by the season’s end. For another dose of data journalism at the intersection of sports and social media, pair this piece with our analysis of the NFL teams dominating the field on social.