Archive for category Richmond Tigers

Most popular AFL related Twitter accounts (November 18)

Posted by Laura on Thursday, 18 November, 2010

I wasn’t intending to run this again until tomorrow.  Things came up.  I’m going away for the weekend and I want to get everyone’s follower information to see if I can’t begin to map that again.  Also, it’s been a month since I last that information.  (It took about five days.  That was back when Shane Warne had only 198,000 followers.)  I like benchmarking that data to see if there are geographic shifts in where people follow are from.  (Has the location of where Team GWS followers come from?)  So yeah, I figured I would run the script this morning instead of a week from now.

This particular list only includes AFL related accounts. (And everyone on it appears on the list of most popular for all of Australia.)   I’m hoping all the labels are right.  If anything is incorrect, players switched team, I’m missing people… let me know and I’ll fix it.  And yeah, I’ve ranked this one so you can more easily see who is popular and who is not.

Rank Account League Team Description Followers Statuses Listed Friends
1 AFL AFL AFL official 16764 5346 571 1269
2 harry_o AFL Collingwood Magpies player 10909 2211 302 534
3 Collingwood_FC AFL Collingwood Magpies official 9742 2095 291 5537
4 jimstynes AFL Melbourne Demons player 9490 145 226 13
5 karmichaelhunt AFL Gold Coast Football Club Karmichael Hunt (player) 9102 5424 293 193
6 Essendon_Fc AFL Essendon Bombers official team (male) 7440 4162 234 7291
7 GaryAblettJnr AFL Geelong Cats player 7051 138 123 34
8 mickmalthouse AFL Collingwood Magpies Mick Malthouse 6875 88 188 27
9 Adelaide_FC AFL Adelaide Crows official 6711 3154 239 6638
10 DT_13 AFL Collingwood Magpies Dale Thomas 6652 286 142 19
11 JobeWatson AFL Essendon Bombers player 6395 140 190 4
12 swandane AFL Collingwood Magpies player (male) 6243 139 109 10
13 sydneyswans AFL Sydney Swans official 6227 2813 253 2451
14 SP_10 AFL Collingwood Magpies player 6057 348 126 66
15 lehmo23 AFL Hawthorn Hawks player 5598 1871 208 591
16 stkildafc AFL St. Kilda Saints official 5494 2892 211 5549
17 BrendanFevola05 AFL Brisbane Lions player 5339 294 146 28
18 AngusMonfries AFL Essendon Bombers player 5241 268 186 18
19 Carlton_FC AFL Carlton Blues official 5213 2509 238 4055
20 tjrharley AFL Geelong Cats former player (male) 5094 912 162 193
21 Richmond_FC AFL Richmond Tigers official 4334 1206 173 4725
22 heathshaw39 AFL Collingwood Magpies player (male) 4318 61 91 7
23 northkangaroos AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos official 4312 1993 163 4724
24 craighutchy AFL AFL journalist (male)(Nine Network) 4266 223 117 655
25 SharrodW_21 AFL Collingwood Magpies player 4211 77 113 25
26 Geelong_FC AFL Geelong Cats fansite 3749 3746 161 1941
27 HawthornFC AFL Hawthorn Hawks official 3748 1052 170 10
28 nathan2jones AFL Melbourne Demons player 3531 1493 147 311
29 SuperCoachAFL AFL AFL fansite 3389 219 169 2305
30 SpidaEveritt AFL AFL former player 3225 240 76 1409
31 DemonsHQ AFL Melbourne Demons official 2934 2051 158 543
32 GoldCoastFC AFL Gold Coast Football Club official 2818 949 150 608
33 marcmurphy3 AFL Carlton Blues player 2665 130 84 42
34 stevenbaker10 AFL St. Kilda Saints player 2630 773 71 125
35 Fremantle_FC AFL Fremantle Dockers official 2612 651 141 164
36 WCEofficial AFL West Coast Eagles 2555 1367 143 1079
37 CamSchwab AFL Melbourne Demons ceo 2553 2122 106 460
38 PAFC AFL Port Adelaide Power official 2550 1253 162 79
39 FitzySA AFL Sydney Swans player (male) 2440 48 50 23
40 AndrewMackieGFC AFL Geelong Cats player 2292 33 97 3
41 chooka_86 AFL Carlton Blues player 2114 1509 77 198
42 triplemfooty AFL AFL Triple M Footy 2089 2860 79 112
43 Rickypetterd15 AFL Melbourne Demons unofficial 2063 340 93 90
44 JeffWhite34 AFL Melbourne Demons former player (male) 2061 7329 108 329
45 Adam0017 AFL Western Bulldogs player 2035 231 60 89
46 westernbulldogs AFL Western Bulldogs official 2034 324 101 53
47 andrewswallow AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos unofficial 1991 386 85 16
48 Beamdogg AFL Melbourne Demons player 1907 147 65 112
49 BradMilzy AFL Melbourne Demons player 1869 151 60 81
50 howcroft AFL Melbourne Demons player 1773 280 71 79
51 anthonyalsop AFL AFL sport media specialist (male) 1700 12487 122 1437
52 Real_ColSylvia AFL Melbourne Demons player 1689 20 56 32
53 AFLStatsGuys AFL AFL 1678 934 100 101
54 bigdyman AFL Collingwood Magpies player 1663 588 88 23
55 Hawks_AFL AFL Hawthorn Hawks unofficial 1631 1085 30 1951
56 SteveAlessio AFL Essendon Bombers former Essendon AFL player 1574 762 80 222
