Posts Tagged Carlton Blues

AFL on Facebook

Posted by Laura on Thursday, 25 March, 2010

What’s the most popular AFL team on Facebook?  That really does depend on how you measure it.

The following table has a column for total people listing a team as an interest, total number of members of the largest fan page dedicated to a team, total number of fans of the largest page dedicated to a team and the grand total.  This information was collected in the past three days.

AFL on Facebook

Team Interest Page Group Total
Collingwood Magpies 59800 80 7969 67849
West Coast Eagles 26020 33501 5094 64615
Carlton Blues 58120 317 1626 60063
Adelaide Crows 50020 1579 5827 57426
Fremantle Dockers 43660 96 3625 47381
Sydney Swans 21260 18094 4737 44091
Hawthorn Hawks 21220 2602 6595 30417
Essendon Bombers 27920 248 1989 30157
Richmond Tigers 13960 11727 2782 28469
Geelong Cats 15760 5092 3976 24828
Brisbane Lions 10940 10556 2302 23798
St. Kilda Saints 15480 317 4281 20078
Port Adelaide Power 6100 9766 3157 19023
North Melbourne Kangaroos 9120 4314 2420 15854
Western Bulldogs 2740 4745 7295 14780
Melbourne Demons 5940 4057 4003 14000
Gold Coast Football Club 1200 1720 66 2986

And then I completed this and realized the biggest fan pages I had?  They weren’t the official ones.   Time to get the official ones, where the total fans are much bigger, and then update.

Green: Indicates official Facebook fanpage has the most fans.
Blue: Indicates a page not linked on the official page has the most fans.
Red: Indicates an official Facebook fanpage was not found to be linked to on the Club’s official site.
Black: AFL does not link to an official page for the team.

Fixed. As an American, I’m used to professional team names being City Mascot. When I search, this tends to be my default mode of searching. It can screw up results and I have to remember to search all variations to make sure this doesn’t happen. When I was just looking for biggest, I didn’t. Woe. But anyway, these results should hopefully be a bit more accurate. I went to every team’s official site that was linked on the AFL’s site. On the official site, I looked for their official Facebook fanpage accounts. Then I took that information and added it to the above table to get a more accurate picture. If an unofficial fanpage had more fans than the official one? I left the unofficial one. I’ve color coded that chart to make easy to see where I did that.

Related Posts:

Version 2: Most popular Australian athlete and team related Twitter accounts by total followers

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 10 March, 2010

Yesterday, I made a post about the most popular Australian athlete, league and team related Twitter accounts.

On Twitter, @anthonyalsop pointed me to a list of Australian athletes on Twitter he had created.  I had missed quite a few on his list and some of those accounts led me to lists where I found additional athletes, teams and leagues.  All told, I added about 61 new rows of data.  There are a few repeats from yesterday’s list as I updated some numbers.  (Historical twitter growth for athletes would be interesting to look at and there are tools for just that.  It is a project for a different day. Maybe.)  There doesn’t appear to be much change.

Things to remember with this list: It does not include athletes who do not play for team based sports.  Swimmers, golfers, tennis players, surfers and race car drivers are not on the list.  It also does not include Australian athletes playing for teams outside of Australia.  This includes cyclists (who are probably the most popular Australian athletes that I can find) as they often compete for teams outside Australia.  It does not include Australian NBA and WNBA players.  It also does not include retired Australian athletes, unless they are now involved in a management role with a specific team.  National teams are included but players are generally sorted by their other playing affiliation. This list does include athletes and teams from outside Australia when the league has teams from other countries.  Thus, South Africa is represented with its Super 14 teams and New Zealand is included with a variety of teams in leagues such as the NRL, Super 14 and the NBL.

