I spent the week with the sales team, a bunch of smart guys who in addition to loving technology, love sports. It felt like being home with my husband! And on every break they were talking about the big game coming up this weekend. So I got to thinking, what does the social universe think of the two teams who made the Superbowl? While during the football season, it is almost always on in my house, I don’t classify myself as a “football fan.” Using Attensity’s social media monitoring application I dug- in a bit to understand who the fan favorites are and I learned a few things along the way….
Where is the Buzz on the Superbowl?
The share of coverage is pretty even for both teams. The Steelers have about 7% more specific posts that mention the team, but with a margin of error of about 2%-3%, the buzz is pretty even. While there is a lot of buzz on twitter, the real buzz and in-depth discussion on the super bowl are taking place in web forums. Most threads have multiple posts and there are hundreds of posts on all of the top online sports forums. Below is an example of the top sites in terms of buzz.
Both Teams Have Loving Fans and Enemies
As both teams come from “football” towns and their fans are typically “raised as fans”, not only is the buzz about the same in terms of volume, but the sentiment is also quite similar. Of course, those in the mid-west, the “cheese-heads” love their Packers and the enthusiasm with which they love them is astonishing. The Steelers fans are talking about their amazing numbers: “team with a defense that allowed the fewest points in the league,”a franchise that has won a record six Super Bowls,”the best defense in the league,” etc. Here is the view of sentiment for both teams.
What Are the Conversations About?
The predicted “favorites” are a big topic, specifically talk about the spread of points and that the Packers are the favorite, even though the Steelers had a better record during the season. Lots of discussion about cornerback Bryant McFadden and his return to practice and whether he’ll play or not is also a hot topic! Our word cloud led me to the top discussed topics…..size indicates relative volume.
A personal favorite (being a Glee fan) is the buzz about Lea Michele singing. I was surprised how much buzz there was about her being added to the roster.
So not knowing much about the teams, using our software I learned a lot…..I am getting excited for the game….or maybe it is just the annual party that we go to, the food is great! And they’ll have babysitters, so I’ll get to watch the commercials, I mean the game! Are you excited to tune in this weekend?
Photo Credit: National Football League (NFL)
