In Wake of Questionable Call, NFL Social Media Sentiment Plunges
By Rob Scott
September 27, 2012
September 27, 2012
- Since the questionable call by replacement referees in the final moments of Monday night’s Seahawks-Packers game, the National Football League has been taking a beating on Twitter.
- “According to social media firm NetBase, the NFL’s negative sentiment rating during the last 24 hours has come in at 76 percent,” reported Adweek at 2:30 PM ET on Tuesday, “compared to 27 percent it averaged this month through September 23. The data-point entails millions of messages on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other sites.”
- Despite increasing negative sentiment noted around terms such as “NFL” and “refs,” league officials suggest they are more concerned about TV ratings than social media chatter.
- But with everyone from players to President Obama posting frustrated tweets in response, experts are divided as to whether the NFL will be able to keep ignoring angry Twitter users.
- “While social media helps cultivate and expose the amount of frustration, the reality is, the NFL brand is so strong, it is unlikely we will see a negative backlash of fan support in the coming weeks,” says Ken Wisnefski, CEO of WebiMax.
- “I agree that it is a major mistake to have a wrong call especially in this fashion, thus there is an opportunity for the League and [NFL commissioner] Goodell to express their support for the quality of the product and work to resolve this immediately,” he adds.
2 Comments
The NFL issued a statement on Tuesday morning indicating it supports the decision not to overturn the call. Whether or not social media played a role in the pressure to respond, it’s clear that many fans quickly turned to Twitter to voice frustration. I doubt it will impact football viewership (especially since an agreement to end the referee lockout was reached last night), but it’s interesting to think about what other scenarios might result in such a social response — and whether there will be real-world impact.
The NFL issued a statement on Tuesday morning indicating it supports the decision not to overturn the call. Whether or not social media played a role in the pressure to respond, it’s clear that many fans quickly turned to Twitter to voice frustration. I doubt it will impact football viewership (especially since an agreement to end the referee lockout was reached last night), but it’s interesting to think about what other scenarios might result in such a social response — and whether there will be real-world impact.
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