Twitter’s NFL Fandom Map Is a Brilliant Piece of Content Marketing

More than any other social media platform, Twitter’s appeal is rooted in #FOMO—that fear of missing out. Global conversations always take place on Twitter, with news, opinions, and jokes breaking there before anywhere else. Be there, or feel left out. Or at least that’s what Twitter’s marketing department wants you to think.

The problem for Twitter is there aren’t a whole lot of news junkies out there. There are, however, tons of sports fans—football fans, in particular. And if Twitter can convince NFL fans they’re missing out if they’re not on stalking their feeds on Sundays, they’ll achieve that long-coveted mainstream growth.

That’s why Twitter’s just-released interactive map of NFL fandom in America is so brilliant. It displays the favorite NFL team for each county in America based on the percentage of people in that county who follow that particular team’s Twitter account. It’s an imprecise measure—and certainly doesn’t account for me hate-following the Philadelphia Eagles—but the map is still fascinating due to its sortable features, like the ability to compare fan bases of two teams across geographical lines.

For example, I grew up in New Jersey, where Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants fandom is split viciously depending on where you live. It’s the Civil War in the Swamp, and relationships get tested during the holidays when I polish off a laundry room full of liquor with my Southern Jersey cousins. (GO GIANTS!)

Still, I’ve always wondered where the exact line between Giants and Eagles fandom lies. Now, I know:

Digging even deeper, I see Mercer County, N.J.—where the Eagles clan in my family lives—is the premiere battleground, with Giants fans edging Eagles fans 23.12 percent to 19.19 percent.

For NFL nerds, another really cool view is seeing the second-favorite team in each county across the U.S. Apparently, the Broncos are the second-favorite team in King County, Wash., home to CenturyLink field and its legion of borderline psychotic Seahawks fans. Then again, that could have just been the result of an increase in hate-follows before last year’s Super Bowl.

Due to my Belieber-esque obsession with the NFL, I could probably write a doctoral thesis about this map. All I can say is you should get ready for Contently’s map of Content Marketing Software Fandom. It’s going to be dope, and you better believe we’re going to do everything we can to beat NewsCred in Kings County.