The US Sports Social Media Report By Braveheart Sports Network for September 2011 shows that the Los Angeles Lakers are far and away the most dominate US sports franchise in social media.

Braveheart Sports Network looked at the number of Twitter followers and Facebook fans that every NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB and MLS team has, to see who is winning the social media battle online.

It is rare that a brand and/or team can successfully execute a winning social media strategy on both Twitter and Facebook, but the Lakers have found a way to dominate both social media platforms.

Twitter
With over 2.1m followers the Lakers dominate with over 2.1m followers, basically double that of the next most followed team which are the Orlando Magic (just over 1m followers). The 2.1m Lakers followers makes them the second most followed sports club on Twitter behind Spain’s Real Madrid who have 2.3m followers.

Out of the top most followed sports teams 4 are from the NBA, 4 from MLB and 1 from the NFL and NFL

Surprisingly, only 18 out of the 141 US sports franchises in the report have more than 100,000 Twitter followers showing that either US pro teams have not fully embraced Twitter yet. There is a huge opportunity on Twitter that is being missed by 87% of US sports teams.

Top Ten US Sports Franchises With Most Twitter Followers

Facebook
As mentioned above, not only do the Lakers dominate on Twitter, they also dominate on Facebook, with over 10m followers. That number is almost double that of their rival the Boston Celtics who have 5.3m fans

Out of the top ten most followed sports teams 4 are from the NBA, 2 from MLB and 4 from the NFL

The NFL teams do a much better job embracing Facebook than they do with Twitter, while the opposite is true of the NHL who only has one club in the top 20 rankings of Facebook followers.

With 24 out of the 141 US sports franchises in the report having more than 1m Facebook fans, it appears that that pro teams are doing a slightly better job embracing Facebook than they are Twitter.

But there is still a huge opportunity on Facebook that is being missed by 8 out or 10 (83% ) US sports franchises.

Ten US Sports Franchises With Most Facebook Fans

Data as of September 10, 2011

Interesting new survey by office services firm Regus, showed that 47% of businesses successfully used social networks for customer acquisition in 2011, a 7 percentage point increase over 2010. The US followed closely behind the average, at 43%.

China saw the greatest gains in customer acquisition from social networks among all countries studied, increasing from 44% in 2010 to 65% in 2011. That is a massive increase in one year.

The survey had one other interesting finding: Social networks made the biggest impact for companies that are operating in developed markets.

A significantly higher percentage of companies that used social networks for customer acquisition in developed markets, including the US, the UK, Japan and Canada, saw a revenue increase over the previous year vs. those companies that did not use social networks to acquire new business in developed markets.

As companies continue to look for ways to increase sales, it is clear that in both developed and developing markets, that social networks are proving to be a reliable source of customer acquisition and increased revenues in both, but can provide a necessary edge over competitors in developed markets.

The number of daily deal sites has exploded in the last six months with Groupon and LivingSocial the two dominate sites in this market. But while both play in the same space, there are huge differences in the geographies and demographics of the two sites.

For example the comScore analysis found that LivingSocial had more of an East Coast bias to it, while Groupon is more entrenched amongst Midwest and West Coast-based consumers.

But what are demographics? Are Groupon and LivingSocial users the same? Well comScore found that internet users under 45 leaned toward Groupon, while those ages 45 and older skewed more in favor of LivingSocial. Those ages 12 to 25 underindexed on usage of daily deal sites in general, but underindexed less strongly on Groupon. Both sites were used by women more than men.

But Nielsen found the opposite age skew when it examined the sites’ demographics in March 2011. That analysis found that 33% of LivingSocial visitors were ages 21 to 34, compared to 25% for Groupon, while 51% of LivingSocial visitors were ages 35 to 64, vs. 57% for Groupon.

But ultimately before using Groupon in LivingSocial for your business, the secret is understanding what kind of offer appears most often on each site appears. ComScore noted, is that more than half (56%) of Groupon’s offers were for restaurants, while the hefty portion of LivingSocial’s deals (41%) were for books and magazines.

The frequency of these types of offers is ultimately what drives users to use one or the other of these two sites. If you are a restaurant, then Groupon will provide a better ROI for you than LivingSocial.

Avid sports fans use Facebook to follow their favorite, but when game time comes, fans prefer the interactivity of Twitter according to a survey conducted by Catalyst Public Relations on behalf of SportsBusiness Journal.

