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Tech Report: MLB Looking For A Home Run On Social Networks

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — The Major League Baseball season is underway and it appears the league is looking to get more involved in social networking websites this season.

Fans can follow their favorite teams on Twitter through hashtags that promote not only the teams, but MLB.TV which shows games online.

According to an infographic from the group Banyan Branch, the Giants rate fifth among most liked teams on social media sites, while the A's didn't make the top 10. Of course this is popularity, which doesn't have much to do with their chances of winning the pennant. According to the group, the Yankees are way out in first, followed by the Red Sox, the Phillies and the Cubs.

KCBS Tech Report:

The MLB is a pretty smart business and the whole idea here is to tap into the importance of social media. People love to talk about baseball, sometimes that's all some people want to talk about. In a sense social media was born for baseball, kind of like hot dogs.

And if you aren't hip to hashtags, it's basically Twitter's way of following trends and doing a quick search of a particular topic. And so far it seems to be working, especially with the incentive of the chance to win something.

But the bottom line is there are products being sold here. There are tickets to be sold, online packages where you can watch games and packages for your smartphone or TV. So the more buzz they create, the better their business is likely to do.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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