  • First class cricket : New South Wales Blues : PH408 (unofficial) -10,729 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : LoteTuqiri (unofficial) -4,957 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Pretoria Bulls (Northern Bulls) : VictorMatfield (unofficial) -4,559 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : NRL : NRL -4,231 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : Collingwood_FC -3,980 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : Essendon_FC -3,808 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Adelaide Crows : Adelaide_FC -3,696 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : JobeWatson (unofficial) -3,523 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : Collingwood_FC -3,506 (30-Dec-09)
  • Super 14 : Natal Sharks : JohnSmit123 (unofficial) -3,412 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : Hurricanesrugby -3,395 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Sydney Swans : sydneyswans -3,160 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : AngusMonfries (unofficial) -3,052 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : jimstynes (unofficial) -3,004 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : harry_o (unofficial) -2,712 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : harry_o (unofficial) -2,703 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : St. Kilda Saints : stkildafc -2,617 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : neyza3 (unofficial) -2,446 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : mat_rogers6 (unofficial) -2,219 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : St. Kilda Saints : stkildafc -2,214 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Carlton Blues : Carlton_FC -1,932 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Geelong Cats : Geelong_FC (unofficial) -1,856 (30-Dec-09)
  • Super 14 : Canterbury Crusaders : mornesteyn (unofficial) -1,631 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : GCTitans -1,616 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : New Zealand Warriors (Auckland Warriors) : nzwarriors (unofficial) -1,533 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : RealBigDell (unofficial) -1,438 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : MVFCVIDEOS (unofficial) -1,432 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : North Queensland Cowboys : northqldcowboys -1,403 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : BrisBroncosClub -1,365 (2-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Hawthorn Hawks : Hawks_AFL (unofficial) -1,336 (9-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : New South Wales Blues : ClarkeVC (unofficial) -1,230 (10-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : nathan2jones (unofficial) -1,216 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : gomvfc -1,185 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : Wests_Tigers (unofficial) -1,165 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Durban Sharks (Coastal Sharks)(Natal Sharks) : sharksrugby -1,159 (9-Mar-10)
  • National team : Socceroos : socceroos_news (unofficial) -1,099 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : jarryd_hayne (unofficial) -1,078 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Richmond Tigers : Richmond_FC -1,062 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : North Melbourne Kangaroos : northkangaroos -1,052 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : CamSchwab (unofficial) -961 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Port Adelaide Power : PAFC -946 (30-Dec-09)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : Adelaide36ers -908 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Melbourne Vixens : MelbourneVixens -904 (12-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : Victorian Bushrangers : Bushrangers -895 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Manly Sea Eagles : manlyseaeagles -888 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : PirtekParraEels (unofficial) -853 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : DemonsHQ -841 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : PeterDaicos (unofficial) -838 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Hawthorn Hawks : HawthornFC -823 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Sydney Roosters : sydroosters (unofficial) -800 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : SSFCRABBITOHS -761 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : Powza13 (unofficial) -719 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Canterbury Crusaders : crusadersrugby -717 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Brisbane Lions : ALFbrisbane (unofficial) -690 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Central Coast Mariners Football Club : LawrieMcKinna (unofficial) -681 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : West Coast Eagles : WCEofficial -671 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Penrith Panthers : penrithpanthers (unofficial) -644 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : North Queensland Fury FC : nqfuryfc -627 (5-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : DemonsHQ -624 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : parramatta_eels -618 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : rabbitohs (unofficial) -617 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Melbourne Tigers : Follow24Hodge (unofficial) -612 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Melbourne Storm : MelbourneStorm_ (unofficial) -605 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : QuadeCooper (unofficial) -594 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Cape Town Stormers (Western Stormers) : THESTORMERS -593 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : wollongonghawks -585 (10-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : New South Wales Blues : NBRACKEN142 (unofficial) -577 (10-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : wollongonghawks -572 (6-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : Reds_Rugby -560 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : collingwoodnews (unofficial) -545 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : New South Wales Waratahs : HSBCWaratahs -504 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : West Coast Eagles : wingsofperth (unofficial) -503 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : New Zealand Breakers : johnrillie (unofficial) -474 (6-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : RedsRugby (unofficial) -460 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Melbourne Storm : MelbStormRLC (unofficial) -458 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : perthwildcats -457 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : adrianleijer (unofficial) -454 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : therabbitohs (unofficial) -448 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : mitchlangerak (unofficial) -445 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : St. Kilda Saints : njbrown17 (unofficial) -437 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : ACT Brumbies : BrumbiesRugby -436 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : New Zealand Warriors (Auckland Warriors) : thenzwarriors -434 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : South Dragons : Joeingles7 (unofficial) -431 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : FremantleFC (unofficial) -427 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : North Melbourne Kangaroos : andrewswallow (unofficial) -417 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Central Coast Mariners Football Club : LawrieMcKinna -414 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : AshHarrison1 (unofficial) -410 (9-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Melbourne Vixens : SharelleVixens -400 (12-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : victoryinmelb -392 (5-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : Freo_Dockers (unofficial) -388 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : bigdyman (unofficial) -376 (8-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Adelaide United : adelaideunited -376 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Wellington Phoenix : wgtnphoenixfc -376 (5-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Gold Coast Football Club : GoldCoastFC -373 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Brisbane Lions : AFLbrisbanelion -363 (30-Dec-09)
  • National team : Socceroos : Socceroos -353 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : lukeodwyer (unofficial) -348 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Newcastle Jets : newcastle_jets -338 (5-Jan-10)
  • Super 14 : Natal Sharks : KeeganDaniel (unofficial) -333 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : mighty_dragons (unofficial) -316 (9-Mar-10)
