A little while ago, rather than putting my free time to use working on Wednesday's case, I was messing around on twitter. While scrolling through the various tweets from my classmates and others I'd decided to follow, I noticed the 'Who to follow' section on the right side of my newly acquired 'new twitter' page. Because of my following on the USA men's soccer team, up popped Landon Donovan's twitter, which I naturally immediately decided to follow. I poked around a little more and found a few other professional athletes to follow, most of which are fairly active on twitter. I was surprised, yet not--I'm sure they spend a lot of time traveling and relaxing and enjoy using it to keep in touch while away.
Yet it got me wondering...are sports teams on board with this whole social media thing? Is it really a big deal to them--and is it working? So I googled it, and sure enough, I found a recent article about how the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals have harnessed the power of social media to garner attention from a younger crowd.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/11/AR2010101105882.html
To me, it's a natural fit. Who wouldn't want to be able to 'personally' congratulate the Sharks on a season opening win? Who wouldn't want to hear what any big name wide receiver is doing every second off the field? It's a great way to self advertise, and to draw attention to the teams themselves. I think social media and sports are a natural fit, and that more and more social media specialists will flock to big name sports teams the same way they've flocked to big name companies.
I think this is a great example of one of the most important uses of Twitter. It can help people connect directly with brands/people they care about, and it gives them the feeling that they are part of the inner circle or these brands/people.
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