In this day and age, social media has taken over the
internet. It is one thing if a team is doing great in the season but if they do
not connect with fans (especially through social media) how can the fans stay
connected and build a following around their team? So, I got to thinking…why don’t
I rank all of the teams twitter accounts? This is based on my opinions but I
did take these three things into account: Substance, Uniqueness and fan involvement.
Keep in mind that some of these accounts do not have designated personnel running them. This results in most of the same tweets being posted on different accounts.
#8 Tampa Bay Vipers
When it comes to the Tampa Bay vipers Twitter page, all I can really say is there just wasn’t much there. Most of their tweets were simply replying to or retweeting the XFL tweets. It lacks substance and originality. There was a little bit of community outreach such as giving the Tampa Bay Fire Department merchandise for the team but they were very limited in their fan interaction.
The comments sections on their tweets were fairly dry as well. They have just over 12.2k followers (which is 6th out of all XFL Twitter accounts if we are going by most followers). As you will see as we move through this list, the amount of followers matters very little in this list.
#7 Dallas Renegades
In recent weeks, Dallas has really stepped up their Twitter game. If it wasn’t for that they would be at the bottom of the list. It has slightly more fan involvement compared to Tampa Bay. For example, telling fans about meet and greets that will be taking place, interviews about the XFL with their head coach Bob Stoops as well as interacting with other teams in the Dallas area such as the Texas Rangers.
They are on the right track but have to be more active. They are ranked second in followers with 16.2k but there are other teams that have significantly smaller fan followings on Twitter that perform much better on the platform.
#6 New York Guardians
In the late part of August, the Guardians were doing everything right in the social media sphere. You saw their head coach Kevin Gilbride visiting MetLife Stadium and making an appearance at the New York City Football Club. You saw their own unique post about Labor Day instead of retweeting the one the XFL twitter page posted, a local Diner making a sandwich specifically for the Guardians (which looked amazing I might add) and a remembrance post for September 11th, 2001.
So, you might be wondering why they ranked 6th on this list? They have hardly posted for the month of September. The last time they posted was on September 18th. That’s something that can kill the social media. They rank 5th in followers with 12.3k but if they had continued to be active throughout the month of September as they were in August this number could have been considerably higher.
#5 Houston Roughnecks
For the Roughnecks, they lack fan involvement but make up for it with considerable involvement in the community. Head coach June Jones has definitely been busy as of late. He threw out the first pitch at a Houston Astros game and then 3 days later fired the cannon known as El Capitan at the beginning of a Houston Dynamo game.
While also reaching out and making friends with other Houston sports teams on social media by wishing them luck for games. The Roughneck coaches also made a special visit to Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center to drop off merchandise and visit with vets. This is the type of stuff you want to see a team post on social media. Sure the fan interactions aren’t where they could be but the account definitely has more substance than the previous two teams mentioned. The Roughnecks rank 3rd in Twitter followers with 14.7K. An improvement in the interactions with fans could propel them higher up on this list in the future.
#4 St. Louis BattleHawks
This one may surprise you when you look at the statistics on followers that the BattleHawks ranked 1st with 21.7k. So how are they just fourth on this list? They are involved with the community such as making an appearance at a local High School’s football game and hosting multiple happy hours where fans could talk to the president Kurt Hunzeker, and much more.
They’re doing multiple events each week in order to interact with fans and the community while also connecting with other sports teams in the St. Louis area such as the St. Louis Blues. It’s something you really like to see and shows they truly care about their fans. However, similar to the New York Guardians, their frequency in posting has dropped in recent weeks. If this hadn’t been the case, you could make a strong argument that this team deserved to be number one on this list.
#3 Los Angeles Wildcats
The Los Angeles Wildcats Twitter mostly focuses on their head coach Winston Moss… This is not a bad thing at all. The man is filled with so much life and energy it makes you excited to seem them this February even if you’re not a Wildcats fan.