  • Basketball Australia : Australian Boomers : aussieboomers -307 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : BNERoar (unofficial) -300 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SFCNews (unofficial) -297 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : BNERoar (unofficial) -296 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : PlanetEels (unofficial) -293 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : West Coast Eagles : WestCoastEagles (unofficial) -291 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Melbourne Tigers : Wortho33 (unofficial) -285 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : Fremantle_FC -282 (30-Dec-09)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : milisimic (unofficial) -272 (8-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : Tassie Tigers : crickettas -271 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : BrisbaneBronco (unofficial) -270 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks : SharksOnline (unofficial) -263 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : TsvCrocs -259 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : TsvCrocs -259 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : nickmarvin (unofficial) -251 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Hawthorn Hawks : LanceFranklin (unofficial) -250 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : chomicide (unofficial) -237 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Cairns Taipans : Dusty_Rychart (unofficial) -234 (8-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Adelaide United : adelaidereds -231 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : blueandgoldarmy (unofficial) -225 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : MelbourneFC (unofficial) -223 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : brisbaneroar -221 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : beauryan_winger (unofficial) -215 (9-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : Queensland Bulls : andrew_symonds (unofficial) -215 (10-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Queensland Firebirds : laurafirebirds (unofficial) -213 (3-Jan-10)
  • NSW Premier League : Sydney Olympic : MarkBosnich (unofficial) -208 (9-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Adelaide Thunderbirds : NatTbirds -205 (12-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Canberra Raiders : RaidersCanberra -202 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : West Coast Eagles : MitchJbrown17 (unofficial) -198 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Perth Glory : PerthGlory_FC -190 (5-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : New South Wales Blues : eddiecowan (unofficial) -183 (10-Mar-10)
  • NBL : New Zealand Breakers : oscarforman (unofficial) -177 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SydneyFC0910 -174 (5-Jan-10)
  • Netball Victoria : Netball Victoria : netballvic -174 (12-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : South Australian Redbacks (Southern Redbacks) : RedbacksT20 -173 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : New South Wales Swifts : SusanSwifts -160 (12-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : TheRealSchensh (unofficial) -154 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : TheRealSchensh (unofficial) -154 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : rustyhinder (unofficial) -153 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : victorytwit (unofficial) -144 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : 1eyedeel (unofficial) -143 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : essendonfc (unofficial) -143 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Melbourne Rebels : melbournerebels -141 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Gold Coast Football Club : GoldCoastFC -139 (30-Dec-09)
  • WNBL : WNBL : -138 (10-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : broncosbigfan (unofficial) -137 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : ACT Brumbies : Hoilesy (unofficial) -133 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Brisbane Lions : AFLBrisbaneFC -126 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : benross23 (unofficial) -124 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Western Australia Force (Western Force) : s14_force -118 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : jgovereasy (unofficial) -110 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : jordiemck (unofficial) -102 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Central Cheetahs (Vodacom Cheetahs) : VodacomCheetahs -102 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Hawthorn Hawks : bmsew (unofficial) -100 (9-Mar-10)
  • VFL : Casey Scorpions : CaseyScorpions -100 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Sydney Swans : BionicSwan (unofficial) -99 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : North Melbourne Kangaroos : Marcus__White (unofficial) -99 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : s14_queensland (unofficial) -99 (3-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : Victorian Bushrangers : petersiddle (unofficial) -99 (10-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks : Fergo1990 (unofficial) -97 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : fakebrycegibbs (unofficial) -93 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Gold Coast United : GCUSC -92 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : broncobasher (unofficial) -91 (9-Mar-10)
  • Rugby League/State of Origin : Queensland Maroons : QLD_Maroons -91 (3-Jan-10)
  • ANZ Championship : New South Wales Swifts : nswswifts -90 (12-Jan-10)
  • VFL : North Ballarat Roosters : NB_Roosters -90 (9-Mar-10)
  • Rugby League/State of Origin : New South Wales Blues : NSWRL -88 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : DarrenNg8 (unofficial) -86 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : mvfcfanzone -84 (5-Jan-10)
  • NSW Premier League : Sydney United : addsie (unofficial) -83 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : ezytaylor (unofficial) -83 (9-Mar-10)
  • Australia Athletics : Australian Flames (national team) : australianflame -83 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Central Coast Mariners Football Club : CCMarinersFC (unofficial) -82 (5-Jan-10)
  • NBL : New Zealand Breakers : NZBreakers -79 (9-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : Queensland Bulls : qldcricket -72 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : JoshJenkins24 (unofficial) -72 (6-Mar-10)
  • Netball Australia : Netball Australia : NetballAust -72 (12-Jan-10)
  • Netball Australia : Australian Diamonds (national team) : AussieDiamonds -71 (12-Jan-10)
  • ANZ Championship : West Coast Fever : SusanWCFever -66 (12-Jan-10)
  • Gridiron Australia Nationals : WA Raiders : fatloaf (unofficial) -65 (8-Mar-10)
  • Gridiron Australia Nationals : Perth Blitz : fatloaf (unofficial) -65 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Adelaide Thunderbirds : AdelaideTBirds -62 (12-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : BenFitz (unofficial) -62 (6-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : jsaffy (unofficial) -60 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Western Bulldogs : ccaallward (unofficial) -57 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : 36ers (unofficial) -51 (6-Mar-10)
  • Semi Professional Basketball League : Semi Professional Basketball League : SEABL -50 (10-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SydneyFC -44 (5-Jan-10)
  • NBL : South (Melbourne) Dragons : SAVEOURDRAGONS (unofficial) -44 (10-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Sydney Kings : sydneykings -43 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : VictoriaParkHC (unofficial) -42 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Balmain Tigers : tigers1908 (unofficial) -42 (9-Mar-10)
  • WNBL : Dandenong Jayco Rangers : jennaohea (unofficial) -42 (10-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : ryanmcrowley (unofficial) -41 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : Aaron_Cannings (unofficial) -41 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Newcastle Knights : Corypato (unofficial) -41 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : matesOmelbourne (unofficial) -39 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Manly Sea Eagles : gorgeousgrose (unofficial) -39 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Richmond Tigers : yellow_n_black (unofficial) -38 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : Kegs42 (unofficial) -38 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : bomberblitz (unofficial) -37 (9-Mar-10)
  • Claxton Shield : Barbagallo Perth Heat : PerthHeat -35 (3-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : willo43 (unofficial) -35 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Gold Coast Blaze : Vandy21 (unofficial) -33 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Gold Coast Blaze : Vandy21 (unofficial) -33 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : demonwiki (unofficial) -33 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : danjackson9 (unofficial) -32 (8-Mar-10)
  • Netball New South Wales : : Sydney_Netball -31 (12-Jan-10)
  • AFL : St. Kilda Saints : RWBFooty (unofficial) -26 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : briansham (unofficial) -22 (9-Mar-10)
  • Netball New South Wales : Petersham RUFC Netball Club : PetershamNetbal -22 (12-Jan-10)
  • Brisbane Netball Association : ACE Netball Club : ACENetball -21 (12-Jan-10)
  • WNBL : Dandenong Jayco Rangers : JaycoRangers -21 (10-Mar-10)
  • Plenty Valley Netball Association : Orcas Netball : Orcas_Netball -20 (12-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : parraeels (unofficial) -19 (9-Mar-10)
  • Basketball Australia: Australian Opals: AustralianOpals – 19 (9-Mar-10)
  • NSW Premier League : Manly United : ManlyUnited -18 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : ToffCedar (unofficial) -17 (8-Mar-10)
  • VFL : Port Melbourne Borough : BoroughBoy (unofficial) -14 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : cameronwhiting (unofficial) -13 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : bc8977 (unofficial) -10 (9-Mar-10)
  • WNBL : Logan Thunder : loganthunder -8 (10-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : brad_393 (unofficial) -5 (8-Mar-10)
  • Gridiron Australia Nationals : Perth Blitz : perthblitz -1 (9-Mar-10)If there is anyone  I missed, or anything that really surprised you, let me know.
  • Updated this list on the 11th to include the Australian Opals thanks to a comment by @SportingSheilas.

