After discussing with my group about a few directions to take this project, I think we've narrowed it down to one. With more and more athletes using social media these days, we figured it'd be interesting to see how these players are utilizing these tools and how it's affecting their "brand" they developed for themselves.
I came across a really interesting video on ESPN.com ( http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4382952 ) the other day that just talked about the general usage of twitter by athletes. Most of them use Twitter to keep fans updated on personal issues while others use it to promote things that they are endorsing. In one case, Timberwolves' Kevin Love tweeted about their coach's plans to not return the next year a day before the team announced it. Obviously giving athletes this freedom can only result in one of 2 ways, negatively or positively. Allowing athletes to manage their own twitter account is a risky move, but it helps connect to the fans. From a marketing perspective I would suggest having somebody at least approve of anything they say before posting it. This would reduce the authenticity between athletes and their fans, but at least it would keep them from harming their image and that's basically what they bank on...not talent alone (i.e. Tiger Woods).
Either way, we can all agree that social media sites like Twitter aren't going anywhere and knowing how to utilize them can really take you far as an athlete. I feel like professionals that refuse to use these sights to keep their "personal life private" like the Manning brothers are going to come off snobbish to their fans. The athletes that embrace these sites and take the effort to reach out to their fans are really exceeding and getting the all of the publicity.
Another article I found ( http://www.hrsm.sc.edu/SEVT/PDFs/SEVT%202010%20Conference%20Proceedings.pdf#page=56 ) talks about how Digital Royalty, a digital integration and social media strategy organization, is embracing social media like Twitter and educating their clients on how to properly use these sites to "better embody and evolve their brand personalities."
Their clients include athletes like Shaquille O'Neal, whom they took under their wing when Twitter was just starting to gain popularity. Fans were getting frustrated with people creating fake accounts under Shaq's name, so Digital Royalty trained O'Neal how to update his Twitter from his phone and how to strategically "tweet" to his fans "directly and genuinely."
As Twitter continued to grow and gain members, celebrities began to follow in Shaq's footsteps and joined the craze as well. This led to Twitter developing a verification technique to establish authenticity for its "well-known" accounts (a.k.a. celebrities). This allowed fans to follow their favorite athletes with the ease of knowing it's really them and not just a fake account.
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