Michigan football, thanks in large part to Jim Harbaugh, is the Big Ten king of social media — with close to 5 million online followers.
If you follow me.
Actually, odds are much more likely that you follow @CoachJim4UM.
The wacky Wolverine head coach has over 2.17 million followers on Twitter, tops in the Big Ten Conference. Ohio State Buckeyes boss Urban Meyer’s @OSUCoachMeyer is No. 2, at 1.97 million.
(Meyers’ wife Shelley — find her as @SpinnerShells — has over 34,000 Twitter followers. That’s more than six of the 14 Big Ten head coaches.)
Penn State’s James Franklin, he of We Are…Better and #107k fame, is No. 3 among Big Ten head coaches. CJF arrived in Happy Valley in January 2014 with about 30,000 followers from his days as @James FranklinVU, and now has more than 226K followers as @CoachJFranklin.
Overall, Michigan football has a total of almost 4.8 million social media followers — just about the same number as the followers of Ohio State (3.48 million) and Penn State (1.475 million) combined. These figures count each head coach’s Twitter followers.
In addition to Harbaugh’s Twitter followers, Michigan football’s official Twitter account has 852,000 followers — the most in the Big Ten. Michigan football’s official Facebook page has 1.62 million “likes,” also No. 1 in the conference. The Wolverines’ official football Instagram account isn’t nearly as strong, with 149,000 followers, fourth overall in the conference.
Penn State football’s official Twitter account has 353,000 followers, third behind Michigan and Michigan State’s 402,000. Penn State’s official Facebook page is also third, with more than 694,000 likes, behind No. 1 Michigan and No. 2 Ohio State’s 743,315. Penn State’s football Instagram account is No. 2 in the Big Ten, at 202,000, followed by Michigan State at 153,000. Curiously, Michigan State’s official football Facebook page has just 1,626 likes. (Could this be a reboot, possibly related to the Nassar scandal?)
HEAD COACHES WHO DON’T GIVE A TWEET
All of this and more is from an audit I did this weekend of each of the 14 Big Ten Conference football programs’ official and verified accounts for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as the Twitter account for each football team’s head coach.
Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, the longest-tenured major college football coach in America — Kansas State’s Bill Snyder has been a head coach longer but with a hiatus (during which time, ironically enough, Franklin was an assistant there) — does not have a Twitter account. There is an unverified account that purports to be Paul Chryst of the University of Wisconsin. @PaulChrystWISC identifies itself as the “University of Wisconsin Head Football Coach,” has 371 followers (I was No. 371) and follows just two accounts — the official Wisconsin account and that of Melvin Gordon.
It’s almost in the DNA of Iowa and Wisconsin football (or, in the latter case, of Badger AD Barry Alvarez) that their head coaches don’t Tweet. Vice versa for Michigan and Ohio State. The cult of the head coach personality at those two schools is very much reflected in their social media numbers.
For the Buckeyes’ big four social media accounts, Meyer’s Twitter followers represent 57% of the overall Ohio State football social media contingent, while Harbaugh’s Twitter followers make up a robust 45% of the Michigan followers. Franklin’s Twitter followers comprise just over 15% of Penn State’s total social media followers, ranking him ninth in that category. Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald (36%) and Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck (35%) bring in over a third of their football teams’ social media followers.
DM THE TORPEDOES
Of course, the public “follows” are only half of the picture.
A strong case can be made that Franklin, more than any other Big Ten coach, makes the best use of his Twitter account. In the history of his account, Franklin has Tweeted publicly more than any other Big Ten head coach; Fitzgerald is No. 2 at 6,475 Tweets. Harbaugh has Tweeted just 961 times, while Meyer — the head coach — has Tweeted 2,382 times. Meyer — the wife — is a Twitter machine, with nearly 36,000 career Tweets.
Among Big Ten head coaches, Fleck is the relationship king, as he follows 3,656 people, Franklin is second, at 2,420. Harbaugh follows 713 people, while Urban follows just 268 (like husband, like wife: Shelly follows only 291).
Following helps in recruiting, especially. CJF is a master at the DM — to recruits, families, supporters, his legion of contacts and even the media. In his case, the Franklin direct pipeline provides quality and quantity.
The overall numbers also reflect where Penn State excels at social media. Its in-house recruiting staff is stocked with expert communicators, staffers and graphic designers who know how to effectively use Twitter to publicly — and privately — send messages to impressionable high school recruits. (Like earlier this week, when a LinkedIn survey found that Penn State ranks No. 2 overall in graduating students who go on to become CEOs — just behind Stanford, and ahead of Wharton and Harvard. Details here.)
Of course, you could take all of this with a Tweet of salt. After all, neither Nick Saban of Alabama nor Dabo Swinney of Clemson — head coaches of the past two national champions — has a Twitter account. At least that’s what Bryan Colangelo told me.
THE NUMBERS
Here’s a breakdown of the social media followers of all 14 Big Ten football programs. Numbers are current as of Sunday afternoon, and include only verified accounts. Facebook numbers are based on “likes.”
