Athletes joining Twitter in record numbers
// October 7th, 2009 // Social Media, Sports
I saw Al Horford joined Twitter recently. He’s @Al_Horford, started tweeting Oct. 4 and three days later already has 880 followers. I love how more and more athletes are using Twitter and Facebook to connect directly with fans. It takes the middlemen — PR directors and the media — out of the equation and often gives you an unfiltered look at the men and women behind the jerseys you pull so hard for.
Most people know Al Horford as one of the leaders of the Florida Gators’ back-to-back national championship run. Horford was then selected with the third overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks. He had a great rookie campaign but Kevin Durant narrowly beat him out for Rookie of the Year honors.
In some of his first tweets, Horford roots for his hometown Detroit Tigers as they take on the Minnesota Twins with a spot in the playoffs on the line. Horford went to high school in Grand Ledge, Michigan, before heading south to Gainesville for college.
I follow a handful of athletes on Twitter, including the ever-popular Shaquille O’Neal, who will occasionally tell his tweeps where he’s at so they can say hello if they’re nearby. While I wouldn’t advise this for someone like… supermodel Brooklyn Decker… I don’t suppose anyone will tug on that Superman’s cape. But the fact is — social media applications are giving fans unbridled access to some of the world’s biggest stars.
Chad Johnson frequently tweets back and forth with fans and Ustreams live shows. After one of OchoCinco’s preseason games, he logged onto Ustream and held a live show from the team’s plane. It was pretty neat to see Chad interact with Bengals fans while munching on a cheeseburger, and it was funny when the plane ran out of cheeseburgers… worrying Chad that he might have to settle for a chicken sandwich instead. Luckily a teammate came to the rescue and gave Chad his burger. Crisis averted. I never disliked Chad Johnson, but thanks to Twitter and Ustream, you can now count me among his 215,000-plus fans.
But anyway, all this brings me back to Horford. I love messing around on Photoshop and felt like creating the Hawks star a background since he just has the generic Twitter background right now. What do you guys think?
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