57 warrentredrea AFL Port Adelaide Power player 1537 506 58 93
58 brett_kirk AFL Sydney Swans player (Brett Kirk) (male) 1498 10 27 3
59 kadesimpson6 AFL Carlton Blues player 1495 47 50 13
59 sgrigg88 AFL Carlton Blues player 1495 87 53 19
61 ALFbrisbane AFL Brisbane Lions fansite 1445 38 58 3
62 GWS_Giants AFL Greater Western Sydney official team (male) 1433 268 79 177
63 PeterDaicos AFL Collingwood Magpies unofficial 1419 59 77 678
64 CaleMorton AFL Melbourne Demons player 1234 229 47 63
65 zacd_6 AFL St. Kilda Saints player 1220 115 35 55
66 DrDreamTeam AFL AFL Dream Team (male) 1210 547 50 27
67 AFLphotos AFL AFL official 1200 784 56 96
68 AFL_Shifter AFL AFL talent scout Kevin Sheehan 1191 108 35 12
69 AFLInsider AFL AFL official 1165 54 58 84
70 IanPrendergast AFL AFL AFL Players’ Association General Manager (male) 1100 821 58 289
71 ThaBigRush AFL Melbourne Demons player (male) 1093 35 43 32
72 samjacobs32 AFL Carlton Blues player 1081 53 36 23
73 AFL_JenWitham AFL AFL 1062 884 56 286
74 cornes18 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 1047 183 36 60
75 Rivshouse AFL Melbourne Demons player 1039 10 49 8
76 collingwoodnews AFL Collingwood Magpies unofficial 1004 6 34 1
77 bater06 AFL Melbourne Demons Matthew Bate 986 110 40 63
78 njbrown17 AFL St. Kilda Saints player 982 43 54 19
79 troychaplin30 AFL Port Adelaide Power player 960 316 39 85
80 JasonJohnson14 AFL Essendon Bombers former Essendon AFL player 928 90 36 31
81 championdata AFL AFL Official Statisticians of the AFL. 899 2226 49 2
82 ssalopek3 AFL Port Adelaide Power player 858 200 36 51
83 ChadCornes AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 819 72 31 29
84 AFLBrisbaneFC AFL Brisbane Lions fansite 798 1212 34 25
85 Robeddy40 AFL St. Kilda Saints player 785 74 29 52
86 APWelsh AFL Essendon Bombers player 765 59 27 56
87 JaredCrouch AFL Sydney Swans former player 734 693 43 129
88 MattBurgan AFL Melbourne Demons melbournefc.com.au editor 727 1143 32 86
89 JackRiewoldt08 AFL Richmond Tigers player (male) 707 11 22 13
90 tboak10 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 704 38 29 21
91 RustyRussell02 AFL Carlton Blues player (male) 683 19 19 9
92 RTTF_AU AFL Sydney Swans fansite 681 1297 38 952
93 Swatta02 AFL Sydney Swans player (male) 661 542 23 245
94 newto29 AFL Melbourne Demons player 653 193 31 94
95 Freo_Dockers AFL Fremantle Dockers fansite 645 2293 43 380
96 wingsofperth AFL West Coast Eagles unofficial 612 849 9 8
97 hughesy_53 AFL Melbourne Demons player 610 83 24 43
98 PencilsCase AFL Melbourne Demons Jake Spencer 588 36 38 40
99 GraceOf41 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 587 184 16 30
100 chipa__8 AFL Melbourne Demons player (male) 575 31 16 44
101 KurtTippett4 AFL Adelaide Crows player (male) 567 136 11 32
102 MitchMorton AFL Richmond Tigers player (male) 553 50 19 30
103 Sam_Blease AFL Melbourne Demons player 547 69 15 69
104 Maverick_weller AFL Gold Coast Football Club player 546 603 31 77
105 DTTALK AFL AFL Dream Team (male) 520 1574 34 124
106 rgray17 AFL Port Adelaide Power player 517 52 21 42
107 TheBigTicket4 AFL Adelaide Crows player (male) 510 34 22 14
108 Carltonfc AFL Carlton Blues fansite 507 602 19 58
109 TalkingCarlton AFL Carlton Blues fansite 491 2243 33 36
110 FremantleFC AFL Fremantle Dockers unofficial 485 2 13 0
111 BrendanWhiteX AFL Hawthorn Hawks player (male) 482 72 10 30
112 surj9 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 461 63 21 37
113 MitchJbrown17 AFL West Coast Eagles unofficial 460 13 42 6
114 essendonfc AFL Essendon Bombers unofficial 456 2 10 0
115 Harts08 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 455 39 20 43
116 AFL_AdamMcNicol AFL AFL Adam McNicol (male) 449 31 14 149
117 AFL_JasonPhelan AFL AFL AFL employee 445 373 17 99
118 PAFCNews AFL Port Adelaide Power fansite (male) 430 1427 17 151
118 ryanmcrowley AFL Fremantle Dockers player 430 31 26 17
120 Israel_Folau AFL Gold Coast Football Club player 423 204 14 10
121 Tomlogan44 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 402 83 18 28
122 _the_kennel_ AFL Western Bulldogs fansite 382 2775 21 37
123 AFL_LHolmesby AFL AFL 379 514 23 125
123 Blueseum AFL Carlton Blues fansite 379 186 18 1466
125 paulstewy14 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 376 289 19 21
126 bmsew AFL Hawthorn Hawks unofficial 367 0 24 66
127 ChrisLKnights AFL Adelaide Crows player (male) 352 29 14 11
128 bNason47 AFL Richmond Tigers player (male) 351 0 19 4
129 MelbourneFC AFL Melbourne Demons fansite 330 1 9 0
130 Cousins9 AFL West Coast Eagles former player (male) 323 148 3 112
131 mitchF15 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 318 47 14 23
132 WestCoastEagles AFL West Coast Eagles unofficial 315 2 2 0
