One-stop shopping for Twittering athletes
This morning, I know that Lance Armstrong was planning to bike seven miles, Morgan Pressel was at the course before sunrise, Ron Zook had a radio appearance and Shawne Merriman went to bed "with a sour face." I know this because of Twitter, or more specifically, because of AthleteTweets.com.
AthleteTweets.com is a new aggregator site that collects Twitter commentary from athletes and coaches, everyone from Michael Phelps to Shaq. It's easy to follow because you don't have to be a Twitter member to read the feeds. On a single screen, you get the latest from Serena Williams, Steve Nash and Terrell Owens.
The founder, David Katz, is not only a veteran of Yahoo! and CBS, plus the founder of SportsFanLive.com, but he's also a native of the Baltimore area (his first internship was in the office of Ron Shapiro). He took some time to explain his new site and opine on the expanding Twitter universe of athletes.
Question: Seems like you're on to something with this site. Where'd the idea come from? Did you just get tired of hopping around to read tweets from your favorite athletes?
Katz: It's actually an idea I had more than a year ago when I first started following Twitter. I registered a bunch of web addresses. But at the time, there weren't really any athletes on using it. When the athletes started using Twitter a few months ago, we dusted off the plan and started building the web site.
Question: So much of what we know about athletes and Twitter is anecdotal. Can you quantify it a bit? How many athletes are regular Twitter users? Who are the most prolific and the most interesting?
Katz: We had more than 140 players and coaches on the roster as of Thursday. The list should continue to grow as more athletes decide to join. Consider Knowshon Moreno, the Georgia running back expected to be a first-round pick this weekend. Moreno’s first Tweet says, “if shaq has one of these i shud to.” Twitter has become trendy among the athlete fraternity, and we can expect to see that number grow exponentially over the next several months.
Question: I'm sure you've been monitoring athletes' Twitter habits awhile now. Do you have a top-5 list of memorable tweets?
Katz: Here's the "Dave Fave 5" to date:
Terrell Owens: n the bahamas chillin 4 a couple more days!! ladies if u're n need of sum sun,come hang out w/me only if u bikini ready! stayin @ the cove!
Pete Carroll (and his on-going campaign to get Will Ferrell to register for Twitter):
This Twitter thing has sucked you in @Mark_Sanchez, huh? There's no turning back now! (Now if only we could get Will on...)
Michael Phelps: "Uma, Oprah! Oprah, Uma!" Welcome to twitter @Oprah!
Steve Nash: and ask Shaq who the only guy to score on him in soccer at suns practices... he really thinks he's the best soccer goalkeeper in the world!?
...and the grand master of Twitterdom...Mr. Shaquille O'Neal:
Shaq (A three-pack of tweets In sequence):
-- Breakfast Egg white omelette Lunch Cobb salad
-- meet me at az biltmore back patio. tweetup at 4pm. we can swap diet secrets. Lol
-- I cheated, I had a texas size honeybun, it wnt happen again, no more cheatin, shaqlyte is in effect
Question: You graduated from Pikesville. Are you an Orioles and Ravens fan? Is that why the AthleteTweets.com logo looks familiar?
Katz: Yes, I graduated from Pikesville High School, Class of 1990. All-County basketball player and if memory serves correctly, I believe the Sun named me an All-Metro honorable mention. Went to the University of Pennsylvania and got a little playing time on the Penn basketball team that made the NCAA tourney. Huge Orioles, Ravens and Terps fan. I make it back to Baltimore every 2 months and try to catch about 4 Ravens games per year, despite living in Los Angeles. And yes, it's no coincidence that our Twitter bird looks like an Oriole bird and the birds on the wire look like Ravens. I'm always trying to throw out the subtle hometown love.
Question: OK, you're local. Why isn't @peter_angelos included?
Katz: The day Peter Angelos starts tweeting is the day they bring back Davey Johnson. But I find the fake Peter Angelos' tweets very funny.
Question: Is it difficult distinguishing the fake from the real?
Katz: For AthletesTweets.com, we use a vetting process to determine the validity of the Twitter account. There are a lot of fakes out there. It's not 100 percent, but our list is very accurate and we are following up on new leads daily.
Question: Are Bmore athletes well-represented on Twitter? Donte Greene doesn't seem too bad. How bright is his future on Twitter, ya think?
Katz: We definitely need more Bmore athletes on Twitter. Michael Phelps has gotten a lot more active lately. As has Donte Green. A lot more people know about Donte now that he is using Twitter. Personally, I'm waiting for @BRob or @Markakis to get on this.
Question: It strikes me as a bit meta. I mean, We've heard for awhile that traditional media was losing relevance because athletes could skip over main-streamers and connect with their fans directly. But your slogan -- Covering Athletes Covering Themselves -- leads me to think otherwise. Is my hope misplaced or do you notice a trend in which athletes are successfully able to bypass traditional media?
Katz: Twitter, and social media more generally, is profound in that an athlete now has the power to go directly to their fans and grow their fanbase in a viral manner -- quick and at no cost.
These athletes are also "brands," and this represents an opportunity for them to control their message without having to go through the media. The media will always be needed to probe, challenge, investigate, hold accountable and break news that otherwise wouldn't be received by the masses. But there is no doubt that Twitter can make certain athletes more relevant to sports fans than others and can definitely help position an athlete for endorsements or for a broadcasting career when they retire.
But this level of access between fans and players is a double-edged sword. Athletes need to go into it with their eyes open. Before beginning to use Twitter, everyone involved (player, agent, team, league) should be aware of the risks, as well as the benefits. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out.
Question: What kind of trending have you noticed? Do athletes start with Twitter and gain momentum? Or do most of them lose interest quickly?
Katz: It's still early, but the results have been mixed. There have been some that have taken off, gained momentum, built fanbase quickly, and others have Twittered for awhile and then "taken the offseason off."
Question: How permanent of a medium do you think this is? Passing fad or six months from now will every team be represented in some fashion?
Katz: Twitter has great long-term potential. But more important than a particular company is the profound behavioral change that it represents. The era of access, openness and sharing is here to stay.
Question: You have 140 characters. Give me the athlete tweet you most want to see.
Katz: From @AnquanBold81: Hey Baltimore fans, meet me at BWI! Flacco2Boldin=SuperBowl
Comments
Michael Phelps informed the NY Daily News this week, that he doesn't Twitter.
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/04/24/2009-04-24_michael_phelps_omega_gig_goes_swimmingly.html
Posted by: Steph | April 25, 2009 9:13 AM