Memo 5

Jonathan Melendez Consulting, for Phoenix Suns

To: Jeff Chieng, Chief Marketing Officer, Phoenix

Suns
From: Jonathan Melendez
CC: Amanda Kehrberg
Date: November 10, 2023
Re: Bi-weekly research report for October 27-November 10, 2023

Overview
For the time period of October 27 – November 10, 2023, the research team evaluated the
Phoenix Suns Instagram posts for quality and quantity. There was a total of 139 posts uploaded
over the duration of the 2 weeks. This was an increase of 25 posts compared to last periods 114
posts. 46 if these posts were reels compared to last periods 29. The result overall was a total of
93 images (67%) and 46 reels (33%).

Phoenix Suns Instagram Account

As of November 10, 2023, the Phoenix Suns Instagram account has 3,459,596 followers, a 1.15%
increase in followers from this previous report. Between October 27 – November 10, 2023, the
Suns posted 139 posts and accumulated 5,947,231 likes, 29,463 comments and 27,704,900
views on reels.

The post that earned the most likes was a collaborative post between the NBA and the Suns of
Kevin Durant shooting a midrange jumper of rookie No.1 overall draft pick Victor Wembenyama.

The post was captioned “KD knocks down the tough baseline jumper with time expiring 😱
Spurs@Suns LIVE now on TNT!.” The post contained multiple videos and angles of the same clip
and received 768,000 likes and 2,846 comments.

The following Instagram activity was documented for the Suns during the period of October 27
– November 10, 2023:
3,500,000 Bi-Weekly Number of Followers 3,459,59
3,420,36 6
3,450,000 3,388,51 1
3,400,000 3,343,86 3,360,08 4
2 2
3,350,000

3,300,000

3,250,000
9/1 - 9/14 9/15 - 9/28 9/29 - 10/12 10/13 - 10/26 10/27 - 11/10

Figure 1. Number of followers gained for each period.

The graph above shows the suns follower count as of November 10, 2023, a 1.15% increase
from the last period.

Number of Posts
160 139
140
120
114
100 80
80
60 39 43
40
20
0
9/1 - 9/14 9/15 - 9/28 9/29 - 10/12 10/13 - 10/26 10/27 - 11/10
Figure 2. Number of posts for each period.

During the two-week period, the Suns Instagram account posted 139 times, a 22% increase
from the last report. The account posted around 5-6 times a day on days that the Suns did not
have a game, however on game days the Suns would post around 20 posts.

Bi-Weekly Post Likes

7,000,000
5,947,231
6,000,000

5,000,000 4,640,518
3,966,027
4,000,000

3,000,000

2,000,000 1,641,879 1,667,017

1,000,000

0
9/1 - 9/14 9/15 - 9/28 9/29 - 10/12 10/13 - 10/26 10/27 - 11/10
Figure 3. Number of likes for each period.
Between October 27, November 10, 2023, the Suns accumulated 5,947,231 likes, a 28%
increase from the previous period. On average the Suns received an average of 42,786 likes per
post.

Bi-Weekly Comments on Posts

35,000
29,463
30,000
25,000
19,704
20,000
14,857
15,000
8,913
10,000 6,463
5,000
0
9/11 - 9/14 9/15 - 9/28 9/29 - 10/12 10/13 - 10/26 10/27 - 11/10
Figure 4. Number of comments per period.

The Suns Instagram received a total of 29,463 comments during this period, an increase of
49.5% from the previous period. The average number of comments per post was 221 during this
period.

Bi-Weekly Views on IG Reels

33,500,0
40,000,000
35,000,000
00 27,704,9
24,343,0 00
30,000,000 00
25,000,000
20,000,000
8,355,00 10,406,0
15,000,000
0 00
10,000,000
5,000,000
0
9/11 - 9/14 9/15 - 9/28 9/29 - 10/12 10/13 - 10/26 10/27 - 11/10
Figure 5. Number of comments during each period.

