Who won the social media March Madness bracket? Demand shifters for Twitter followers

Social media has become an essential set of platforms for sport teams and organizations to engage, interact, and connect with their fan bases. From an analytic approach to fan demand for sport tournaments, the authors examined the demand shifters motivating fans to follow social media accounts within the context of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Men's Basketball Championship. Changes in the number of followers of participating teams’ Twitter accounts were tracked daily during the tournament as a proxy for fan interest and demand. Independent variables regarding game performance, previous performance, and school performance were analyzed in a regression model. The findings indicated that, during the tournament, fans' social media following behavior was different from the behavior during the regular season games. Further, there were shifts in fans’ social media following behavior in the advanced rounds compared to earlier rounds in a tournament setting. A tournament setting has certain unique attributes that can arouse new consumers' interests, and thus practitioners can tailor their content to appeal to fans, increase follower interaction and reach, and provide better content to maintain the followership gains moving forward, using tournament settings.