At the beginning of the 2014 NFL season I posted a short article related to NFL teams Follow-to-Follower ratios on Twitter.  That score card showed that most NFL teams, like most major brands, don’t follow-back their fans or customers: 

As you can see on the 2014 score card, the average NFL team was following back just 0.46% of their fans.  That ratio now stands at 0.27% which means the odds of your favorite team following you back are actually decreasing.

 

Most major brands, including NFL teams broadcast on Twitter; they don’t follow-back for purposes of personal engagement.  That strategy doesn’t seem to hurt them either.  For example, the Dallas Cowboys follower base grew from 900K to 1.9M over the past two years and they went 4-12 last year!  Does the brand manager for “America’s Team” even need to show up for work?

When it comes to sports we like to follow winners.  The Panthers follower base grew over 550%, although they still lost the Super Bowl last year.  The Super Bowl winning Broncos grew over 320%.  Surprisingly, they follow back over 6K of their fans ranking them third in the league.  Deflatgate or not, the Patriots at 12-4 last year grew 275%. 

 

 

The Chargers finished 4-12 last year.  They also continue to lead the league by following back 5% of their fans which comes to over 29K profiles.  That’s less than half the capacity of Qualcomm Stadium but it’s far better than any other team.