NBA stars Charlie Villanueva and Shaquille O'Neal are making headlines this week...but not for making the Sportscenter's Top 10 for amazing dunks or making half court shots at the buzzer. Both are trend setters amongst athletes in an unexpected domain: social media participation during a game.
According to this ESPN article, Charlie Villanueva (@CV31) is addicted to twitter and has been asked by the Milwaukee Bucks to not tweet during games. Shaquille O'Neal (@THE_REAL_SHAQ) made headlines for a third quarter tweet during last Saturday's game against Washington. According to the article unlike Villanueava's coach, Scott Skiles, Shaq's coach Alvin Gentry didn't mind the mid-game tweet.
"As long as he gets 25 (points) and 11 (rebounds), he can do whatever he wants. He can Twitter, Facebook, Myspace," said Gentry, who also has a Twitter account set up by his daughter.
This opens the door for athletes, teams and sponsors to capitalize on utilizing social media tools such as twitter and facebook for marketing and promotion opportunities. Many sports purists will complain that the practice is a distraction and can take an athlete's mind out of the game focusing instead on self-promotion. I offer a different opinion.
During just about every halftime, sideline reporters interview athletes courtside. It's also a frequent occurance for managers to talk to broadcasters during the game such as baseball coaches in-between innings. The practice of using social media tools to communicate what's taking place on the field is social media for the sports masses. It's peer to peer, in a sense, from the athletes to the fans without a traditional broadcaster (ESPN, NBC Sports, etc.) as the medium.
Clever marketers will find a way to sponsor Shaq's tweets at halftime and gain valuable exposure to Shaq's audience. How big is Shaq's twitter "channel" you ask...oh just a mere 391,000 followers at the time of this posting.
