From Nascar to golf, football to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), Twitter has swept the world of sports. Every week, I watch WWE’s Monday Night Raw, and during the course of the program, they throw the Twitter hash tag up, and people begin to tweet about the show. As the show progresses, they will show what from the company is trending worldwide. This is just one example of how Twitter is making an impact on sports.
Fast Forward to April 1, 2011, WWE’s biggest event, WrestleMania, celebrated its 28th anniversary in Miami. The buzz was focused around the return of one Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock. The build-up could not have been bigger. The WWE gave Twitter and social media a pat on the back for the event’s success. WWE held their first-ever, live WrestleMania press conference via YouTube (another social media outlet). They sent out Twitter hash tags for fans to tweet about their favorite superstars. Next, the WWE launched a social media campaign, the reason, globalization. An article I found talked about why they wanted to reach out and be even more interactive with the fans. Not only were the superstars given a platform, but the superstars have been given a platform as well.
Throughout the semester, we have been posting our trends to the digital culture Facebook page. For me, this was an opportunity to research, to dig deep and find how articles about how athletes use Twitter, good or bad. One of the first links I posted was about Nascar driver Brad Keselowski. Keselowski used the red-flag delay during the Daytona 500 to tweet pictures to his followers. During the broadcast, the announcers on FOX talked about him doing this, and by the end of night, Keselowski had gained 100,000 new followers. His actions led to a lot of speculation and questions. Should he have been tweeting during the delay? In the NFL, you cannot tweet during a game. Should Nascar have stepped in? My answer, NO! Brad brought eyes to the race. Some people who might have not watched Nascar before turned the channel to the race, or looked up who Brad was.
One of my favorite Twitter trends came just last week. New Masters champion, Bubba Watson, made a ruckus over the weekend. The reason, he tweeted a picture of the General Lee, which was the car used in the show Dukes Of Hazzard, and Watson bought the original General earlier this year for $110,00. The picture showed the General Lee jumping over the lawn, in front of the clubhouse at Augusta National Golf Club.
Significant? When you consider the rich history of Augusta National and The Masters golf tournament, some people may speculate a consequence for the picture. My opinion, I think the picture is just out of fun, and it shows who Bubba Watson is as a person.
Another aspect to the Bubba Watson Twitter phenomena, last year, Watson lost followers due to his profession of faith as a Christian. I found an article from the Billy Graham website, and in their it explains how Watson lost followers, and how he gained followers. Also, after winning this year’s Masters tournament, Watson tweeted everyone who tweeted them. He probably spent a long time tweeting back, but he did because it is his platform to the fans.
Overall, this semester has been a fun one. I found a lot of unique trends and videos to share with the class. The power of Twitter is changing the world around us. News, announcements, friends, etc. They are all instantly tweeting and connecting with the world around them. Bubba uses Twitter to show who he is off the golf course. WWE uses it to connect with the fans, and Brad Keselowski used it to show what the Daytona International Speedway looked like after the fiery crash, but little did he know his one tweet would gain him some so many followers. I use Twitter all the time. It is fun to interact with other fans and let your voice be heard. I am a part of the Twitter sub-culture. I will leave with this, athletes, no matter where they come from, no matter their back background, they come from all walks of life, have one thing in common now, it is Twitter, #Sports.
cphelps2012 