Social Media Audit: The National Hockey League (NHL)
By Dylan Fister
Lineup of hockey players preparing for the 2023 NHL All-Star Game
The NHL’s content across social media platforms demonstrates varying levels of success and engagement with viewers depending on the type of content shared and the platforms the content is pushed on. The NHL often uses the same or similar promotional posts, highlight videos, and other graphics across multiple platforms, garnering different levels of success. Certain content produced by NHL, however, is specifically curated to the platform it is being pushed on.
On Instagram and TikTok, short-form videos, particularly Reels, consistently being larger in reach compared to traditional posts. Videos including player highlights and game-day hype videos are highly engaging with fans. The most engaging videos take place behind-the-scenes, where teams from around the league interview players with personal questions, fun games, and trending topics. Mic’d-up moments, and locker-room content have proven to be the most engaging forms of content across the short form video platforms. Other popular short form content exists on the NHL’s Twitter account. Real-time engagement such as game updates and highlight clips drive strong fan interactions on the platform.
The national hockey league’s facebook engagement is generally lower compared to other platforms, but video content, especially highlights and nostalgic throwbacks, performs well. Facebook posts seem to resonate with the older hockey fan demographic who may enjoy longer-form content in revolving around topics of team history. This type of content can also be found on the NHL’s official YouTube channel. With a more consistent posting schedule required for success on YouTube, the NHLs channel is home to a variety of both long and short form content. The channel’s highest viewed videos consist of 2-3-minute highlight reels and game recaps. On the other hand, the most consistently viewed, engaged with, and shared content involves short form reels including a variety of content types.
The types of comments inquiries the NHL receive cover a wide range of topics and emotions. From general questions about promotions, sales, or events, to angry fans taking their post-game feelings to the NHL twitter page, the league deals with a wide range of engagement. Along with real time game reactions, fans comment on specific player performances, stats, injuries, or trade rumors. These questions are typically seen on Twitter as well as Instagram. Furthermore, fans often ask where they can buy specific jerseys, hats, or other NHL-branded items. This is most common on Facebook and Instagram, particularly when a team releases new merchandise or launches a special promotion. On more personal platforms like Instagram and TikTok, commenters may request duets, comments, autographs, or shoutouts from the league and its best players.
The NHL maintains a consistent brand voice and tone across different social media platforms while adapting to the platform’s specific culture. For example, their tone on LinkedIn uses professional language, while on TikTok and Instagram, they may lean into more casual, entertaining, and friendly. Twitter is a very difficult place for sports leagues to navigate. The NHL tends to avoid responding to certain types of criticism and controversial tweets, as engaging in these discussions could be damaging to the brand. By engaging with fans in a way that reinforces excitement for the sport rather than controversy, the national hockey league can maintain a professional and controlled online presence.
The reviews and comments from users on NHL content pages highlight the company’s ability to optimize their seasonal events in a variety of ways across their platforms. Recent events in hockey, like the 4 Nations tournament provide the NHL with fan-favorite content that can resonate with a wide range of audiences. The posts surrounding affairs like the 4 Nations Face-Off provide a wide range of data to observe, with comment sections across all platforms filled with rival fans, excited viewers, and hockey lovers of all ages. Analyzing this feedback allows for growth in other areas of the NHL’s platforms.
After submitting the comment sections through ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence generated ideas, trends, and future opportunities that were pointed about by commenters. Many comments focusing on the upcoming tournament are directed at rival nations, their players, and fans. The high-quality production of the NHL’s 4 Nations “mini doc” brought many positive and enthusiastic comments from viewers. Fans highly appreciate the production, indicating that the NHL's ability to create engaging, visually dynamic content enhances utilizing modern editing.
There’s a clear demand for more content similar to the 4 Nations mini-doc, with users calling for more of this high-quality, storytelling-driven content. One very influential trend came from users and their strong attachments to both the Canada and USA teams. Commenters would appreciate content that dives deeper into tournaments, rivalries, and key players.
After conducting the social media audit of the NHL accounts, there are.3 key takeaways with corresponding recommendations to improve the league’s presence online. Firstly, short-form videos and reels have the most consistent and engaging reach of all the platform’s content. The league should lean into these videos on all of their platforms, specifically YouTube, an NHL account that lacks consistency and has room to grow in the reels category. Secondly, behind-the-scenes, Mic'd-up moments, and locker-room content perform the best in terms of content. TikTok is home to some of the NHL’s highest viewed videos ever, showcasing player personalities behind the scenes. As TikTok grows the NHL should grow with it and continue to make sure each team is investing in experienced and innovative social media teams. Lastly, there is more room to grow on Facebook, where engagement is significantly lower compared to other platforms. To improve the engagement and viewership on Facebook, the NHL should lean into the success they have found in long form video content that focuses on team history and storytelling to resonate with the older demographic found on the site.
As a competitor league, the National Football league has capitalized on many of the opportunities the NHL is now faced with. The NFL has become notorious on apps TikTok and Instagram for post-practice interviews with players from social media managers and interns. The NFL should integrate this type of short-form video success onto all its platforms. Also, the NFL successfully engages fans year-round, even during the offseason, through events like the Draft, free agency updates, and team training content. To keep this content fresh, the league should invest in more offseason storylines, like upcoming athletes and player come backs. Lastly, the NFL excels in brand and influencer partnerships, however, it is important that they use analytics to make sure they push the correct content to the right demographics. In an internet landscape with a wide variety of NFL fans, there are many demographics to cater to when pushing company partnerships.
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