As arguably one of the most storied franchises in professional sports, the Los Angeles Lakers have fans all over the world with legendary players Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant being household names in the Inglewood, California and as far as Beijing, China. There’s seemingly no limit to the reach of the Lakers franchise with everyone in the world wanting a piece of the purple and gold.
Along with the distinction as one of the most popular sports teams around the globe, the Lakers also dominate the competition in the social media world. Other teams in the NBA have started to jump on the social media bandwagon, but no team has come close to what the Lakers have been able to accomplish in terms of a following on Facebook and Twitter.
With the first annual NBA Social Media Awards airing on June 20, the staff at LakersNation.com decided to take a look at where the Lakers rank amongst the rest of the league in terms social media impact.
Fanpagelist.com crunched the most recent social media numbers for NBA teams with the Lakers reigning supreme:
Top 5 Teams in the NBA on Facebook and Twitter
1. LA Lakers – 16,361,549
2. Boston Celtics – 7,200,391
3. Chicago Bulls – 6,933,164
4. Miami Heat – 6,707,073
5. New York Knicks – 3,029,585
Along with dominating the competition in social media against other teams in the league, the Lakers have become so popular on Facebook that the team has more fans than the NBA altogether. With more than 200,000 fans than the NBA on the most popular social media platform, the storied NBA franchise has set a precedent for all teams in the league from here on out.
LakersNation.com has also played a big role in social media over the past few years with an impressive following on both Twitter and Facebook. With over 97,000 followers on Twitter and an incredible 422,000 likes on Facebook, Lakers Nation has become one of the largest sources of Lakers news in the world now with millions of monthly visitors, competing with LA based news sites like the LA Times and ESPN LA.
If Lakers Nation was actually an NBA team, it would be ranked 16th the Detroit Pistons and ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers (20th) on Facebook. An impressive stat to say the least with a fan base that continues to grow on a daily basis.
Other prominent professional sports teams around the world that make a huge impact with social networks are mainly in soccer overseas. FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United lead the way on Twitter and Facebook while the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys are the top teams in social media in the MLB and NFL.