More than three-quarters of avid sports fans who use social media to keep up with their favorite teams use Facebook to interact with their favorite clubs, according to the survey results.

Sites Used By Fans To Follow/Discuss Their Favorite Team(s)
Facebook

• MLB 83%
• NBA 77%
• NFL 86%
• College Football 79%
• College Basketball 74%

YouTube

• MLB 22%
• NBA 35%
• NFL 17%
• College Football 33%
• College Basketball 41%

Twitter

• MLB 21%
• NBA 27%
• NFL 17%
• College Football 25%
• College Basketball 27%

The study shows that social media use increases as game time draws near, and it usually peaks with postgame activity.

What is interesting though is that once the game begins, there is little change in Facebook activity among MLB and college sports fans. The NFL’s Facebook users cut back on usage during the actual game, and NBA fans increase their use.

Twitter users, on the other hand, generate a surge of activity during MLB and NFL games. Roughly half of the college sports fans surveyed use Facebook, Twitter or both before and during the game.

The biggest postgame activity comes from avid NBA fans, with 79 % of them turning to YouTube. Melissa Rosenthal Brenner, NBA vice president of marketing, said more than 650 million NBA.com videos have been viewed on YouTube since the league signed a content deal with the site in 2005.

What I take from these numbers is that people interact with different social networks differently depending on what is going on.

So for example if you are a sports teams and your focus is purely Facebook then you are missing out on the interaction that goes on with your fans during a game.

Or if you are an NBA team, how important is YouTube as that is the destination of choice for basketball fans after the game is over.

We have all experienced it. You are on a company’s web site and see their Twitter username, or we do a search on Twitter for them. We have a quick question that we need answered and send the company a quick tweet looking for help. And we never hear anything. It’s like our tweet went into some cyber black hole.

According to May 2011 research from InboxQ, a service to feed businesses questions from Twitter, six in 10 Twitter users worldwide said they wanted businesses to respond to them on Twitter. Yet just 21% of Twitter users with under 100 followers and 41% of users with over 100 followers said they had actually received a response from a business via Twitter.

What these businesses that don’t respond are missing is that the more responsive brands see an increase in customer loyalty and they buy more products. Almost 60% of respondents said they would be more likely to follow a brand that answered them, and 64% said they would be more likely to make a purchase from that brand.

So 64% of respondents said that they are more likely to make a purchase from a brand if they respond to their tweet asking a question. In today’s competitive business world, t seems like a no-brainer for companies to respond to question. The problem is that most company’s Twitter accounts are set to only disperse information and not to interact with users.

How is your company interacting with your Twitter followers?

More than half of all content shared on the web occurs via Facebook according to a study conducted with StarCom MediaVest Group and Rubicom Partners, and first reported by TechCrunch.

Facebook clearly dominates in the sharing category, accounting for 38% of all sharing referral traffic (the next closest are email and Twitter, tied at 17% each.)  And that’s just the percent of folks who click through.

When examining the raw numbers (links shared but not clicked on), the figure is even higher. In that case, Facebook accounts for a whopping 56% of all shared content on the Web, up 11 points from August, 2010.

The study also shows that Facebook links are clicked on an average of 4.3 times, versus Twitter at 4.9 times and email, where links are clicked on an average of 1.7 times.

That Facebook links are clicked almost as much as Twitter links is really impressive as the perception is that Facebook users stay within the Facebook walled garden and don’t venture off into the web. This data debunks that theory.

So if Facebook users share so much content, what are you doing on your web site to make the sharing as easy as possible? Are you adding widgets like Facebook share or Facebook like icons to your site? Have you added Facebook comments? Facebook comments means that users on your site can comment on your content, post those comments to their profiles, and share them with their friends on Facebook. Non-Facebook users can continue to make comments in the traditional way.

What have you done to make your content more shareable on Facebook?

Last week I wrote about 3 Easy Ways to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile. Today I want to cover how to optimize your LinkedIn profile so that people can find you.

Use Keywords In Your Headline
Your headline is the first thing people see when they go to your LinkedIn profile. Unless you change it, your headline will appear as your current or last position held.

Since this headline will appear in various places on LinkedIn, you want it to be more descriptive. The LinkedIn algorithm seems to put a lot of emphasis on the words used in the headline when ranking people, so make sure your headline includes your USP, benefits your company offers or your geographic location if you serve a specific area.

