Audit of NHL Social Media
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By: Zachary Halpert
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The purpose of this audit is to research and evaluate the NHL’s social media platforms to see how they are performing, compare them to other sports organizations, and offer ideas on improving their social media sites. To do this, I researched the six most commonly used social media platforms in the United States: TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. I then compared the information gathered through an Excel spreadsheet attached to this article. Using these comparisons, I was able to determine how the league is performing on various platforms.
Over the various platforms I researched for the NHL, the content that garnered the most interaction varied from site to site. Through my research, I looked at the most recent posts on each of the six platforms to gather an understanding of how each type of post does across the different sites. First off is Instagram. After looking through the posts on Instagram, it is evident that photos, videos, and stat graphics do the best on this site based on the interactions they received. Instagram is also the second highest followed account of the NHL with 6.8 million followers. This entails that the posts on Instagram are among the best of the company’s but also obtain the most views, making them some of the most important for the league. Next was Facebook. It is evident from the posts that the NHL tailors their Facebook to an older generation, which is smart as the average user on Facebook is 35 years old or older. On Facebook, the best posts are pictures and graphics. Thus, the NHL tends to favor these types of posts on their account. After Facebook is the most followed account, X. On X, the NHL has 7.2 million followers, making it the most followed account for the league by 400 thousand. The posts of X are similar to those of Instagram with videos, pictures, and stat graphics. It is also effective when the league is actively tweeting during games with live updates. Next was TikTok, the youngest of the platforms. As expected, the NHL posts various videos on TikTok, the best of which are Q+As and interviews with the players. The NHL tends to favor their content to the younger generations of TikTok, which, with the demographic of the app, makes sense. After that was LinkedIn. This was an odd site to research as it is not your traditional social media. Based on what I saw, the NHL uses this site to post about job openings they have as well as business-oriented accomplishments. LinkedIn is by far the least followed account for the league, with only 187 thousand people following them. Finally, there was YouTube. The NHL posts longer videos on here, the best of which being full game highlights and exciting play compilations. These types of videos are best for those who want to rewatch or catch up on what happened in the games prior, as well as being able to see all the most exciting plays at once.
Observations of Social Care
Now, we’ll shift to focus on how the NHL handles fan engagement and social care. The league receives a variety of fan engagement, including comments across all social media platforms. These comments include a range of things from positive feedback, questions, observations, and criticisms. After doing some research into the recent comments left on the NHL’s posts, I was astonished to find out that they have not responded to a single comment or even liked one. This is a disappointing realization as fan interaction is a major portion of social media. Without engaging with the fans, the league is missing out on a huge market to gain fans or reach the existing ones. Many of the comments I came across were seeking answers to good questions or providing insight into what they would like to see more of on the social media pages. Interacting with this type of content is a way to bring back fans and social media users as they feel as though they are being listened to. It is also a helpful way to mitigate the harmful comments that are also being left, which can ultimately hinder the league. Even more shocking was when I looked at the NFL, MLB, and NBA’s accounts, I saw that they were doing the exact same thing. Now, while it makes it better for the NHL that they are not the only league doing this, it shows a spot to take advantage of. If the NHL were the only team to be responding to comments left, it would give them a higher interaction rate as the fans would feel better about being seen by the league, as well as feeling appreciated. So, the lack of social care is shocking but is an open door for the NHL to be the first of the four major leagues to get into it.
Analysis of Social Media Comments
For this section, I was asked to generate AI ideas on how the league can improve its social media by having it analyze the feedback from fans. For my AI, I chose to use Google Gemini as it is the system I am most familiar with. The question I asked is as follows:
“You are the head of social media and advertising for the NHL. The goal is to look at and analyze consumer-generated content ideas for social media. Evaluate the NHL's accounts on six social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube, and LinkedIn). What ideas for new content do you have based on the information obtained?"
Gemini offered some insight into each platform individually as well as some general key comments about all the platforms. Gemini also provided me with a wide range of topics for consumer-generated content ideas and new content ideas. One idea I saw commonly conveyed across all platforms was player personalities and behind-the-scenes videos. It is evident that these types of videos are effective with the fans, and Gemini offers the idea that the NHL should capitalize on this. Another suggestion from Gemini that I found interesting was live streaming games on YouTube. Although I understand this may not be that plausible due to TV deals and advertising, if they could find a way to do this, I feel as though it would be effective. One of the biggest complaints I hear about the league is the inability to watch all the games. By streaming games that are only on local TV on YouTube, it would allow for a wider range of people to watch the games, which will help grow the sport. Gemini also added the suggestion of using trending sounds on posts for TikTok and Instagram. I find this suggestion to be very helpful for the league. TikTok and Instagram have an algorithm that is more likely to suggest posts to people that use sounds that are trending or that they like often. By using these sounds, the odds of showing up on an existing fan or random user of the app’s feed is much higher, allowing for more fan interaction and the ability to grow the game. I also saw two suggestions that would help to increase fan engagement with the page and make the fans feel seen by the league. The first is live Q&As with the fans. This one would allow the fans to interact directly with the players and coaches, as well as get the answers from them that they want, not the random answers from the media. The second was showcasing fan-created content. There is not one way to do this, but one idea would be to post fan art, videos, and photos. This would allow the fans to feel seen by the league and also have their work appreciated. While the league should not just post everything sent their way, as they still have a reputation to sustain, they can post some of the impressive work that gets sent into them. These ideas would hopefully help increase fan interaction as well as grow the game in the United States to compete more with the other major sports.
Closing
Overall, the NHL’s social media is run thoroughly and gets the job done as far as a sports organization’s page should. From my time researching the NHL’s social media, I have learned the nature of posts on each social media site, the various ways an organization can obtain fan interaction, and the general audience each site brings in. Each social media site has its own post type, from TikTok being all short videos to Instagram having practically whatever one could dream of, but not every type of post is effective on each. It is important to do research into how each type of post performs on each site and figure out which fits your brand the best. I also realized that fan interaction comes in more ways than just likes and comments; polls and live streams also allow for it. While not everything is going to work for each organization, trying new things is helpful to gain interaction. I also learned that each site has its own audience; while TikTok favors the younger generations, Facebook favors the older ones, and it is important to know this so you can tailor your posts to those demographics. From other brands, I have learned that the NHL lacks in post variety, low engagement numbers, and lack of opportunity for fan engagement. Other major sports leagues in the United States have a much higher variety of posts on their page, which makes it much more interesting to scroll through their posts, while the NHL starts to feel stale after a little bit. The NHL also does not gain as many engagements as the other leagues, which makes it a little brother to the other leagues. Finally, the league needs to offer more fan engagement opportunities, whether it be on their story or their posts. Fans want to feel engaged, but the league lacks in that aspect. All in all, the NHL’s social media is strong but still has areas in which it could improve and grow to become fully even with the other major sports leagues in the United States.