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Effectiveness ofUser Generated Content in the Football Industry: UGC vs. Alexa.com’s data.

AlinaAubreyBeatrizBramMathilde

Group D

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Abstract To begin with, we will introduce and define

what User Generated Content (UGC) is. In this part we will also explore the advantages and disadvantages of UGC, and what effects does it have on a website’s activity. To do so we will take the case of football teams, including NFL teams and Mid America College teams. Through the use of Alexa.com, we will analyze statistics and compare different websites in terms of ranking, time on site, bounce rate and page views per user.

After conducting our research, we will make a conclusion and provide recommendations.

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Expectations/hypothesis Before doing our research, we predicted

that the ranking of the website will be directly related to the amount of UGC.

Furthermore, we believed that the greater use of UGC positively influences the amount of time people spend on the website.

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Table of contentsI. Definition of UGC 5II. NFL Teams 7III. Mid America Teams 8IV. UGC on websites 9V. Alexa.com 12VI. Analysis of the data 22VII. Conclusion 34VIII. Recommendation 35

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I. UGC What is UGC?

User Generated content on a website is any form of content that anyone can post to express themselves or interact with others. It includes comments, blogs, pictures, videos, links, etc. In addition, the content must be available for everyone to see.

Why do websites use UGC? To be more attractive to fans and followers. To make customers stay longer on the website. To have interaction with the public. To create communication among users. To discover insight. To find out interests and preferences. To identify and respond to people’s wants and needs.

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I. UGC Short for User Generated Content, UGC is

the term used to describe any form of content such as video, blogs, discussion form posts, digital images, audio files, and other forms of media that was created by consumers or end-users of an online system or service and is publically available to others consumers and end-users. User Generated Content is also called Consumer Generated Media (CGM).

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/UGC.html

7II. NFL teamsNational Football League

32 teams It is the highest level of professional American football in the

United States.  The league is divided into two conferences :

the American Football Conference (AFC) which includes: AFC NORTH (Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers), AFC SOUTH (Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Tennessee Titans), AFC EAST (Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, and New York Jets), and AFC WEST (Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, and San Diego Chargers).

the National Football Conference (NFC) which includes: NFC NORTH (Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, and Minnesota Vikings, NFC SOUTH (Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers), NFC EAST (Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Washington Redskins), and NFC WEST (Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, and Saint Louis Rams).

www.nfl.com

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III. Mid America College football The Mid-American Conference of NCAA

(National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division I Football

The MAC is known semi-officially as the Conference of Quarterbacks due to the strong NFL presence of former MAC players, and consistently leads all eleven NCAA football conferences in graduation rates among the players.

http://www.mid-americafootball.com/

9IV. UGC on NFL websites

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UGC on Mid America websites

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Interesting results Highest UGC: Houston Texans with 9

types of UGC Lower UGC: University of Akron Zips

We can see that the most common type of UGC is Facebook along with Twitter and Google+. This type of UGC is relatively new, and it is a low involvement action for the consumer: it only takes a click.

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V. Alexa.com “Alexa provides information about websites

including Top Sites, Internet Traffic Stats and Metrics, Related Links, Online Reviews Contact Information and Search ...”

We will use 4 indicators from Alexa:1. Rank2. Time on Site3. Bounce Rate4. Pageviews/users (in order to understand the

behavior of online users more clearly and relate the efficiency of the assignment - since we only do one click-through per website, does it reflect what online consumers do, or no?)

Source: www.alexa.com

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Description of the main indicators Global Traffic Rank: The rank is calculated using a combination of average

daily visitors to a website and page views of the website over the past 3 months. The site with the highest combination of visitors and page views is ranked #1.

Page Views per User: Estimated daily unique page views per user for a website. The average number of pages a user sees when visiting a website. This is an important measure for web traffic rankings. The more pages on average a user sees before leaving the site, the more relevant the content is for the user, which leads to higher web traffic ranking.

Time on Site: The average time an internet user spends on a website or, in other words, the difference between the time he or she viewed the first and last pages in a visit. 

Bounce Rate is the percentage of visits that consist of a single page turn. That is, only one page of the site is visited and no intra-site links are clicked before the visitor clicks on the browser's Back button or enters a new URL in the browser's address bar.

http://www.termwiki.com/EN:pageviews_per_user http://www.alexa.com/help/glossary

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TEAMS

Global Rank

Global Rank of NFL teams on the

internet.

Alexa results for NFL teams

15Alexa results for Mid-A teams

Global Rank of Mid America College

teams on the internet.

