Content Analysis of Social Media Sports

Running Head: CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA SPORTS ACCOUNT
Content Analysis of Social Media Sports Account
Name of Student:
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Author’s Note:

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CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA SPORTS ACCOUNT
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................3
Overall Social Media Analysis:...................................................................................................4
Twitter Analysis:.........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................8
References:..................................................................................................................................9

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CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA SPORTS ACCOUNT
Introduction:
Australian football, also known as Rugby in many parts of the world, is the most popular
sport in the county, with its spectatorship and active participation sybolising it as an element of
national identity. The Australian Football League (AFL), not surprisingly the largest sporting
administrative body, in terms of participation, across the county. The Brisbane Lions reigns in
terms of popularity in the Queensland, and is also one of the most popular teams in the East
Coast. According to a report by AFL Queensland (2019) the popularity of AFL has been growing
steadily with a participation growth of 5.2% recorded in 2018. This report will focus on
analyzing the social media accounts of the Brisbane Lions with central focus the Twitter account
of the AFL team.
Discussion:
As of 1st September 2019 the Brisbane Lions commanded enormous support from all over
Australia and rugby lovers worldwide as they made it to the qualifiers of AFL 2019 and
commanded the second position in the points table after Geelong FC. The club, in the 2019
league held 28023 members, a significant improvement over the 2018’s 24867 members
(McLachlan 2019). Apart from the widespread participation from the domestic and national
levels, the club also has a huge online fan base over various social media platforms such as
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. The improving connectivity provided over social
media platforms increases interactivity of fans, communication of information, and enables
brands and organisations such as these clubs to share news content and important updates with

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followers, interest groups, fan communities and other concerned organisations (Filo, et al., 2015,
p. 167).
This report aims to highlight how the club seeks to strategically strengthen its position in
the hearts and minds of AFL fans and garner their support in moving up the ladder and
ultimately becoming champions of the 2019 league. Fan support and engagement goes a long
way in determining viewership, sponsorship and the AFL has enforced restructuring of
marketing models to exploit fan engagement in order to maximise profitability (AFL Official
2019).
Overall Social Media Analysis:
The Lion’s Twitter account, as on 1st September, 2019, has 83176 followers, over 36164
tweets and follows 766 different pages (Brisbane Lions Twitter, 2019). The Facebook page has
over 5000 posts, which are followed by 138,208 users worldwide (Brisbane Lions Facebook,
2019) and the Instagram page has over 89,100 followers and 3102 posts (Brisbane Lions
Instagram, 2019) as recorded on 1st September, 2019. Even the club’s YouTube page is
subscribed by 9408 fans, containing well over 1000 videos. The total online followership of the
club shows that Brisbane Lions has one of the largest fan bases among AFL teams, considering
their excellent performance so far in the 2019 league. The overall social media statistics can be
summarized in the following table:
Social Media Platform Total Follower Count Number of Posts
Twitter 83176 36164
Facebook 138,208 >5000
Instagram 89,100 3102

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YouTube 9408 >1000
Table 1: Statistics of all Brisbane Lions Social Media platforms
Twitter Analysis:
Subject Information
User id @brisbanelions
Joining Date June 2009
Following 766
Followers 83176
Tweets 36164
Table 2: Statistics of all Brisbane Lions Twitter page
The Brisbane Lions Twitter page was created in June 2009 and since then the page has
garnered over 83000 followers and poster over 36000 tweets. The handlers of the page also
follow 766 different accounts on twitter, which mostly consist of other associated AFL pages,
accounts of different sporting organisations, personalities and news pages (Brisbane Lions
Twitter, 2019). The followers of the page are predominantly male fans (56.7%), while a
significant part is female, (24.4%) showing the growth in interest of female fans in the league
games and the sport in general. 11.1% comprised of accounts of different groups and companies
that had varied interests in the club, while 7.8% of the followers could not be categorized under
an identifiable segment.
Category Frequency (in %)
Male 56.7
Female 24.4

