Why we follow: Examining motivational differences in following sport organizations on Twitter and Weibo

•Weibo and Twitter users had different motives in following sports organizations.•Weibo users had higher motives to gain information and expressing team support.•Twitter users’ sought to be entertained and gain technical information.•Sport organizations should provide a variety of interactive elements to sport fans.Social media platforms provide a space where sport fans can interact directly with sport organizations; however, researchers have not empirically examined users’ motivation and usage. Guided by uses and gratifications theory, the authors explored whether social media users’ motivations differed when following a sport organization on two similar microblogging services: Twitter and Weibo. Data gathered from an online survey of users who followed the Los Angeles Lakers on both Twitter (n = 299) and Weibo (n = 796) were analyzed using the Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes model. Findings showed that Weibo users had higher motives for obtaining information, entertainment, technical knowledge, passing time, and escaping from their life than Twitter users, while Twitter followers had higher motivations to express team support than their Weibo counterparts. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analysis suggested that Weibo users had high motives in information gathering and expressing team support, and they also tended to be more interactive. Twitter users were more interested in interacting with a sport organization if their motives for obtaining entertainment information and technical information were met. Results of this study will assist sport organizations to learn to understand users’ motives for following a sports team in both China and America and then develop more effective strategies to engage these users in these two main markets.