133 okeeferyan AFL Sydney Swans player (male) 311 34 14 6
134 ccaallward AFL Western Bulldogs player 310 1 33 0
135 bigfootynews AFL AFL fansite 309 139 15 141
136 demonland AFL Melbourne Demons fansite 306 566 12 209
137 go_saints AFL St. Kilda Saints fansite 304 68 13 274
138 Dockerland AFL Fremantle Dockers fansite 295 387 13 0
138 WarnieDT AFL AFL Dream Team (male) 295 1151 10 396
140 Brogsy5 AFL Port Adelaide Power player 294 29 17 49
140 Demonblog AFL Melbourne Demons fansite 294 3453 13 53
142 Brodie_Martin41 AFL Adelaide Crows player (male) 285 195 11 52
143 Lobbe23 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 272 32 16 37
144 Andrew_Crowell AFL Adelaide Crows AFL Ladder Project Officer (Adelaide Crows Emcee) (SANFL Radio Commentator) 271 513 18 258
145 JoeyDaye AFL Gold Coast Football Club player 262 300 26 124
146 AFL_BenBroad AFL AFL AFL employee 256 132 17 97
147 BionicSwan AFL Sydney Swans unofficial 242 415 27 20
148 NABCup AFL AFL fansite 225 2384 23 217
148 SydAFLFan AFL Sydney Swans fan account 225 695 8 646
150 groundwork21 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 213 1 13 1
151 briansham AFL Fremantle Dockers unofficial 212 38 18 12
151 dstewy43 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 212 58 13 32
153 GrandstandAFL AFL AFL ABC 211 31 14 10
154 jpittard29 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 206 28 12 17
155 matesOmelbourne AFL Melbourne Demons unofficial 201 25 14 22
156 6prfootball AFL AFL radio station 200 964 15 16
157 CF_Demons AFL Melbourne Demons fansite 197 344 10 106
158 AFLgf2 AFL AFL fansite 196 150 4 849
158 Saints_FC AFL St. Kilda Saints fansite 196 86 14 8
160 Marcus__White AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos player 180 33 21 27
161 wceaglesfc AFL West Coast Eagles fansite 173 110 5 55
162 MayorDT AFL AFL Dream Team (male) 172 688 12 70
163 matt_jaensch AFL Adelaide Crows player (male) 168 79 8 15
164 swansreserves AFL Canberra Sydney Swans Reserves 167 1732 8 176
165 AFL_Aus AFL AFL fansite 148 157 10 0
165 ftscrazy AFL Western Bulldogs fansite 148 329 12 29
167 adelaidefc AFL Adelaide Crows fansite 146 186 5 0
168 RWBFooty AFL St. Kilda Saints unofficial 141 539 8 79
169 StangerDT AFL AFL Dream Team (male) 137 296 9 49
170 CFC_Multimedia AFL Carlton Blues 133 50 9 112
171 melbfcblog AFL Melbourne Demons fansite 132 156 5 84
172 RoyDT AFL AFL Dream Team (male) 125 26 5 17
173 CalvinDT AFL AFL Dream Team (male) 124 41 6 7
174 ChopperDT AFL AFL Dream Team (male) 123 5 5 21
174 yellow_n_black AFL Richmond Tigers unofficial 123 1130 12 12
176 Nicksy2323 AFL Sydney Swans player (male) 119 14 6 9
177 BF_Lions AFL Brisbane Lions fansite 117 416 5 46
178 thecattery AFL Geelong Cats unofficial 112 478 8 28
179 Bradenstokes AFL AFL Player Relations Coordinator with the AFLPA 111 157 6 158
180 ACT4GWS AFL Greater Western Sydney 96 222 3 58
181 hawkaDT AFL Hawthorn Hawks fansite 94 12 4 474
181 jarrad34 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 94 2 7 34
183 demonwiki AFL Melbourne Demons fansite 92 195 3 76
184 lewis_moss AFL Gold Coast Football Club player (male) 89 54 5 32
184 natskii AFL Brisbane Lions player (male) 89 667 4 173
186 AFL_MarkConway AFL AFL AFL employee 76 330 11 100
186 AFL_MikeRogers AFL AFL AFL employee 76 28 11 24
188 CatmanForever AFL Geelong Cats fansite 71 700 7 6
188 nthmelbourne AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos fansite 71 54 2 92
190 Chippa39 AFLNT AFLNT official 67 972 0 122
191 AFL_MicCullen AFL AFL AFL employee 57 234 8 1
191 VictoriaParkHC AFL Collingwood Magpies grounds 57 98 2 23
193 fake_EssendonFC AFL Essendon Bombers fansite 49 66 4 79
194 NicksBB AFL Collingwood Magpies fansite 46 6 2 64
195 MOORE_26 AFL Port Adelaide Power player (male) 45 7 4 30
196 bc8977 AFL Fremantle Dockers unofficial 42 8 9 10
197 AFL_ChrisPike AFL AFL 41 283 8 0
198 bomberblitz AFL Essendon Bombers player 40 117 1 20
199 AFL_MuzzBelkin AFL AFL AFL employee 35 137 7 0
200 AFL_CamNoakes AFL AFL 29 122 7 1
201 AFL_BenOliver AFL AFL AFL employee 28 534 7 1
201 AFL_Nschmook AFL AFL AFL employee 28 238 6 0
201 AFL_ScottBevo AFL AFL 28 126 8 2
204 AFL_Jbartold AFL AFL AFL employee 26 81 8 0
204 AFL_PaulJohnson AFL AFL AFL employee 26 118 6 4
206 AFL_Undercover AFL AFL fansite 23 27 1 116
207 SwansPerthCrew AFL Sydney Swans fan group 22 182 3 131
208 AFL_KatrinaGill AFL AFL AFL employee 21 0 5 0
208 AFL_SteveRice AFL AFL AFL employee 21 53 7 12
209 bobalski AFL Canberra Sydney Swans Reserves 19 115 3 14
210 jreynojreyno AFL Essendon Bombers player 16 11 1 25
211 AFL_StuWarren AFL AFL AFL employee 12 20 4 0
212 AFL_JOConnell AFL AFL AFL employee 10 53 5 0