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CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA SPORTS ACCOUNT
Company/Group 11.1
Unsure 7.8
Table 3: Segmentation of Twitter page followers
For an in-depth analysis of the Brisbane Lions Twitter page, data was collected from
Tuesday, 27th August until Monday, 2nd September, both days inclusive. The activity over this 7
day period included a total of 28 posts directed towards informing fans about the latest updates
regarding the club and player between the action of the league games and the commencement of
the knockouts. The strategic objective of the tweets involves communicating and honouring the
performance and successes of the team in the league. They are also intended to highlight the
strengths and prospects of the club and the different players they are acquiring and retaining to
engage fans and maximise membership. The results of the analysis are as follows:
Post Type Count
Images 23
Videos 5
With External Links 14
Player Quotes 8
Table 4: Categorization of Tweets according to media
Table 4 data establishes that out of the 28 tweets in the week, 23 were image tweets and 5
were video tweets. 14 of them had links attached which mostly redirected to the official Brisbane
Lions website (Brisbane 2019) where fans can access more information on the subject. Heavy
fan engagement was observed in the 8 posts that included some quote or statement made by the
players of the team or the coach Dale Tapping showing the interest of fans regarding what

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players have to say about their performance and the game. This data also shows that the social
media strategy aims to attract fans mostly through quick picture posts, while special events,
promotionals and important instances from press meets are communicated using videos.
Tweet Content Frequency Fan Engagement
Player/Team Discussion 12 2674
News Updates 13 2058
Advertising 2 126
Community Support 1 158
Table 5: Categorisation of Tweets according to content
The data in Table 5 establishes that the most influential content in the page are Tweets
which discusses the players and updates on teams. Lachie Neale, the 26 year old national-team
midfielder, is the most popular man and one of the most talented and successful players in the
team. Having made it to the All Australia team four times previously, he has his own established
fan base, and the post on his inclusion in the Lion’s squad has garnered the highest fan
engagement (458) among all the posts in the observed week (Brisbane Lions Twitter, 2019)..
Fans have also engaged in the video post on the Australian Rover’s take on improving himself in
this season. News updates hold the next highest attention of fans. Updates like player contract
extensions and club players making it to the national team create extreme excitement among fans
and help to renew their faith in the team’s strengths and capabilities. The post on Eric Hipwood’s
renewal also collected over 400 responses from fans (Brisbane Lions Twitter, 2019).
Advertising, at this stage of the league mainly consists of ticket sales and one video post of
community service attracted the attention of some fans.

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Conclusion:
This content analysis takes an insight into the strategy adopted by the Brisbane Lions in
developing communication over social media which is mainly aimed to optimize and maximise
fan engagement. The fundamental purpose of the page is to gather more supporters and keep the
existing ones informed and engaged in the performance of the team and uplift the overall spirit of
the league and the game. It also serves the purpose of improving AFL’s business and strengthen
the bran value of the team and the league.

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References:
AFL Official, 2019. AFL - News, Fixtures, Scores & Results - AFL.com.au. [online] afl.com.au.
Available at: https://www.afl.com.au/ [Accessed 2 Sep. 2019].
AFL Queensland, 2019. AFL participation in QLD reaches record high - lions.com.au. [online]
lions.com.au. Available at: https://www.lions.com.au/news/2019-02-26/participation-in-qld-
reaches-record-high [Accessed 2 Sep. 2019].
Brisbane Lions Facebook, 2019. Brisbane Lions. [online] Facebook.com. Available at:
https://www.facebook.com/BrisbaneLions/ [Accessed 2 Sep. 2019].
Brisbane Lions Instagram, 2019. Brisbane Lions 🦁 (@brisbanelions) • Instagram photos and
videos. [online] Instagram.com. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/brisbanelions/
[Accessed 2 Sep. 2019].
Brisbane Lions Twitter, 2019. Brisbane Lions (@brisbanelions) on Twitter. [online]
Twitter.com. Available at: https://twitter.com/brisbanelions [Accessed 2 Sep. 2019].
Filo, K., Lock, D. & Karg, A., 2015. Sport and Social Media Research: A Review. Sport
Management Review, Volume 18, pp. 166-181. (Filo, et al., 2015, p. 167)
Lions, 2019. Official AFL Website of the Brisbane Lions Football Club - lions.com.au. [online]
lions.com.au. Available at: https://www.lions.com.au/ [Accessed 2 Sep. 2019].
McLachlan, G., 2019. AFL club membership numbers for 2019 revealed. [online] Sen.com.au.
Available at: https://www.sen.com.au/news/2019/08/06/afl-club-membership-numbers-for-2019-
revealed/ [Accessed 2 Sep. 2019].