    Related Posts:

    Most popular Australian athlete and team related Twitter accounts by total followers

    Posted by Laura on Tuesday, 9 March, 2010

    An updated version of this list can be found at Version 2: Most popular Australian athlete and team related Twitter accounts by total followers.

    This is sorted by total number of followers. If an account is tagged (unofficial), it indicates that it is not the official account; it belongs to management, a player or a fansite.  The list includes teams from most of the major sports leagues in Australia.  Teams that play in those leagues that are not from Australia have also been included.  Players were only counted as belonging to a team if they currently play for it.  (Some players that are on NRL player lists have gone to play in Europe.  They aren’t included.)  The date that the information was collected is also included as these numbers actively change over time.  If some one/team/organization is listed twice, it is because the data was collected on multiple dates.

  • First class cricket : New South Wales Blues : PH408 (unofficial) -10,729 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : LoteTuqiri (unofficial) -4,957 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Pretoria Bulls (Northern Bulls) : VictorMatfield (unofficial) -4,559 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : NRL : NRL -4,231 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : Collingwood_FC -3,980 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Essendon Bombers : Essendon_FC -3,808 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Adelaide Crows : Adelaide_FC -3,696 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : Collingwood_FC -3,506 (30-Dec-09)
  • Super 14 : Natal Sharks : JohnSmit123 (unofficial) -3,412 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : Hurricanesrugby -3,395 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Sydney Swans : sydneyswans -3,160 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : harry_o (unofficial) -2,703 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : neyza3 (unofficial) -2,446 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : mat_rogers6 (unofficial) -2,219 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : St. Kilda Saints : stkildafc -2,214 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Carlton Blues : Carlton_FC -1,932 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Geelong Cats : Geelong_FC -1,856 (30-Dec-09)
  • Super 14 : Canterbury Crusaders : mornesteyn (unofficial) -1,631 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : GCTitans -1,616 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : RealBigDell (unofficial) -1,438 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : MVFCVIDEOS (unofficial) -1,432 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : North Queensland Cowboys : northqldcowboys -1,403 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : BrisBroncosClub -1,365 (2-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : gomvfc -1,185 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : Wests_Tigers (unofficial) -1,165 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Durban Sharks (Coastal Sharks)(Natal Sharks) : sharksrugby -1,159 (9-Mar-10)
  • National team : Socceroos : socceroos_news (unofficial) -1,099 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : jarryd_hayne (unofficial) -1,078 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Richmond Tigers : Richmond_FC -1,062 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : North Melbourne Kangaroos : northkangaroos -1,052 (30-Dec-09)
  • AFL : Port Adelaide Power : PAFC -946 (30-Dec-09)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : Adelaide36ers -908 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Melbourne Vixens : MelbourneVixens -904 (12-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : Victorian Bushrangers : Bushrangers -895 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Manly Sea Eagles : manlyseaeagles -888 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : PirtekParraEels (unofficial) -853 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : PeterDaicos (unofficial) -838 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Hawthorn Hawks : HawthornFC -823 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Sydney Roosters : sydroosters (unofficial) -800 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : SSFCRABBITOHS -761 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Wellington Hurricanes : Powza13 (unofficial) -719 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Canterbury Crusaders : crusadersrugby -717 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : West Coast Eagles : WCEofficial -671 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Penrith Panthers : penrithpanthers (unofficial) -644 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : North Queensland Fury FC : nqfuryfc -627 (5-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Melbourne Demons : DemonsHQ -624 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : parramatta_eels -618 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : rabbitohs (unofficial) -617 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Melbourne Tigers : Follow24Hodge (unofficial) -612 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Melbourne Storm : MelbourneStorm_ (unofficial) -605 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : QuadeCooper (unofficial) -594 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Cape Town Stormers (Western Stormers) : THESTORMERS -593 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : wollongonghawks -572 (6-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : Reds_Rugby -560 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : collingwoodnews (unofficial) -545 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : New South Wales Waratahs : HSBCWaratahs -504 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : New Zealand Breakers : johnrillie (unofficial) -474 (6-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : RedsRugby (unofficial) -460 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Melbourne Storm : MelbStormRLC (unofficial) -458 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : perthwildcats -457 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : adrianleijer (unofficial) -454 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : South Sydney Rabbitohs : therabbitohs (unofficial) -448 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : mitchlangerak (unofficial) -445 (8-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : ACT Brumbies : BrumbiesRugby -436 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : New Zealand Warriors (Auckland Warriors) : thenzwarriors (unofficial) -434 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : South Dragons : Joeingles7 (unofficial) -431 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Central Coast Mariners Football Club : LawrieMcKinna -414 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : AshHarrison1 (unofficial) -410 (9-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Melbourne Vixens : SharelleVixens -400 (12-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : victoryinmelb -392 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Adelaide United : adelaideunited -376 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Wellington Phoenix : wgtnphoenixfc -376 (5-Jan-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : bigdyman (unofficial) -376 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Brisbane Lions : AFLbrisbanelion -363 (30-Dec-09)