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Richmond Tigers followers on Twitter

Posted by Laura on Thursday, 26 August, 2010

This is part of that series I’m doing on Twitter follower stats as a tool that a friend is developing gets refined. While we captured everything for the Storm, this only capture 1,099. We’re again missing quite a few and I’m not entirely certain what is up. (An earlier iteration with more fields picked up more. It just had other issues. I’m using the more recent iteration .) Richmond can be found at Richmond_FC on Twitter. They have 2,894 followers. That’s about 2/3rds the amount that St. Kilda has. (The big difference between the two is that St. Kilda appears to have an active follow pattern that Richmond does not have.)

Basic math out of the way, the following are the numbers for Richmond followers based on that sample of 1,099 followers:

Math ReTweets Followers Status Count Friends Listed
Mean 0.005 661.65 612.80 493.610 17.67
Median 0 20 24 77.5 0
Mode 0 0 0 1 0

These numbers are a lot higher than the Melbourne Storm, though not as high as St. Kilda. They average 479 more followers, 161 more friends and on average are included on 10 more lists. The big difference is that Richmond Tiger fans appear to update a lot less than Storm followers with an average of 170 less status dates and a median of 25 less status updates.

The Richmond Tigers only really have two power users with more than 10,000 plus followers. They are: michaelyardney and HootSuite. Both are also the only two people who follow more than 10,000+ people on Twitter. (Remember: This sample is less than half the complete set. There may be more.) On the other side, there are 53 people who follow only the Tigers or the Tigers and one other account.

670 people appear on zero lists. 116 people appear on one list. At the high end, ignoring HootSuite, fourteen accounts are listed on 100+ lists and four accounts that follow Richmond are listed on 200+ lists. The 100+ list accounts are: heraldsunscoop, NovaFM, PAFC, Geelong_FC, outfandishfans, superfooty, stkildafc, ryanknapp, SportsGeekHQ, haydencooper, michaelyardney, Adelaide_FC, Collingwood_FC, sammutimer . A lot of these are AFL related. (AFL clubs and media follow each other.)

156 people have never updated their Twitter account. That represents 14% of all Richmond followers. 443 people have updated 10 or less times. That represents 40% of all Richmond followers. That is a huge number of people who are just not updating frequently. It may suggest that people joined Twitter, followed their favorite team and then never bother to check again. (Or again, it may not. Some people may check Twitter with out updating. I know a few cases.) 8 of Richmond’s followers have updated their status 10,000+ times. These really active followers are: THETUBEtv, FtLauderDaniel, D3wizl, _Jessica_Maree, asmtegan, dottedwithearts, aflfeeds, dzufauzan. (In that select group of 10,000+ super updaters, they average 624 followers and 745 people they follow.)

Beyond these basic numbers, 720 people have visible time zones. Over half of these followers are in Melbourne time:

Time Zone Count Percent
Melbourne 372 51.74%
Hawaii 83 11.54%
Sydney 61 8.48%
Adelaide 41 5.70%
Brisbane 36 5.01%
Perth 29 4.03%
Eastern Time (US & Canada) 20 2.78%
London 13 1.81%
Hobart 9 1.25%
Pacific Time (US & Canada) 9 1.25%
Central Time (US & Canada) 8 1.11%
Alaska 7 0.97%
Canberra 7 0.97%
Darwin 3 0.42%
Mountain Time (US & Canada) 3 0.42%
Quito 3 0.42%
Tokyo 2 0.28%
Amsterdam 1 0.14%
Athens 1 0.14%
Berlin 1 0.14%
Bucharest 1 0.14%
Buenos Aires 1 0.14%
Greenland 1 0.14%
Hong Kong 1 0.14%
Jakarta 1 0.14%
Magadan 1 0.14%
Monterrey 1 0.14%
Osaka 1 0.14%
Singapore 1 0.14%
Tehran 1 0.14%

I still need an explanation as to why there are so many people in Hawaii who follow Australian sport teams…  (Turns out a lot of Melbourne people are listing their timezone as Hawaiian…) Sydney appears third, Adelaide 4th, Brisbane 5th, and Perth 6th. This seems to match a bit with my understanding of the popularity of the AFL around Australia.

As for languages, 1 for DE, 2 for ES, 1 for FR (who lists his timezone as Greenland) and 1 for JA. This reflects a little less diversity than the Storm and the Saints. It may possibly suggest that the Tigers are less prone to getting spam followers than the other teams if one assumes that non-English language codes imply spam followers.

Either way, the Tigers seem much closer to the Storm than the Saints in terms of follower patterns. The big issue for me as some one looking at it for the good of the team is that they appear to have a really high inactive base that may suggest people aren’t continuing to read their message.

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What #afl related hashtags get the most RT @ ReTweets?

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 15 August, 2010

While on vacation, a friend of mine recommended I read Want to be Retweeted? Add Hashtags to Your Tweets! The article is rather interesting and looks at the #hashtags that led to the most ReTweets.

I have a collection of AFL related tweets that I update semi-regularly. More often than not, I use these for geographic related analysis. My AFL tweet collection has a series of issues though that make me hesitant to always draw definitive conclusions from it. These issues include:

  • Incomplete tweet set for keywords: I only get what is available from Searchtastic.
  • Incomplete tweet set based on keyword limitations: Even supposing I could get all the tweets related to a keyword, I can’t find every reference to the AFL as there are too many possible words that could reference the AFL and its clubs.
  • Incomplete tweet set because of time: Some keywords were searched for earlier and some later. Not all keywords were looked at over the same period.
  • Irrelevant tweets: Keywords like #gosaints may refer to the St. Kilda Saints or the New Orleans Saints. AFL may refer to the AFL-CIO, a union in the United States. Unless every tweet is examined, irrelevant tweets will remain in the data set.

These are major obstacles to doing any sort of content analysis for Twitter when specific subgroups are looked at. Many of these issues are ones that other researchers are likely to have too: You can’t get the complete data set, will include garbage data and may not be entirely timely.

