“KKR is the most discussed IPL team online”: Nielsen BuzzMetrics

The overall buzz about IPL in social media is almost twice as high in 2010 compared to last year, according to analysis undertaken by The Nielsen Company using Nielsen Online BuzzMetrics, which measured online posts in message boards, blogs, discussion groups and micro blogs (Twitter) across all cricket-following countries.

Blogs are the most popular platform for discussing cricket, followed by message boards. Twitter is third on the list. 

“The overall increase in buzz volume indicates the exponential growth in social media across regions,” said Karthik Nagarajan, associate director – Nielsen Online, The Nielsen Company.

Kolkata Night Riders (KKR) is the most discussed team online, both in 2009 and 2010. However, Kings XI Punjab has overtaken Rajasthan Royals as the second most discussed team in social media this year, followed by Deccan Chargers. Amongst players, Ricky Ponting is the most discussed IPL player online, both last year and in 2010. Sachin Tendulkar was a distant second last year but is almost neck-and-neck with Ponting this year, followed by MS Dhoni who is the third most discussed player by cricket fans in both years. Kevin Pietersen was fourth in 2009; however he has been overtaken by Virender Sehwag this year. 

 “Fake IPL Player was in the top 5 in 2009, even though the scope of the reports was global. This was in the absence of Twitter. So you can imagine how much more attention he can garner this year, with a tool like Twitter at his disposal. This also indicates how effectively a topic can be trended in the online world, within a period of seven weeks,” said Nagarajan.    

Nielsen BuzzMetrics was launched in India in November, 2009. It comes with a customizable dashboard called MyBuzzmetrics that allows brand managers to monitor and analyze what’s being said online about their brands or organization from a range of consumer-generated media sources.