Fueled by the meteoric rise of Jeremy Lin, the NBA has rocketed its way to social media dominance in American sports, driving soaring television ratings in a season many thought would be lost to a lockout.
The NBA and its teams have more than 185 million fans across the globe on Twitter and Facebook, and according to social media analytics firm General Sentiment, the league has also generated more social media discussion than any other sport since the start of 2011.
The league's reigning superstar, the Miami Heat's LeBron James, has 3.6 million Twitter followers alone.
Also read: Media Frenzy Plants Jeremy Lin on NBA's All-Star Stage
“Viewers are using Twitter not just for news but as a TV Guide,” Melissa Brenner, the NBA’s senior vice president of marketing, told TheWrap. “Having the penetration that we do on Twitter, people see NBA teams and players and other terminology in the top 10 trending topics and it is nothing short of beneficial.”
It's not just Twitter. Facebook users have given the NBA has more than 11 million "likes" and provide the NBA with fan opinions and traffic to its own website.
Facebook is now the second biggest source of traffic to the NBA’s home site, whereas two years ago it wasn’t even ranked in the top 10.
And on YouTube -- the NBA’s first real social outreach platform back in 2006 -- the highlight-driven nature of the sport makes it a perfect match.
No wonder ratings on ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV have made double-digit gains from last year, when the league also showed major growth.
NBA TV in particular seems to be reaping the benefits. Five of its 10 most-watched games ever have occurred this season. Ratings are up 52 percent over last year. MSG Network, the home TV station in New York, has repeatedly posted record ratings, especially once it ended its dispute with Time Warner Cable.
Also read: Jeremy Lin Gives MSG Network Record Ratings
And with the All-Star Game this weekend, expect James and Dwight Howard to set off a tweet-apalooza.
Then there's Jeremy Lin.
The "Linsanity" surrounding the emergence of the New York Knicks' young star has been fueled in large part by social media. Facebook became a repository for endless videos and articles (Lin just added his own profile) and Twitter users mentioned Lin's name 2.6 million times during the week of Feb. 6-14. To put that in perspective, that's more than President Obama's name was tweeted that week.
Lin may be the NBA's newest poster boy in terms of social media attention, but he's not the only player driving online users to watch the NBA on TV. James, Howard, Dwayne Wade and Lamar Odom Along with James, are also scoring tweet slam dunks (see chart, right).