That said, despite these limitations, I still wanted to know what are the most popular #hashtags for AFL related tweets and what type of hashtags are likely to be ReTweeted.

To get my dataset of Tweets, first I went to Searchtastic, ran a series of searches over the course of 6 weeks, and exported those results to Excel. I noted the keyword I searched for and the team that keyword is related to. The keyword searches that were run on Searchtastic during this period included: #afl, #aflbluestigers, #aflcatslions, #afldemonsswans, #afldogscats, #afldogsfreo, #afldogspower, #afleaglesblues, #aflfooty, #aflhawksdemons, #aflkangasbombers, #aflkangasfreo, #AFLPAQUIZ, #aflpiestigers, #aflpowercrows, #aflpowereagles, #aflsaintshawks, #aflswanshawks , #brisbanelions, #dreamteam, #footy, #fremantle, #freo, #freo AFL, #goblues, #gobombers, #Gocats, #gocrows, #gopies, #gosaints, #goswans, #NMFC, #northmelbourne, #sackermanis, #supercoach, #sydneyswans, #teamgws, #thekennel, #wafl, #westcoast afl, ackermanis sacked, ACT4GWS, Adelaide Crows, Adelaide_FC, afl Bombers, AFL GWS, AFL Magpies, afl pies, AFL Tony Lockett, Aker Bulldogs, Akermanis, akermanis dogs, akermanis gillard, Australian rules, blues afl, Brad Johnson, Brad Johnson AFL, Brady Rawlings, brisbane afl, Brisbane Lions, Brownlow Medal, Cameron Mooney cats, Carlton Blues, Chris Judd Carlton, Collingwood, collingwood AFL, Collingwood Magpies, crows afl, Damien Hardwick, DemonsHQ, Dockers AFL, eagles afl, eagles perth, Eric Mackenzie , Essendon afl, Essendon Bombers, etihad kilda, folau afl, folau israel, Fremantle Dockers, fremantle ruckman, GCFC, geelong cats, Gold Coast Suns, harry_o, Hawthorn Hawks, HawthornFC, Jason Akermanis, Jeff Kennett, Judd Blues, kilda, kilda AFL, kilda riewoldt, lions afl, Mark Harvey, mcg kilda, Melbourne Demons, milburn cats, Nathan van Berlo Crows, North Melbourne Kangaroos, PAFC, Peter Szental, Port Adelaide Power, portadelaidefc, Richmond Football, Richmond Tigers, Rodney Eade dogs, roos afl, sackermanis, spoon eagles, spoon lions, spoon tigers, spoon wce, swans afl, swans footy, swans ruckman, Sydney Swans, tigers afl, Travis Johnstone, Trent Cotchin, WCE AFL, West Coast Eagles, and Western Bulldogs. These keywords represent all teams and often include multiple keywords for them.

The next step was to remove all duplicate tweets. As some tweets contain multiple keywords and some searches were run more than once over that 6-week time period, that possibility existed. To do this, three columns were copy and pasted to a new worksheet: Username, Tweet and In Reply To. On Excel, I did this using Filter -> Advanced Filter -> Unique records only. This process took the total tweets from 8,523 to 5,427.

The third step was to identify all the hash tags used in this data set. To do this, I copy and pasted all the tweets to Notepad. I ran a find and replace for [space]# and replaced with [tab]#. I copy and pasted these back, removed all cells that did not start with a #. After this was done, the data set was copy and pasted back to Notepad. Another find and replace was done, this time, [space] was replaced with [tab]. This was pasted back to excel and all cells that did not start with # were deleted. The completed list was 2,833 total hashtags used. Of these, 556 were unique. The following table counts their total usage:

