Miami Hurricanes social media 15th nationally in cumulative followers

Social media presence has become a critical way for sports programs to connect with their fan bases. The Miami Hurricanes athletic department frequently utilizes social media to build awareness and excitement for their programs. Head football coach Manny Diaz understands the importance of social media with young athletes.

In an examination of 150 Division athletic programs among five primary social media sites, the Miami Hurricanes official accounts rank 15th. The rankings from Skullsparks.Com combined the followings from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The rankings do not include team sites in the rankings.

The Miami Hurricanes athletic departments accounts have 239,000 Instagram followers 157.2K Twitter followers, 415,091 Facebook followers, the Canes All Access YouTube account has 39,600 subscribers and the Miami TikTok account 105,900 followers. Not every college athletic program is on TikTok yet.

Coaches often use social media to connect with recruits and send messages to fans and potential prospects. Those messages have often been cryptic by Diaz and the Miami football staff hinting at the possible commitment by a recruit or something else big about to happen. Diaz enjoys using Hurricanes GIFs.

The entire list of the 150 teams by SkullSparks and the social media followings by their fans bases in the above Tweet. Miami is second in the ACC and in Florida with 956,526 followers cumulative among the five social media sites that SkullSparks examined. North Carolina leads the ACC with 1,635,002 followers cumulatively.

Florida leads all Sunshine State teams with 2,295,314 total followers. Ohio State is first overall nationally ahead of second-place Florida. The Buckeyes have 2,909,105 total followers. Florida State is fifth in the ACC behind Louisville and third in Florida with 793,660 followers. This shows the passion of the Miami fan base.

Miami is only one of 61 athletic programs nationally with a TikTok presence. The Hurricanes rank fourth with 104,700 TikTok followers which are only behind Florida, Texas and Arizona. TikTok is a rising social media site that will continue to grow its presence. Athletic programs will continue to develop how they use social media.

Beyond followers and subscribers, impressions and interactions with social media posts are another critical way to measure how athletic departments interact with fans. Miami was 14th with 1,482,093 social media interactions in 2020 according to SkullSparks. Miami finished behind Clemson in the ACC and Florida in the state.

Social media will become more important with the implementation and opportunities for athletes to earn money off their own name, image and likeness. Athletes have their own pages, but their presence on the athletic department pages plays a role. Social media pages will continue to grow as the medium evolves.