Global Rank

TEAMS

* Three months data because one-month data was not available

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Jacksonville Jaguars 10:02:00Philadelphia Eagles 9:43:00Denver Broncos 7:22:00Baltimore Ravens 6:54:00Buffalo Bills 6:24:00Dallas Cowboys 6:02:00Atlanta Falcons 5:54:00Pittsburgh Steelers 5:02:00Detroit Lions 4:50:00Cincinnati Bengals 4:40:00Arizona Cardinals 4:02:00Chicago Bears 3:58:00Ball State University Cardinals* 3:56:00Washington Redskins 3:56:00Green Bay Packers 3:52:00Miami Dolphins 3:44:00Houston Texans 3:35:00Cleveland Browns 3:34:00SF 49ers 3:30:00

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 3:26:00University of Akron Zips* 3:26:00Seattle SeaHawks 3:25:00Indianapolis Colts 3:23:00New York Giants 3:20:00Carolina Panthers 3:04:00New England Patriots 3:04:00Kansas City Chiefs 2:58:00University at Buffalo Bulls* 2:58:00Eastern Michigan University Eagles* 2:56:00Tennessee Titans 2:54:00University of Toledo Rockets* 2:54:00St Louis Rams 2:51:00Northern Illinois University Huskies* 2:51:00New Orleans Saints 2:44:00New York Jets 2:44:00Minnesota Vikings 2:43:00Kent State University Golden Flashes* 2:43:00San Diego Chargers 2:39:00Oakland Raiders 2:37:00Ohio University Bobcats* 2:36:00Miami University RedHawks* 2:35:00Western Michigan University Broncos* 2:31:00Bowling Green State University Falcons* 2:18:00Central Michigan University Chippewas* 2:17:00Temple University Owls* 1:57:00

Alexa – Time on Site

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Detroit Lions 23,6University of Akron Zips* 24,5Buffalo Bills 27,8Philadelphia Eagles 27,8Jacksonville Jaguars 29,1Carolina Panthers 31,5University at Buffalo Bulls* 34Seattle SeaHawks 35,1Eastern Michigan University Eagles* 35,3University of Toledo Rockets* 35,6Pittsburgh Steelers 35,9Ohio University Bobcats* 36,2New York Jets 36,5Tampa Bay Buccaneers 36,9Dallas Cowboys 37,3Denver Broncos 37,4Houston Texans 37,5Baltimore Ravens 37,6Cleveland Browns 38

Miami University RedHawks* 38

Northern Illinois University Huskies* 38,1

New York Giants 38,2

Atlanta Falcons 38,9

Tennessee Titans 39,4

Kent State University Golden Flashes* 39,4

Arizona Cardinals 39,6

Oakland Raiders 39,7

Chicago Bears 39,8

SF 49ers 39,9

Cincinnati Bengals 40,1

Ball State University Cardinals 40,3

St Louis Rams 41,2

Washington Redskins 41,4

Kansas City Chiefs 41,6

Indianapolis Colts 42,5

Western Michigan University Broncos* 42,9

New England Patriots 43,4

Green Bay Packers 43,4

Minnesota Vikings 44,1

Central Michigan University Chippewas* 44,8

Temple University Owls* 45

San Diego Chargers 45,8

Miami Dolphins 46,4

New Orleans Saints 46,8

Bowling Green State University Falcons* 50

Alexa - BounceRates

Universities: NFL:

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Jacksonville Jaguars 6,5Philadelphia Eagles 6,3Denver Broncos 5,2Baltimore Ravens 5,1Buffalo Bills 4,7Atlanta Falcons 4,1Dallas Cowboys 3,7University of Akron Zips* 3,6Pittsburgh Steelers 3,49Detroit Lions 3,4Cincinnati Bengals 3,1Houston Texans 3,1Eastern Michigan University Eagles* 3,1Northern Illinois University Huskies* 3,1Chicago Bears 3,02Arizona Cardinals 3Miami University RedHawks* 3Ohio University Bobcats* 3Ball State University Cardinals* 3SF 49ers 2,99

New York Giants 2,95Indianapolis Colts 2,91Central Michigan University Chippewas* 2,9

University at Buffalo Bulls* 2,9Kent State University Golden Flashes* 2,9Carolina Panthers 2,7New England Patriots 2,61Cleveland Browns 2,6University of Toledo Rockets* 2,6Seattle SeaHawks 2,55Miami Dolphins 2,54New York Jets 2,52St Louis Rams 2,5Temple University Owls* 2,5Western Michigan University Broncos* 2,5Washington Redskins 2,46Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2,46Green Bay Packers 2,45Oakland Raiders 2,42Kansas City Chiefs 2,4Bowling Green State University Falcons* 2,4San Diego Chargers 2,36Tennessee Titans 2,3Minnesota Vikings 2,2New Orleans Saints 2,14

Alexa – Pageviews/user

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Interesting results from Alexa.com : Time On Site

Jacksonville Jaguars 10:02:00Philadelphia Eagles 9:43:00Denver Broncos 7:22:00

Bowling Green State University Falcons 2:18:00

Central Michigan University Chippewas* 2:17:00Temple University Owls 1:57:00

TOP 3:

BOTTOM 3:Average Time

on Site:3:53min.

