ACC Twitter Stats

7/27/2009 7:29:41 PM For absolutely no reason, I researched the popularity of ACC basketball coaches based solely on their number of Twitter followers.  This is a post that could only be written in July. Here are the results in order of popularity:

Roy Williams (UNC) 2956 followers

Gary Williams (MD) 2495 followers

Seth Greenberg (VaTech) 1643 followers

Oliver Purnell (Clemson): 854 followers

Dino Gaudio (WF) 364 followers

Sidney Lowe (NCSU) 261 followers

Leonard Hamilton (FSU) 198 followers

Frank Haith (Miami): 0 followers

Al Skinner (BC) 0 followers

Tony Bennett (UVA) 0 followers

Mike Krzyzewski (Duke)  0 followers

Here is what kills me. If you add up all of the coaches in the ACC; the number of followers totals less than 7000.  Yet, Kentucky's Coach John Calipari has close to 500,000 followers.  How is that possible?  Calipari's twitter base is nearly 100 times greater than the entire ACC!  Sure, not having Coach K hurts the ACC; but at the very least, you'd think guys like Coach Roy Williams and Coach Gary Williams would come closer. Calipari's popularity is mind blowing.

One cannot argue that it is the popularity of Kentucky basketball that explains the disparity.  After all, the UNC Tarheels are reigning National Champions. I suppose Kentucky has a national following; but it pales in comparison to UNC.  Given the Terps' proximity to major population centers, I'd think Gary would be doing a little better.

I guess it comes down to frequency of tweets.  Roy Williams has "tweeted" 28 times.  Gary  Williams, 124. Calipari has tweeted over 750 times since he created his account.  I dislike Calipari.  I think he is crooked thief who is lowering the ethics bar of the NCAA every day. But, I will give him this: he is a marketer.  The man is the NCAA's Twitter King.

I'm not about to declare that developing a Twitter follower base is essential to the success of a basketball coach or, by extension the success of his program; but it warrants monitoring.

Having close to 500,000 followers is a significant acheivement.  Calipari's high profile brethren have either not adopted the medium (see Coach K) or are lingering with stats that sit at mortal levels.  Will Calipari cultivate his Twitter base and use it as a marketing tool to connect with recruits?

Twitter may be a passing fancy, but Calipari's early adoption solidifies his standing as a young, hip, and energetic coach.  I could think of a few programs that could use an injection of hip-ness.
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