Identifying influential users of college sports teams’ social media accounts

This study tried to identify the influential users of college sports teams’ Twitter accounts and categorize them into three groups including an official account, media account, and layperson account. A total of 14 Twitter accounts at NCAA Division 1 universities were selected through convenience sampling method. In men’s sports, the greatest number of influential users was layperson account followed by media account and official account. In women’s sports, the greatest number of influential users was layperson account followed by official account and media account. The results provided the insight of college sports online social network and will expand the growing literature on social media in sport and offer practical data for marketers to use social media more effectively.