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Social Media has become such integral part of sports media and marketing that it has become the number one source for people to read their sports news, follow players they idolize, and debate over hot topics in the sporting world. This two way window also allows athletes to reach their fans in a way they could never before. However, with this open line of communication comes more responsibility. Social media has become so important that athletes at both the professional and collegiate level are being taught how to behave and carry themselves professionally while on the major social media networks. Well, some players still don’t listen! Check out some of the funnier social media fails in the sports industry.
Make Sure You Get Your Facts Straight!
Before we even get into the antics of athletes on social media, lets make it clear that not all fails come from the athletes. Some come from teams, owners, in this case, celebrity fans. In 2011 when the Jerry Sandusky case regarding child sex abuse at Penn State broke out, it was all over the news, especially social media. However it seems one person didn’t get the memo…
Direct Message vs. A Tweet
As most of you know, Twitter has a couple of ways of sending messages. One would be a tweet, which is a public message out there for everyone to see. The other option is to use a direct message, or DM, which is a private chat-type message between you and one of your followers. It seems like this one athlete didn’t know the difference!
Former Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong failed to understand the difference. Lance accidentally put his phone number out as a regular tweet for the whole world to see. As you can tell it was shared quite well and Armstrong had to change his number. I wonder what kind of texts and calls he got?!
I before E, except after C
NBA player Larry Sanders was so excited about his new tattoo that he had to post it on Instagram, a social media platform for sharing pictures and short videos. I think he jumped the jump here and failed to realize what the tattoo actually said.
Do you notice anything wrong here? I’ll give you a second to look… See it yet? Unfortunately, Larry’s tattoo artist never learned this grammar rule in school. Larry missed the fact that his tattoo saying “Recieve” was spelled wrong. Not only did he not notice, but he also posted it on Instagram for all his followers to see. He sure did RECEIVE some great engagement!
Think Before Your Tweet
Contest are a great way to receive engagement from fans, especially when you’re an athlete, although some times they can backfire. New York Jets Wide Receiver Eric Decker ran a contest asking Jets fans to show why they love the Jets.
Whomever’s idea this was failed to realize that Jets haven’t had the greatest team as of late, which could lead to backlash from disgruntled fans…
Sarcastic tweets like this came in at the thousands, which even caused Decker’s wife to lash out, tweeting: “You think he really cares what y’all think haters? He’s laughing his ass alllll the way home … Life is pretty good here, can’t complain.“ His wife later deleted the tweet, but as you can see this contest escalated quickly. The lesson we can learn from Mr. Decker and his PR team is to know the demographic you’re targeting before you post something like this. Remember, you’re not in Denver anymore Eric!
Choose the Right Hashtag
If you’re a football fan, your probably aware of the issues surrounding the name of Washington DC’s football team, the Redskins. There’s a controversy where some see the name Redskins as racist towards people of Native American decent. If there’s one thing you should know about social media, it should be to avoid controversy. That’s exactly what this football team didn’t do.
Then ran a hashtag contest telling users to tweet #RedskinsPride, right during the time this controversy was taking place. As you can probably assume, the reaction didn’t turn out the way the planned…
Just like with Decker, but to a greater extent, mean and sarcastic comments swarmed Twitter and made an embarrassment out of the Washington Redskins organization. When creating a social media campaign it’s crucial that you stay away from controversial topics. The Washington Redskins learned the hard way.With the NFL season only weeks away, and college football kicking off this weekend, it’s only a matter of time until our Twitter feeds are filled up with hilarious tweets from the football world. What NFL player do you think has the most outrageous Twitter account? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Can’t seem to find a way to cram more sports into your day? Check out our blog 13 Sports Accounts You Need to Follow for some tips on how to fill your timeline and NewsFeed with.
