The things you learn on Twitter. Well, from links posted on Twitter. With 140 characters, you can’t divulge much information on the site.

In this case, it was a link to a site ranking sports teams globally by the number of their Facebook followers.

And guess who was No. 4. (Did the headline tip that, perhaps?)

Here is the pertinent link to sportingintelligence.com, which apparently surveyed the planet’s leading teams for “most Facebook fans.”

As a citizen of the world might have guessed, the very top of the rankings is made up of soccer teams.

1. Barcelona.

2. Real Madrid.

3. Manchester United.

I’m a little disappointed in my fellow man. What front-runners you are! Barcelona is the current Champions League champ, Real Madrid is Barca’s arch-rival and probable Spanish league champion and Manchester United last year went past Liverpool for “most English championships.”

The team slotting in at No. 4 surprises me, however: and it’s the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA.

Even if we stipulate that basketball might be the second-most-popular team sport in the world, shouldn’t interest be fractured by the number of NBA teams?

Yet there the Lakers are, with 11.7 million Facebook fans. They have miles to go to catch one of the top three (who are at 26.2 million, 24.3 million and 22.1 million), but they are 3 million ahead of the English club Arsenal, who are No. 5 on the list.

The other American franchises in the top 20:

10. Boston Celtics.

12. New York Yankees.

13. Miami Heat.

14. Chicago Bulls.

16. Dallas Cowboys.

17. Pittsburgh Steelers.

18. Boston Red Sox.

19. New England Patriots.

The English Premier League has four teams in the top 20, A.C. Milan of Italy sneaks in there, as does the India national cricket team, and so do two surprise teams –the Turkish soccer clubs Galatasaray and Besiktas, each located in Istanbul.

Turns out, when figures were last compiled, in 2010, Galatasaray was No. 1 in the world because the club had a vigorous campaign in place to promote itself on Facebook.

Since then, however, demographics have caught up to Galatasaray and Besiktas (which was No. 12) — serious interest in those clubs hardly exists outside Turkey. They now are at Nos 9 and 20, and I imagine if they do another of these surveys in two years both will be out of the top 20.

The list of clubs, at the link, also indicates where they rank in average salaries paid to their “first team” players. The list indicates that the biggest paymasters tend to produce the most Facebook fans.

(It also would seem to indicate that Facebook still skews “American” in users because interest in the NFL and baseball, outside the States, is also very muted. I could see the Yankees and Cowboys sliding down the list, as Facebook penetrates the rest of the world.)

The top four teams in average salary are Barcelona, Madrid, the Yankees and the Lakers, and they are all represented here. Chelsea is No. 6 in average pay, and the Red Sox are No. 8.

Anyway, it’s interesting. I would not have thought the Lakers have a significant global brand, but they clearly do. Because even if we stipulate that southern California is crazy about them, that shouldn’t provide enough fans to get you to No. 4 in the Facebook world.

Kobe Bryant, take a bow.