Social media has changed the behavior of both athletes and fans in the sports world. The ability to interact with our favorite athletes pre and post game time thrills us to no end. But on the other end of that sword, is the athletes ability to communicate with the fans also. In this generation of sports fans that use social media as one of their main means of communication, we will only see social media impact sports in more and more ways, with further intensity coming fromcelebrity sports fans posting during games as well.
Statistics show that more than 80% of sports fans monitor social media sites while they are watching the game on television and over 60% do when they are actually at the game.; again on the other end of that sword lets take Tim Tebowfor example, who had more than 9,000 people tweeting EVERY SECOND after he threw a touchdown pass in the playoff game against the New York Jets. Jeremy Lin picked up 550,000 new Twitter followers in one month after he exploded onto the NBA scene.
Many young, aspiring professional athletes are using YouTube and other platforms to achieve their goals. High school athletes use social media in the recruiting process as a way to communicate and interact with college coaches.The coaches say they use social media as a way to keep tabs on what a potential recruit is doing and who else they are talking with. Again, proving that the power of social media has spring boarded many careers.
But we flip that sword again and its also damaged careers. Lets take Jabar Gaffney, a wide receiver for the Washington Redskins, for example. He provided all us with a lesson on what an athlete should never do on Twitter or on any social media site for that matter. It seems that he was having a fight with his “future ex-wife” when he could not find her and started a world class rant on Twitter. In fact, it was such an impressive rant that it quickly became a trending topic worldwide. Becoming a trending topic on Twitter is usually a good thing, but when a professional athlete represents not only the Washington Redskins, but the entire NFL as well, you can quickly see why most professional athletes would do well to employ the services of a social media agency or social media consultant. The next day Gaffney had to come out and say his Twitter account was hacked and he did not make those tweets. Wether that was a PR move or not, is not for us to judge.
WeShareMedia also falls into this category and roots for our respective teams live during games. Wether its through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr,Pinterest or any other platform that CATCHES our attention or seems appropriate in the moment. What Ways Do You Show YOUR Support? What hashtags do you push during certain parts of the game? Or friendly gloating after a victory? How about those angry moments when we dont agree with a call? Almost as much passion as we have for Social Media