During this period the Suns posted 46 reels which accumulated 27,704,900 views, a 17.29%
decrease from the previous report. During this time period, reels earned an average of 602,280
views and views went down 17% from the last period.
 Type of Post during 9/29-10/12

33 %
Photo
Video

67%

Figure 6. Types of posts during period.

During this period, 46 reels were posted with the other 93 being images. 46 of these posts were
reels and 93 were images and photo carousels. Images and photo carousels dominate the
content that the Suns social media posts with a majority of photo carousels being used to show
multiple images and videos from practices or to showcase highlights from games. As for images,
a majority of images are either professionally shot photographs from games and practices.
Graphics for game day promotions and stat lines are also very frequently posted on game days.
Days where there are no games usually are dominated by practice images and highlights or
promotional graphics for partnerships or upcoming events.

Conclusion
After five evaluation periods over the span of ten weeks, the researcher observed a significant
growth in the Phoenix Suns Instagram presence. The following paragraphs will address the
findings discovered from the posts, likes, views and comments.

After analyzing the five bi-weekly periods, the researcher found that the Phoenix Suns social
media seems to get the most engagement on social media when they post their most popular
players or their “Big 3” on Instagram. Because of this, most of the engagement that the team
receives comes from game day highlights, images or promotional material featuring stars like
Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. Consistently throughout the last five periods the
most engaged with videos and posts have come from either images of the Suns most popular
players in uniform, or from highlight reels from games. The following chart shows the data
observed through the ten-week period where we see the correlation to the periods most
popular posts and what the content was showing. Because in the first three memos the NBA
was still in its offseason while the content wasn’t game related, the images still featured some
of the Suns “Big 3” despite not being basketball content necessarily.
 Memo Post Likes Comment Average Average
s Likes Comments
Memo 1 KD at US Open 311,076 419 41,937 143
Memo 2 KD and Booker at Nike 200,000 676 38,768 207
World Basketball Festival
Memo 3 KD, Booker and Beal at 752,400 3,981 49,575 186
media day
Memo 4 Highlight of Bradley Beal 253,000 801 40,706 173
Memo 5 Video of KD hitting shot 768,000 2,846 42,786 221
over Wembenyama

In addition to monitoring the connection between the Suns most engaged with posts and what
they usually featured there were also frequent patterns to the posts seen on Instagram. One of
the themes that the Suns follow on Instagram is that on their social media, whenever there is a
game, the team will start their first post of the day with a photo carousel. This carousel usually
features two images, the first image showing what day and time the game is and the second
graphic shows where you can watch the game. Shortly after the Suns have a common game day
practice of posting the best outfits the Suns players show up to the stadium with for that day.
This will usually follow photo carousels of warmups before the game. During the game the team
will post highlights as well as point updates after each quarter. At the end of the game the team
will post some of the best highlights from the game along with the final score and the best stat
line of the game.

Overall, the Phoenix Suns Instagram has shown consistent growth through the ten-week period
that was monitored. They have consistently increased their followers each time period going
from 3.3 million to close to 3.5 million. A large contributor to this could be from the attention
that they have gained from the additions of stars Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal as their posts
dominated engagement.

Recommendations
Overall, the Phoenix Suns have steadily increased metrics on all levels. The team has
consistently added a variety of content to their Instagram and steadily increased how frequently
content is posted. However, in order to get a more consistent engagement on all posts, the Suns
should find a way to narrow content down, especially on game day, to the best highlights of the
day or the best images taken. While it is good that they are very active on game days, once it
comes down to off days the Suns often post very little and have less content which leads to an
unsteady amount of content showing up on people feed. For example, on days where there are
games the team often posts 20 plus reels and images where on days where there are no games
there are at most five images posted and often are either promotional material or videos from
practices and interviews with players. I believe that the Suns social media could get more
engagement if they distributed content more steadily rather than bombard followers during
games. If they spread out videos and images to during after and maybe even the day after I
believe that followers will be much more engaged with the content as it is not all being thrown
at them during a short time.