Social Media Tips for Professional Athletes - Looking at the World of Sports from a PR Perspective
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You are here: DIME Home > Social Networking > Social Media Tips for Professional Athletes
Looking at the World of Sports from a PR Perspective
Social Media Tips for Professional Athletes
Author: Jay Mathis
Date: Mar 20, 2010 - 4:43:51 PM
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Social media exploded into the
mainstream in 2009, nearly everyone now has a Twitter account and Facebook
profile, and this trend was seen in no greater place than the world of sports.
The presence of professional athletes in social media has almost been unmatched
in the entertainment/celebrity world, but this hasn’t come without a price and
some lessons learned the hard way.
Washington Wizards guard Gilbert
Arenas had fans on Twitter begging him to stop tweeting about his bringing an
unloaded gun into the Wizards locker room. Former Chiefs running back Larry
Johnson (
@ToonIcon)
was cut by the team partly due to criticizing his coach via Twitter. And, recently,
Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson (
@DzzJackson22) was caught talking trash to the
Dallas Cowboys using Twitter. Arenas has since taken down his Twitter page and
both Johnson and Jackson have made their pages private, but those are just a
few of the many examples of the social media mishaps from athletes over the
last year.
Some have called for athletes to
stay away from Twitter and Facebook, but that’s crazy. Those same members of
the media asking athletes to stay away from Twitter wouldn’t call for athletes
to stop dealing with traditional media merely because they said the wrong thing
during an interview or press conference, right? Social media isn’t the issue,
the issue is being smarter in how social media is used.
With that said, below are five social
media tips for professional athletes:
1) Behind the Scenes
– In my experience in public relations and marketing with
athletes and celebrities, I’ve found that the most popular features are the
behind the scenes features. Fans love photos from the locker room or updates
from road trips, features that traditional media don’t always have access too.
For the most part, fans would rather get their hard news from beat writers or
ESPN. Athletes should be posting colorful insights to their everyday lives.
Thoughts on a movie, photos of boarding the team plane, but not sharing
intimate team and personal details.
Example: Celtics forward Shelden
Williams (
@SheldenWilliams)
and his wife Sparks forward Candice Parker (
@Candace_Parker)
posted photos of pumpkins they were carving over Halloween and asked fans to
vote on whose was better. They received plenty of response from fans, while
giving insight into their lives without airing the dirty laundry.
2) Fan Engagement
– Athletes and celebrities can get away with not following
or directly engaging with fans in social media, but why? What’s the fun in just
sending out messages, but not interacting with anyone? Athletes have plenty of
demands on their time, but will gain so much more by finding time to
follow-back and directly communicate with fans. Find a few hours a week on the
team plane, in the hotel or when at home relaxing, the payoff will be endless
both professionally and personally.
Example: Check out Shaquille
O’Neal’s Twitter page (
@The_Real_Shaq)
and you’ll see more @replies than anything else. He’s listening to his fans and
replying to them on a regular basis, this is how you maximize your social media
interaction. In the past he’s also given fans a location of where he is and
then handed out free tickets to the first ones to find him in public.
Brilliant, although with an assist to
Digital
Royalty!
3) Where’s the Beef?
– I’m not sure where it is, but I know it shouldn’t be in
your social media plan. Do not air your beef with coaches, teammates,
opponents, fans or anyone else. Do not respond to slights from members of the
media, post bulletin board material or address legal issues. We’ve seen
the results from Arenas, Johnson, Jackson and many many more.
Example: Too many to count!
4) Develop a Comprehensive Plan
– An athletes social media plan should be far more than a
Twitter account and Facebook Page. Professional athletes should all have a main
website where they host most of their content, including news, events and
community outreach. Links to the main website should be included in all social
media activity and links to follow, friend and subscribe should be throughout
the main site as well. Fans need to be able to find all their online actives
throughout each interaction.
Example: Jets defensive back Kerry
Rhodes has a phenomenal social media plan.
Rhodes website serves as the main hub. The site
includes links to all of his social media activity and hosts his most important
news, including, off the field activities, plenty of video and information on
his charitable foundation. A quick look at Rhodes Twitter page (
@kerryrhodes)
also shows that he’s driving followers back to his site (social media hub)
while also including links to his Facebook Page and ustream.tv channel.
5) Get Trained
– Last, but maybe most important, get trained! Most
professional leagues require traditional media training at the beginning of
each season. If social media training isn’t a part of that session, then
athletes should ask their team PR people, agent or hire a consultant themselves
(Next Level Management), but similar to traditional media training, social
media training is imperative. When an athlete makes a mistake with
traditional media they can usually find a way out or spin it, when screwing up
with social media it’s much more difficult to shift blame and spin because it’s
their own words or videos front and center.
Hopefully those tips help, their by
no means the only tips and can really be applied to anyone delving into social
media, but athletes are definitely in dire need of some social media
assistance. Here’s to hoping even more athletes start participating in the
conversation, but the right way!
Jay Mathis,
Sports & Entertainment Publicist
Next Level Management
View all articles by Jay Mathis
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