Having more followers on social media could soon be more important than anything when it comes to sports people securing sponsorship deals. Several advertising agencies that specialize in sports have admitted the size of ‘x’ person’s following on Twitter has as much to do with the endorsements an athlete as their success does. The Daily Mail even went as far as to say a gold medal isnt as important as a Twitter following!
Maybe they’re right though. Take the example of Tom Daley, Britain’s 18-year-old men’s diving bronze medalist. M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment identified that he had the highest earning potential of any member of Team GB, something that was come to by evaluating traffic across all digital media. The social media side of this saw 57 percent of mentions among all Team GB involved Daley and if you consider the size of the squad it’s a huge amount of mentions.
Remaining in the spotlight is something Twitter can ultimately lead to lucrative sponsorships being signed and you could see how important it was even before the recent London 2012 Olympic Games got underway. The biggest draw at the games was double 100/200 metre world champions Usain Bolt and where should he be on the eve of the Olympics – promoting sponsor Gatorade via his Twitter account.
In the iGaming space it’s just as important to take stock of your social media presence. It’s less a case of doing it for sponsorship opportunities and more one of trying to a build a brand. Like those athletes it’s still maintaining a following that is the key to it all and it means getting the interaction right with the public at large and not doing anything stupid like posting a pic of your meat and two veg for the world to see.
So the next time you click the follow button for a certain athletes just remember that it could be the difference between them being plastered head-to-toe in ads or having to wear a tatty pair of 80s tennis shoes to train in.
