Professional Athletes Love Twitter
Professional athletes love social media and it is not hard to see why, as it allows them to connect with their fans and speak their minds. The perplexing part is how they spew cliche after cliche when doing a radio, newspaper or television interview, but once they log onto Twitter it is an opinion free for all. Most importantly, professional athletes are huge influencers and players in the digital world.
The influence of athletes was on display the past few weeks, in both good and bad lights. The good comes in the form of Cleveland Browns cornerback Joe Haden, who sent out a tweet to his followers, asking them to meet him at a local sushi restaurant for a free dinner. Over a 100 people showed up and enjoyed sashimi on behalf of the talented defensive player. It’s hard to imagine the average person sending out the same tweet, and getting 100 people to accept the request, even with the lure of a free dinner.
On the negative side of influence, Florida Marlins young and productive outfielder Logan Morrison was demoted to Triple-A, because he was too focused on non-baseball activities. Many pundits and even some anonymous team personnel have hinted that he spends to much time spouting off on Twitter.
Anyone who follows @LoMoMarlins knows that he lives by the moniker found in his Twitter bio, “to know me is to tweet with me”. Until recently, his profile picture was a caricature of himself with the word “censored” over his mouth. The Florida Marlins are really setting a precedent here by demoting a productive player for his actions on social media.
It’ll be interesting to watch the creative ways that professional athletes use their online influence. They seem to come up with some of the most wacky ideas, that people fall in love with. At the end of the day, no one can argue that this is a segment of users that understand their influence, and the broad reach and power of social media.
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