  • National team : Socceroos : Socceroos -353 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : lukeodwyer (unofficial) -348 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Newcastle Jets : newcastle_jets -338 (5-Jan-10)
  • Super 14 : Natal Sharks : KeeganDaniel (unofficial) -333 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : mighty_dragons (unofficial) -316 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : BNERoar (unofficial) -300 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SFCNews (unofficial) -297 (5-Jan-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : BNERoar (unofficial) -296 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : PlanetEels (unofficial) -293 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Melbourne Tigers : Wortho33 (unofficial) -285 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Fremantle Dockers : Fremantle_FC -282 (30-Dec-09)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : milisimic (unofficial) -272 (8-Mar-10)
  • First class cricket : Tassie Tigers : crickettas -271 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks : SharksOnline (unofficial) -263 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : TsvCrocs -259 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : TsvCrocs -259 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : nickmarvin (unofficial) -251 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : chomicide (unofficial) -237 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Cairns Taipans : Dusty_Rychart (unofficial) -234 (8-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Adelaide United : adelaidereds -231 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : blueandgoldarmy (unofficial) -225 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Brisbane Roar : brisbaneroar -221 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : beauryan_winger (unofficial) -215 (9-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Queensland Firebirds : laurafirebirds (unofficial) -213 (3-Jan-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Adelaide Thunderbirds : NatTbirds -205 (12-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Canberra Raiders : RaidersCanberra -202 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Perth Glory : PerthGlory_FC -190 (5-Jan-10)
  • NBL : New Zealand Breakers : oscarforman (unofficial) -177 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SydneyFC0910 -174 (5-Jan-10)
  • Netball Victoria : Netball Victoria : netballvic -174 (12-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : South Australian Redbacks (Southern Redbacks) : RedbacksT20 -173 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : New South Wales Swifts : SusanSwifts -160 (12-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : TheRealSchensh (unofficial) -154 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Perth Wildcats : TheRealSchensh (unofficial) -154 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : rustyhinder (unofficial) -153 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : victorytwit (unofficial) -144 (5-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : 1eyedeel (unofficial) -143 (9-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Gold Coast Football Club : GoldCoastFC -139 (30-Dec-09)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : broncosbigfan (unofficial) -137 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : jgovereasy (unofficial) -110 (6-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Central Cheetahs (Vodacom Cheetahs) : VodacomCheetahs -102 (9-Mar-10)
  • Super 14 : Queensland Reds : s14_queensland (unofficial) -99 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks : Fergo1990 (unofficial) -97 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Wests Tigers : fakebrycegibbs (unofficial) -93 (9-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Gold Coast United : GCUSC -92 (5-Jan-10)
  • Rugby League/State of Origin : Queensland Maroons : QLD_Maroons -91 (3-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Brisbane Broncos : broncobasher (unofficial) -91 (9-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : New South Wales Swifts : nswswifts -90 (12-Jan-10)
  • Rugby League/State of Origin : New South Wales Blues : NSWRL -88 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : DarrenNg8 (unofficial) -86 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Melbourne Victory : mvfcfanzone -84 (5-Jan-10)
  • NSW Premier League : Sydney United : addsie (unofficial) -83 (8-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Central Coast Mariners Football Club : CCMarinersFC (unofficial) -82 (5-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : JoshJenkins24 (unofficial) -72 (6-Mar-10)
  • Netball Australia : Netball Australia : NetballAust -72 (12-Jan-10)
  • First class cricket : Queensland Bulls : qldcricket -72 (8-Mar-10)
  • Netball Australia : Australian Diamonds (national team) : AussieDiamonds -71 (12-Jan-10)
  • ANZ Championship : West Coast Fever : SusanWCFever -66 (12-Jan-10)
  • Gridiron Australia Nationals : WA Raiders : fatloaf (unofficial) -65 (8-Mar-10)
  • Gridiron Australia Nationals : Perth Blitz : fatloaf (unofficial) -65 (8-Mar-10)
  • ANZ Championship : Adelaide Thunderbirds : AdelaideTBirds -62 (12-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : BenFitz (unofficial) -62 (6-Mar-10)
  • NRL : St. George Illawarra Dragons : jsaffy (unofficial) -60 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : 36ers (unofficial) -51 (6-Mar-10)
  • A-League : Sydney FC : SydneyFC -44 (5-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Sydney Kings : sydneykings -43 (8-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Collingwood Magpies : VictoriaParkHC (unofficial) -42 (8-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Balmain Tigers : tigers1908 (unofficial) -42 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Newcastle Knights : Corypato (unofficial) -41 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Gold Coast Titans : Aaron_Cannings (unofficial) -41 (9-Mar-10)
  • NRL : Manly Sea Eagles : gorgeousgrose (unofficial) -39 (9-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : Kegs42 (unofficial) -38 (6-Mar-10)
  • AFL : Richmond Tigers : yellow_n_black (unofficial) -38 (8-Mar-10)
  • Claxton Shield : Barbagallo Perth Heat : PerthHeat -35 (3-Jan-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : willo43 (unofficial) -35 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Gold Coast Blaze : Vandy21 (unofficial) -33 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Gold Coast Blaze : Vandy21 (unofficial) -33 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Wollongong Hawks : danjackson9 (unofficial) -32 (8-Mar-10)
  • Netball New South Wales : : Sydney_Netball -31 (12-Jan-10)
  • Netball New South Wales : Petersham RUFC Netball Club : PetershamNetbal -22 (12-Jan-10)
  • Brisbane Netball Association : ACE Netball Club : ACENetball -21 (12-Jan-10)
  • Plenty Valley Netball Association : Orcas Netball : Orcas_Netball -20 (12-Jan-10)
  • NRL : Parramatta Eels : parraeels (unofficial) -19 (9-Mar-10)
  • NSW Premier League : Manly United : ManlyUnited -18 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : ToffCedar (unofficial) -17 (8-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Townsville Crocodiles : cameronwhiting (unofficial) -13 (6-Mar-10)
  • NBL : Adelaide 36ers : brad_393 (unofficial) -5 (8-Mar-10)
  • NWBL : Wenty Leagues WheelKings : -0 (6-Mar-10)
  • Victorian Amateur Football Association : University Blues : -0 (6-Mar-10)
  • Related Posts:

    New South Wales Blues on LiveJournal and its clones

    Posted by Laura on Thursday, 4 February, 2010

    The New South Wales Blues are first class cricket team based at the Sydney Cricket Grounds.  According to Wikipedia, they compete in most of the major cricket tournaments in the country.  There is a small community interested in the team on LiveJournal and its clones with 17 people list the NSW Blues as an interest and 2 on JournalFen.  This isn’t particularly big for LiveJournal, 101 people list the Sydney Swans as an interest and 100 people list the West Coast Eagles as an interest in comparison.  The teams sits between the Carlton Blues at 18 and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks at 16.

    Of the two people on JournalFen, only one lists their year of birth: 1975.  Of the 17 on LiveJournal, ten list their year of birth.  On LiveJournal, the mean year of birth is 1986.4, median is 1987.5 and mode of 1992.  This is pretty close to the Sydney based Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs community on LiveJournal where mean is 1985 and median is 1987.  No other Sydney based teams where I have this data for other networks are as close to the team age wise.

    Most fans are Australian with both JournalFen people listing the country as their place of residence and 14 of the 17 on LiveJournal being from Australia.  Of the other three, one does not list a country, one is from Canada and one is from New Zealand.   Of the Australians on JournalFen, one is from New South Wales and one is from the ACT.  On LiveJournal, 2 are from the ACT, 8 are from New South Wales and 2 are from Victoria.  All but one of the people from New South Wales list themselves as being from Sydney; the one who doesn’t is from Gosford, which isn’t that far from Sydney.

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    Melbourne Victory on blogger

    Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 13 January, 2010

    Based on the somewhat data I have so far from Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal and its clones, blogger and bebo, the Melbourne Victory are one of the most popular teams in Australia.  They are only behind Collingwood Magpies, Carlton Blues, and the  Queensland Maroons.  A lot of this is attributed to the 46,620 people who list the team as an interest on Facebook and 1,432 people following the team on Twitter.

    So far, only 28 teams have been looked at on blogger and here, the Victory fall in the middle of the pack with only 11 people listing them as an interest.  Most of the sampling on the network has involved the AFL and Queensland based teams.  Teams ahead of the Victory include Sydney Swans, Collingwood Magpies, West Coast Eagles, Adelaide Crows, Brisbane Broncos, Brisbane Lions, Geelong Cats, and the Western Bulldogs.

    What does this small community look like?  Of the eleven, nine list their country of residence.   Of these nine, eight are Australians and one is likely an Australian who is currently traveling the United States.   Of the nine Australians, seven list their state of origin and they are all from Victoria, six listing Melbourne as their home and one listing St. Kilda as theirs.  This is a team that draws, at least on blogger, from where it is based and does not have a larger, national following.

    Seven people list their age.  For mean, median and mode, age is the same: 22.  This is a relatively young fan community, especially when compared to a few of the AFL team communities on blogger.  The community is also a more likely to be male with 6 people identifying as male, 3 identifying as female and 2 not identifying.  Between the Adelaide Crows, Brisbane Broncos, Brisbane Bullets, Brisbane Lions, Carlton Blues, Collingwood Magpies, Essendon Bombers, Fremantle Dockers, Geelong Cats, Hawthorn Hawks, Melbourne Demons, and North Melbourne Kangaroos communities, only the Carlton Blues, Collingwood Magpies and Geelong Cats communities have a smaller female fanbase.

    It will be interesting to see how this community eventually compares to other A-League teams on the network.

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    Based on data to date: Biggest Australian sports fandom

    Posted by Laura on Saturday, 9 January, 2010

    The following chart is based on the data gathered for posts to date.  It is intended to give a general idea as to the comparative size of various sports fandom communities to each other.  Blanks indicate that no data regarding that team on the service has been gathered; it does not indicate a size of zero for that particularly service.  If you would like specific data regarding a team on a service to understand where that number of coming from, please comment or e-mail me at laura[at]fanhistory[dot]com.  I am more than happy to explain it.

    Leagues with teams at the bottom include AFL, AHL, A-League, Claxton Shield, Gridiron Australia Nationals, KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, NBL, Rugby League/State of Origin, Victorian Amateur Football Association.  The AFL’s expansion team puts one of their teams in the bottom 10.  Soccer teams, baseball teams, American/Gridiron football, basketball, netball, rugby union, ice hockey, rugby league and Australian rules football are at the bottom.  Some of these sports can be accounted for because of they are not popular sports in the country.  Others can be accounted for because the teams are part of secondary leagues and competitions.  It will be interesting to see how and if popularity shifts as more data is added from additional networks.

    Edited to add: This post mostly came about as I needed to take a break from gathering Yahoo!Groups data.  The directory currently is not working for me.  It limits my ability to data gather as a result.  Two of the big things in terms of moving a team up or down the above list are Facebook and Twitter.  Facebook has a lot of voids and that’s easy enough to fill in.  I did that.  Things at the bottom didn’t change much but things at the top really did change with four clubs above the 40,000 fans threshold.

