Professional athletes can use social media to connect with fans and share their personal lives in ways they never could before. An athlete used to be a number, position, weight class or title. Now, athletes, about whom fans only knew what they read in the papers, have become so much more accessible.
Today even the laggards acknowledge that ignoring social media is no longer an option. Virtually every professional athlete has some kind of social presence. They share who their friends are, their pictures and otherwise offer a view into their personal life like never before. These social media channels offer athletes the opportunity to significantly strengthen their marketability but at the same time – if not handled with care – have the potential to seriously damage their private life, career, athletic performance and ‘personal brand’. [click to continue…]
About Thomas van Schaik
Thomas studied Communications in Amsterdam and has been working in international sports for over 15 years. He started his professional career at the Amsterdam Admirals in the NFL Europe and moved to Dutch professional soccer champions PSV Eindhoven in 1997. In 2001 he moved to Southern Germany to join Adidas. He's filled a variety of roles with the sporting goods brand, including 'Head of Global PR'. In 2011 he moved into the role of Global Brand Director.
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In November 2009, I introduced a series of articles I called ‘Social Media Report Card,’ where I graded each of the four major sports leagues –
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