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Interesting results from Alexa.com : Bounce Rate

TOP 3:

BOTTOM 3:Average Bounce

Rate:38,407

Detroit Lions 23,6

University of Akron Zips 24,5

Buffalo Bills 27,8

Miami Dolphins 46,4

New Orleans Saints 46,8

Bowling Green State University Falcons 50

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Interesting results from Alexa.com : Page views/user

TOP 3:

BOTTOM 3:Average Page

views per users: 3.117

Jacksonville Jaguars 6,5Philadelphia Eagles 6,3Denver Broncos 5,2

Tennessee Titans 2,3Minnesota Vikings 2,2New Orleans Saints 2,14

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Correlation of UGC with Rank for NFL teams. The first team ( Philadelphia Eagles) has less

UGC than the last team (Saint Louis Rams). Houston Texans has the most UGC, however

it is poorly ranked: 27/32. Tampa Bay buccaneers and Carolina Panthers

have the less UGC and are poorly ranked: 25 and 26 / 32.

Conclusion: The level of correlation between NFL teams traffic rank and their UGC is not or little related.

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Correlation of UGC with Rank for Mid America College teams. Ball State University Cardinals and Kent

State University Flashes have the most UGC (4) BUT they are on the bottom teams regarding the traffic rank.

The University of Akron Zips, which has no UGC is ranked #2 on traffic rank.

Conclusion: The correlation between Mid America College Teams ranking and the amount of UGC does not exist or is very minor.

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VI. Analysis of UGC and Time-on-site data for NFL teams The Jacksonville Jaguars have the highest time on site (10min), and they have 5 types of UGC. The Philadelphia Eagles which have 9:43min,

have 4 types of UGC. Oakland Raiders only have the time-on-site of

2:37min, and they also have 5 types of UGC. Conclusion: Time-on-site and the amount of

UGC are not or little related.

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Analysis of UGC and Time-on-site data for Mid America College Teams Ball States University Cardinals have the

highest time-on-site data (3:56min), and the highest level of UGC (4).

Temple University Owls have the lowest time-on-site 1:57min, and only 1 kind of UGC.

Conclusion: The level of UGC might be related to the Time-on-site in the case of Mid America College teams.

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Analysis of UGC and Bounce rate The Detroit Lions which have the lowest

bounce rate, have 6 types of UGC. But the University of Akron Zips, which

have the second lowest bounce rate, have no UGC.

Conclusion: There are no links between bounce rate and UGC.

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Analysis of UGC and Pageviews/user Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia

Eagles have over 6 page views per user, and 5 and 4 types of UGC respectively.

New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings, which have the lowest page views per user (2 pages / user), have 4 types of UGC.

Conclusion: The relationship between UGC and page views per user does not exist or is not significant.

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Analysis of UGC and teams’ power ranking Since the overall level of correlation

between Alexa’s Indicators and actual UGC for both Professional and College teams, is insignificant or very small, we decided to compare the amount of UGC and the efficiency of the team (power ranking for week 6).

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http://espn.go.com/nfl/powerrankings

TOP TEAMS

BOTTOM TEAMS

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5

4

6

5

4

6

6

UGC

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Analysis of UGC and team’s efficiency The bottom teams (Colts and Rams)

have a lot of types of UGC (6); however, there is no direct link between the amount of UGC and the efficiency of the team.

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Comparison of NFL with College teams.

UGC: in average, there is a lot more UGC on NFL’s teams websites (5) than on College teams websites(2).

Traffic rank: there is a significant gap between the last NFL team (Saint Louis Rams with a rank of 68.955) and the first college team (Miami University Red Hawks with a rank of 490,340).

Bounce rate: Overall the teams are equally mixed. There is no noticeable difference.

Time-on-site: The top 20 teams that have the highest time-on-site rate, only includes 1 college team.

Page views / user: no noticeable difference, but the top 10 only includes 1 college team.

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Facebook Facebook is a social networking platform

solely based on its User Generated Content.

We decided to analyze a website with a high level of UGC, in order to compare one NFL team with Facebook.

In comparison with Facebook, the football teams websites have the main purpose of informing users about football.

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Rank Time-on-site

Bounce rate

Page views /

userChicago Bears

14,553 3:58 39.8 3.02

Facebook 2 25:32 22.8 13

UGC is not really relevant for the football industry, but it is in case of social media. The social media websites are based on UGC, so we could conclude that having a high level of interaction with online users might improve ranking, time-on-site, bounce rate, and page views per user.

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VII. Conclusion There is no certain logic in the relationship

between UCG and various Alexa.com indicators.

Our hypothesis was not supported by the data collected.

We observed that online users tend to click through the first pages (1st to 3rd pages). Therefore, we can say that the research was effective because it truly represented consumers’ behavior.

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VIII. Recommendations As far as our research went there is not

enough UGC on the websites regarding professional as well as college teams for us to make much comments; however, we noticed that UGC was present further on the websites and blogs.

With our additional Facebook analysis, we recommend that football teams websites should use more UGC in order to improve their efficiency.

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