    Given the huge leaps there, I cannot really foresee the top order changing much, especially as the Twitter data is already there. The other social networks out there just do not have populations to provide an audience that size. Facebook claims that 7,680,420 people are from Australia on its service. When 50,000 list their interest as the Magpies or the Blues, well, that’s .6% of all Australians on Facebook. Or put another way, 3 out of every 500 Australians on the site list one of those two teams as an interest. For a sports team, that seems really high and about on par for the most popular sports team in other countries. (The New York Yankees have about 785,000 fans for an American population of about 101,468,000 on Facebook. That puts the percentage at about .7%.)

    Yahoo!Groups doesn’t have a large population. While bebo is popular in Australia, it doesn’t provide numbers even close to this. The only way to get numbers that large are to find community specific sites which require registration.

    More edited to add: One of the things I did not realize with the various data sets I’ve been compiling is that about a third of the teams in the National Rugby League aren’t included. My bad. Most of my focus has been on the AFL. Hence, the oversight. I’ve compiled that again and rather than update with a third image, just going to say that there have been no major shake ups. The Brisbane Broncos remain on thop. The St. George Dragons are at the bottom with 240 fans. Second to last are the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs with 1,580. No team really has the big number of fans that the AFL has.

    More editing: I normally tried variations of a team’s name for Facebook to make sure I get the highest number.  In the case of St. George Illawarra Dragons, I goofed and got the one that listed 240.  When I used St Geoergillawarra Dragons combed with St. George Illawarra Dragons, I got 9,200.  This change will show up in any future data analysis.  The collection date has always been changed to today just so I know when I got that number.

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    The AFL on Yahoo!Groups

    Posted by Laura on Thursday, 7 January, 2010

    There is a directory for Yahoo!Groups dedicated to the Australian Football League.   There are 276 lists found in it.   There are an additional 195 listed in the Clubs and Team subcategory.  And then there are the following counts for team specific subcategories:

    It is possible to get data from some of these lists if you either join them or member data is public.  (scrapheap_afl for instance has 25 members and hasn’t been updated since August 2009.   Eight people list their ages with an average age of 38. Eight people list their country.  Two are from Australia, two are from the United Kingdom and four are from the United States.  Nine people list their gender and all are male.)  For mailing lists that require joining to get the information, most of them have open membership.  Spammers than join and post unrelated, offtopic spam.  This spam problem thus makes the data very suspect.  The number of communities is also suspect because there are several instances of incorrect categorization.  For instance, there is an Indian department soccer team grouped in the Western Bulldogs category.

    If we were looking for a reason to use this data, it might be best used for historical purposes: When were these communities created and when were they most active?  When did they go inactive?  This data would have to be currated manually as the suspect groups would need to be removed and periods of high spam posts would need to identified.  Hopefully, in the next day or so, I can provide some data that has the creation dates of Yahoo!Groups to help begin to analyze these patterns.

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    Brisbane Lions community on LiveJournal, its clones and Blogger

    Posted by Laura on Tuesday, 5 January, 2010

    This post is a series of posts looking at the size of Australian sports leagues on LiveJournal, its clones and other social networks. Earlier posts include Australian Football League on JournalFen , Australian Football League community on DeadJournal , National Rugby League on DeadJournal and JournalFen, Australian Football League on LiveJournal clones like Blurty, Dreamwidth Studios and InsaneJournal, Adelaide Crows community on LiveJournal, its clones and Blogger,and Official Australian Football League Twitter accounts and follower population by country.

    This post is looking at the size and characteristics of the Brisbane Lions community on LiveJournal and Blogger. The sundry of disclaimers and methodologies can be found on earlier posts. LiveJournal data was collected on December 30, 2009 and Blogger information was gathered on December 29, 2009.

    The Brisbane Lions community on Blogger is a bit smaller than the community for the Adelaide Crows, with 16 people listing the team or city and a footy related interest as an interest. This group has six women, nine men and one person who does not list a gender. This percentage of 38% puts their female audience at larger than the Crows (33%), Blues (25%), Magpies (25%) and Bombers (29%) communities located on Blogger. Twelve people list their ages of which two are obvious errors or intentional mistakes: One is 252 years old and the other is 253. The average age for a Lions fan on Blogger is 33, the median age is 30 and the mode age is 27. In terms of birthdays, two are Aries, one is a Cancer, two are Leos, four are Libras, two are Pisces, two are Scropios and one is a Virgo. All sixteen list their country of residence. Three are not from Australia: Two are from London, England and one is an American from Colorado. Ten of the Australians lists their state of residence. Of these, seven are from Queensland, two are from the ACT and one is from Victoria.

