I love when I see professional athletes using Twitter, but not just “using” it, I am talking really “getting” it – and understanding the power. It’s no secret I am a HUGE Arizona Cardinals fan, even more – I am a HUGE Larry Fitzgerald fan! FAITH FOCUS FINISH! I have been following him on Twitter for a while, and watching how he interacts with fans, and I must say, he does a great job.
Check out this recent contest he had on his Twitter stream:
Step 1. Bait your followers:
Step 2. Give people a reason to follow you. Larry does a great job with opportunities for for fans to “win” something. With Larry baiting fans, he makes them pay attention to his Twitter stream. (It doesn’t always have to be about controversy and getting fired over Twitter with athletes!)
Step 3. Make it fun – He makes it fun for his fans, and makes them “earn” it, not just “reply” back with an answer or something. I use to love when Shaq did this, and made people find him, or go to some crazy location. It keeps fans on their toes and makes them connect better. It’s brilliant!
Step 4. Ever wonder how to bring sponsorships in without being obvious? This works great. Good for Larry, and good for Coldstone! Who knows if this really was planned by the two, but its awesome.
Step 5. Getting people to interact on your Twitter stream – Uploading pictures, talking about you – all of this is making you more popular, and I promise its getting Larry more followers. This works for everyone, of course it may be on a smaller scale for us normal people that are not superstars, but the basic concepts are still there – if people are interacting on your Twitter stream and talking about you, other people will want to know you and follow you.
Step 6. Wait for it. Drag it out, why not.
Step 7. Kick Ass Prizes – If you are going to have contests, then make sure your prizes are kick ass. I would take 2 tickets to the Vikings game please … and you know they are good because they are Larry’s tickets! (Oh, AND I get a signed jersey – yes please)
Other professional athletes should take a lesson from Larry. He is doing social media right. He gets Twitter, and understand how powerful it is to connect with and find new fans. He is an Arizona Cardinal, but did you notice that it was a “nationwide” contest. The NFL can take a lesson too from Larry, They need to stop banning players from social media and help them better understand it.
We can all learn from this too, its basic – give people a reason to follow you, be interesting, get them talking and gain new followers. It really is brilliant.
Nice read Mat. What I want to know is why didn’t you high-tail it over to a Coldstone? I know you have the jersey, I saw you in it last week!
@Dave
Well I would have, but I know I would have lost because there is not a cold stone close to me….but I did think about it hahahah
A great article! I have been following Larry for about a year now and must say that, along with the contests, he always has a positive message to share. His FFF (Faith, Focus, Finish) creedo and snipits regarding his relationship with this son make him a wonderful role model. Very refreshing!
I am not a big fan of other sports athletics than a cricketer but my bad luck most cricketer yet not realize the power of social networking. Anyway, this simple article teach me 2 thing i.s 1. always try to interact with your followers 2. Try to put value on your tweet. Thanks for this informative article Mat.
.-= Arafat Hossain Piyada´s last blog ..Attention: Hacker invent simplest way to hack your Gmail account =-.
listening to one of your weabinar. You motivate me and I learn quite a lot from you.
Great article Mat. While not every business owner actually CAN be this engaged, this is an extreme example of how to do EVERYTHING right with twitter. Perfect conference presentation 😉
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Thanks Matt, I recently started a second twitter account for business reasons and am researching ways to not be “spammy” but still promote my products on twitter.
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You said :
“I would take 2 tickets to the Vikings game please and you know they are good because they are Larrys tickets!”
I know the kid who won this contest and he DID pick the Vikings game! but guess what? the tickets were the absolute worst! The poor kid was put in the VERY top section in the VERY top row, in the middle.
Of course the kid was just happy to be there but I feel like wow
It’s awesome the power of Twitter. Larry is making an excellent ‘brand’ for himself this way. Reminds me of @garyvee all about personal brand. He’s doing a good job of that!
Okay, I need to get the Faith Focus and Finish T-shirt – cannot find it anywhere – I would get by with a little help from my friends!
Good Points. wish i was near AZ to win sometime