The Tweeting tournament: World Champion Footballers, Twitter, and Social Media Marketing

As the star players of Real Madrid, Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo are already household names.  Now they are becoming a Twitter sensations.  With over 5 million followers, Kaka is the most followed athlete out of any sport on Twitter.  Cristiano—trailing Kaka by 1.5 followers—comes in third place for the most followed athlete on Twitter, right behind Shaquille O’neal.

Twitter is a mode of communication for footballers.  It’s a forum where they can communicate with their fans.  It’s a platform for them to share their ideas.  But it is also a branding mechanism.  Because while Kaka and Ronaldo are real people, and serious footballers, their names are also multi-million dollar brands in and of themselves.  Reading their Twitter feeds can give us some insight into the potentials of this social media marketing tool, as well as giving us a lesson in brand management.

Lesson No. 1: Keep It Clean

Both Ronaldo and Kaka steer clear of controversial topicsl.  Followers won’t find anything abrasive in their 144 character communications.  Their twitter feeds are filled with friendly reminders about upcoming matches, gracious thank yous to all of his supportive fans, and generous congratulations to fellow players who score impressive goals or come to notable victories on the field of play.

Lesson No. 2: Social Media is not all Fun and Games—there’s space for Philanthropy too.

With audiences in the millions—much larger than the circulation of many major newspapers or even the bandwidth of some television stations—Kaka and Ronaldo have an amazing opportunity to broadcast causes that they care about on Twitter.  Last week, for example, Cristiano Ronaldo retweeted a link to Save The Children.  Given the famine that’s going on in East Africa right now, it is a critical time for that organization: they need money to be pouring in.  This is an example of how retweeting philanthropic causes can be a win-win for athletes.  Ronaldo’s tweet linking to Save The Children may have been just as effective as giving them a donation of many thousands of dollars, since doubtless many Ronaldo fans will now contribute.  However, it’s a move that will also broaden and deepen Ronaldo’s brand and his fans empathy towards his brand.

Lesson No. 3: Twitter is a way to maintain engagement with fans

Kaka and Ronaldo both often solicit reactions from fans.  This is a great way of—at the very least—creating the illusion of a dialogue, so that fans will stay totally bought-in to Ronaldo and Kaka’s brands—as if they have a personal stake in what is going on with them.  As ‘engaging’ replaces ‘targeting’ in the marketing lexicon, this is the direction in which sports marketing is bound to evolve.

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