    Like Blogger, the Brisbane Lions LiveJournal community is smaller than the community for the Adelaide Crows, with only 61 people listing the Brisbane Lions as an interest. 14 of these 16 updated in the past week and 33 total have updated in the past year. 4 have never updated. While smaller, this group appears to be a bit more active on LiveJournal than the community for the Adelaide Crows. 16 of the 61 people list their year of birth. Of these 16, the mean year of birth is 1984, and median and mode year of birth is 1986. The oldest were born in 1972 and the youngest was born in 1991. 56 of the 61 list their country of residence. 4 are from the United Kingdom and 7 are from the United States. The percentages of the total population is inverse of what it is for Blogger. With 45 from Australia, the percentage of the population from the country is similar to that of Blogger, 80% on LiveJournal compared to 81% on Blogger. These numbers are also some what comparable to the Twitter population which has 77% from Australia, 2% from the United Kingdom and 21% from United States out of 325 people counted. 33 of the 45 Australians list a state of residence. Of this, 19 are from Queensland, 10 are from Victoria, 2 are from South Australia with 1 from the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

    What does the breakdown by state look like? The following chart shows LiveJournal, Blogger and its clones:

    Related Posts:

    Official Australian Football League Twitter accounts and follower population by country

    Posted by Laura on Tuesday, 5 January, 2010

    This post is a series of posts looking at the size of Australian sports leagues on LiveJournal, its clones and other social networks. Five earlier posts were Australian Football League on JournalFen , Australian Football League community on DeadJournal , National Rugby League on DeadJournal and JournalFenAustralian Football League on LiveJournal clones like Blurty, Dreamwidth Studios and InsaneJournal and Adelaide Crows community on LiveJournal, its clones and Blogger.

    There is a tool called Twitter Analyzer.  It allows you to get some data about your followers on Twitter.  It has some short comings, namely that it really only allows you to identify followers by country, rather than state.  When trying to figure out the population location inside Australia for a team, this is a bit of a problem.  Still, data is data and I ran every team’s official Twitter account through it and the results are… not what I consider particularly useful.  For me rather than highlight where an audience for a team is, this highlights the problem of Twitter follow spam.

    Before going into this, Australian Football League games are available outside Australia.  The AFL has a list of their international partners that air games and news from the league.  The easiest place to get games is the United States and the United Kingdom where ESPN may provide them with up to three matches a week.  Ireland’s national network doesn’t appear to get games, so much as they get match summaries but they do get some on ESPN.  Europe gets the games on Eurosport but they are limited to two matches a week.  The Middle East and North Africa get two live matches a week.  New Zealand gets one live match a week on Sky, with additional coverage during sports related news casts.  Canada gets one game a week.  There is no indication that these games air live in Central and South America, Asia, and Oceania.  Airing of games in Africa is only very recent in a deal that appears to have taken place midway through the 2009 season. There clearly is an international market for the AFL and it is being fed.

    In the United States, the major site for info on Australian rules football, Australian Football Association of North America, gets only about 503 visitors a month.  For the official AFL site, Compete estimates the size of the United States visiting population at 6,736 for the past month.  This is relatively small population that we are talking about.  Alexa says that the official AFL site gets 2.6% of its traffic from countries other than Australia, Sri Lanka, the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India.  Alexa does not rank the official site in Ecuador, Germany, Thailand, or France.

    With that all in mind, time for Twitter data.  The team with the most followers it the Adelaide Crows with 3,696 follows.  The Essendon Bombers come in second with 3,808 followers.  The Collingwood Magpies are third at 3,506 followers and the Sydney Swans are fourth with 3,160 followers.  At the bottom are the Gold Coast Football Club with 139 followers.  The second smallest team in term of followers count is are the Fremantle Dockers with 282 followers.  Third is the Brisbane Lions with 363 followers.  All the other teams have follow counts above 500 and below 300.  Comparing the totals to the totals for LiveJournal clones, which is admittedly a bit small, something feels a bit out of whack but as I’m not Australian, not exposed to AFL coverage on a regular basis as part of my local news watching and reading, I’m not sure what.  The Essendon Bombers are number one for most followers on Twitter but rank 13th for total fans on LiveJournal clones.  The Collingwood Magpies rank 9th for population total on LJ clones and 3rd for followers on Twitter.  The Carlton Blues rank last for followers on LiveJournal clones but 6th on Twitter.  The Hawthorn Hawks rank 4th on LiveJournal clones and 11th on Twitter.  The Brisbane Lions rank 3rd on LiveJournal clones and 11th on Twitter.  The Fremantle Dockers rank 2nd on LiveJournal clones and 15 on Twitter.

    As I implied above, there is an international audience for the AFL but the size of it is some what limited.  Twitter Analyzer’s numbers don’t add up when comparing them to total followers so I’m not sure how accurate they really are. Overall, when total follower counts for all teams are added together, the total is 26,134 followers.  Based on Twitter Analyzer, 15,191 people do not list their country in their profiles.  That leaves us with 10,943 people who do list their country which would be fine but  9,059 are from Australia and 4,669 are from the United States which shouldn’t be possible.  Given that, I’m just going to compare the totals based on the data that Twitter Analyzer provides and ignore the total followers numbers from Twitter.

    Using these numbers, 59.6% of all followers of official AFL accounts are Australians.  Americans represent 30.7% of all followers.  Great Britain accounts for 3.3% of all followers.  Germany, Ecuador, and India all have percentages between 1.0 and 1.9%.   In addition to those numbers, 42 accounts from Greenland, 68 from Thailand, 18 from Vietnam and 31 from Argentina follow these official team Twitter accounts.

    I’m going to call highjinks here.  I know there is a US audience for the AFL.  We have our own domestic leagues, which attract a small audience mostly of die hard fans and people connected to the players.  The games are televised.  But I cannot believe that the Australian audience for teams on Twitter is only twice that of the US audience.  I’m also having a hard time believe that Ecuador and Argentina have a large following on Twitter.  I don’t believe that these numbers are a reliable indicator of international interest by country in these teams.  Evidence seems to indicate that two of the following are likely taking place: People are not listing the country they are actually from AND that these accounts have people following them with the intention of trying to get an autofollow back.  This data just is not reliable to determine the size of an team’s audience, or even the team’s effectiveness at using Twitter to reach their target audience.

    That said, the following is a country by country break down based on the numbers from Twitter Analyzer.

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