A couple of weeks ago they had a Q&A with Coach Moss which was honestly pretty entertaining which is what you want to see on social media. They are constantly plugging interviews with Coach Moss and their president Heather Brooks Karatz. They’re interacting with other sports teams in the area such as the LA Sparks and the Los Angeles Rams.
Aside from that, they are also connecting with fans through in occasional Twitter poll, posting wallpapers for fans to download on Wallpaper Wednesday and post highlights from the most recent meet and greets so even if you didn’t get to attend you still feel like you didn’t miss the action. The most shocking thing about their Twitter account is that it ranks dead last with followers at almost 9.5k! This is arguably one of the best XFL Twitter pages and they definitely deserve a follow.
#2 Seattle Dragons
One thing I really like about the Seattle Dragons Twitter page is how they are really trying to make a connection to the people of Seattle. The Seattle sports fan known as Big Lo has made multiple appearances in pictures and videos on their page and has even made a chant for the Dragons.
The Twitter page really embraces its identity. Even on a post about National Pancake Day, National Video Game Day and the Storming of Area 51 they consistently related back to their team name. Their outreach in the community has been tremendous so far. Head coach Jim Zorn recently went out to T-Mobile park to throw out the first pitch for the Mariners game. On the other hand, Team President Ryan Gustafson has a weekly segment known as A Seat At The Table where he informs Seattle fans about a certain topic each week such as when season ticket holders will be able to pick out tickets and how they will staff teams.
They also post occasional pieces of street art and sculptures around Seattle that incorporate dragons which I think is something very unique and adds more substance to their page. However, even with a great social media presence, they only have 13.2k followers on Twitter. I will be honest, they deserve way more.
#1 DC Defenders
I honestly don’t know where to begin with the DC Defenders. Sure the BattleHawks, Wildcats, and Dragons all had a pretty good presence on Twitter but DC takes the cake. Let’s start off first with their activity. They average roughly two to three posts a day which calls for fan interaction.
Examples of this include them asking fans to reply to tweets with how excited they are for the season, incorporating internet memes into promoting their brand and releasing unique videos about how coach Pep Hamilton is helping coach his son’s middle school team. It really helps connect the fans to the team in a way we haven’t seen with any of the other Twitter accounts. Also, they are constantly supporting Washington DC sports teams such as the Washington Spirit, Washington Nationals and the Washington Mystics.
If you go to these Twitter pages and you look at them you will see that most of them post the same stuff with a little bit of variation such as the contest to win tickets to each team’s home opener and to buy merch. The DC Defenders Twitter page, however, has more uniqueness in the variations than other XFL teams.
They also have their own version of wallpaper Wednesday and are consistently reaching out to the community. They travel around DC and promote the city and the team through pictures. It’s crazy to think they only have 11.7k followers which rank second to last of all XFL teams. They are doing everything a sports social media page should do to engage with fans.
Once again, this list is based solely on my opinions but I would like to extend the question out to you. Which XFL team’s social media do you think is best? Let us know below because this is the XFL where its Fans Above All.
ProAR13
October 3, 2019 at 1:06 am
Going to have to give it the Defenders. Like the jab at the Dragons.
Joe
October 3, 2019 at 5:56 pm
I live in Washington and I can’t wait for the XFL as the Redskins are a
dumpster fire. I would love for the Defenders to challenge the Redskins
to an off season exhibition game as I’m sure the Redskins would scoff at because they would probably fear losing to them. That’s how bad it is for our once
proud franchise. I also look forward to an actual football team playing
in Washington, D.C. vs. Maryland. Hail to the Defenders!
Arch
October 4, 2019 at 9:00 am
Gotta go w DC. Personally I think the Guardians are gonna be my favorite team (was an Art major in college and that logo is SICK), DC’s Twitter feed is funny as hell. That last one you posted of them telling the Dragons to “Come and get your mans” had my rolling 😀