Auditing the NHL’s Social Media
By Ben Prantl
The National Hockey League (NHL) is the biggest and most popular hockey league in the world. It’s also one of the most popular sports leagues in the United States, called the “Big 4.”
For a league so large and so dear to many fans, it is in a dire situation. It’s consistently becoming less popular as Major League Soccer threatens its spot among the Big 4, and the audience for the game remains disappointing for its potential.
The NHL's Instagram account has 6.5 million followers, which ranks last among the Big 4, and is only 2 million followers north of MLS, which is seeing a boost in the US due to shifting demographics and an influx of foreign stars.
The NHL’s content is the same across its social media platforms, with the obvious exceptions of Tiktok hosting only videos and not still-image graphics. The majority of its content is focused on generating hype and excitement for the on-ice product, which remains elite and is improving year after year.
The most recent post asked who fans think will win the President’s Trophy, the award for the best regular-season team. The post has 275 comments on Instagram. The only recent post close in comments is the Super 16, a weekly power rankings. These posts will continue to get fan engagement and debate, as well as get people excited to talk about the elite teams.
While the NHL is struggling to build up its social media dominance, it is thriving, relatively, on TikTok. The League has only 2.7 million followers, which isn’t great, but it does have 91.1 million likes on the app.
The NHL is constantly trying to reach a younger audience, which is a big reason behind its collaboration with content creators at events like the All-Star Game. To have 91.1 million likes on the most popular app among young people is a major strength.
The NHL has to find a way to convert the viewer who stumbles across a post, most likely a highlight video of some play made by Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, or Auston Matthews, into a more avid fan. That doesn’t mean season ticket holder, but maybe someone who is more likely to watch on tv or attend a couple games.
The potential is there for the NHL on TikTok.
Consider MLB on TikTok, while they have 415.6 million likes, they have 7.2 million followers. That’s .577 likes per follower. The NHL has 33.74 likes per follower. So if the NHL can better market its product, on the ice and on social media, it could see a vast uptick in success.
Even the NBA, the NHL’s chief winter-sport rival, averages 23.4 likes per follower, despite having just under 10 times the amount of followers the NHL does.
The NHL needs to also lean into marketing the on-ice product. They, smartly, had commercials earlier in the season showing that the game is getting faster, more exciting, and more skillful. The NHL needs to focus more on posting highlights of the better players, especially when great players like Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and the entire Vancouver Canucks team, play out west and have start times from 9 to 10 p.m. eastern time.
The League can’t afford to have such great stars and not market them to the fullest extent possible. Social media is a great way to do that. It’s easy to blow up on TikTok with a McDavid highlight, and we all know there’s no shortage of those.
For a more in-depth view of the NHL’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats on social media, check out this audit I did.