“These things have the capacity to take on a life of their own,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern of the current NBA lockout.

From a marketing perspective, the lockout has put teams in a very difficult situation.  On one hand, teams understand that they may or may not have a product for consumers, yet they still want to remain relevant and engaged with their fans. Finding a balance in the marketing strategy is especially difficult in the social media space.

Interested in how teams were adapting to the lockout, I looked at how all NBA teams used Facebook during this past month (September 4, 2011 – September 24, 2011).  This is what I found:

• The average team is posting 1.047 times per day, down from about 3.5 posts per day during the season
• Over-posting only dilutes the marketing message.  Specifically, the Portland Trail Blazers are posting almost 3.5 times per day, and seeing some of the lowest engagement.
• Fans appreciate creative campaigns that recognize loyalty.  The Clippers have seen great engagement thanks to their ‘Clipper Nation Around the World’ promotion
• Teams that post between 5-7 times per week during the lockout tend to have the most engagement

To account for differences in Facebook following, Engagement was measured as: (“Likes” per post / total page “Likes”) x 10,000