Personally I think that a lot of athletes could use a ghost tweeter, at least until they learned how to tweet. Most athletes I don't think understand the true purpose of Twitter (to be honest I catch myself wondering if I truly understand myself). Fans are following them to feel closer to them, to get a little more of glance into the person that these players are when they are not on the field or court.
One athlete that I get some what annoyed with both on and off the field is Chad Ochocinco. The fact that he changed his name to his jersey number to me just stamps "not a team player" on his forehead, but any ways.... I have checked out his Twitter page a few times and there are times when I think that he is using it perfectly. Just today he tweeted : "Standing in line waiting to get tickets to watch
However upon venturing down his feed a little more I come across just the type of things that we do not need to be seeing on his page such as what appears to be fights or arguments between him and his (ex)girlfriend. Talking about personal details and even using somewhat graphic language that should probably be used in private, not on the internet for the whole public world to see.
Any athlete or celebrity who tweets their own tweets should be monitored by at least a publicists so that they do not my make stupid or regrettable choices in words posted, to remain on the internet for the rest of their career.
I like how you relate your Twitter experience to those of famous athletes. A lot of times famous athletes seem to Tweet before they think. So many people are following these idols, and the second they post anything questionable, fans/media/press are on them in an instant.
ReplyDeleteThere are times I find myself tweeting things I probably should have thought twice about, but luckily for me, I am not famous and things are usually brushed off or forgotten. Athletes should have someone to monitor their sites, however I do not think someone else should write their tweets for them. If they are too immature and irresponsible to know what to write, they should not have a Twitter in the first place.
These blunders will continue to happen as long as celebrities are allowed to tweet freely and publicly. I am not saying this is a bad thing, but I do believe they should always be held accountable for what they write.
I think a lot of people, including myself, are guilty of tweeting before thinking. Of course, there is more pressure on celebrities and athletes to monitor their tweets. I completely agree with the points made in your blog. If an athlete is not going to post appropriate content, he or she should either have a ghost-tweeter or not Twitter at all. Twitter accounts for celebrities are mainly used to give fans a venue to engage with their favorite celebs. Celebrities may end up losing fans if they do not practice safe tweeting.
ReplyDeleteI think there are many athletes and celebrities alike that could use a little help or monitoring when it comes to their social media use. Twitter is a great tool for celebrities to connect with fans but posting something inappropriate definitely happens far too often.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that there are many athletes that should use ghost tweeters and if they don’t use a ghost tweeter they should definitely be trained in social media. One of the main reasons I think athletes should use a ghost tweeter is because athletes are people that many of their followers look up to. For example, Ocho Cinco tweets for himself and he has been trained in using social media and provides a great way to athletes to interact with fans. He is only one of few athletes that do this and do it correctly. There are too many athletes tweeting preposterous things and they are getting in trouble for it. There are college athletes such as D.J. Gardner that are losing scholarships over tweeting certain messages that they did not think twice about. Although a ghost tweeter does not always provide the transparency that a real person tweeting does, it can definitely provide a safety net for athletes that do not know how to use social media correctly.
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