Hashtag Total times used
#afl 724
#gosaints 110
#gocats 84
#DreamTeam 79
#aflswanshawks 53
#aflpiestigers 51
#aflpowereagles 51
#afldogscats 47
#aflfooty 46
#aflsaintshawks 45
#footy 44
#aflhawksdemons 43
#aflbluestigers 41
#aflcatslions 41
#afleaglesblues 41
#AFLPAQUIZ 39
#aflkangasfreo 38
#brisbanelions 38
#aflkangasbombers 36
#GoSwans 35
#Goblues 34
#ausvotes 33
#gopies 31
#ff 28
#afldogsfreo 25
#Essendon 21
#GoBombers 20
#afldemonsswans 18
#Fremantle 17
#SuperCoach 17
#afllionscrows 16
#adelaide 15
#aflpowercrows 14
#news 13
#thekennel 12
#football 10
#Sackermanis 9
#11BOYS 8
#afllionssaints 8
#AUG21STCLUBVENUS 8
#Blues 8
#collingwood 8
#GUAPGANG 8
#Hawks 8
#HNG 8
#Lions 8
#Australia 7
#Dockers 7
#fb 7
#freo 7
#sports 7
#wce 7
#aker 6
#jobs 6
#lost 6
#NMFC 6
#ABC 5
#aflbluesdogs 5
#Chelsea 5
#Eng 5
#NorthMelbourne 5
#pafc 5
#wafl 5
#aflbombersblues 4
#aflfreoswans 4
#akermanis 4
#blog 4
#bombers 4
#Bulldogs 4
#DOPEVIDEOALERT!! 4
#fail 4
#GOPIES! 4
#gopies!! 4
#GOSAINTS! 4
#gws 4
#pies 4
#sport 4
#worldcup 4
#aflcatshawks 3
#aflcrowscats 3
#afleagleslions 3
#argyleman 3
#beer 3
#bj008 3
#Crows 3
#dogs 3
#dss10 3
#footyshow 3
#Freelance 3
#Gillard 3
#goldcoast 3
#Light 3
#Melbourne 3
#plymouth 3
#sagreat 3
#sydneyswans 3
#tcot 3
#travel 3
#wa 3
#WORDPRESS 3
#17Julay 2
#afl: 2
#AFLCIO 2
#aka 2
#akermanis, 2
#alp 2
#Apple 2
#AstonVilla 2
#BERBATOV 2
#brisbane 2
#Carlton 2
#CarltonFC 2
#CATS 2
#CFL 2
#Chargers 2
#Chile 2
#Cousins 2
#DREAMTEAM!!! 2
#DT 2
#Eagles 2
#economist 2
#FERGUSON 2
#FollowFriday 2
#footyfriday 2
#gno 2
#GOBLUES! 2
#goCats! 2
#GOCROWS 2
#gosaints. 2
#Hamburg 2
#Health 2
#Idontthinkso 2
#Illegal 2
#job 2
#kentucky 2
#lastfm 2
#lp’s 2
#magpies 2
#mofo 2
#Monday 2
#monkbeer 2
#NBA 2
#New 2
#Obesity 2
#online 2
#P2 2
#ROONEY 2
#Soccer 2
#Sportal 2
#suns 2
#Sydney 2
#TeamFollowBack 2
#Þ¹ Óù²_ 2
#thefootyshow 2
#throughandthrough 2
#Tigers 2
#TT 2
#WhoDat 2
# 1
#011 1
#1 1
#1, 1
#15 1
#17 1
#2. 1
#2010 1
#3 1
#3DAL 1
#6 1
#6insolidaity 1
#7 1
#ABCnews24 1
#adelaide, 1
#adversity 1
#af… 1
#AFL! 1
#AFL, 1
#afl. 1
#Aflac 1
#aflbulldogscats 1
#aflcatspies 1
#aflcionow 1
#afldemonsbombers 1
#afldemonsswans. 1
#afldogscats101 1
#afldogskangas 1
#afldogspower 1
#afleaglesfreo 1
#AFLfootyshow 1
#aflhawksdogs 1
#aflordapele 1
#AFLPA 1
#AFLPAQUIZ. 1
#aflpiestigers. 1
#aflsaintshawks. 1
#afrodigital 1
#akergate. 1
#Akermanis. 1
#akermankiss 1
#Albania 1
#A-League 1
#alfsaintshawks 1
#AlfStewart 1
#allday 1
#AllieGentry 1
#annoyingquestion 1
#Argyle 1
#ArizonaFallLeague 1
#Art 1
#Astros 1
#AUG28THHIGHLANDPARK 1
#aussiemigration 1
#Autocar 1
#avidfan 1
#BagelTuesday 1
#bankshowdown 1
#Barcelona 1
#Basketball 1
#batman 1
#BBB 1
#BBB, 1
#bcfc 1
#BEATthebotssss 1
#beenthere 1
#Belgium 1
#BELIEVE 1
#BENNY 1
#betchaknowem 1
#beu 1
#BigFooty 1
#blessings 1
#bmb 1
#boomers 1
#Bordeaux 1
#boulen10? 1
#breakuplines 1
#Bremen 1
#Briggswentdownlike 1
#BrisbaneLions! 1
#BrisbaneLions. 1
#broncos 1
#brugerdisken 1
#Brumbies 1
#caa 1
#cannes 1
#Canterbury-Bankstown 1
#carnbombers 1
#Celtic 1
#CERN 1
#CERTIFIED 1
#championship 1
#Cheetahs 1
#chi 1
#cliffhanghaunters 1
#Climate 1
#CNNHeroes. 1
#cocaine 1
#Coffee 1
#Collingwood. 1
#Collingwood: 1
#collingwoodfc 1
#Colombia 1
#Conservation 1
#conservative. 1
#cop15 1
#Corvette 1
#cowboys 1
#coworking 1
#crazyideas 1
#cubs 1
#deals 1
#deetrain!) 1
#defense 1
#Demetriou 1
#dicaduca 1
#diet 1
#doublestandard 1
#draft 1
#draw365 1
#DREAMTEAM- 1
#DREAMTEAM! 1
#DREAMTEAM!!!!! 1
#DREAMTEAM!!!!!!! 1
#DREAMTEAM!!!!!!!!! 1
#DREAMTEAM!GET 1
#dreamteam(u 1
#DreamTeam, 1
#dreamteam..like 1
#dreamteam2010 1
#dreamteam2010(Ur 1
#drmtm 1
#druggies 1
#Duck 1
#duh 1
#duisburg 1
#dumb 1
#Eagles. 1
#ecommerce 1
#ecommretail 1
#EdeActueel 1
#efficiënt 1
#elmundial 1
#elvisfest 1
#ems 1
#emt 1
#England 1
#epic 1
#EquipedelaRêve 1
#ESPN3: 1
#everyday 1
#everyoneshappy 1
#excitedtweet 1
#faic 1
#fanniemae 1
#fascinating 1
#fat 1
#FCTwente 1
#FcukFranklin 1
#fd10p2m 1
#Fev 1
#FFGLBS 1
#FIFA 1
#fireupdons 1
#fitness 1
#flag 1
#flagship 1
#flash 1
#Flight 1
#flotilla 1
#FLYSTLYE 1
#FollowNow 1
#footyclassified 1
#footyOne 1
#footyshow. 1
#footyteammovies 1
#forçafluminense 1
#FoxFooty 1
#Foxtel 1
#free 1
#Freelancer 1
#freeweezy 1
#freo. 1
#freshen 1
#FridayFwit. 1
#fromtheouter 1
#Fuckem
%- %(
1
#fuckyeah 1
#Gabon 1
#gallery: 1
#game 1
#Gaza 1
#GCFC 1
#Geelong 1
#GeelongCats 1
#GER, 1
#GERONIMO 1
#GGMU 1
#GOAT 1
#GoBears 1
#goBears! 1
#GOBLUES. 1
#GOCHELSEA 1
#GOGIANTS 1
#gopies!!! 1
#GoSaints!! 1
#gosaintsFC 1
#gostkilda 1
#GoSwans! 1
#GoSwans!!! 1
#gothepies 1
#green, 1
#GroenWerkt 1
#GUCCI 1
#guitar 1
#Haiku 1
#haiti: 1
#HamOnt 1
#handig 1
#Hanley. 1
#HardMan 1
#harry-o 1
#hawks#Hawthorn#AFL 1
#Hawthorn 1
#hcr, 1
#healthybusiness, 1
#healthyliving 1
#hiring 1
#History 1
#hnw 1
#Hockey 1
#HOLIDAY 1
#hollin 1
#homepark 1
#hotels 1
#HTC 1
#humor 1
#iConfess 1
#i’dliketoseethat! 1
#ihatecollingwood 1
#ihatequotes 1
#ihaveadream 1
#IloveagoodConspiracryTheory 1
#imabitscared 1
#immaturelittleboy 1
#in 1
#inception, 1
#IndianapolisColts 1
#Insiders: 1

