VAFA Twitter Ladder 2014

Who is top of the pops when it comes to Twitter followers in the VAFA? It’s the third annual VAFA Twitter ladder.
We started this in 2012 as an interest point to see where clubs were at with their use of social media and in particular Twitter. With the top four unchanged in the first two editions, we finally have a change to our podium places

Fitzroy again finish 2014 on top of the VAFA Twitter ladder with 1813* followers of their @Fitzroy_FC account. Old Xaverians have closed the gap slightly to the Roys and have also become the second VAFA club to pass the 1000 follower mark, they are again second with 1044 following @OldXavsFC.

The big movers of 2014 were no doubt the two premiers of Premier and Premier B. Taking third spot was University Blacks (@UniBlacksFC) with 661 who edged out University Blues (@UniBluesFC) on 617.
The surprise drop away from the top three is Hampton Rovers, but they do round out the top five. The Rovers do lead everyone above them for the number of tweets and the content they produce. Nevertheless Rovers will need to add to their 613 followers of @HRAFC if they are to make their way back to the top three next year.

Overall the number of followers of VAFA clubs climbed by 34% from 15,300 to 23,220, with almost 80% these followers unique.

The VAFA’s Twitter handle of @VAFA_HQ also grew by 27% which was not as fast as the average growth our clubs, but still saw the VAFA with over 4000 followers.
Fitzroy despite being at the top had one of the slowest growth rates of 19%, whilst their top five rivals all had stronger showings, led by Uni Blues (72% growth), Blacks (63%), Xaverians (58%) and Rovers (25%).
The biggest two climbers of the overall ladder were PEGS, up 11 spots from 39th to 28th spot and St Bernard’s who climbed 10 spots from 23rd to 13th. The VAFAUA also managed to climb 10 spots (from 32nd to 22nd).

Melbourne High School Old Boys form on the Twitter ladder mirrored their form on the field as the Unicorns fell nine spots to 30th.
Only six VAFA clubs do not have a Twitter account, Old Brighton, Oakleigh, Whitefriars, St Francis Xavier Manningham Cobras do not have accounts whilst South Mornington’s account has been deactivated.
Of the new additions to the list, Collegians made the biggest splash, but the Lions are still the poorest performed Premier club when it comes to Twitter followers. Their @collegianslions handle has picked up just the 96 followers to date.

New VAFA Club Parkside have 125 followers, however they had their account longer than just the past year.
The top 10 has six clubs from Premier, three from Premier B and one from Premier C.
The top 20 has nine of the clubs from Premier, but interestingly only an additional one form Premier B and two from Premier C. The highest ranked Division club is Hawthorn who will play in Division 3 next year. The Hawks are equal 15th with their @HawthornAFC handle attracting 438 followers.

St Mary’s Salesian (Division 1) 17th, Richmond Central (Division 2) 18th and Old Geelong (Division 1) 20th are the other three clubs from Divisions to make the top 20.
The club with the biggest growth from last year is Division 4 club Box Hill North, the Demons grew by 406% from their total in 2013.
Check the full VAFA Twitter ladder below and see where your clubs is.

*All totals mentioned were correct as at Monday 8th December 2014.