Effective promotions through social media: A case of Major League Baseball teams

This study examined if the impacts of Facebook promotions on fan engagement were moderated by team performance in the Major League Baseball. Two teams showing the opposite results in the 2015 seasons were selected. Likes, Shares, and Comments were measured as indicators of fan engagement. All posts were categorised in the five promotion types. A two-way MANOVA was carried out to see if there were any differences in Facebook Likes, Shares, and Comments for differing promotion types and team performance. The results revealed that there were statistically significant interaction effects between promotion types and team performance on Likes and Shares. For player/personnel promotion and team information, the numbers of Likes and Shares were significantly higher than the other promotion types for both teams. For Likes and Shares by the two significant promotion types, Royals had significantly higher mean scores than did Phillies.