The next step was to count the total @ replies and hashtag uses. To do this, all the unique tweets were copied to a new worksheet. A filter was created to list all tweets that did not include an @ sign. These tweets were deleted. This brought the total tweets from 5,427 to 1,844. The next step was to create a filter to show all tweets that did not include a #. These tweets were then deleted. This brought the total Tweets down to 832. The next step was to look remove tweets that did not contain “RT @”, “RT:@”, “retweeting @”, “retweet @”, “via @”, “thx @”, “HT @”, or “r @”. This leaves 458 tweets that are retweets that contain hash tags.

The same process was conducted to count the hash tags that was used for all hash tags and RT @. The following list was created of people who were the most ReTweeted (or mentioned in the ReTweeted tweet) where the tweets contained #hashtags and the #hashtag totals for ReTweets. These were then totaled and counted, resulting in the following table:

Hashtag Count ReTweeted Count
#GOSAINTS 37 @afl 44
#DreamTeam 36 @Carlton_FC 24
#GoCats 26 @stkildafc 23
#AFL 25 @hawthornfc 16
#afleaglesblues 21 @Essendon_FC 15
#pafc 20 @Geelong_FC 12
#aflkangasbombers 19 @sydneyswans 12
#aflpiestigers 18 @iamdiddy 10
#aflsaintshawks 18 @Richmond_FC 9
#aflswanshawks 17 @AFLPA 8
#ausvotes 12 @Adelaide_FC 7
#aflpowereagles 10 @JuliaGillard 7
#AflKANGASfreo 9 @northkangaroos 7
#brisbanelions 9 @_the_kennel_ 6
#NMFC 8 @bigmacvikings 6
#sackermanis 8 @Collingwood_FC 6
#thekennel 8 @dizzyyet 6
#Adelaide 7 @redcafesd 6
#aflcatslions 7 @seanpaull 6
#afllionssaints 7 @aflcio 5
#aflhawksdemons 6 @Gottrocks 5
#AFLPAQUIZ 6 @myfabolouslife 5
#aflpowercrows 6 @PAFC 5
#11BOYS 5 @triplemfooty 5
#GoBombers 5 @AFLStatsGuys 4
#GoPies 5 @AveStarLJ 4
#P2 5 @Bickys 4
#tcot 5 @Bigdroppunt 4
#travel 5 @Blonde_Cheeks 4
#afldemonsswans 4 @CatsInsider 4
#fremantle 4 @crowdiegal 4
#gopies!! 4 @DemonsHQ 4
#goswans 4 @DjPaniic 4
#lions 4 @Fremantle_FC 4
#soccer 4 @jletti 4
#tags: 4 @JOEYCRACKTS 4
#throughandthrough 4 @SENNews 4
#afldogsfreo 3 @tabloidterror 4
#aker 3 @tedwards2 4
#akermanis 3 @THEjennykim 4
#AUG21STCLUBVENUS 3 @themonkbeer 4
#beer 3 @tjrharley 4
#ecfc 3 @aburt 3
#ENG 3 @charlenemay 3
#FF 3 @drwarwick 3
#GUAPGANG 3 @Footyfree 3
#HNG 3 @fromtheouter 3
#monkbeer 3 @garethdn 3
#sewelliscool 3 @mydogateart 3
#SydneySwans 3 @NikkiRoks 3
#WhoDat 3 @pluke17 3
#worldcup 3 @rachii_10 3
#aflbluestigers 2 @rickyrozay 3
#afleagleslions 2 @RTTF_AU 3
#aflfooty 2 @StadiumMustard 3
#aka 2 @TLW3 3
#argyleman 2 @trmash 3
#bj008 2 @afletch5 2
#bulldogs 2 @AFLNewsWire 2
#dogs 2 @AlexBrink10 2
#DOPEVIDEOALERT!! 2 @alexhart7 2
#dreamteam2010 2 @andrewbolt 2
#footy 2 @angiemartinez 2
#footyfriday 2 @annielin 2
#footyshow 2 @BradJohnson6 2
#Fuckem
%- %(
2 @BrigandLehmo 2
#Gillard 2 @brotheramos 2
#GoBears 2 @CalAthletics 2
#Goblues 2 @catsman09 2
#Illegal 2 @ChristophHewett 2
#lp 2 @DaRealRoot 2
#nowplaying 2 @Diamonds_Pearlz 2
#plymouth 2 @DreamTeamatl_TK 2
#putthatinyourpipeandsmokeit 2 @DT_13 2
#ROCGiRLs 2 @EdMorrissey 2
#sagreat 2 @emmat18 2
#supercoach 2 @EssendonBomber 2
#thefootyshow 2 @FakeWoosha 2
#TwoDat 2 @globoesportecom 2
#wce 2 @HaroldKuepers. 2
#1, 1 @hawthornfc15 2
#accommodation 1 @iAmRozayyy 2
#aflak 1 @j_carroll7 2
#aflcrowscats 1 @JAE_MILLZ 2
#afldogscats 1 @jasminewright96 2
#aflfreoswans 1 @jazzpafc 2
#AFLPA 1 @jeeziiroqk 2
#alp 1 @jimmywa11 2
#Argyle 1 @jmf27614 2
#Art 1 @jonboy79 2
#bankshowdown 1 @jonpierk 2
#BELIEVE 1 @jrwilliams22 2
#BENNY 1 @JsMiLeZ10 2
#BERBATOV 1 @kaatieee27 2
#BigFooty 1 @keithpitty 2
#BLOG 1 @Ladder_) 2
#boomers 1 @LEGITBOSS 2
#Briggswentdownlike 1 @letoyaluckett 2
#Celtic 1 @Lizziemcbizzie 2
#CERTIFIED 1 @M3lizza 2
#CFL 1 @milo317 2
#Chile 1 @MMMGUNNA 2
#Collingwood. 1 @MRS_MERCHANT 2
#CRS 1 @mstiffington 2
#cubs 1 @NeL_DTF 2
#deetrain! 1 @nick_wade 2
#draw365 1 @NICKIMINAJ 2
#DT 1 @NiKKi_E13 2
#Essendon 1 @noisyinstrument 2
#FERGUSON 1 @plymouthcc 2
#Flecoat 1 @ranyunfei 2
#Flight 1 @reggie_bush 2
#FLYSTLYE 1 @ruanji 2
#FollowNow 1 @SarahStanley 2
#Football 1 @SharinaBurns 2
#GERONIMO 1 @shelleyjames 2
#GGMU 1 @ShunnyBun 2
#glennbeck 1 @StadiumHero 2
#GOGIANTS 1 @SuadeMusic 2
#gop 1 @TalentedInk 2
#GoPies! 1 @TalkingCarlton 2
#GoSaints!!!! 1 @tech45cast 2
#gosaintsFC 1 @tgrant20 2
#gostkilda 1 @the_tony 2
#green, 1 @TheCONDO 2
#GUCCI 1 @therealsmoir 2
#haiti: 1 @TheRealYungBerg 2
#Hawks 1 @TheVoyuer 2
#healthybusiness 1 @thisgirlrox 2
#healthyliving 1 @thisischile 2
#hiring 1 @thisisScoMan 2
#HOLIDAY 1 @timvl 2
#HTC 1 @tip66 2
#ihaveadream 1 @tkpleslie 2
#in 1 @TrendsMelbourne 2
#Inter 1 @UnitedWayTC 2

