While much of the focus in the sporting fan community has been on the return of the NFL, the build-up to the new NBA season and the MLB post-season, there's also another major North American sport that's of major focus for social media audiences - the National Hockey League (NHL). The Twitter Canada team recently surveyed 1,000 Canadian hockey fans to get a handle on how they use the platform to connect and engage with the sport - and what they found was that NHL fans who are active on Twitter really like hockey. A lot:
- Canadian hockey fans on Twitter are 20% more likely to identify themselves a "super fans" than non-Twitter users.
- NHL fans on Twitter are twice as likely to watch hockey on TV out of home, and more than three times as likely to watch hockey live, in comparison to non-users.
- Canadian hockey fans on Twitter have a greater sense of loyalty to their favourite teams, feel more part of a hockey community and enjoying getting to know their players as "real people".
The stats on NHL fandom amongst Twitter users are somewhat eye-opening, and underline the value of the platform as a key connector between sporting organizations and fans.
Twitter put together an infographic of some of the key data points from their research.