Women’s basketball is a real tweet!

NEWCASTLE (Paul Nilsen’s Women’s Basketball Worldwide) – If you want to debate who is the best women’s player in the world, statistics will normally form part of the judgement. When it comes to the most popular player, the number of twitter followers they have is perhaps the best starting point of this new social media age – and with this in mind, you should be prepared to be astonished.

Well, I assume you will be, because I certainly was. I recently joined forces with www.lovewomensbasketball.com to head into the ‘Twittersphere’ to undertake research in a bid to analyse who are the most successful players, coaches and clubs in attracting followers.

And, it proved to be a real eye-opener, even when taking into account the obvious caveats about some players not having accounts, how long they have had them, how often they post, and whether they ever post anything of interest on them.

Whilst it may not come as a surprise to some of you, I was stunned when I found out just how much two players stood head and shoulders above everyone else.

I was not shocked that Candace Parker was one of them and with almost twice as many followers as third place Lauren Jackson who has 86,000 hanging on her every tweet. But, I was stunned when Parker was actually revealed as not only being in second place with 165,000 followers, but second because of a College player in the form of Skylar Diggins who has almost double the number of Parker at a whopping 283,000!

Yep, with her stellar basketball skills and so-called ‘Hollywood looks,’ Diggins certainly has mass broad appeal, and you could argue that her number of followers is a great case study of the way commercial sponsorship and endorsements of women player’s is set to evolve.

Previously, endorsements would generally be attached to who the best players were. But, at almost 300,000 followers before bouncing a ball in the pro-game, I am guessing the endorsements are being lined up like ducks in a row for Diggins.

After all, there is tangible evidence that this is one seriously popular baller. Well actually, there is an argument that suggests she is THE most popular women’s basketball player in the world – regardless of whether all her followers are solely admirers of her on-court attributes.

As the relationships and dynamics of social media, endorsements and general interaction of players evolves yet further, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out and whether agents and publicists will spend more and more time on this side of things. I guess it has become a no-brainer.

The fourth place position of Galatasaray and Turkish national team guard Isil Alben shows just how much she has been ahead of the game with this. She has show that even in a relatively localised market, just what kind of inroads can be made into raising your own profile.

It’s fascinating stuff, and opens up many other potential avenues of research and debate which should be of more value than our quick and crude assessment.

Of course you can be sure that in women’s locker rooms around the world, there will be open competitions and fun between team-mates as to who can get the most followers, whether it be in the thousands or hundreds. And, that’s maybe where it starts and ends - other than for the likes of Parker and Diggins where this data is (or will be) a potential bargaining chip with commercial entities.

Anyway, we have probably missed some (hopefully not too many) but you may be interested in the findings below *. But just finally, @euroleaguewomen and also @lovewomensbball would remind you of the old adage about having quality and not quantity. We obviously both have more discerning followers and just don’t appeal to the lowest common denominator – or at least that is what we tell ourselves!

Most popular player
Skylar Diggins @SkyDigg4 283,218
Candace Parker @Candace_Parker 165,279
Lauren Jackson@laurenej15 85,638
Isil Alben @isilalben10 82,855
Maya Moore @MooreMaya 80,972

Most popular college player
Skylar Diggins @SkyDigg4 283,218
Caroline Doty @cdoty5 9,518
Natalie Achonwa @NatAchon 5,487
Elena Delle Donne @De11eDonne 3,735
Breanna Stewart @bre_stewart30 3,099

Most popular ex-player
Lisa Leslie @LisaLeslie 57,000
Rebecca Lobo @RebeccaLobo 23,914
Ticha Penicheiro @TichaPenicheiro 12,071

Most popular female coach
Pat Summit @patsummitt 47,050
Dawn Staley @dawnstaley 8,908
Kim Mulkey @KimMulkey 7,835

Most popular women’s club (excluding Galatasaray and Fenerbahce)
Los Angeles Sparks @LA_Sparks 20,262
Minnesota Lynx @minnesotalynx 13,635
Seattle Storm @seattlestorm 1,1625

*As at mid-December 2012

Paul Nilsen

FIBA

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