Include Keywords In Your Summary
After the headline, your summary is the first place that people will learn about you. Your summary is your elevator pitch. Make sure it looks clean and professional, while including the top keywords that you want to target.

Customize The Web Sites Option
So many people have this set to the default option (personal web site., company web site). LinkedIn allows you to make these more descriptive by using keywords as you can see below.

To do this, when adding your website select “other” from the drop-down menu and then manually key in your website title. Next paste your URL into the appropriate field and click “Save Changes.” You can do this with up to three (3) websites.

Optimize Your Text With Keywords
LinkedIn allows you to fill in descriptions in your profile headline, personal interests, summary, job title, and career history. Make sure, when filling out these sections, to use keyword-rich descriptions to draw relevant search engine traffic.

If you have an SEO background, this similar to the old keywords tag on web pages.

Use The Maximum Number of Characters
Each text field in LinkedIn allows a different number of characters. It is important to use all available characters because search engines like high word counts and lots of relevant keywords. Some character limits to keep in mind are:

• Headline – 120 Characters
• Status Field – 140 Characters
• Summary – 2,000 Characters
• Specialties – 500 Characters
• Company Name – 100 Characters
• Position (Job) Title – 100 Characters
• Position Description – 2,000 Characters
• Interests – 1,000 Characters

Social media use among small businesses surged in the last 12 months, according to the new Citibank Small Business Survey.

According to the survey, use of social media increased significantly over the last year, with 36% of small business owners saying they use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to market their business, compared to just 19% a year ago.

Survey Highlights:

• Facebook is the primary social media tool for small business, with 29% of respondents reporting that their business has its own Facebook page.
• Adoption of flash sale sites is slow – only 5% of small businesses used Groupon or a similar tool in the past year
• 87% said they have no plans to use an online flash sale site in 2011
• Traditional marketing is on the decline – only 36% said they were likely to use newspaper advertising or direct mail in 2011,
• down from 44% who did so last year.

Additionally, when asked what steps they will take to attract more business in 2011, 68% of small business owners say they will increase marketing and 54% say they will offer new products and services.

The Citibank Small Business Survey follows on the heels of the survey from the American Express OPEN “Small Business Monitor”, which showed almost identical numbers.

What I do find interesting is that while only 5% of small businesses have used Groupon or a similar tool in the past year, 87% say they plan to use these flash sites in 2011. That is an incredibly high number.

Have you used a flash site like Groupon for your business? Was it profitable?

According to a new survey from the American Express OPEN “Small Business Monitor”, more than a third (35%) of US small businesses are using online social networking for marketing, up from 15% in fall 2009. In addition, 12% of respondents were using blogs as a social tactic, nearly double the figure from fall 2009.

Quite amazing to me that as many small businesses are engaged in social media marketing as they are in search engine optimization.

Not surprising, small businesses have focused their social media efforts on Facebook, and to a less extent LinkedIn. The percentage of small businesses using Facebook for customer acquisition is up 8 percentage points, while LinkedIn was up 6 points. Twitter usage also increased, holding third place.

Are you putting more and more of your marketing time into social media and away from search?

According to Adweek, there is bad news for brands who are rushing to social media sites. Young people don’t want to be friends with you! According to a new report from Forrester Research, just 6% of 12-17-year-olds who use the web want to be friends with a brand on Facebook.

Among Web-connected 18-24-year-olds, that figure doubles, which means that only 12% of 18-24-year-old think is ok to friend a brand. Even scarier for brands: Young people don’t want brands’ friendship, and they think brands should go away.

“Many brands are looking to social media as a strong digital channel to communicate with these consumers, since it’s where 12- to 17-year-olds are spending so much time,” wrote Jacqueline Anderson, Forrester’s Consumer Insights Analyst, who authored the report. “But research shows that it is important to consider more than just consumers’ propensity to use a specific channel. Almost half of 12- to 17-year-olds don’t think brands should have a presence using social tools at all.”

So if you are a brand on Facebook and your target audience is 12-24-years-olds what do you do? One option is to use social media as a listening tool instead of pushing your brand forward. According to Forrester’s report, while 16% of young consumers expect brands to use social media to interact with them, 28% expect those brands to listen to what they say on social sites and get back to them.

That last data point is the key one. Young consumers are basically telling brands, when I interact with you I want you to listen to me and interact with you. I don’t want to interact (friend) a brand that just engages in a one-way conversation with me.