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Social Media Is A Huge Advantage For Duke Basketball

This is rather eye-popping

By JD King
ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament - Second Round
After he committed to Duke, Jeremy Roach said social media was a major factor in his decision. Expect more of that with NIL.
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

We’ve talked before about how Duke social media is away ahead of everyone else, but even so, we didn’t realize just how far ahead it was.

Take a look at this chart posted on Twitter. Duke is way, way ahead of everyone else on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. The total for all three sites is 1,696,318. The runner up is Kentucky at 474,526.

We’re not going to check the math, but someone posted that Duke has more interactions than the next six sites combined.

This would be a big deal under any circumstance, but with the dawn of the NIL era, it’s a very big deal. It will translate into a lot of opportunities for Duke basketball players and, conceivably, for other Duke teams as well.

Take a look at the other schools on here, specifically the top 11 teams.

  1. Duke
  2. Kentucky
  3. Michigan State
  4. Maryland
  5. UNC
  6. Kansas
  7. Ohio State
  8. Villanova
  9. Purdue
  10. Texas
  11. Gonzaga

We’re sure UK gets national traffic, but the intensity of BBN is focused in-state. We’d bet that the only other team in the list to get as much traffic nationally as in-state is Gonzaga.

The population of Spokane is around 217,000. Spokane County is around 500,000.

For comparison purposes, the population of the metro DC area is 5,378,000. The population of Los Angeles County is around 10 million and UCLA is only #15 here.

Durham County is around 321,000.

As we’ve mentioned before, Duke started really pumping its social media presence when it felt the national media was ripping the program so often that it couldn't get a fair shake and figured it was better off telling its own story. That strategy has clearly paid off on the basic level of changing the perception of Duke Basketball. Now it may pay off more directly for guys who play for Duke as they leverage that massive presence into immediate financial reward.

This importance of this should not be underestimated as Duke’s coaching transition picks up steam, nor should the youth of the emerging staff. It’s all likely to work in Duke’s favor.

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