Based on this sample, (because the whole of the population of AFL tweets is not available and cannot the total cannot be counted to determine the representative value of the sample) the most RTed #hashtag in a Tweet related to the AFL is #gosaints. #dreamteam comes in second. #gocats comes in third. #afl comes in fourth.

The #gosaints tag is popular and the team’s official account has encouraged its use. More recently, New Orleans Saints fans have used it as the NFL pre-season has started. #dreamteam is one of the two most popular AFL fantasy leagues and those fantasy leagues are big into fostering community. Beyond these top four, the most popular tags tend to involve specific match ups. If all tags related to match ups had been included around the time that the games took place, it is highly possible more would be on that list.

In terms of who gets RTed and mentioned in ReTweets, official accounts dominate: The AFL, Carlton, St. Kilda, Hawthorn, the Bombers, Geelong and the Swans. The first non-team account to appear is P. Diddy and he is followed by a number of influential Australian social media people. The next person / non-official AFL account to appear is Julia Gillard. AFL players do not appear to be ReTweeted en masse when compared to their club sides. This isn’t to say that people don’t actively read and follow them. If looking at ReTweets without #hashtags, @harry_o would appear on top with 50 mentions. It is probable that clubs are using #hashtags and players are not; there could be a digital cultural awareness divide between the two.

A copy of the data and some of my step by step process making it workable can be found at RTAFL.xls. I find the whole thing really interesting. If anyone has any tools to make dataming easier or has a suggestion for additional research in this area, let me know as I’d love to hear it.

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Richmond Tigers on Yahoo!Groups

Posted by Laura on Friday, 8 January, 2010

This post is part of a series looking at the AFL fandom on Yahoo!Groups.  It focuses on providing general historical information about these groups: When they were founded and activity levels.  For a critique of the problems on Yahoo!Groups in getting demographic information, read Sydney Swans on Yahoo!Groups and The AFL on Yahoo!Groups.

This post is about the Yahoo!Group’s Richmond Tigers community. The Richmond Tigers directory on Yahoo!Groups has fifteen mailing lists.  Of these, ten are actually about the Richmond Tigers.  The lists are tiger_fury, sydrfc, tiger-talk, rfceyeofthetiger, RFC_Tigers, RFC-Tigers, rfctigerlovers, go_tigs87, feralrfc, and richmondtigers.   Of these, one has no posts (rfctigerlovers), one has one post (tiger_fury), four have ten or fewer posts (rfceyeofthetiger, RFC_Tigers,go_tigs87, richmondtigers), one has 20 posts (sydrfc), one has 4,874 posts (RFC-Tigers) and one has 92,687 (tiger-talk) as of the end of 2009.  If tiger-talk is not included, the average total membership to these groups is 22.  tiger-talk has 477 members and allows anyone to join but new members are moderated.  This keeps out the worst of the spam.  The half of the lists were created in 2003.  Two were created in 1999 and 2000.  One list was created in 2005.  Unlike the Swans, Bombers, Dockers and Bulldogs, this particular Yahoo!Groups population had some very active lists where the total volume on the list surpassed the total activity for all other groups.  Adding the legitimate posting volume together across all lists, the following chart was created:

To be honest, the posting patterns here are closer to what I expected to find for most teams: Big spikes during the season with and overall decline in activity as the population shifted away from Yahoo!Groups to other services.  That the minimal activity for other teams appeared to coincide with a team’s overall performance was rather surprising.

If I get the chance/have the time to go through and add data for team specific mailing lists not in the right subcategory, I may have to revisit some of the data I already posted to see if things change and more patterns like this one emerge.

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