User engagement from within the Twitter community of professional sport organizations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze user engagement from within the Twitter community of professional sport organizations (i.e., social media networks). Design: Utilizing Affinio, a cloud-based social media analytics platform, Twitter network data from four professional sport teams based in Toronto, Canada were extracted and analyzed to determine demographics, relevant interests, and temporal activity of the networks. Findings: Results confirm that these communities are mostly comprised of Millennial users interested in the other Toronto sports teams, rival- or competing- teams, but who engage in social media during non-games time periods. Implications: Given these results, the study posits that to enhance their Twitter community, organizations should refine their relationship marketing strategies accordingly, including reconsidering when they post and activate campaigns, to align with users interests and Twitter peak activity.