The follow up - to see which clubs are promoting themselves on facebook -
Important note - if you think facebook and social networking is rubbish, please feel free to keep your worthless comments to yourself and I will refrain from pointing out your stupidity in doing so on a social networking site.
Now to the numbers
NRL Clubs:
Broncos - 225,419 (up 42% since April) - gained 66,397
Note: biggest sports league club in Australian on facebook beating Collingwood Magpies by about 55,000
Storm - 118,811 (up 69%) - gained 48,661
Note: bigger than the Swans by about 45,000
Titans - 85,651 (up 30%) - gained 19,570
Eels - 73,709 (up 190%) - shot up 8 places - gained 48,372
Note: this is because the Eels previous facebook marketing attempts were woeful. What's really interesting though is that the Eels & Bulldogs are neck and neck now
Bulldogs - 70,789 (up 22%) - overtaken by the Eels - gained 12,576
Rabbitohs - 65,117 (up 49%) - gained 21,425
Tigers - 64,802 (up 32%) - gained 15,675
Dragons - 60,460 (up 48%) - gained 19,635
Sea Eagles - 54,440 (up 63%) - gained 20,941
Knights - 45,121 (up 39%) - gained 12,645
Roosters - 43,721 (up 20%) - gained 7,394
Warriors - 42,751 (up 260%) - gained 30,883 - however there was some conjecture that previously the Warriors fans were split over multiple pages, now it seems they've combined
Cowboys - 21,195 (up 59%) - gained 7,839 - however it should be noted that there's an interest page with 32,848 likes
Sharks - 31,984 (up 37%) - gained 8,680
Panthers - 29,454 (up 53%) - gained 10,171
Raiders - 12,401 (up 53%) - gained 4,287
Broncos, Storm, Eels, Titans, Rabbitohs, Dragons, Sea Eagles & Warriors - all showing how it should be done
Raiders, Roosters, Cowboys - woeful
That said here's an interesting comparison -
Total for the 16 NRL Clubs - 1,045,825 (52% increase)
Total for the 18 AFL Clubs - 1,148,967
Difference - 103,142
Take away the Suns & Giants - the difference is only - 64,837
You can treat facebook a bit like a survey poll. Keep in mind that there are about 12.4 million users across Australia & New Zealand - so it's actually bigger than any other survey you'll ever get on the subject.
What's clear is that the level of support for the AFL & NRL is actually rather close. It roughly equates to about 40-50% of the total population for both.
The NRL itself is now at 392,147 (30% gain) - the highest for any sporting code.
NSW Blues - 201,363 (76% gain)
QLD Maroons - 328,942 (41% gain)
Super League - 39,134 (19% gain) - absolutely woeful
Kiwis - 78,509 (49% gain)
Kangaroos - 42,441 (108% gain) - finally!
All Stars - 11,974 (88% gain but honestly it's from a small base)
Indigenous - 18,911 (53% gain - this is the team that should have about 60,000)
4 Nations - 17,909 (68% - again this is marketed poorly, it's illogical to have 120,000 national supporters and only 18,000 for the comp itself)
Kumuls - 7,007 (29%)
Toyota Cup - 9,752 (83%)
CRL - 4,830 (53%)
Bears - 26,232 (8% gain) - they seem to have slowed considerably
WA Reds - 1,930 (240%) - way too low
Brisbane Bombers - 592 - this seems to have fizzled
